Marriage, Prophecy, and Angels
Joyce Voysey

One of my first impressions on reading through the early books of the Bible, was that it seemed to be very important which woman a man married.  Of course, I am reminded of this because Luke starts us on his story about Jesus by talking about Zacharias, and straightaway tells us that his wife was Elisabeth, a daughter of Aaron.  Zacharias is a priest doing his roster of appointed priestly duties.  There was a roster for these duties created by David, called courses – Zacharias’s course being called Abia.  Rotation in office it was really, and there were 24 of these courses; it is thought that the Abia one would have had Zacharias on the job in April and October.

Was Elisabeth of a higher ‘class’ than her husband, by virtue of being a daughter of Aaron?

Dummelow tells us on page 737 of his great work of commentary on the Bible, that: “The rise of Christianity was preceded by a long period of four hundred years, during which prophecy was silent, and the religious guidance of the nation passed to the rabbis and the scribes, who made void the Law of God by their traditions.”  Fancy that!

He goes on: “The advent of Christ was heralded by a great revival of prophecy, and by the restoration of direct communications from God to man through supernatural agency, as in the cases of Zacharias, Joseph, Mary, Elisabeth, Simeon, Anna, the shepherds, the Magi, and, in particular, John the Baptist, who, though he left no written prophecies, and worked no miracle, was declared by our Lord to be the greatest of the prophets, yea, and more than a prophet.”

Some exciting prospects of prophecy there!  And almost immediately we have the first one – that of Zacharias.  He and Elisabeth are good people, doing all the right things, but they are childless in their old age.  It is a very special duty Zacharias is performing – the offering of the incense.  This is a duty performed only once in the lifetime of a priest and he is ever afterwards called ‘rich.’  The people are praying – a whole multitude of them – while Zacharias is doing his duties in the temple.  Thought is being prepared.  Then an angel appears to Zacharias with the good news that Elisabeth will conceive a very special child who shall be called John.

Now here is an amazing thing: I had never equated prophecy with angels before reading, pondering, and writing for this blog!  Sometimes it takes 50 years for the penny to drop!  But yesterday, it did.  How thrilling it is when something like this happens!

Once one understands, it is possible to go to Science and Health for confirmation.  For example

·       In the Glossary, we find definitions of ‘angels’ and ‘prophet’, definitions which we have because Mary Baker Eddy was a prophet who listened to God and passed on His angel messages in her incomparable book:

“ANGELS.  God’s thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality.” (p. 581)

PROPHET.  A spiritual seer; disappearance of material sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth.

·       In Science and Health we can study other references to angels, for instance: On pages 298 and 299 we have two longish paragraphs which gives us the divinely scientific explanation of what angels are – “Angels are not etherealised human beings...Angels are pure thoughts from God…Angels are God’s representatives.”