Scene One: Elizabeth

Dannah Gresh: You and I have a natural tendency to focus on ourselves. But as Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth points out . . .

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: It’s not about us. It’s about serving God, His purposes. And when God’s timing is not your timing, remember that God’s timing is always perfect.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, co-author of You Can Trust God to Write Your Story, for May 3, 2023. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Nancy: Our theme for the month of May is the idea that God can use everyday men and women to accomplish remarkable things in this world. That means God can use you if you’re just willing to make yourself available to Him.

We’re about to hear more about a couple in the Bible who were used powerfully by God, but first let me take a moment to thank you for making yourself available by supporting Revive Our Hearts.

Recently we received this precious audio greeting from a listener in Europe.

Federica: Hello, I’m Federica, and I’m a believer living in Belgium. I’m married and we have two young children.

I’m very thankful to God for the ministry of Revive Our Hearts. God used some of their books and podcasts to challenge me to grow in Christian maturity. I appreciate the honesty, transparency, and desire for integrity that I could experience both in the biblical teaching and in the personal testimonies of the people involved in the ministry of Revive Our Hearts.

I came to faith when I was already twenty-seven. No one in my family really believes, so I didn’t grow up with examples of what it means to walk with God. And since I started to seek God, I have been hungry to learn from His Word. I also saw the benefits and growth coming from listening to the experiences of other faithful believers. I saw God’s people using these relationships to shape my path with Him.

The resources of Revive Our Hearts and the genuine care that this team shows for us women around the world makes me desire to grow up even more in loving and serving our great God.

Nancy: Thank you, Federica. Thank you for investing faithfully in your husband and your sweet children, too.

And to you, if you’ve ever given to Revive Our Hearts, thank you as well. You’re helping us minister to families like Federica’s in Belgium.

May 31 is when we’ll close the books on one year of ministry and look ahead to the next. And this May we’re praying toward a goal of $828,000. That’s a big amount for us, but not too big for God. So, if you’ve never made a donation to Revive Our Hearts, or perhaps it’s been a while, now would be a great time.

Just head over to ReviveOurHearts.com, or you can call us if you wish at 1-800-569-5959. Tell us that you want to help us reach our goal this month, and let us know what God has put on your heart to give.

Dannah: And when you make a donation of any amount, we’ll say “thank you” by sending you a copy of Unremarkable: Ten Women Who Impacted Their World for Christ, plus an advanced digital copy of Unremarkable, Volume 2. Each book contains the stories of ten women who have been used by the Lord in remarkable ways.

Again, you can make your donation at ReviveOurHearts.com, or call 1-800-569-5959.

Well, speaking of women the Lord used in remarkable ways, let’s listen now to our host, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, who’s going to share about two women we read about in the Gospel of Luke. Here’s Nancy speaking at a conference for women held in Holland, Michigan. She started out by describing a woman you may or may not have heard of.

Nancy: Her name was Henrietta Mears. Anybody ever heard of Henrietta Mears? A few hands. She was a Christian educator. She was the head of a college ministry in a church in Southern California. She founded a Christian retreat center in California. She started a Christian curriculum publisher: Gospel Light Publications.

She’s a woman who never married, and I suppose that’s why she was one of the women I look to as a model because she was just a woman who loved ministry, loved the Lord. She was influential in the lives of many Christian leaders of her day, including a young man named Bill Bright.

Bill was dating a girl named Vonette, who was struggling to believe that the Bible was true. He didn’t think he should marry a girl who didn’t believe that the Bible was true, so he took Vonette, his girlfriend, to meet Miss Mears, who was kind of a mentor to a lot of these college-aged young people. And Miss Mears led Vonette, soon to be Vonette Bright, to the Lord.

When Bill and Vonette Bright got married, Miss Mears invited them to come and live in her home, which was near the campus of U.C.L.A., and Campus Crusade for Christ was started by Bill and Vonette Bright in Miss Mears’s home, right off the campus at U.C.L.A. That’s how that ministry began.

Well, Miss Mears died when I was four years old, in 1963, so I never knew her. But Vonette Bright, who she had led to the Lord, was a lifelong friend and a huge influence in my life.

So, growing up I heard a lot about Henrietta Mears. I read her biography. I was blessed by her life and her ministry. And Miss Mears was known, among other things, for her large collection of hats. This is back in the day when hats were “in,” and she had a lot of them. Some of them were large. They were flamboyant.

And when she died, Miss Mears’s hat collection was given to Vonette Bright who put them up in a guest room in her home. She hung them along the top of the wall all the way around that room. I stayed in that guest room numerous times with those hats hanging there—Miss Mears’s hats.

And when Vonettte died, shortly after our wedding, her family knowing of my love for Vonette and for Miss Mears offered me one of those hats. This hat, to me, is a symbol of the lives of these two older women, one of whom I never knew personally, who poured so much into my life.

It’s a reminder to me of the power of relationships between older and younger women and how they can inspire and encourage each other.

So, let me invite you to join me in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1. In Luke 1 we meet two women. One is older. The other is quite young. The older woman is named Elizabeth. The younger woman is named Mary.

Verse 5 of chapter 1—let me just read a paragraph here, and then we’ll talk about it.

“In the days of Herod, king of Judea . . .” Now, let me just stop there. That gives us some historical and political context. “Herod, king of Judea.” This was Herod the Great, who reigned from 37 BC. to 4 BC, and he was anything but great. He was a cruel tyrant. He was appointed by Rome. He was mentally unstable.

History records that he had at least ten wives, and had at least one of them executed. His sons plotted to poison him. He had them put to death. After Jesus was born, this is the Herod who ordered the slaughter of the babies in Bethlehem to protect his throne.

This man had defiled the land of the Jews by building ornate temples filled with pagan idols. Many of the Jewish priests of that day had been corrupted by Rome and were controlled and manipulated by Herod and other Roman leaders.

So that’s the context for what we’re about to see “in the days of Herod, king of Judea.”

Now, verse 5 says, “In those days, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, [who you remember was the first high priest of Israel, so this is a long line of priests] and her name was Elizabeth.”

So Elizabeth was from this long unbroken line of priests. She’s married to a man, who’s also from a long line of priests, and they had both grown up knowing the promises and the Word of God.

The name Zechariah means “Yahweh has remembered.” That’s an interesting name to have in that era, because for 400 years leading up to the beginning of the New Testament, God had not said anything to His people. From the end of Malachi to the beginning of the gospels, there was a 400-year period of silence. It was tempting for God’s people to think that He had forgotten them, that He had forgotten His people and His promises.

But that was not true, because God doesn’t work on our timetables. Four hundred years is a long time to us, but not to God. There’s no one and nothing on this earth that can defeat His eternal purposes.

So without being able to see or know what God was getting ready to do, Zechariah’s parents had named him, “God remembers.” God remembers. It may have been 400 years or 800 years or 1,000 years, but God remembers.

Now Elizabeth, her name meant, “The oath or the promise of God; my God has sworn.” Her parents saw God’s Word as true and trustworthy and powerful. God keeps His promises.

“Yahweh remembers,” Zechariah; Elizabeth, “My God has sworn.”

Verse 6 tells us that Zechariah and Elizabeth, out of these priestly families, “were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.”

So in contrast to the spirit of the evil age in which they lived, Zechariah and Elizabeth swam upstream. They represented a faithful remnant. They continued to walk with God even when many others around them did not. It says “they were righteous before God.”

Now, that doesn’t mean that’s because they weren’t sinners or because they were born righteous. They were righteous the same way we become righteous—by believing the promises of God. Their hearts were inclined toward Him, and His Word governed every area of their lives. This is a couple who took God seriously. They honored Him. They trusted Him.

They were both righteous before God. Elizabeth wasn’t riding on her husband’s spiritual coattails. “Yes, my husband’s the pastor so that must make me spiritual.” She had her own relationship with God. They were both righteous before God.

But being righteous and living a life of faith did not exempt this couple from disappointment, from problems, from unfulfilled longings. You see, I think we sometimes have this idea that if you really are spiritual, if you really walk with God, then life is going to go swimmingly great.

Not always is that the case. Look at the next verse: “But they were both righteous, but they walked blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord, but they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years” (vv. 6–7 paraphrased)

So here this couple has decades of hoping, month after month. Hope deferred month after month. Disappointment year after year.

Verse 13 lets us know that they had prayed about this for years, but the situation had not changed. God had not answered their prayer. And then to add insult to injury, not only was she barren, but they were “both advanced in years.” That’s a polite way of saying they were old. They were past child-bearing years.

The word “barren” is a Greek word that actually sounds like our word “sterile.” The dictionary says barren means “bleak and lifeless.”

We’ve got women in this room who have longed for a child, but you’re barren, bleak, lifeless. This is how that feels because you long to hold a child in your arms, and God hasn’t given that.

Another dictionary says that this word means “incapable of producing offspring.” Sterile. Unproductive. Unfruitful.

Now that may describe how you feel as it relates to child-bearing, but it may describe how you feel in other areas of your life as well—unproductive, unfruitful, bleak, lifeless.

• Maybe your health limits you from being able to serve in some of the ways you wish you could.
• Maybe you’re stretched so thin financially you can barely make ends meet.
• Maybe you struggle with discouragement, with chronic, even clinical depression.
• Maybe you feel that your past has left you barren, unproductive, unfruitful. You feel guilt and shame. You don’t think God could ever really use you.
• Maybe you feel stuck carrying for a lot of little ones, feel like this is a barren season.
• Maybe you’re caring for elderly parents, and you’ve had to put . . . I have numerous friends who are right now caring for elderly parents, and they’ve kind of had to put their own lives on pause and feel like, “What am I doing that’s of any value?”

Do you feel barren?

Now, in Genesis 1 the Scripture says that “God created male and female, and God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.’”

But here’s Elizabeth who was unable to fulfill this divine calling. If children are a blessing, as God says they are, then why wasn’t He giving her the blessing that she longed for? Why was He withholding His blessing from her?

Today there are many couples that choose not to have children for different reasons. But in Elizabeth’s day, childlessness was seen as a sign of God’s punishment for something you had done wrong, some hidden sin. It was a reproach, a cause for shame. It was a social stigma. It was humiliating. (People whispering: “She couldn’t have children. Why? I wonder what she did wrong? I wonder what sin she committed.”) And, Elizabeth and Zechariah would never have an heir, a child to continue the family name.

So, Elizabeth and her husband were righteous, and God promised in the Scripture that “the righteous would flourish.” In their day child-bearing was considered an important way for women to be fruitful and flourish. But, here she is . . . barren and old.

I have a nephew who just got married. He’s young, but he’s kind of an old soul. He used the word barren the other day to describe someone. And his new wife said, “Honey, don’t say that word. That’s not a nice word to say about somebody.”

I understand. It’s kind of an old-fashioned word. But this is how Elizabeth felt. And it may be how you feel. She was old. She was barren. Did that mean that God had not kept His promise? That’s her name. It means, “God keeps His promise.” Would she trust Him when it seemed like they were not flourishing and fruitful in the ways that they longed for?

God had promised that through the woman would come a Messiah, that He would be sent to redeem His people from sin. And Jewish women longed to be chosen for this purpose, but Elizabeth would never be a candidate to be a part of that story. And there was no hope for her situation to change because, as far as she knew, she and Zechariah would never have a child.

She could have felt overlooked by God, passed over by God, longing, demanding an explanation. But her life circumstances did not shake her trust in the goodness of God. She was still obedient, still righteous, still keeping His Word, because she wasn’t serving Him for His gifts. She was serving Him because He’s God and He’s good. She said, “I’m in this for the long haul.”

Now, what Elizabeth didn’t know at this point was that God was withholding the blessing of a child on purpose.

You say, “How cruel is that?!”

No, God had a purpose—a good purpose—and God knew when the fullness of time would come, and God wanted to signal that something extraordinary was taking place with this birth. So if her son, who would be John the Baptist, was born when she was fertile, she was having lots of children, she was in child-bearing years, who would have thought anything unusual about that? But everyone knew that Elizabeth couldn’t have a baby. It was impossible. God was going to show that there was an extraordinary birth about to happen.

Let me just remind you that you can be walking with God and living an obedient life and still have a life of disappointments and hurts and unfulfilled longings. Those things don’t necessarily mean that you’ve committed some sin.

• You can be righteous and childless.
• You can be righteous and single. (I don’t mean being single is a curse. I’m just saying, if you’re longing for a mate, and God hasn’t provided one, you can be righteous and have this unfulfilled longing.)
• You can be righteous and lose your job.
• You can be righteous and be terminally ill.
• You can be righteous and have a prodigal child.
• You can be righteous and have an unbelieving husband.
• You can be righteous and face painful losses and circumstances.

Now, as we move into this chapter, we’re going to see two scenes, and both of these scenes involve an angel sent from God. Both of these scenes involve dramatic, unexpected, life-altering news. And both involve God intervening in a miraculous way.

In scene one, we find beginning in verse 8 an angel appears to Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband. 

Now while Zechariah was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.

But the angel said to him, “Do not fear, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” (vv. 8–13)

The name John means, “the grace of God.” The grace of God. The fruit of “God remembers” and “God keeps His promises.” Zechariah and Elizabeth now will have a son named “the grace of God.”

And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. . . .

And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is [old . . . she’s[ advanced in years.” [laughter]

And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. . . .”

And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. (vv. 14, 18–20, 23)

So the biggest day of this man’s life . . . He’s selected for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to offer the incense. An angel shows up, tells him his prayers have been answered, and that his barren, post-menopausal wife is going to have a son . . . and he can’t tell anyone—not even his wife—because he can’t talk.

I don’t know how he related the news to Elizabeth, and I don’t know how she responded, but I’m assuming he found a way of letting her know. And the question is, did she believe immediately? She hadn’t seen this angel. You kind of had to be there. But we know that this couple had established a habit pattern of responding to God in faith.

So verse 24 tells us: 

After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived [she conceived!] and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me [the Lord has done this for me!] in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people.”

Elizabeth wasn’t quick to go running around telling everybody the news. Instead, she secluded herself for the first five months of her pregnancy. Scripture doesn’t tell us why. For starters, she was old to be having her first baby, so she was probably tired a lot. But given what we know of Elizabeth’s walk with God, we know there are some things she probably did during those five months.

I bet she praised God for this miraculous intervention—praised God that He keeps His promises.

I bet she prayed and asked God for wisdom about how to raise this child who was going to be a forerunner of the Messiah.

I’m sure she pondered, as Mary did when her child was born, savoring the grace of God that she had experienced.

I think she was meditating on the Old Testament promises about one who would go before the Messiah to prepare the way for His coming and about how the coming of the Messiah must be soon.

I think she was caught up in the wonder of what all this meant.

She said, “The Lord has done this for me.” She knew she couldn’t take credit for this. Zechariah couldn’t take credit for this. This was not luck. This was not chance. She knew—everyone else knew—that she was barren. They were old. They couldn’t conceive a child. She said, “The Lord has done this.”

And then in verse 25 she said, “He looked with favor upon me.” God had looked on her. God had turned His face toward her. God had paid attention to her—not with indifference or helplessness or disgust. Not to punish her. But with favor, with grace.

People had assumed that this childless woman, God must be punishing her. But she said, “God has looked on me with favor,” with grace. “He looked on me to take away my reproach among people.”

When God looked on this woman, He removed her reproach, her disgrace. Instead, He gave her the very opposite. He gave her grace. He gave her favor.

Isn’t that a beautiful description of what God has done for us? We were sinful, under the wrath of God, rebellious, resistant against God, rebels. But God looked on us with favor, with grace, to redeem us from our sin.

In Zechariah and Elizabeth’s minds, they had been ready for a child years earlier. But God was arranging the pieces, and God was responsible for the timing. In the fullness of time, God sent her son, who would be John the Baptist, and God sent His Son, who would be Jesus the Messiah.

Zechariah and Elizabeth could have said, “Look. We wanted a baby decades ago. We’re too old for this. We don’t want this now. We don’t like Your timing, God.”

But it’s not about us. It’s about serving God and His purposes. When God’s timing is not your timing, remember that God’s timing is always perfect. His delay in answering a prayer or granting a blessing you have longed for may actually be an indication that He’s going to give you abundantly above and beyond all that you had asked for or could imagine.

Trust God to write your story. Trust God’s plans—His purposes in our lives that we can’t or we won’t perceive until it’s His time.

Dannah: We’ve been listening to Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth with scene one of two scenes. Really, two women who made themselves available to be used by God in some amazing ways.

I hope you and I can set aside our own agendas for our lives and have the same attitude that Elizabeth and Mary did. Nancy will be back tomorrow to share scene two with us.

The challenge to us all is to think about whatever we might be holding back. Signing a blank check and handing it to God can feel scary, but let’s not forget who we’re dealing with. He’s a loving and tender Father. Let’s learn from Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.

Now, don’t forget: tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer. I sure hope you’ll make plans to gather with others and lift up our government leaders, our communities and our churches to God in prayer. There’s more information in the transcript of today’s program at ReviveOurHearts.com.

Well, how would you respond if you found out you were going to be the mother of the Messiah, but it would come at the cost of your reputation and possibly your relationship with your fiancé? We’ll consider Mary’s predicament and her humble response tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is challenging you to trust your heavenly Father completely and discover freedom, fullness and fruitfulness in Christ.

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