OK, lets get back into this.
Luke 1:29-38. Gabriel is still talking to Mary.
"Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be." Read this, it shows examples of Angels appearing in the Old Testament, which is what Mary thought of when she was afraid and wondering. Angels were guardians and protectors, angels were warriors, angels were messengers, angels gave good news, angels were encouragers, angels were scary (they didn't always look like the perfect images we see as angels in art, and God gave them power. Yes, I would be in fear more than I would be in awe) Angels also appear as eternally singing to God. So Mary didn't really know what to expect when she saw an angel before her. "Why is he here? Why is this happening to me? What did I do?" is probably what ran through her mind as Gabriel is making his opening speech. Which might be why he had to repeat himself in verse 30.
In verse 31, Gabriel gets down to business and says what he came to say. Some of this is pretty straight forward and self explanatory. So lets skip to the "throne of his father David" part. We know that David was the King of Israel.
Let's start quick on Saul. Saul was the first King of Israel. He was the first because God had told his people to have no other gods (meaning focuses of worship) before Him and that God is their leader. But the people felt they were at a disadvantage to other nations who had kings. Then had been conquered before, they probably feared being conquered again, so they wanted a king and Saul was chosen. (fast forward in time and summarizing) Saul disobeyed God and so God regretting putting Saul on a throne.
God sent the prophet Samuel to Jesse (David's father, who lived in Bethlehem) and told him one of Jesse's son would be the king after Saul. Samuel goes there and interviews all 7 sons. David was the youngest and smallest, but he had a good heart. God does not look at outward appearance, He looks at the heart.
You know the scene from Cinderella (yesterday is actually the 64th anniversary of that movie being released. Funny that it should come up) when the shoe is being fitted on the stepsisters and they are fighting over the shoe trying to make it fit and the grand advisor just has this awful headache. He's done for the day. He's done searching for this maiden. He just wants to go home. Imagine Samuel as the grand advisor (because as prophet, he was like an advisor to King Saul. Thank you Disney for analogies) and Samuel is tired after his journey to this little town of Bethlehem and he just wants to sit down to dinner with this nice man, Jesse. He's probably thinking, "God are you sure one of these will be king? You told me not to look at appearance and all of these guys are just... built" and just like the grand advisor asks if there are any maidens in the house to try on the slipper, Samuel asks if Jesse has anymore sons. Lady Tremaine had Cinderella locked away because she knew she was the one they were looking for. But Jesse doubts his youngest son. He doubts the plan that God has for him. But he tells Samuel of his youngest and smallest son. Sure enough, Samuel brings David back to Jerusalem.
At this point, Saul begins to have bad dreams and is "tormented by an evil spirit". I feel this tormenting was done by God because it was how He knew He would reach the man who had rejected His instructions. one of the servants calls for David because he plays the lyre (similar to a harp) and David is able to calm the bad dreams with his music and Saul likes this boy. So he sends a letter to Jesse asking if David can stay with him and be an armor-bearer (though if you get a letter from the king, you better give him permission)
Years later, after defeating the giant and becoming best friends with Jonathan (Saul's brother), David marries the king's daughter, Michal. When Saul and all of his sons are killed in battle, David is named king. David's descendants ruled the throne of Israel until Zedekiah (about 420 years) is conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. From this point for the rest of the Old Testament, the line of David does not have the throne, they aren't celebrities, and they aren't even remotely popular. It's not like a pedigree that the descendants of David walked around with.
Man, do I ramble...
Ok. "Jacob's descendants". Jacob was also given the name of Israel and Jacob was the one who had the 12 sons, each son was the leader of a tribe, hence, the 12 tribes of Israel. Notice, it doesn't say the descendants of Abraham. Abraham was the father of all nations (Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac was the father of Jacob and Esau) it said that Jesus would be king of Jacob's descendants, not Esau's descendants. You find out Esau is the father of the arabs, and therefore the father of the Islamic faith. God fully knows that Muslims have a hard time accepting Christianity because Jesus was not supposed to be their king.
"his kingdom will never end" this goes to my first post about how we were originally intended to be eternal beings. Our lives are supposed to last forever. His reign is over us always.
So now Mary's questioning the angel. Before, when angels have spoken to people that they will have children in their old age, they at least had already been married and had sex with each other first. Mary is not yet married to Joseph so she doesn't understand how she can become pregnant.
Gabriel explains that the Holy Spirit will be upon her. Think of it as spiritual insemination. Being that it is God who creates the life inside her, Jesus is called the Son of God.
To prove the power of God, he tells her that her cousin Elizabeth is pregnant for the first time in her old age.
And this is what I love. Instead of doubting the angel or laughing at his face, or anything else that anyone could've done, Mary has a peace over her. She accepts the situation and turns it into a moment of worshipping God and allowing herself to be His servant.
Stopping here and we'll get into Mary visiting Elizabeth tomorrow.
Showing posts with label The Birth of Jesus Foretold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Birth of Jesus Foretold. Show all posts
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Day 3 - Luke 1:26-28
Here we are, back again. Sorry I was MIA for a few days. I have a habit of starting things late in the day, and then I get too tired to finish them. Also, I've been a little discouraged the past few days. It's hard to calm myself enough to get into the study, which is ironic because when I do pick up my bible, I become calm.
We left off at the end of verse 25 when Gabriel had visited Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth became pregnant. Today, we will focus on Gabriel visiting Mary, and see how far we get. This passage can be found in Luke 1:26-38.
Remember before, we talked about Elizabeth going into seclusion for 5 months. So this first part of the sentence in merely stating that Gabriel came to Mary during the 6th month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, just after being in seclusion. I'm not going to go heavily into this, but because it's a fascinating read, I'm going to leave this here and let you read it. Some people obsess over when Jesus was born. Jewish knowledge and biblical passages have pointed people to an exact date. The research makes sense, but it isn't something that is of dire importance.
Why Nazareth of Galilee? I just googled for a reason myself. Was Nazareth King David's kingdom? Was Galilee a significant place for Jews? Out of all of my years being a Christian, I don't think I've ever seen so much controversy over something. Many people think this passage proves the Bible is fake because archaeologists and historians don't find a record of Nazareth until 400 years after Jesus was born.
My take on that, since when did God use famous people to act out His will? He took the smallest shepherd son and made him the greatest king (David), He took a coward and made him the leader of an army (Gideon), He took somebody who was absolutely beaten to the core by Satan and used him to sing His praises (Job), and he used someone who constantly disobeyed Him and doubted Him to go and preach to others (Jonah). I could go on. Moses had a studder, yet God used Him to lead the Jews out of slavery and walk 40 years through the desert into the promised land. If God uses "nobodies" like these to do His will, why wouldn't He use a small and unknown town (some say Nazareth, if it had existed when Jesus was born, would've only had 100-200 people. That's a small village by anyone's standards) like Nazareth to enact His plan of redemption?
Also remember, that in that time, people had been expecting the Messiah's birth because of the many prophecies, including those in the book of Isaiah. The government expected a leader, a conquerer, and an administrative king to come to the aid of the Jews and take over the world. They went around killing baby boys, hoping to kill the Messiah. God knew that the government would seek him, so He did not let it be known where Jesus would be born or where he would grow up. Erasing historical evidence sounds like protection that only God Himself could provide.
But, I think He gave a clue. Nazareth is similar to the Hebrew word for branch. In Isaiah 11:1, it says that a shoot will sprout out from the stump of Jesse, meaning that from a great family tree that had been cut down or fallen, a new life would come forth. And the branch will bear fruit. Branch = Nazareth, fruit = Jesus. Remember that Jesse was the father of David. Remember that according to Luke, Mary was a descendant of King David from his son Nathan. and Remember that according to Matthew, Joseph was a descendant of King David through his son Solomon. Legalistically, Jesus had a right to the throne.
Now that the first verse is done... In that day, and throughout time up until about 60-ish years ago, women were considered soiled, impure, unrighteous, and unworthy if they were not virgins when they were married. And up until renaissance times, women were eligible to be wed when they were 13. They were usually betrothed to a man by their parents.
Marriage has always been viewed as means of procreation. By our standards of society and life, thats hard to accept because there are so many couples out there who are unable to have children, personally I think it is a result of the artificial foods and medicine we put into our body and it passes on to a child as a "hidden birth defect". It's also hard to accept because for the longest time, society viewed marriage as finding the best person to create the best children.
Biblical times, marriage was about procreation, but more importantly about servitude to God. Many famous biblical couples were barren, but they were mentioned because they loved God and they were faithful to Him even when they went through such hardships.
Now, marriage is all about finding that one special person who loves you no matter what. No matter gender, age, religion, or whether you both agree on having children. People get married for tax reasons. People get married knowing they will get divorced in a few years, they just want to not "feel guilty" about the sex they want now. People get married because they already have a baby, not knowing if they will grow to love each other.
Do you realize how difficult it is to find a spouse for godly and biblical reasons in today's society where people view marriage for a completely different reason? But I digress.
All that being said to show that Mary was probably 13 when she bore Jesus. Nativity art depicts her as early-mid 20s, but knowing society then, she was about 13. She was the age of an 8th grader. And she was betrothed by her parents to marry Joseph (not to say that betrothals go against God's plan. remember they were both of the line of David. God planned for them to be engaged. And no matter how much you feel you regretted a marriage or wish you could leave a marriage, they are all in His plan)
The angel tells Mary that she is highly favored. Firstly, it must be pointed out that Mary is the only female mentioned to have favor in the eyes of the Lord. Here is a list of bible verses that use the word favor. All of the verses refer to a man with God's favor or like in the Psalms, seeking favor with God. Mary is the only female who is called favored. and not just favored, she is highly favored. she's not special, she's super special. She's not important, she's super important. She is highly favored.
Now, the way we use the word "favor" is very different from how people in the bible use that word. Remember that language changes over time. Which is how the bible gets misinterpreted.
Now, we use favor to say that we prefer it over something else, calling it a favorite, or we ask someone to do a favor, which is doing an action for us that we don't deserve. God wouldn't use our first meaning for favor. His love is perfect, unconditional, and across the board. As humans, we like the idea of favoritism, but God loves you as much as He loves me. And He loves us as much as He loves the person you hate the most. But our second definition of favor is more accurate to the way it is used in the Bible. Now check out this. It's an outline from a pastor's sermon on God's favor. Check out the definitions for favor: grace, charm, acceptance, goodwill, desire, to stoop in kindness to an inferior, and to be shown consideration. That is God's version of doing something for us that we don't deserve. I want to get the idea across of what is going on here.
Grace: forgiveness, mercy, kindness, love. Charm: attractiveness (He is attracted to you) Acceptance: reception and approval. Goodwill: kindness, benevolence (He has a desire to do good for you) Desire: to long for, to crave. Stoop in kindness to an inferior: He is perfection, we are imperfect and therefore inferior. He wants to be on our level instead of looking down on us. Consideration: sympathetic regard or respect. Can you believe it? God respects us! And He is sympathetic - He understands our emotions - He shares our emotions - He FEELS our emotions.
Okay, now take all of that and apply it to the angel speaking to Mary. WOW! What a feeling to be told that God favors you!
The Lord is with you. This is a reoccuring phrase in the Bible. It is reassurance that even though you can't see God, and even though we have lost our perfect communion with Him, He is always beside us, whether we know it or not, and whether we accept it or not. Think of God like you think of air. Air is always there. God is always there. You can only take away air by a man-made vacuum. Only by man-made persistence and stubbornness can we remove God from our life. But even when you don't want God in your life. He is still there.
I find a second meaning to this. Often, the Angels say to people, "Do not be afraid," and I'll get to that more when I'm focusing on other passages, but I feel like this is Gabriel's way of telling Mary to not be afraid. "Hey, I'm about to tell you something that seems impossible, but it's true. I'm going to tell you something and you will be scared, you will be looked down upon by your peers, and it will be so difficult, but do not be afraid. What I'm about to tell you is leading up to 33 years of a child you will love with all your heart, but you will have to watch Him die. Through all this, God has a plan and He is WITH you." (remember what i just went though on favor? This is reinforcing God's incomparable love for Mary)
I didn't think 3 verses would be that long. But it was a lot and it was important.
We left off at the end of verse 25 when Gabriel had visited Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth became pregnant. Today, we will focus on Gabriel visiting Mary, and see how far we get. This passage can be found in Luke 1:26-38.
Remember before, we talked about Elizabeth going into seclusion for 5 months. So this first part of the sentence in merely stating that Gabriel came to Mary during the 6th month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, just after being in seclusion. I'm not going to go heavily into this, but because it's a fascinating read, I'm going to leave this here and let you read it. Some people obsess over when Jesus was born. Jewish knowledge and biblical passages have pointed people to an exact date. The research makes sense, but it isn't something that is of dire importance.
Why Nazareth of Galilee? I just googled for a reason myself. Was Nazareth King David's kingdom? Was Galilee a significant place for Jews? Out of all of my years being a Christian, I don't think I've ever seen so much controversy over something. Many people think this passage proves the Bible is fake because archaeologists and historians don't find a record of Nazareth until 400 years after Jesus was born.
My take on that, since when did God use famous people to act out His will? He took the smallest shepherd son and made him the greatest king (David), He took a coward and made him the leader of an army (Gideon), He took somebody who was absolutely beaten to the core by Satan and used him to sing His praises (Job), and he used someone who constantly disobeyed Him and doubted Him to go and preach to others (Jonah). I could go on. Moses had a studder, yet God used Him to lead the Jews out of slavery and walk 40 years through the desert into the promised land. If God uses "nobodies" like these to do His will, why wouldn't He use a small and unknown town (some say Nazareth, if it had existed when Jesus was born, would've only had 100-200 people. That's a small village by anyone's standards) like Nazareth to enact His plan of redemption?
Also remember, that in that time, people had been expecting the Messiah's birth because of the many prophecies, including those in the book of Isaiah. The government expected a leader, a conquerer, and an administrative king to come to the aid of the Jews and take over the world. They went around killing baby boys, hoping to kill the Messiah. God knew that the government would seek him, so He did not let it be known where Jesus would be born or where he would grow up. Erasing historical evidence sounds like protection that only God Himself could provide.
But, I think He gave a clue. Nazareth is similar to the Hebrew word for branch. In Isaiah 11:1, it says that a shoot will sprout out from the stump of Jesse, meaning that from a great family tree that had been cut down or fallen, a new life would come forth. And the branch will bear fruit. Branch = Nazareth, fruit = Jesus. Remember that Jesse was the father of David. Remember that according to Luke, Mary was a descendant of King David from his son Nathan. and Remember that according to Matthew, Joseph was a descendant of King David through his son Solomon. Legalistically, Jesus had a right to the throne.
Now that the first verse is done... In that day, and throughout time up until about 60-ish years ago, women were considered soiled, impure, unrighteous, and unworthy if they were not virgins when they were married. And up until renaissance times, women were eligible to be wed when they were 13. They were usually betrothed to a man by their parents.
Marriage has always been viewed as means of procreation. By our standards of society and life, thats hard to accept because there are so many couples out there who are unable to have children, personally I think it is a result of the artificial foods and medicine we put into our body and it passes on to a child as a "hidden birth defect". It's also hard to accept because for the longest time, society viewed marriage as finding the best person to create the best children.
Biblical times, marriage was about procreation, but more importantly about servitude to God. Many famous biblical couples were barren, but they were mentioned because they loved God and they were faithful to Him even when they went through such hardships.
Now, marriage is all about finding that one special person who loves you no matter what. No matter gender, age, religion, or whether you both agree on having children. People get married for tax reasons. People get married knowing they will get divorced in a few years, they just want to not "feel guilty" about the sex they want now. People get married because they already have a baby, not knowing if they will grow to love each other.
Do you realize how difficult it is to find a spouse for godly and biblical reasons in today's society where people view marriage for a completely different reason? But I digress.
All that being said to show that Mary was probably 13 when she bore Jesus. Nativity art depicts her as early-mid 20s, but knowing society then, she was about 13. She was the age of an 8th grader. And she was betrothed by her parents to marry Joseph (not to say that betrothals go against God's plan. remember they were both of the line of David. God planned for them to be engaged. And no matter how much you feel you regretted a marriage or wish you could leave a marriage, they are all in His plan)
The angel tells Mary that she is highly favored. Firstly, it must be pointed out that Mary is the only female mentioned to have favor in the eyes of the Lord. Here is a list of bible verses that use the word favor. All of the verses refer to a man with God's favor or like in the Psalms, seeking favor with God. Mary is the only female who is called favored. and not just favored, she is highly favored. she's not special, she's super special. She's not important, she's super important. She is highly favored.
Now, the way we use the word "favor" is very different from how people in the bible use that word. Remember that language changes over time. Which is how the bible gets misinterpreted.
Now, we use favor to say that we prefer it over something else, calling it a favorite, or we ask someone to do a favor, which is doing an action for us that we don't deserve. God wouldn't use our first meaning for favor. His love is perfect, unconditional, and across the board. As humans, we like the idea of favoritism, but God loves you as much as He loves me. And He loves us as much as He loves the person you hate the most. But our second definition of favor is more accurate to the way it is used in the Bible. Now check out this. It's an outline from a pastor's sermon on God's favor. Check out the definitions for favor: grace, charm, acceptance, goodwill, desire, to stoop in kindness to an inferior, and to be shown consideration. That is God's version of doing something for us that we don't deserve. I want to get the idea across of what is going on here.
Grace: forgiveness, mercy, kindness, love. Charm: attractiveness (He is attracted to you) Acceptance: reception and approval. Goodwill: kindness, benevolence (He has a desire to do good for you) Desire: to long for, to crave. Stoop in kindness to an inferior: He is perfection, we are imperfect and therefore inferior. He wants to be on our level instead of looking down on us. Consideration: sympathetic regard or respect. Can you believe it? God respects us! And He is sympathetic - He understands our emotions - He shares our emotions - He FEELS our emotions.
Okay, now take all of that and apply it to the angel speaking to Mary. WOW! What a feeling to be told that God favors you!
The Lord is with you. This is a reoccuring phrase in the Bible. It is reassurance that even though you can't see God, and even though we have lost our perfect communion with Him, He is always beside us, whether we know it or not, and whether we accept it or not. Think of God like you think of air. Air is always there. God is always there. You can only take away air by a man-made vacuum. Only by man-made persistence and stubbornness can we remove God from our life. But even when you don't want God in your life. He is still there.
I find a second meaning to this. Often, the Angels say to people, "Do not be afraid," and I'll get to that more when I'm focusing on other passages, but I feel like this is Gabriel's way of telling Mary to not be afraid. "Hey, I'm about to tell you something that seems impossible, but it's true. I'm going to tell you something and you will be scared, you will be looked down upon by your peers, and it will be so difficult, but do not be afraid. What I'm about to tell you is leading up to 33 years of a child you will love with all your heart, but you will have to watch Him die. Through all this, God has a plan and He is WITH you." (remember what i just went though on favor? This is reinforcing God's incomparable love for Mary)
I didn't think 3 verses would be that long. But it was a lot and it was important.
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