Luke 1:24-25

‘And after these days Elisabeth his wife conceived, and she hid herself five months, saying, “Thus has the Lord done to me in the days on which he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.” ’

And sure enough Elisabeth his wife did conceive, and when she did she kept to her private room for five months with joy in her heart at the thought that he reproach had been removed, and no doubt let it be known to some that God had heard their cry and given them a son. He had graciously looked on her and taken away her reproach. The five months of retirement, like Zacharias’ enforced silence, would indicate that something especially remarkable was happening about which she wished to retain silence. Indeed the sign of Zacharias’ dumbness might have made them feel that God did not want them to spread about what was happening. But with such a remarkable birth foretold she would also want time to meditate and prepare herself. We must not underestimate the sense of awe that must have filled her at the thought of what God had promised concerning her baby. She would clearly feel that such a privilege required special preparation, especially in view of the restriction on John. Perhaps she felt that he must not be tainted by the world while in her womb, for his necessary separation from the world had been revealed by the injunction laid on him to avoid wine and strong drink (compare 1 Samuel 1:15; Judges 13:4, which she may have taken as a pattern). It was the same sense that would drive John into the wilderness. It may be significant that ‘five’ is the number of the covenant. She was to be seen as revealing her covenant faithfulness.

But there may also have been another parallel explanation which would go along with the previous ones. For some time she had been seen as an old woman past childbearing. And for two or three months she would not be able to say whether what the angel had said was true or not. Probably therefore she felt that she could not face up to the inevitable continual questionings that would assail her if she met with others. And once she did know for certain things might get even worse. Scepticism and comment would be rampant, and she would be an object of continual curiosity. So she probably just did not feel that she could face the public.

Her period of isolation necessarily came to an end after five months because it was ‘in the sixth month’ (Luke 1:26) that Mary visited her and she received her. And Mary would remain for three months. Even in this there was significance. The first to ‘come in contact’ with the newly conceived child in the womb (Luke 1:41) outside of his parents was to be the mother of the Messiah, of Whom he was immediately aware and to Whom he would one day bear witness.

So the promise was given of the great preparer of the way, and now his birth had taken place. The next event could only be of the promise of the coming of the Messiah Himself.