Luke 1:39 - Meaning and Application

Here we have a meeting between two happy mothers, Elizabeth and Mary. The angel had told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was also blessed with a child (Luke 1:36), and that led to this visit. Sometimes the best help we can give is to bring godly people together so they can share what God has done.

First, consider Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. Mary was younger, and she was also the younger one in pregnancy, so it was fitting for her to make the trip. She did not insist on any special honor because of the greater dignity of her own child, Luke 1:39. She rose and put aside her own affairs to attend to this greater matter. She went in those days, that is, soon after the angel visited her, likely after first spending time in prayer, and then hurrying to her cousin’s home, where she would have more peace and better help in a priest’s family.

She went with care, diligence, and speed. She was not going out like young people often do, just for pleasure, but to learn and to seek fellowship. She went to a city of Judah in the hill country. The city is not named, but by comparing the description with Joshua 21:10-11, it appears to have been Hebron, which was in the hill country of Judah and belonged to the priests, the sons of Aaron. Mary made that long journey, though it was several miles.

Some have thought, and the idea is not impossible, that she may have gone to Hebron because there the Messiah would be conceived. If so, it would fit the pattern of God’s work. In that city the promise was given to Isaac, circumcision was established, and there Abraham had his first land and David his first crown. There also, according to ancient tradition, the patriarchs were buried. It is fitting, then, that the promise should begin to be fulfilled among those to whom it was first given.

Most likely, Mary also went to strengthen her faith by the sign the angel had given her, namely, that her cousin was with child. She wanted to share her joy with one who would understand it. She may also have wanted to be more private, or simply to enjoy better company than she had at Nazareth. She likely had not told her neighbors what the angel said, but she longed to speak about a matter she had thought over many times. She knew no one better than Elizabeth to talk with freely about it.

This is useful for all who have begun a work of grace in their souls, and Christ is being formed in them. They should consult others who are in the same state, so they can share their experiences. As one face reflects another in water, so one Christian heart often answers to another Christian heart.

Next comes the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth. Mary entered the house of Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband, though he was likely kept apart in his own room because he was mute and deaf. So Mary greeted Elizabeth, Luke 1:40, and told her she had come to visit, to ask after her, and to rejoice with her in her joy. At this first meeting, something very unusual happened to confirm both women in faith.

Mary knew Elizabeth was pregnant, but there is no sign that Elizabeth had been told Mary was to be the Messiah’s mother. So any knowledge Elizabeth showed must have come by revelation, and that would greatly encourage Mary. The baby leaped in Elizabeth’s womb, Luke 1:41. She had likely felt the child move before, since she was six months along, but this was an unusually strong movement that made her expect something remarkable. The same word is used in the Greek Old Testament for Jacob and Esau struggling in Rebecca’s womb (Genesis 25:22) and for the mountains skipping (Psalm 114:4).

The baby seemed to leap as a sign to his mother that he was near the One whose forerunner he would be. He was to serve as Christ’s herald for about six months, as he had been in the womb for that time. Or the movement may have been caused by a strong impression on Elizabeth herself. In this way the angel’s word to Zechariah began to come true, that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15). Perhaps John later referred to this when he said, “The friend of the bridegroom rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice” (John 3:29).

Elizabeth herself was filled with the Holy Spirit, or with a spirit of prophecy. By this she understood that the Messiah was near, that prophecy was about to rise again, and that the Holy Spirit would be poured out more richly than before, as those who waited for Israel’s comfort hoped. The unusual movement of the baby in her womb was a sign of the strong stirring in her own spirit under God’s power. Those whom Christ graciously visits can know it by being filled with the Holy Spirit, for if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person does not belong to him.

Then Elizabeth, speaking by the Spirit of prophecy, welcomed Mary, the mother of our Lord, not as an ordinary visitor, but as the one through whom the Messiah would be born. She first congratulated her on her honor, and though she may have just learned it, she spoke with full confidence and joy. She cried out with a loud voice, not because there was a wall or floor between them, but because she was filled with joy and spoke without restraint. She said, “Blessed are you among women,” the same words the angel had used (Luke 1:28), because what God honors in heaven should also be honored on earth.

Elizabeth then added the reason for Mary’s blessedness, “Blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Mary’s greatness came from the blessed child she carried.

Elizabeth was the wife of a priest and was now old, yet she did not begrudge her relative, who was much younger and in every way beneath her, the honor of conceiving while still a virgin and becoming the mother of the Messiah. The honor given to Elizabeth was much smaller, but she rejoiced in Mary’s greater honor. Her heart was like her son’s later heart, when he said that the one who comes after him is preferred before him (John 1:27).

This teaches us that while we must freely admit that we have received more from God than we deserve, we must never envy it when others are more highly favored than we are.

Elizabeth also acknowledged Mary’s kindness in visiting her, saying, “How can it be that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:43). She calls the virgin Mary the mother of her Lord, as David, speaking by the Spirit, called the Messiah his Lord, because she knew he would be Lord of all. She not only welcomed Mary into her home, though Mary may have come in humble circumstances, but treated the visit itself as a great favor that she did not feel worthy to receive. Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit think humbly of their own worth and highly of God’s kindness.

Her own son, John the Baptist, spoke in the same way later when he said, “Do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14).

Elizabeth also told Mary about the baby in her womb joining in that welcome (Luke 1:44). In effect, she said, “You must be bringing some great news and blessing with you, because when your greeting reached my ears, my heart leaped for joy, and even the baby in my womb leaped.” The child was not yet able to know anything, but he still leaped as if for joy that the Messiah, whose messenger he would be, was coming soon after him. This would greatly strengthen Mary’s faith, because others were given such signs too. It also began to fulfill what had long been promised, that there would be worldwide joy before the Lord when he came (Psalm 98:8-9).

Elizabeth then praised Mary’s faith and encouraged it: “Blessed is she who believed” (Luke 1:45). People who believe are blessed people, and they will be shown to be blessed in the end. This blessing comes through faith, including the blessing of belonging to Christ and having him formed in the soul. Those who believe God’s word are blessed, because his word will not fail them. What the Lord told Mary would surely be done.

The certainty of God’s promise is the sure happiness of all who trust it and look to it for everything. God’s faithfulness is the blessing of the saints’ faith. Those who have seen God keep his promises in their own lives should encourage others to hope that he will be just as faithful to them: “I will tell you what God has done for my soul.”

Mary’s song of praise follows. Elizabeth’s words were an echo of Mary’s greeting, and Mary’s song is an even stronger echo of Elizabeth’s prophecy. It shows that Mary was just as full of the Holy Spirit as Elizabeth was. We may imagine the blessed virgin coming in tired from her journey, but she forgets her weariness and is filled with fresh life, strength, and joy when her faith is confirmed. Since she sees, by this sudden movement of the Spirit, that this was the purpose of her visit, she is like Abraham’s servant and will not rest until she has spoken what she came to say.

Her song is full of joy and praise, and God alone is the object of that praise and the center of that joy. Some compare it with the song of Miriam, the sister of Moses, after Israel’s escape from Egypt and safe crossing of the Red Sea. Others think it is better compared with Hannah’s song after the birth of Samuel, because both move from a personal mercy to a wider blessing for God’s people. Mary begins as Hannah did, “My heart rejoices in the Lord” (1 Samuel 2:1).

Notice how Mary speaks of God. She speaks with great reverence, calling him “the Lord”: “My soul magnifies the Lord.” It is as if she says, “I never saw him so great as now I find him good.” Only those are truly lifted up in mercy who are made to think more highly of God. Some people, by contrast, let prosperity make them say, “Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?” The more honor God gives us in any way, the more honor we should try to give back to him. We only truly magnify the Lord when our souls do it, when all that is within us is involved. Praise must be a work of the heart.

She also speaks with deep gladness in him as her Savior: “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” This seems to refer to the Messiah she was to bear. She calls him “God my Savior,” because the angel had told her that he would be the Son of the Highest and that his name would be Jesus, that is, Savior. She took that promise to herself: he is God my Savior. Even the mother of our Lord needed him as her Savior, and she would have been lost without him. She rejoices more in the mercy she shares with all believers than in the special honor of being his mother. That fits with Christ’s own preference for obedient believers over his earthly family (Matthew 12:50; Luke 11:27-28).

Those who have Christ as their God and Savior have every reason to rejoice in spirit, with spiritual joy, the kind of joy Christ himself had (Luke 10:21).

Mary then gives the reasons for her joy and praise. First, she speaks about God’s kindness to her own life (Luke 1:48-49). Her spirit rejoices in the Lord because of what he has done for her in mercy and kindness. “He has looked on the humble state of his servant.” That is, he has looked on her with pity, which is how the word is often used. He chose her for this honor despite her deep lowliness, poverty, and obscurity.

The phrase may even suggest more than poverty and low position. It may mean, as with Gideon’s words, that her family was poor in Judah, and that she herself was the least in her father’s house, as though she were under some special contempt among her relatives, unfairly neglected, or treated as an outcast in her family. God put this honor on her to more than make up for that shame. We see the same kind of kindness in others. Because God saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb (Genesis 29:31). Because Hannah was taunted, made miserable, and mocked by Peninnah, God gave her a son (1 Samuel 1:19). Those whom people wrongly push down and despise, God sometimes lifts up in compassion, especially if they have borne it patiently (Judges 11:7).

In Mary’s case, if God looked kindly on her low condition, he gave a picture of his favor to the whole human race. He remembers people in their low estate, as the psalmist says (Psalm 136:23), and he also gave Mary lasting honor. The honor God gives does not fade. So Mary could say, “From now on all generations will call me blessed,” meaning they will count her a happy and highly favored woman. All who receive Christ and his gospel will agree, “Blessed was the womb that bore him and the breasts that nursed him” (Luke 11:27). Elizabeth had already called her blessed more than once, but Mary says that is not enough, since all generations, Gentiles as well as Jews, will say so.

Mary says, “My soul magnifies the Lord,” because of the great things he has done for her (Luke 1:49). “He who is mighty has done great things for me.” It is indeed a great thing that a virgin should conceive. It is also a great thing that the Messiah, long promised to the church and long waited for, should now finally be born. This shows the power of the Most High at work. She adds, “Holy is his name,” just as Hannah said in her song, “There is none holy like the Lord,” and then explained, “There is none besides you” (1 Samuel 2:2). God stands alone as God, and he shows this especially in the work of our redemption. He who is mighty, and whose name is holy, has done great things for me. We can expect great things from one who is both mighty and holy, one who can do everything and will do everything well and for the best.

Mary then speaks on behalf of others as well. As the mother of the Messiah, she becomes, in a sense, a public person. She now has a more public spirit than before, and she looks beyond herself. She notices God’s different ways of dealing with people, especially in light of the coming Redeemer, just as Hannah did (1 Samuel 2:3). She begins with this sure truth: God has mercy stored up for all who reverence him and honor his authority. But this was shown in the clearest way when he sent his Son into the world to save us (Luke 1:50). It has always been true that he shows special favor to those who fear him. Yet he has now shown that mercy more fully than ever before by sending his Son to bring in everlasting righteousness and work out everlasting salvation for those who fear him, from generation to generation. Gospel blessings are passed on and meant to last. Those who fear God as Creator and Judge can hope for mercy through Christ, their Mediator, meaning their go-between and advocate. In him, mercy is settled on all who fear God, pardoning mercy, healing mercy, accepting mercy, and crowning mercy, while the world stands. In Christ he keeps mercy for thousands.

Mary also repeats a common observation, that God’s providence often brings down the proud and honors the humble. He has done this especially in the whole work of human redemption. As he had shown himself mighty in showing mercy to her, so he had shown strength with his arm in mercy to those who fear him. In ordinary providence, God often acts in a way that surprises people and turns their plans upside down. Proud people expect to get their own way and keep their place, but he scatters them in the thoughts of their hearts, breaks their plans, ruins their schemes, and brings them low by the very counsel they thought would lift them up. The powerful think they are safe by their own strength, but he throws them down and overturns their seats. At the same time, people of low rank, who never expected to rise, are wonderfully lifted up. The same is true of riches. Many who were so poor they had no bread for their families are suddenly filled with good things by God’s surprising providence. On the other hand, some who were rich and thought tomorrow would always be like today, with their mountain standing firm, are suddenly made poor and sent away empty. Hannah had already made this same point and expanded on it in her song, applying it to herself and her rival (1 Samuel 2:4-7). Compare also (Psalm 107:33-41), (Psalm 113:7-9), and (Ecclesiastes 9:11). God delights to disappoint those who promise themselves great things in this world, and to do even more than lowly people hoped for. As a righteous God, he glorifies himself by bringing down the self-exalting and warning the secure. As a good God, he glorifies himself by lifting up those who humble themselves and comforting those who fear before him.

This is seen especially in the ways of gospel grace. First, it appears in the spiritual honors he gives. When proud Pharisees were rejected, and tax collectors and sinners entered the kingdom of heaven before them, when Jews who pursued righteousness by the law did not reach it, and Gentiles who never expected it received righteousness instead (Romans 9:30-31), and when God chose not the wise, powerful, or noble to spread the gospel, but the foolish and weak things of the world, the despised things, then he scattered the proud and brought down the mighty while lifting up those of low degree (1 Corinthians 1:26-27). When the power of the chief priests and elders was broken, though they had long ruled over God’s people and expected to keep doing so, and Christ’s disciples, a poor and despised group of fishermen, were given power and made to sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel, and when the power of the four great monarchies was broken and the Messiah’s kingdom, like a stone cut without hands, filled the earth, then the proud were scattered and the lowly were exalted.

Second, it appears in the spiritual riches he gives (Luke 1:53). Those who see their need of Christ and strongly desire righteousness and life in him are filled with good things, the best things. He gives generously to them, and they are fully satisfied with the blessings he gives. Those who are weary and burdened find rest with Christ, and those who thirst are invited to come to him and drink, because they are the ones who truly know how to value his gifts.

To a hungry soul, even bitter things seem sweet. Manna becomes angels’ food, and plain water tastes like honey from the rock. But those who are rich, who are not hungry, who are like Laodicea and think they need nothing, are full of themselves and their own righteousness. He sends them away from his door. They are not welcome to him, and he sends them away empty, full of self and empty of Christ.

He sends them back to the gods they served, to the righteousness and strength they trusted in. But the Messiah was always expected to be, in a special way, the strength and glory of his people Israel, and he is that in a special way here. Mary says, “He has helped his servant Israel” (Luke 1:54). The word means he has taken them by the hand and helped them up when they had fallen and could not help themselves.

Those who had sunk under the burden of a broken covenant, that is, the failed agreement of innocence, are lifted up by the blessings of a renewed covenant of grace, God’s saving favor. Sending the Messiah, on whom help was placed for poor sinners, was the greatest kindness that could be shown to Israel, and the greatest help that could be given. What makes this mercy shine even more is, first, that it is a reminder of his mercy, his kind heart, and the mercy he had stored up for his servant Israel. While this blessing was delayed, his waiting people were often ready to ask, “Has God forgotten to be gracious?” But now he showed that he had not forgotten. He remembered his mercy.

He also remembered his earlier mercy and repeated, in spiritual blessings, what he had once done for them in outward blessings. He remembered the days of old. “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea, out of Egypt?” (Isaiah 63:11). He would do the same kind of work again, and the earlier rescue was a picture of this greater one. Second, this mercy came in fulfillment of his promise. It was not only planned, but spoken ahead of time (Luke 1:55). He had said to our fathers that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head, that God would live among the tents of Shem, and especially to Abraham, that in his offspring all the families of the earth would be blessed. This was the best blessing, the lasting blessing, and it would belong to the seed that would last forever, that is, his spiritual children, since his physical descendants were soon cut off in large measure.

What God has spoken, he will do. What he spoke to the fathers will be carried out for their children and their children’s children, in blessings that last forever. Lastly, Mary returned to Nazareth (Luke 1:56) after staying with Elizabeth for about three months. That was long enough for Mary to be fully assured that she was with child, and to have that confirmed by her cousin Elizabeth. Some think Mary stayed until Elizabeth had given birth and recovered, so she could help her and be with her during the birth. They also think Mary’s own faith would be strengthened by seeing God fully carry out his promise to Elizabeth.

Most, however, follow the story as it is written and think Mary returned when Elizabeth was near her time. They think Mary still preferred quiet and would not stay when this promised birth would bring many visitors to the house. Those in whose hearts Christ is being formed often take more delight than before in sitting alone and keeping still.