New Thoughts (3/5/04-3/31/04)
Hebron seems a reasonable place to find Zacharias and Elizabeth. That would make Mary's trip more like 80 miles. From the experience of my youth, I would say that one walking at a good clip on reasonable terrain might cover 3 or 4 miles an hour. There is absolutely no way Mary was going to get there in one day, not on her power, and not on that of a donkey. She went with haste, to be sure, but she clearly went prepared. Here's an unexpected lesson. It came to mind even as I typed that last sentence: "she went with haste, but she clearly went prepared." This is the proper response to God's call and command, is it not? He does not call us to rush off in foolishness, lacking preparation. It is one thing to trust in Him for all things, it is quite another to create more work for Him by our lack of sense!
When Jesus called His disciples, there was a sense of immediate response. They left their livelihood behind, just dropped everything, and went off after this stranger. Yet, Jesus also gives us the caution: Count the cost first. Determine in your own mind what will be required of you to finish the race, to complete the task, understand what it's going to take, and make certain in yourself that you are fully prepared. Yet, this is combined with those examples which caused Him to say that those who put hand to the plow, and then turn back are not fit for the kingdom. Once decided, remain committed. Don't disqualify yourself because you haven't prepared.
Had Mary simply rushed off, dashing out the door and down the street to see Elizabeth, what would have happened? She would potentially have found herself in the midst of arid lands with no water. She would have quickly run herself out of strength, and had nothing by which to nourish herself, and restore that strength. She would have had no coin by which to procure shelter for the night when she was given to realize that the trip was going to be longer than impetuousness had made it seem. With all this, she would have placed herself amidst many dangers, and not only herself, but all mankind. In her lay already the seed of hope for every man. With her passing, so, too, would hope have passed from us.
Fortunately, Mary is not of that nature. She is given to thinking upon things before acting. She is given to considering the possibilities before choosing her course. Again, I see that God chose wisely in choosing this young child to be the caregiver for His Son.
We often pray that God's will would be done here as it is in heaven. In that prayer is the sense that we would have His will done immediately, and without question. That sense is quite correct. The angels are not inclined to debate the wisdom of God's choices before they move to comply. No. They move. However, this is not to suggest that they rush off unprepared. Neither should we. Stopping long enough to be properly fitted and equipped to fulfill His command is obedience to His word. A missionary who hears His call, and simply hops the next flight to whatever country he is being sent to without becoming familiar with the language and customs of that place will do little good in his attempts to preach there. Paul prepared himself to preach where he was going. He understood the language of those he was trying to reach. He understood their culture. He saw where they had things right and where they had things wrong, and he was fully fitted to explain these things to them. If we rush off to do God's will without gathering the tools to accomplish it, we have not obeyed Him, we have simply played the fool.
Let me turn, now, to the questions of cause and effect that this verse may raise. These do not concern Mary's journey, but her arrival. Here is the order of events as we have them in verses 40 and 41: Mary arrived, she said hello, Elizabeth heard, John jumped, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In considering which events caused subsequent events, I think we must hold to that order, unless the greater testimony of Scripture requires us to diverge. So, Mary arrives and greets her kinswoman, which greeting Elizabeth hears. There's no question to this sequence. However, what was the cause of John's jump? Was it the immediately preceding event of Elizabeth hearing? I don't think so. We are not inclined to jump at what another hears. We jump in reaction to our own stimuli. So, was it Mary's greeting, heard by the baby within Elizabeth's womb? Perhaps. Certainly, the more jaded among us might simply write this off as the child's reaction to a sudden noise, and would find in it no signs of cognizant reaction. This would be, perhaps, the physician's interpretation of the event. However, subsequent events seem to make it clear that this is not what Elizabeth understood to have happened. Indeed, there is nothing in the verse to suggest that any loud noise had occurred. At most, there might have been some joyful exclamation from Elizabeth. Considering the eastern form of greeting, though, there is no shocking stimuli to be found here. Thayer's Lexicon points out that these salutations were far more than a matter of waving and saying hello, consisting more often of "embracing and kissing". This, then, is a fairly gentle scene.
So, I think we eliminate a sudden noise as the cause of this jump. I believe we are left with one cause in this case: the Presence. Nor is it Mary's presence that causes the event. Others have surely embraced Elizabeth before, Zacharias, if no one else. If such embraces had previously led to such a reaction in the babe, this event would not be terribly noteworthy. Neither can it be that the Holy Spirit stands as the cause, for His involvement in the narrative comes later. Nor is it typical of His presence to create physical stimulus, as we will see shortly. No, there is another Presence in the scene, One who goes unmentioned, and only recently arrived to life. What John senses in the womb is the presence of the Christ in the adjacent womb. There is no other cause present which can explain the effect. Elizabeth's reaction to this event confirms, I believe, that cause. True, it is the filling of the Holy Spirit that will lead to her eloquent blessing upon Mary, yet it is her quick acceptance of the implications, her faith, which prepares her for that filling.
Faith, in this sense, must precede the Holy Spirit. He will not take up residence in one who does not believe. His is not the office of bringing saving faith, it is the office of confirming that faith, strengthening that faith. The faith to believe unto salvation must come from the Father, administered through Christ. This is the qualifying precursor to the abiding ministry of the Holy Spirit. Was Elizabeth, then, informed by the Holy Spirit, or not? I think she was, but I think it was in the way of filling in the details, not so much in the moment of Truth revealed.
Before I turn more fully to considering the role of the Holy Spirit in this, there is need to consider the implications of that little leap in the womb. They are huge implications for such a small event, and they speak directly to at least one of the great debates that rages in the land, and has done so for decades now. It comes back to how one explains that leap. The physician may insist that this is just a motor reaction to stimuli, but I must again insist that the scenario laid out before us provides no such stimuli to react to. We all know that the doctor can whack just the right point on the knee and produce a reactionary jerk of the leg. He cannot, however, withhold that whack and still produce the reaction. Motor reactions, reactions devoid of thought and cognizant intent, require such stimulus.
Some have proposed a God so fully in control of the things of this world that we are in all aspects little more than motor reactions to the stimuli of His will. However, this is not the God found in Scripture. These are not His ways. No matter how one views matters of Providence and Free Will, the whole council of Scripture will not support such an understanding. The computer I am using at present is, in its way, nothing but a collection of motor reactions which I may choose to stimulate in order to produce the result I desire. This is the way I use a tool. However, though I seek to be a willing tool in the hands of my God, I am never a tool in this same sense. A slave, however willingly he may serve, remains in control of his own reactions. He may be thoroughly consistent in choosing to obey the command of his owner, but it remains his choosing. So are we in the hands of God. However consistent we become in choosing to obey His desire, it remains choice with us. We are free to choose, and always have been. However, with rebirth we have added to freedom the liberty to choose well, to choose righteousness.
I think, then, that all cause of unwilled action on the part of the yet to be born John are sufficiently removed. His jump is his choice. That it is a choice and not an unavoidable reaction implies something absolutely critical to understand: Choosing requires a thought process to choose with, and such a thought process indicates that there is more than the life that differentiates, say, plant and animal from mineral. It is a greater life that is present than that which the scientist uses to categorize the things around him. It is cognizant, thinking life, and it is clearly demonstrated here to be present long before that brief journey through the birth canal! Elizabeth, we are told, is now six months along in her pregnancy, and he whom she bears is displaying the result of personal thought.
It occurs to me that this verse may well have served as the bounding limit that those who determined to legalize abortion placed upon that legalization. Yet, I would maintain that the same unmentioned Other whose presence led to John's reaction was also making a choice in that moment. I think there was a choice on Jesus' part to reveal Himself to John. Here, too, is a display, though less clearly shown, of cognizant thought, of will, in the womb, and here the one who wills is but days old! There is great pressure from those who would insist on a woman's right to choose to insist that this is not the case, to insist that intelligent life comes sometime later in the process. Indeed, they would dearly love to deny it even at that six month point. In this, they must deny the clear evidence of their own experience. They must push aside what is painfully obvious in order to avoid the guilt that must come of their choice. For, what have they chosen? What is this choice they insist upon their right to? It is the choice to stand as god over the life of another. It is the choice to murder. That is the unavoidable truth of the matter, unavoidable, that is, except by retreating from reality, and insisting upon untruth as true. It is only delusion and madness which can look the cold facts of millennia of human experience and declare things to be other than they are. It is willful blindness. It is exactly the sort of thing Paul writes about in his letter to the church in Rome. "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them…clearly seen, being understood...so that they are without excuse" (Ro 1:18-20). "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (Ro 1:25). Here is the dilemma of the post-modern woman. She must ignore so much evidence, lie so fully to herself, that "professing to be wise, she becomes a fool" (Ro 1:22), an "inventor of evil, without understanding, unloving, and unmerciful" (Ro 1:30-31).
Against that post-modern view of when life begins, I again hold up John, as we see him here. I will point out once again that far from being a motor reaction, mere response to stimuli, he has not only recognized the Presence that has drawn near, he is also aware of his own purpose in life. Gabriel announced it to Zacharias: He will be the Forerunner, preparing the way for God's Messiah. Zacharias would doubtless have discussed this with Elizabeth, had he a voice to do it with. Surely, he has informed her by other means. She understands the significance of this blessing on her life. She understands the significance of the child in her womb. She is not given to considerations of terminating that life because it will be such an inconvenience to her old age. She doesn't consider the medical implications, the possibilities of birth defect, she considers only the message from on high, the blessing of being given such a key part in the purposes of God, the plan of Redemption. Yet, who told John? John has been listening in on Elizabeth's half of this conversation, not unlike being next to a person on the phone. He can't hear the whole discussion, for his father's part in that discussion is silent, his words are the scrape of stylus on papyrus, or chalk on stone. Still, he has heard his mother's part of that discussion, and he understands who he is. He knows his purpose long before he emerges into the world to walk on his own. Indeed, with that leap, he has already begun serving that purpose! God declared him the Forerunner before his conception. Before his birth, he is now making his first announcement in that role. He has just shouted to his mother, in that jump, "He is here! Your King is come!" Indeed, we are fearfully and wonderfully made!
I was going to take a look at the Holy Spirit at this point, but I think that is going to require a larger effort, so instead I'm going to pursue some other thoughts on this passage first, although He is never far from the matter I now turn to. We are shown, in these verses, two women responding to similar events in their lives, and responding in similar ways. Both of them display a faith already established and merely awaiting the touch of holy flame to be kindled to fire. Charles Spurgeon, commenting on this passage, suggests that the reason we don't see Mary declared as filled with the Holy Spirit is because she already was. Perhaps, but I think the coming study of the Spirit will show that there's no real basis for drawing such a conclusion. I think both of these women have encountered the Holy Spirit on fairly equal terms. They were both prepared in advance for His coming. Again, I will appeal to the order of events laid out by Luke: Mary greeted, the baby leapt, the Spirit filled. Elizabeth was already prepared in the most critical way, her faith was strong, her belief in the message of God firmly established. When the baby leapt within her, she needed no further prompting, no evidence, and no explanation to grasp the significance of the event. Nobody needed to tell her that Mary was pregnant, nor Whom it was she bore. That little leap was enough for her, and her heart was already rejoicing at the coming of her king before ever the Holy Spirit came to fill her as we are told. Indeed, I think it entirely possible, even likely, that she was already quite filled by Him, that she had been abiding in His presence for a long time. The filling of which we read was a filling for a special purpose, but the faith that prepared her for His use was long established.
Mary is much the same. The faith in her was already firm when Gabriel came to speak. She needed no sign to prove his words. She knew already the ways of her God, and knew His promises were sure. Her only concern was to be able to fulfill the command of her God upon her, "how is this to be done?" Having heard the answer, and having been given an unasked for sign by which to strengthen her faith, she is as immediate as circumstance allows to avail herself of the grace that has been offered. Elizabeth's child is a grace given to Mary, whatever else John's role was to be. That which strengthens faith in us is ever and always a gift of God's grace towards us. There was no reason requiring Him to provide Mary with a sign. Neither was there a need on her part to have one. However, the offer having been given, she would have been foolhardy not to avail herself of it.
We are also given incredible gifts of grace for the furtherance of our faith. We are given His Word to read freely. We are given the fellowship of the church, the company of like minded people to confirm the belief of our hearts to us. We are given the words of wise and holy men throughout the ages of Christianity to inform us so that indeed, we can love and serve God with every fiber of our being. We are, perhaps as no other generation, surrounded by God's grace so that we can truly love Him with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our strength. As much as an unbelieving world may shout us down as fools for believing, belief is the rational response to the case that God has laid before us. The evidence is simply in His favor, and to deny the truth of Truth, we must inevitably retreat into thoughts that deny and defy the very reality in which we live. The very experts to which those who would reject the Gospel turn - the historians, the philosophers, the scientists, must themselves be rejected for us to reject the truth of God. The facts of reality simply will not support such a thing. Faith is, in the end, a rational response. Our defense against the onslaught of those who would convince us otherwise is the grace of the very God faith requires us to turn to. If we will not avail ourselves of the tools of grace He places before us, our faith will wither and die for lack of care, not for lack of reason.
Both of these women, then, give us solid examples to follow in the presence of God's power and grace. John also provides a model for us to emulate. He finds himself in the presence of the holy, as the barely conceived Son of God comes near. He finds himself in the presence of God's miraculous power.
Here, by the way, is a double argument for the immediacy of life in the human form. God's presence was already upon His Son this soon after conception! At most, it may have been four days since Mary found herself wrapped in the presence of God, blanketed all around by the Shekinah glory of the Holy One of Israel. He did not simply come for a visit and then rush off again. He is still there, His holiness and His power still reside in the small collection of cells which at that time make up His Son. His presence is already so full in His Son that John, through the intervening flesh of two mothers, knows Who has drawn near. If God is pleased to consider this 'tissue blob' His own Son, should we not also take joy in the miracle of life even at so early a stage?
Consider, now, John's reaction to this Presence. He feels the Holy drawn near, the miraculous before his senses, and his reaction is immediate. He rejoices! Inasmuch as the confines of the womb will allow, he leaps and dances with joy at the revelation of God's glory! Don't you know that's what holiness is? It's not the achievement of man, it's the revelation of God's glory! It's the fulfilling of what we were created to be, in spite of the wreck we have made of ourselves. Holiness in man is, all by itself, a miraculous thing, a thing impossible apart from the power of God intervening in the flesh of a man. How else can we react, except to shout, to dance for joy, to jump in uncontainable excitement, when we are given to witness God on the move! What can possibly offer greater significance to us than to see our Father in heaven, He who has made us heirs to His mighty heritage, glorified, and His kingdom expanding? It is, after all, our kingdom as well, if we are indeed His children. It is our inheritance that is growing, and made the more impressive. For our own sakes, who would not rejoice to see it? Knowing that our inheritance, unlike the earthly inheritance that the rich fret so over, does not wait for the passing of our Father before we shall have it; knowing, indeed, that our Father shall never pass away, but that we shall dwell in His house, in our inheritance forever, we have double cause to rejoice!
Listen, in the course of our days on this earth, the best of us will know probably more times when we are disappointed in ourselves, when we feel anything but holy, than not. We continue to walk in fallen flesh in a fallen land. We are given to sojourn in a foreign and barbaric land, far from home and far outnumbered by those with whom we have little in common. It is impossible that some of the customs of this strange land shall not rub off on us. Why do you think God was so adamant that nothing be left of the inhabitants of Canaan when His people moved in? The result of their remaining was inevitable, and is still to this day. We will make mistakes. We will, so long as God is pleased to preserve us, know remorse for those mistakes. We will feel defiled by the things we have allowed ourselves to do, and rightfully so. But, be encouraged, be of good cheer, for He has overcome the world! He has overcome the flesh with which we struggle! He has walked in the dust of this very earth, and stood at the end victorious and undefiled. In the eyes of the world, He appeared a man destroyed, barely a man at all, but it is not the eyes of the world whose judgment counts. The final estimate of the man is and ever shall be God's estimate.
Zacharias, in our eyes, is a man punished for unbelief. Zacharias, in God's eyes, is a righteous man. Peter, in our eyes, is a coward and a bit of a braggart. Peter, in God's eyes, is a precious saint, a vessel through whom the Holy Spirit can reach many, a rock, a solid foundation upon which God can build. Paul, in our eyes, is a murderous fanatic. Paul, in God's eyes, is the tool by which He can make His truths clear to many nations. Israel, in our eyes, may appear to have completely missed it, may seem too far from salvation to have any hope remaining. Israel, in God's eyes, remains a chosen nation, the people He personally chose from amongst all the peoples He created upon the earth, to be His own possession. Our lives, in our eyes, may seem to have accomplished little, to bear no signs of the holiness we desire whatsoever. Thank God it's not our estimate that matters! Our eyes are dim, and see imperfectly, distorting the message our senses receive. God's eyes are sharp and clear. Nothing obscures His vision, not the deepest darkness, not the greatest distance, not the brightest of blinding lights. He has declared that we, if we persevere in faith, will be made like unto His Son. He has declared that we shall be holy as He is holy. He has said it, and His word does not fail of its purpose!
One last note before turning to the Spirit. Fausset's Bible Dictionary makes a comment, in discussing Judah, that should awaken us to pay more attention to the history taking place around us. It was decreed, the author reminds us, that Judah would rule over Israel 'until Shiloh,' until the coming of the Prince of peace. This had held true, to some extent at least, from the time David was set upon the throne. But, at the advent of the story we are following, no man of Judah sat upon the throne. The closest it came to that was Herod, an Idumean - just barely a Jew at all. Other than that, it was Rome who sat upon the throne of Israel. For that matter, it was Rome that ruled over the Temple, for the Sanhedrin were beholden to Caesar in the end for their positions. Apart from the Pax Romana, they would quickly be, as it were, defrocked, shriven of every benefit and power they then held.
This should have stood as a sign for the religious leadership of Israel in that day, a sign that Shiloh had come, that Messiah was coming on the scene. How, though, can we blame them for missing it, when we miss it ourselves? I know I had never considered the Roman presence in that light. The God of Providence was active in the events of human history - not only in Israel, but in every nation of the earth. In truth, He always had been, and always will be, so long as there is a human history to be active in. Jesus told Pilate that any power he had was his only because it was given from above. Pilate doubtless was put in mind of Caesar, by whose power he was in office, and of whose power he was in dread, should word get out of what was happening on his watch. Jesus, however, was concerned with a greater truth. Even Caesar, powerful though he was in human terms, was nothing in himself, but was in power solely because God, the final Authority, had authorized it for a time. When God determined that Caesar's time was complete, he would be no more.
How much do we miss of what God is doing in our own time? How much do we attribute to man, forgetting that the God who created us all, whose Providence upholds us all, is still on the throne? What is He accomplishing in our day, what prophecies is He fulfilling? Are we in tune with His activities, or are we, too, oblivious in our distraction? How many opportunities to shout, "Look what the Lord has done!" do we miss because we're too focused on looking at what man has done?
I turn now to the Holy Spirit. Gabriel's word to Mary was that the Holy Spirit would come to rest upon her, enveloping her in the power of God. Here, we have Elizabeth being filled with this same Holy Spirit. What is the distinction? Further, what is the purpose of this filling? A quick survey of the parallel verses to this passage will lead to a fairly quick conclusion to the latter question. In every case listed there, we find that the filling of the Holy Spirit leads to speech, to the speaking of inspired words. We can also learn from the example of Peter (Ac 4:8) that this does not in any way suggest that the one so filled was not already indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The apostles had in that sense been filled by the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and the situation had not changed for them since that time. Peter still knew that indwelling presence of the Spirit when he stood before the Sanhedrin and the Holy Spirit filled him with the words to speak.
However, is this the proper conclusion to draw regarding our other Advocate and the significance of His filling? Perhaps it's time to take a survey of the Spirit's activity throughout Scripture, and let the Bible speak on this topic. It is important for me, as a member of a charismatic church, to have a clear understanding of what is and isn't supported by Scripture as a move of the Spirit, to ensure for myself that the things attributed to His influence are truly the results of His influence.
