The beginning of the fulfillment: V. 24. And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, v. 25. Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein He looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.
In His season God remembered Elisabeth and her husband. The aged wife had evidence that her prayers at last seemed about to be heard. The result of this knowledge was that she hid herself entirely, she took no part in any social intercourse. God had taken care to remove her reproach from her.
Since fruitfulness was one of the promises of God to His people, Gen. 17, 6, and since children, on this account, were considered as a. particular blessing from heaven, Ex. 23, 26; Lev. 26, 9; Ps. 127, 3, barrenness was among the Jews considered a reproach, a token of the disapprobation of the Lord, 1 Sam. 1, 6. This stigma was now about to be removed. Though the fact was not yet known, even to her intimate friends and relatives, she was aware of it, and she wanted to escape the pitying glances to which she had never become accustomed, until such a time as her hope would be beyond doubt, when no more reproach could strike her.
The Annunciation to Mary. Luke 1, 26-38.
Gabriel's visit to Nazareth: V. 26. And in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, v. 27. to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
In the sixth month after the Lord had remembered Elisabeth to carry out a part of His design and prophecy for the sake of fallen mankind, He made preparations for a still more wonderful event, by commissioning the same messenger as in the previous case, Gabriel, to serve as the bearer of another message. Luke is very careful to make all statements which are necessary to make the situation clear. Though Mary and Joseph were both of the house of David, they did not live in the city of their fathers, but in Nazareth of Galilee, a small town in the mountains southwest of the Sea of Galilee.
To a virgin by the name of Mary the angel was sent, not to a young married woman, as the critics of the virgin birth will have it. Mary was still a virgin, as she protests to the angel, v. 34. But she was engaged, or espoused, according to Jewish custom, to a man by the name of Joseph, who was also of the royal blood. The betrothal among the Jews, according to the command of God, was as binding as the consummated marriage. It was attended with many ceremonies and took place about a year before the wedding.
Simple words, but fraught with most momentous meaning! As one commentator expresses it: "At length the moment is come which is to give a Son to a virgin, a Savior to the world, a pattern to mankind, a sacrifice to sinners, a temple to the Divinity, and a new principle to the world."