Waiting: Day 7

Saturday December 6, 2025

After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me,

to take away my reproach among people.”

Luke 1:24

The very thing the angel predicted is coming to pass. Elizabeth is expecting, which has to be a joyous thing for both she and Zechariah. After all, they both had prayed for a child, seemingly for a long time, and she refers to their infertility as “my reproach among people.”

These were different days, and Israel was a different place. Infertility was referred to as “barrenness” and was viewed as punishment from God. This is interesting in that Zechariah was a respected priest, and he and Elizabeth are described as “righteous.” Elizabeth must have suffered the looks of her neighbors, and I’ll bet she dealt with all manner of hurtful comments. Reproach, she calls it.

Elizabeth goes into hiding, which I find fascinating. This doesn’t appear to be a normal practice of expectant mothers of the day, and Luke doesn’t offer us anything in the way of explanation. We can only wonder.

John Wesley conjectured that seclusion afforded her the opportunity to rejoice at her blessing and to commune with her Lord. Others echo that line of thinking. A number of commentators point out that her pregnancy wouldn’t be evident for several months-particularly given the nature of women’s garments of the day-so it doesn’t appear that she felt it necessary to hide it out of embarrassment or to avoid questions. It also doesn’t appear that she was either disbelieving or fearful that she might lose the baby. To the contrary, her words indicate her certainty that God had indeed answered her prayers in the affirmative.

Maybe she just needed a little alone time. Zechariah, after all, can’t talk to her since Gabriel had rendered him speechless. She may, in the vernacular of today, be “processing” the reality of impending parenthood. And, yes, part of that may be that she wants to spend some focused time with her God.

The takeaway for me is that solitude can be a good thing for one’s spiritual life and emotional health. Certainly, those who live alone may crave time with others, but don’t overlook the value of time with oneself. And those who do not live alone would do well to take heed of Elizabeth’s example. After all, Scripture tells us that Jesus Himself sometimes withdrew from the crowds, often retreating to a place of solitude. Five months might be a bit extreme, but a few hours-even a day or two-of intentional seclusion, might just restore our souls.