It's Taken Away
What is the thing for which you have waited the longest? A package to
arrive, construction on a Houston highway to be finished, finding love,
having a child, or a pandemic to end? Some of the waiting in your life is
by choice and some by circumstance. Elizabeth became an expert wait-
er by circumstance. The circumstance was that she was older and without
a child. People would have wondered if she was cursed by God or had sinned
so that God would withhold such a blessing from her.
Elizabeth has waited so many years and the scripture tells us that she waits in
seclusion for 5 months with this pregnancy. Five months she waited in quiet
hiddenness, and with joy, concern (would it really happen), and with anticipation
of a new life with a child. After 5 months, it is time to proclaim her joy. “This is what
the Lord has done for me when He looked favorably on me and took away the
disgrace I have endured among my people.” Elizabeth, similarly to Rachel (Jacob’s
wife) when she found out she was with child in Genesis 30:23, thanks God for
taking away her disgrace.
Israel was much like Elizabeth. They were in a waiting period that was centuries,
not years, long. Israel comes back from captivity, yet they live with the guilt that
ends up manifesting itself as strict adherence to the law. They exchanged one
captivity for another. Yet there was hope hovering in their midst: the promise
of a Messiah proclaimed centuries before. Much like Elizabeth’s anticipation of
liberation from the disgrace she bore, Israel was on the brink of her liberation
from the weight of the law and disgrace of sin. It was not yet, but it was about to
be born.
We live on this side of that liberating birth of Jesus, and often we wait in the place
between disgrace and hope’s birth being realized. This hope is much like the glow
of tiny lights in the dark of night. Elizabeth carried the weight of her disgrace.
Where is your disgrace, your sorrow, or your sin that you carry? Like Elizabeth, may
we remember that disgrace, sorrow, or sin are not the end of our story because
it has been “taken away” by the birth of another baby named Jesus. May we too
proclaim, “This is what the Lord has done for me...”
Shannon Lambert, Tallowood Connect Group Teacher
