One of the things I love about God's Word is the richness of its language. When I have time to linger over the Scriptures, I enjoy doing word studies, looking up an English word in my Bible translation and then using a concordance to find it in the original Greek or Hebrew language. Oftentimes, by considering God's Word in it's original language, I get a fresh and deeper perspective on the intended meaning of a particular verse in Scripture.
Well, one such word I have recently studied is "exclaimed." It is not a unique word in our language--in fact, it hangs in our school room as part of our Dull Word Graveyard, as we try to put to rest boring words like "said" and use more vibrant words in our writing! At any rate, it turns out that this word is very rare in the pages of Scripture. It is only used ONCE in the New Testament, when Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptizer, greets the expectant virgin Mary who has come to her house to visit with her and share the wondrous news of the coming Messiah as she had heard it from the angel Gabriel. We see this Visitation in the pages of the first chapter of Luke:
39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed [Greek = anaphoneo] with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” (emphasis mine)
Now, what is particularly interesting to me is that the verb translated "exclaimed" is used (in its Hebrew counterpart) only FIVE times in the Old Testament, and always in association with one particular thing--the Levites praising the Ark of the Covenant (1 Chron 15:28; 16:4, 5, 42; 2 Chron 5:13).
I wonder, in this way, if Luke is softly telling us something quite profound: by using this particular verb "exclaimed" to describe Elizabeth's reaction to Mary, that she, too, being of the Levitical priestly linage herself (Luke 1:5), is in the presence of a sacred vessel, that being, Mary, a type of "Ark" who carries God's glory in the person of Christ Himself!
When we consider what the Ark of the Covenant contained and what each item signified--the tablets containing the Law, the jar of manna, and the budded staff of Aaron--we should stop to consider that Mary, too, contained these things in the embodiment of Christ, who was the very Word of God, the Bread of Life came down from Heaven, and the only God-ordained leader and liberator of His people.
Isn't it just fascinating how the New Testament illuminates the Old Testament, and vice versa? Isn't it amazing how we can see Jesus in the pages of the Old Testament? This Christmas, as we read about the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, let us consider these marvelous truths that Luke wants us to see by his careful selection of a little word..."exclaimed"!
**for more on this topic, see this the Luke commentary of this NT Bible
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