A PERPLEXING PROMISE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 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 1:26-37

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

The words of the prophet Isaiah had been documented and a part of the Old Testament scriptures for 700 years before the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, a Nazarene virgin girl who was betrothed “to a man named Joseph”, a “descendant of David”, Israel’s famous and beloved king.

We know Gabriel had been a busy angel for the Lord for he had appeared to the priest Zechariah in the temple before coming to Mary, announcing that the priest and his wife Elizabeth would bear a son despite being well beyond the years of child bearing. As our scripture passage opens today, we see that Elizabeth was in her sixth month of pregnancy when Gabriel goes to Mary and proclaims:

“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Now it’s believed that the population of Nazareth during the time of Jesus was approximately about 400 people. Compare this with Jerusalem, where it’s estimated 40,000 people live, and you can see that Joseph and Mary lived in a very small community, one where a person wouldn’t necessarily expect an angel to visit.

And yet, on this day we read about in Luke’s Gospel, Gabriel did come to visit Mary who was understandably “troubled at his words” and “wondering what kind of greeting” she was receiving. I would think she could have pondered any of these questions:

Why was she so “highly favored” that the Lord would be with her?

Who was she and what could she possibly have done to earn such an honor? 

Was this really happening or am I simply dreaming?

These thoughts and more could have been racing through Mary’s mind, a mind that Gabriel worked to calm when he said this, explaining why he had come and what was going to take place:

“Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 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.”

It was a promise, a promise coming from the God Most High who had found favor with Mary, so much so that He had chosen her to bear His one and only Son. Gabriel gave Mary answers to some of the questions racing through her thoughts. He addressed the following:

1. The “what” would happen.

“You will conceive and give birth to a Son, and you are to call Him Jesus.”

and

2. The “why” it would happen.

“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.”

The “You will” in Gabriel’s proclamation tells us there is no doubt that God would do what He said He would do. He was delivering a promise and He never fails to fulfill His promises. Mary WOULD conceive, WOULD give birth to a Son, and WOULD call Him Jesus. Everything would happen just as God promised for “no word from God” had ever failed nor will ever fail.

Do we believe this today?

Do we place our full trust in every promise God has made us, fully buying into all His blessed assurances found in the scriptures?

Maybe we, like Mary, can find ourselves perplexed by a promise from God, knowing the “what” and “why” but still yearning to know the “how”. For as we go back to our passage for today, we find Mary ask Gabriel the “how” question. After all, she was engaged to be married to Joseph and the law prohibited sexual relations before the marriage was consummated. So Mary was interested in knowing how she would become pregnant and give birth to a son when she was a virgin with no plans to lay with Joseph until their honeymoon?

Again, we see that Gabriel has the answer, one that shows us that God often responds to our questions by asking us to trust Him and His supernatural power to make things happen. The scriptures show us that the angel tells 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. 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.”

While Elizabeth’s conception had occurred naturally from her sexual relations with Zechariah, Mary’s birth would be far from conventional. For she would be overshadowed and impregnated by the Holy Spirit meaning that Jesus’ birth was nothing short of miraculous as it was the only birth in the scriptures not of human production. A holy, divine Son who would be called the very Son of God needed a holy, divine conception and construction, and that’s just what God would do inside the womb of Mary.

Of interest, we find Gabriel inform Mary that her relative Elizabeth was currently pregnant and through two trimesters already. This news would have been unknown to Mary but given she would have known about Elizabeth’s age as she heard the prediction about her own future and amazing pregnancy, she would more fully appreciate the truth that there was truly nothing impossible when God was involved.

Friends, today we may know the promises of God but might not be sure of how He will make them work within our own circumstances. I pray that through the two incredible accounts of Elizabeth and Mary, we will refuse allow our faith to waver, committing to remain steadfast in trust while believing God will always carry out everything He says He will do, in His perfect time and perfect way.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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