Jesus didn’t have the monopoly on a miraculous birth
In fact it appears that God has sown the seeds within humanity for thousands of years in order to ensure a brighter future for us all.
Before I’m surrounded by the torches and pitchfork brigade I am certainly not inferring that Jesus’ birth was the same. He was the only virgin birth and the only one confirmed by an Angel to be a holy child and the Son of God. However at the same time another very important figure in Bible history was gestating in the womb of Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth.
So what? I hear you say… Elizabeth was at least 60 years old, married in her youth to another descendant of Aaron, a priest of the temple no less, and was considered barren during her child-bearing years.
I’ll come back to who Elizabeth’s son was destined to become and the amusing narrative that goes along with it in a moment, but first I’ll give you a few more examples of Yahweh’s occasional tweaking of the gene pool.
Isaac, Son of Abraham and Sarah
Let’s go back to the beginning of the Bible to Genesis 11. After the garden of Eden, Adam’s descendants are catalogued in so much detail that it can’t be attributed to good storytelling. The level of precision almost leads us to the conclusion that the line of succession between him and Noah is essential to progression or our future understanding. Curiously, the men at that time were said to live to around 700 years old, except of course Enoch who never died at all. (Future article coming on that).
Finally in Genesis Chapters 10 & 11 delivered more incredibly detailed accounts of fathers and sons between Noah and Abraham by which time the average lifetime of man had gradually declined to around 120 years.
By then the world had changed dramatically, the dominant belief system was polytheism (1,200 gods) and A’bram was a true believer in one God, Jehovah. He married Sar’ai and they travelled, preaching and worshipping God, building altars along the way. They even went into Egypt for a while…tricky times.
When Abraham was 99 years old (and Sarah, 90) God gave them new names and a son named Isaac with a sacred promise that his descendants would be as many as the particles of the earth or the stars in the night sky. For a moment I thought we would miss out hearing all those names, however Matthew kicked off the New Testament in thrilling style with the Genealogy between Abraham and Jesus. Just in case we missed the point that the lineage from Adam, Noah, Abraham to Jesus was important.
Samuel, son of Hannah and Elkanah
Just to mix things up, this miraculous birth wasn’t performed to support the eventually birth of the Son of God, but it certainly was done with purpose. Hannah was childless for many years, and her husband took a second wife who had three children. Hannah prayed and promised God that if He gave her a son then she would give him over to the priesthood. Samuel was born and eventually became a prophet, delivering messages from God to His people.
John The Baptist
Born to Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, John the Baptist was an essential figure in preparing the way for Jesus. He preached to the people of the coming Messiah and baptised them in water. When Jesus was ready to begin his ministry Jesus comes to John, and is baptized by him in the river Jordan. The account describes how, as he emerges from the water, the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends on him ‘like a dove’ and he hears a voice from heaven that says, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased".
Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was 60 years old when her husband, a priest was lighting incense within the sanctuary of the temple. An angel appeared to him and he was overcome with fear. However, the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayers have been favorably heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John. He will turn back many of the sons of Israel to their God. Also, he will go ahead of him with Elijah’s spirit and power, to turn back the hearts of fathers to children and the disobedient ones.” (Luke 1:5–80)
Putting yourself in Zechariah’s shoes (or sandals, more likely), standing in the inner chamber of God’s temple listening to the words of an Angel; Would you be overcome with joy and give thanks, or would you express doubt? Personally I’d be down on my knees asking if my lips were close enough to the ground, but no, not Zechariah.
He said to the angel: “How can I be sure of this? For I am old, and my wife is well along in years.” In reply the angel said to him: “I am Gabriel, who stands near before God, and I was sent to speak with you and to declare this good news to you. But look! you will be silent and unable to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their appointed time.”
And so it was — John the Baptist’s father still silent 8 days after the birth when someone asked him to name his child. Remembering what the Gabriel said, he wrote on his tablet “John is his name” and suddenly his voice returned and he told everyone what had happened.
Mary, in the meantime was heading back to Nazareth in her second trimester with a lot of explaining to do. Good thing Gabriel stopped to talk to Joseph on the way home.
Hope you enjoyed this Bible Study. If you’d like to study the Bible, I am always happy to take on new students. No charge, just get in touch for coffee and Zoom.
