Elisabeth — The Woman Whose Son Was the Greatest of Men

Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he (Matthew 11:11).

   Greatness is a very indefinite thing. Whether one is great or not depends upon the standard by which he is judged. Individuals may be divided in their opinion of the greatness of a man. It seems, however, that the men of the generation of John the Baptist and those of every generation since have acknowledged that he was great.

   The standard of greatness in the case of John is set by God. God knows what is in man; He knows the motives, the thoughts, and the desires of the human heart, and He cannot be mistaken. It was the Son of God who said that "among them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist." John's magnanimous character, his wonderful career, and his flawless courage give him this place as the greatest of those born of women. Without this evaluation by Christ, we probably would not pick John out as the greatest of men. Some of us in looking at Biblical history would decide upon Moses because of his great work of leading the children of Israel out of bondage. Others would decide upon Elijah because he reformed the nation of Israel and preserved the true religion, the worship of Jehovah. Others would decide upon Jeremiah because of his tremendous courage in a time of decadence and because of his great international vision.

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Others would even go so far back as the time of Abraham and call the "father of the faithful" the greatest born of women. If we were to evaluate the life of John the Baptist from human standpoints, we would almost say that he was a failure. John left no permanent movement. He left no dynasty. He did not even found a system of thought. Seemingly he died a failure, unaccepted, and a martyr. Yet outside of the kingdom of God, John the Baptist was the greatest of those born of women.

   Can it be that John the Baptist surpasses all of the great men of history who were outside the kingdom of God? Think of the military heroes from the time of Leonidas at the Battle of Marathon to Napoleon, including in that long list Alexander, Pompey, Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Charlemagne. Here were men who changed the course of nations. They seemed to be the turning-point of history. The biographers of history have called them great. Is it true that John the Baptist, about whom no biography was ever written, is greater than these? Think of the cultural leaders of the earth from the time of Pericles, with the host of outstanding men who were gathered about him during the Golden Age of Greece down to the time of the Victorian Era, and the cluster of great names that were assembled in that period, including all the courts from Constantine to Louis XIV, which came in the interim period. Was John the Baptist greater than the men who were the centers around which these cultural periods revolved? Think again of the philosophers from the time of Thales to Immanuel Kant, including Plato, Aristotle, Philo, Plotinus, Anselm, Aquinas, Occam, Locke, Descartes, Spinoza, and Hume. Great as were all of these personages, none can compare with the son of the woman about whom we speak, that is, on the plane of divine judgment. He excelled them all.

   Wherever we find a great man in history, his greatness will be largely due to the greatness of a mother who went before him. In the Granary Burying Ground, next to our church, there is a monument to the mother and father of Benjamin Franklin, a woman who had thirteen children and who trained them in the fear of God and in the honor of thrift. Who can

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say that the greatness of Benjamin Franklin was not due to his mother? Once when the mother of George Washington was told of the promise of little George, she said, "George is a good boy." She had inculcated in him the sense of loyalty, of humility, and of value that caused him to choose between a road of ease and one of sacrifice for the sake of his country. Even Abraham Lincoln said, "All that I am I owe to my mother." Whenever God wished to produce a man who would be great in His eyes, He always prepared a mother first. That is why in so many cases the great men of the world have been children of old age. The women have been prepared through the years of waiting, of prayer, and of meditation until ultimately God gave them the desire of their hearts. Witness the case of the aged Sarah and the birth of Isaac, of Rachel and the birth of Joseph, of the wife of Manoah and the birth of Samson, of Hannah and the birth of Samuel, and of Elisabeth and the birth of John.

   This woman Elisabeth was a true daughter of Aaron in the time of Caiaphas, which designated a very degenerate period. Sholem Asch, in his book, The Nazarene, is very accurate in his description of the hatred with which Caiaphas was held by the people because of the wickedness of the high priesthood and also of his exploitation of the masses of the people. Caiaphas set the standard for many of the lesser priests, but this daughter of Aaron was one of true piety and of devout heart. She was a woman who had long prayed for a child but who had been denied the desire of her heart. Thus she was under a reproach in Israel because she was childless. Elisabeth was one whose life was bound up in the Lord's work. She believed all the prophecies about the Messiah and also about the forerunner of the Messiah, who would first come before the advent of the Son of God. Like the devout mothers of Israel, she longed that she might have a child and that that child should at least be the forerunner, if not the Messiah Himself. Yet as the years passed, the hopelessness of the dream bore itself in upon her, and she devoted herself utterly to the Lord's work and to that alone.

   When John came, however, Elisabeth communicated to

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her child all of her hopes and dreams and aspirations. She poured her own life into him through training and teaching until he knew the Scriptures and the great hopes as well as she herself. Not only did this child have an annunciation in a supernatural way concerning his future, but Elisabeth fulfilled every instruction that was given to her and every requirement concerning one who might be the forerunner of the King. Because of what Elisabeth did, which enabled her son to become the greatest of men, she stands supreme among the mothers of history with the exception, of course, of the mother of our Lord. In our consideration of this woman, we invite your attention to three topics: first, Elisabeth and Mary; second, Elisabeth and John; third, Elisabeth and Jesus.

I. ELISABETH AND MARY

   The birth narratives of John the Baptist and of Jesus are closely intertwined in the Scripture so that no separation between them is possible. It is necessary when we are talking about one of them to talk also about the other. This interconnection is found in the story included in the first chapter of Luke's Gospel.

   The father of John the Baptist was Zacharias, a priest, who served his course in the Temple, performing the daily sacrifice of incense on the golden altar before the veil. He was a godly man, who walked blameless according to the law, who fulfilled his duty, and whose practice was the incarnation of the requirements of the Mosaic Law. To this man, Almighty God sent the angel Gabriel, who appeared to him while he was burning incense and offering prayer upon the altar at the evening hour of sacrifice. Zacharias was greatly troubled but received this reply, "Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John" (Luke 1:13). This greatest of all angels then proceeded to inform Zacharias of the greatness of the child in the sight of the Lord, of the manner of his life and of the ministry which he should perform. Said he, "He shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts

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of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Zacharias then responded, "Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years." This was doubt on the part of Zacharias and because of it Gabriel commanded that he should be dumb until the word was fulfilled. This judgment on Zacharias was a sign to both him and to his wife that the Lord would perform His Word. As soon as Zacharias' course was finished, he returned to his home in the hill country of Judah and remained there until the birth of John the Baptist.

   One might very well use his historical imagination to know what occurred in the house of Zacharias and Elisabeth in the days preceding the birth of John the Baptist. With the full knowledge of the annunciation, and with the proof in the coming of Mary, who had also seen the angel Gabriel, these devout parents must have turned to the Old Testament Scriptures and read and reread the prophecies both of the Messiah and of His forerunner, treasuring them in their hearts. Then came the day when the happy event of John's birth occurred.Within a week, all the relatives gathered together for the service of circumcision and naming the child. They insisted that he should be called Zacharias after his father, but Elisabeth clung to the name "John." Therefore, they decided that the father would settle the matter and they asked him. He, taking a tablet, wrote the name, "John," which means "the grace of God." Immediately the lips and tongue of Zacharias were opened and he spoke in the words of a poem which he composed during the time of his dumbness, celebrating the wonders of God and of the child who was now born. This is called "The Benedictus"; it emphasizes the fact that God has visited and redeemed His people and raised up a horn of salvation for them to give the remission of sins through the tender mercy of God. "The Dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace" (Luke 1:78, 79). This

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aged couple knew, and many of their friends in the hill country of Judea knew, that God had begun the redemptive process.

   The faith of Elisabeth was demonstrated in this series of events. First, we have the joy with which she received the glad tidings from Zacharias that the angel of God had visited him and announced the birth of a son. There is no record of the fact that she doubted the angel's word. Rather it immediately came to pass according to the word of the angel in her life. Within five months, Mary visited at her home in Judah, and as her cousin came into her presence, both women bearing these two wonderful sons, she greeted her with an outburst of song inspired by the Holy Ghost, saying "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ... for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her of the Lord" (Luke 1:42, 43, 45). There was no jealousy in Elisabeth's nature. She did not wonder why the Lord did not send the Messiah instead of the forerunner through her, why she was not chosen instead of Mary. Instead she pronounced the blessedness of Mary, exalted her, and strengthened her faith by her own confidence in the fulfillment of the divine promise. What a source of joy and strength and of blessing these two women were to each other during these three months in their lives can well be imagined! Moreover, Elisabeth was very faithful to the orders she had received from the angel through Zacharias concerning John's name, concerning the environment and training he should receive as a child, and concerning his teaching. He was dedicated to the Lord as a Nazarite. He should not touch strong drink and, like Samson, I suppose that a razor did not come upon his head. He was separated unto the Lord from the time of his birth, and he was filled with the Holy Ghost from before his birth, in all of which things we see the faith of Elisabeth in the infinite God.

   The early life of John the Baptist was under the leadership guidance of Elisabeth. He lived in that simple home in the hill country of Judah. Though Zacharias was probably

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away at Jerusalem at times in the performance of his duties as priest, nevertheless Elisabeth carried on the work in the home, bearing the responsibility of training this wonderful child. Happy childhood days mean more in one's life than almost anything else, and what days John must have spent in this godly family as they read to him the Torah, as they prayed together, and as they instructed him in the greatness of the task that was before him. Undoubtedly the later preaching of John was all due to the teaching of these parents. We read that the boy was filled with the Spirit from his birth and that he waxed strong in spirit (Luke 1:80). Under the tutelage of his mother he grew in the Spirit. There was an enlargement of his soul. Though he was filled with the Spirit from birth, nevertheless as he grew in manhood, his capacity for the Spirit was enlarged. Then he was in the desert until the day of his showing unto Israel. What a renunciation this must have been on the part of his mother, to allow him to leave and go into the desert for fasting and prayer and meditation, to live the life of a Nazarite! There, with special food of honey and wild locusts, with the pure air and the strong sunshine, his brown, clean body developed with his mind. There the Spirit who was within him permitted him to commune with God, and there the message instilled by his own mother and announced by the angel was developed under the guidance of God. John was sent from his mother's care to do the will of God regardless of what that should cost.

   II. ELISABETH AND JOHN

   Just as when Jacob was an old man and had been separated long from his beloved wife Rachel, he looked at Joseph and Benjamin and in them saw the image of his much loved wife; just so whenever God looked upon John the Baptist He must have seen Elisabeth, the devout, sanctified woman of Israel. When John was in the forefront of the Christian ministry, Elisabeth was there with him. Thus it was that Susannah Wesley stood in thousands of churches in England and Nancy

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Hanks Lincoln was in the White House of the United States, not personally, but represented in their sons.

   The ministry of John the Baptist began with his showing unto Israel as the preparatory servant of the Lord. First, there was his message, which was given to the multitudes who came. He preached "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In that message of repentance, he told them to bring forth fruits meet for repentance because the judgment of God was impending. He said to the publican, "Exact no more than that which is appointed you;" to the soldier, "Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages;" to the people, "He that hath two coats, let him impart and give to him that hath none;" to the Pharisees, "The axe is laid to the root of the tree, and every tree which bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire" (Luke 3:1-14). Though he had spoken much of repentance and of judgment, he also spoke much of mercy and forgiveness. His message was, "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world (John  1:29). This message is the heart of Christianity, the message of the cross, the message of Calvary, the message of Easter, the message of redemption. John saw his successor, the Lord Jesus, as the Saviour of the world. He proclaimed the Messiah, for he said, "There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire" (Luke 3:16). John acknowledge that the person of Christ was utterly without sin, for he said, "I have need to be baptized of you, and comest Thou to me?" (Mat. 3:14) He recognized also that his great work was to be that of the King of a spiritual kingdom. This mighty message to the people aroused enthusiasm and faith on the part of the multitude. They were ready to prepare themselves for the coming of the Messiah. When the religious leaders came to John and examined his message and questioned him as to whether he was the Messiah, whether he was Elias, or whether he was Jeremias, or on what authority he performed his baptism, John gave them a scathing message, calling them a "generation of vipers,"

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telling them that God would cast them off and raise up children of stones to Abraham. He seemed to sense that these Sadducees and Pharisees would reject the Lord Jesus Christ and in anticipation he spoke the message of judgment. Then, to Herod, the chief ruler of the land, John fearlessly gave a message of correction and criticism. He told him that it was not lawful for him to take as wife the woman of his own brother (Matt. 14:1-12). He denounced this as a great sin against the moral and spiritual law. Thereby he incurred the wrath of Herod and also of Herodias, which was ultimately to cause his own death. In this mighty ministry to the multitude, to the ecclesiastical, religious people and also to the civil powers, John revealed something of his greatness.

   John was also great in personal faith, and this personal faith had been inspired in him through his own mother's knowledge of the Lord. His mother told him that the Messiah would be born shortly after him, that he was to prepare the hearts of the people by preaching repentance and turning them unto God; but John did not know when the Messiah would appear. All he knew was that God had given him a sign that when he saw the Holy Spirit descend upon a man in the form of a dove, that was the Lord. Hence, when John was baptizing the Lord Jesus Christ and the heavens opened and the dove descended (or at least the Spirit descended as a dove), and when a voice was heard, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," John knew that this Man Jesus was the Son of God (Matt. 3:16, 17). John had already professed his faith in Him because he could see that he had need to be baptized of Christ. Later, John was willing to deny himself utterly for the Lord Jesus Christ, for when men came to him and said, "Rabbi, He whom thou baptized beyond Jordan now baptizeth and all men go to Him," he said, "Did I not say unto you that a man can receive nothing unless he be given it from above?... I am not the Christ but I am sent before Him... He must increase but I must decrease" (John 3:25-30). Here John revealed his willingness to set himself aside in order to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. Though it would mean his death, though it would

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mean the end of his ministry, the loss of his great audience, he was willing to do all for the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, when he was apprehended and put in prison because of his courage, and the doubt began to enter into his soul, he sent two of his disciples unto the Lord Jesus to ask, "Art Thou He who should come, or look we for another?" (Matt. 11:2,3). In that sentence we can behold all of the sorrow, the loneliness, the heartaches, the disappointment, the disillusionment, and the doubt of John's soul, for his revelation was imperfect. He knew not the kind of kingdom that the Lord Jesus was to establish, and when he did not see an earthly kingdom set up and himself liberated from prison, he began to doubt. The response the Lord Jesus gave to John is one that ought to reassure us all as to the nature of Christ's kingdom. He said, "Go and show John those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them, and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me" (Matt. 11:4-6). Whatever faith John had at his death must have been reassured and strengthened by this statement of Christ.

   John's greatness was also revealed in the powerful influence he exercised. First, that influence was revealed on Herod. Later, when Christ was teaching and was performing miracles and the multitude assembled to Him, Herod said, "It is John the Baptist who has risen from the dead" (Matt. 14:1, 2). Herod had beheaded John but believed that death could not hold him. His influence was also exerted on Jesus, for Jesus said concerning John, "What went ye forth into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft raiment are in king's houses. But what went ye forth for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written. Behold I send My messenger before My face which shall prepare my way before thee. Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the

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Baptist" (Matt. 11:7-11). Jesus forever placed John upon that pinnacle of greatness to which none other could ever come. Moreover, the people acknowledged John also as great, for when the Lord Jesus was in controversy with the Pharisees, He put the question to them, "The baptism of John, whence was it, from heaven or of men?" and they could not answer Him, because if they said, "From heaven," then their guilt would have been evident in not accepting him, and if they said, "From men," they feared the people, because all the people accepted John as a great prophet (Luke 20:47). Here then we have Elisabeth living again in her son John, in great influence over the people, in great faith, and in great works before men.

III. ELISABETH AND JESUS

   We have just quoted the words of Jesus in which He said, "Among all them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist." Here we have the emphasis of Christ upon the part of woman in John's greatness. The Lord acknowledged that Elisabeth was partly responsible for the greatness of her own son, but the Lord Jesus did not stop here. He said, "Notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." In this we receive a teaching applicable to every mother who brings a son into the world.

   The question arises: What then has the least believer now that John the Baptist did not have? The difference lies in the difference between the age of law and that of grace, which were separated by the cross of Christ. The best that John or any of his age of any of those who preceded him could do was to hope for the promises of God. All believers, including Abraham, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and Josiah, and the prophets, awaited Christ's coming and looked diligently into the promises to understand what manner of salvation this was that God had foretold; and yet they could not fully understand. The saints of old, including John the Baptist, were resting upon the

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promises. Blessed as they were, they could not say, "My sins are blotted out. My iniquities are all gone." Before the death and resurrection of Christ, they could not look forward and say, "It shall be blessed indeed." They could be sure that it was God's intention, but they did not know it as an accomplished fact. They still had to come to God through the sacrifices of the priesthood, through the mediatorship of others. They could not come to Him directly as priests themselves into the presence of those things that were typified by the tabernacle and the law and the sacrifice. John was able to announce that the kingdom was at hand, but John could not enter that kingdom. In John's day, the greatest in the sight of God could not enjoy the privileges of the least who were in the kingdom of God.

   The kingdom means that reconciliation has been accomplished and that believers are in Christ, that they are born again, forgiven of their son, justified in the presence of God, and accepted as righteous in His sight. Believers today are priests unto God. An inestimable value was set by God upon the death of Christ upon the cross, and because of that death He can accept sinful men in the beloved as His sons and as righteous in His sight. Now, because everything is done, God can invite souls not to forget their sin, not to turn away their eyes from them, but looking at them fairly and fully before the cross of Christ, He calls upon them to say, "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin" (I John 1:6). Knowing this, the priesthood today is not only superfluous but it is evil, for it separates the soul from God. Every believer is a priest now. It is the believer's God-given privilege to draw near to the holiest of all, with sin judged and his iniquities purged away, so that he may be thoroughly happy in the presence of God while he is still on earth.

   This is not a promise — but it is a fact. The difference between a promise and an experience is the difference of being in prison with the promise that you will be brought out and the fact of your liberty when you are brought out. The difference is the difference between being in prison and having

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liberty. Thus the difference between John and the believer is the difference between having sin upon one, knowing that it will be forgiven, and the knowledge of having one's sin taken away through the cross of Christ.

   The kingdom, then, means that one has complete assurance that, because of the death of Christ he is free from all sin. He is able to take his place in the sight of God exactly where Christ is. God gives us Christ's own standing in His sight. Through the ministry of the Holy Ghost who is now in the believer the child of God is able to draw near unto the Father in the name of Christ, clothed in the nature of Christ, holding Christ's own standing before God, and thus able to ask God in the name of Christ for those things that are for the glory of Christ. This privilege is far beyond anything that could ever have been had or understood under the law. Thus, though John was the greatest of all in the Old Testament dispensation, the greatest of all outside the kingdom of God, yet the least Christian, the least believer, mediated by the death of Christ in his relationship with God, is greater than John the Baptist.

   Whenever, then, a child is brought into the kingdom of God, both that child and he who brings him into the kingdom take a place greater than Elisabeth's and John the Baptist's. Elisabeth's son was the greatest of men, but the son of any spiritual believer, in faith, may be greater than he. What a privilege then it is to be a mother in Israel of spiritual children, born through the travail of soul in prayer, born into the kingdom of God. The privileges of the kingdom of God are available for all now. We do not have to say, "Repent," as did John, "for the kingdom of God is at hand." We may say, "Repent and believe for the kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God is yours for the taking. You should cry unto God that you might be acceptable unto Him as a child of the kingdom." And just as the dispensation that John announced came, so also that dispensation will come to its end, and with the end of this dispensation of grace, we shall have the end of the opportunity of being one of the world's greatest people, greater than Abraham,

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Isaac, Jacob, David, or John the Baptist, for surely the destiny of the church, according to the Scripture, will be higher and greater than that of any of the saved in all of the ages of the world's history.

   Hence we hold out the promise to any man today that, though John the Baptist was great in character and in courage and in career, you may be greater than John in character because you are redeemed, in privilege, because of your standing in Christ, and in destiny because you will belong to the bride of Christ. The way to seal these privileges is to come to God by repentance, by faith, by trust in the Saviour now, that you may be sealed through the gift of the Holy Ghost. Remember, "among those born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."

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