Elizabeth-
"Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people." Luke 1:25
Elizabeth, wife of Zacharias, has conceived. The previous verse relates that, once it was discovered, she hid herself away for five months (probably the latter five months of the pregnancy when she would surely be showing), and then... verse 25, she makes her declaration. It's a beautiful saying, moreso than perhaps it seems at first. How to better spell out its subtlty and depth? A paraphrase.
"God has given me a child! He looked on me; now, even in my old age, He looked on me! He is never late in hearing and answering prayers. He has also given me a child to heal my shame. How much does He love and care for me!"
I suppose I could be reading something into the text from my re-translation, but I don't think so. A wringing of the text yields great rewards. Elizabeth and Zacharias were old when she became pregnant. Verse seven, "But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years." The phrase "well advanced in years," might be New Testament era understatement, a more polite way of stating the obvious: they were old! And, although they were old, they weren't, according to the text, old enough to stop wanting children. Our main verse shows Elizabeth praising God for her child, blessing Him for seeing her and for removing the stigma that was attached to women in that day (and in that culture, even today) who couldn't conceive.
Think now about the middle phrase, "in the days when He looked on me." We've seen what exactly those "days" were. They were the ones she was in at the time, the latter days of her life; "the golden years." But, see what she says; "He looked" on her. Specifically. Intently. The idea denotes full attention, scrutinous focus like an art dealer sizing up a painting's myriad angles, dimensions, quality and inherent elements. Or, like a master craftsman fashions an object; a figurine, a tool, a relief of some kind. He touches it with his eyes and hands, and surgically fashions it according to its own design and his own intent, undistracted by other pieces or peripheral concerns. Nothing outside of the object at hand is in his masters' focus.
When Elizabeth said, "He looked on me," what was she thinking? Did she simply interpret His answering her prayers as His eye passing over her, and express it as such, or is there an element of other, older words and worship she came in tune with in that moment?
Genesis 6:8 says, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." In a similar situation to Elizabeth's, Hannah, Samuel's mother, when she was barren and without a child, prayed, "O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look at the affliction of your maidservant and remember me, and not forget your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life... (1 Samuel 1:11)" Samuel was born, and she similarly praises God; "My heart rejoices in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD. I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation (1 Samuel 2:1)." Mirroring her own shame before she conceived, she blesses God for exalting her horn over her dericive enemies, and for letting her smile over them, wheras she had obviously, in contrast, been downcast before them beforehand.
What about, 2 Chronicles 16:9 and Zechariah 4:10?
"For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behlaf of those whose heart is loyal to Him."
"For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabal. They are the eyes of the LORD, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth."
--He sees all, He knows all, but occasionally He lets us know it; He allows us to feel the wholesome sweep of His eyes as He engulfs us in His gaze. A seeming paradox, to see everything at once, and yet carefully observe it all, even being recognized as familiar and particular and personal at times.
Finally, John 1:47-50; "Jesus saw Nathaneal coming toward Him and said of him, 'Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!' Nathaneal said to Him, 'How do you know me?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.' Nathaneal answered and said to Him, 'Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these.'"
Before Philip came to get Nathaneal he had been just where Jesus said he'd been, under a fig tree. He could have been doing anything, but it's the opinion of many scholars that Nathaneal had been the only one of Jesus disciples who was actually following the rabbinical tradition, ascending through the various stages of preparation involved in the process of training to become a rabbi. He could have been asking Yhwh for a rabbi to follow and to train under. He could have been asking Yhwh to reveal falsehood in him, as he sat under the fig tree. It may explain Jesus' first statement to him, and possibly reveal a new shade of meaning behind Nathaneal's suspicion of Jesus; "How do you know me so well? How did you know what I struggle with, and what I pray for?" Perhaps Nathaneal had been asking, like Elizabeth, that Yhwh look upon him, to guide him and to uncover secret sin within him. Perhaps, like she did, he prayed for a miracle, for a sign and for Yhwh's intervention?
All we know for sure is that Jesus shows up, in both cases. Jesus' advent brought about John's birth. Luke even records Gabriel's words to Zacharias, saying, "(John) will be great in the eyes of the Lord... He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit... And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:15-17)." He quoted Malachi's prophecy of one like Elijah coming immediately before the Lord Himself. And, with Nathaneal, obviously, Jesus shows up. And, in doing so his life, Elizabeth's life as well, finds shelter in the loving gaze of God. He shows up and shows off that He is looking; He is intently staring at, and missing nothing in their lives. He loves them too much not to.
He's looking today. Looking at Us.
-SRD
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