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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
“You will conceive and give birth to a son,
and you are to call Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of
the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David, and
He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel,
“since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will
come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy
one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is
going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to
conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
Luke 1:31-37
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Prophesies of old had predicted it some 700
years earlier.
God would send a sign to His people, a
virgin who would give birth to a son who would bring light to a people living
in darkness, a child who would be a Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and the Savior for all mankind.
As we saw in yesterday’s devotion, the
virgin that God had set aside to fulfill His promises was a young woman named
Mary who received word of it from the angel Gabriel who told Mary she was
highly favored because the Lord was with her. He went on to say that she would
conceive and give birth to a son who would be great and called Son of the Most
High, a son who would be named Jesus. Finally. Gabriel added that Mary’s future
son would be given the throne of David where He would reign over the people of
God forever for His kingdom would never end.
It was quite a proposition, one that Mary
had trouble grasping. For there was just one problem with what the angel had
said: Mary was still a virgin and she was engaged to be married to a man named
Joseph. This meant that she and Joseph were forbidden by law to have any sexual
relations before their marriage became official.
Was God going to give them authorization to
violate the law in order to fulfill His wishes so the baby could be conceived?
Not exactly. Because the conception that
God had in mind was not a conventional one as revealed in Gabriel’s explanation
to Mary:
“The Holy
Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So
the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
I can’t imagine how difficult this must
have been for Mary to understand. For the angel was telling her that she would
indeed become pregnant, not by any man but rather supernaturally by way of the
Holy Spirit. If this child was to be holy and God’s Son, then the impregnation
would have to come by divine means.
Now. We sense Gabriel knew it all sounded
impossible to Mary and so he shared that another miracle pregnancy would
happen, this one involving her relative Elizabeth who was old in age. Her
conception would be almost as improbable as Mary’s but as the angel reminded
Mary, no word of God would ever fail for He always keeps His promises.
And so the quandary had been created for
Mary.
If she accepted God’s proposition, she
would become pregnant outside of her engagement with Joseph. She wouldn’t be
able to hide it and people would certainly start to wonder about what had happened,
the consideration that she had become pregnant by way of the Lord being nowhere
in mind. Those who tried to figure it out would believe one of two things,
neither of which would have positive outcomes because they were direct
violations of the Jewish laws on marriage:
1. Mary had lain with another man outside
of Joseph and became pregnant as a result of the tryst.
or
2. Mary and Joseph decided to have sexual
relations before their marriage became official.
The penalties for such sinful behavior were
harsh with the death penalty a real possibility. Even if Mary was not killed,
she could be given a certificate of divorce and banished from the community,
cast away with her child still growing inside her. We know through the
scriptures that Joseph considered the latter before encountering Gabriel
himself.
So what would Mary do?
Would she agree to go ahead with God’s plan
and accept the scrutiny and public scorn it would bring?
Or would she opt out and seek to continue
her engagement to Joseph free from any complications?
We’ll find the answer in tomorrow’s
devotion.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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