26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!"
29 But when she saw him, she was troubled [disturbed, alarmed] at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was [I.O.W. “what could this possibly mean??”]. 30 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and shall call His name JESUS.
32 "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 "And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." 34 Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" 35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
36 "Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.
37 "For with God nothing will be impossible." 38 Then Mary said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. 39 Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that [her] babe leaped in [the] womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 "But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 "For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. 45 "Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord."
Now let’s break this down a bit and examine a few points in the text:
29 But when [Mary] saw [Gabriel], she was troubled [disturbed, alarmed] at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was [I.O.W. “what could this possibly mean??”].
Imagine if an angel suddenly appeared to you with a hand-delivered message from the LORD GOD Almighty? Angels didn’t regularly appear in those days any more than they do today, so as shocked as you would be were this to happen to you, so was she! And she couldn’t make heads or tails of this angelic message!
30 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and shall call His name JESUS.
GOD’s favor came upon this young Jewish woman of faith. Why? On GOD’s side, it’s an act purely of grace, and on Mary’s side, her humble heart, for she recognized the “lowly state of His maidservant” (vs. 48) and acknowledged that GOD will “exalt the lowly” (vs. 52).
The LORD’s parents didn’t choose His name like they did His step-brothers (Jacob, Joseph, Simon and Judah) and His step-sisters. His Name was given to Him by His Father in heaven! Names were important in biblical days, that more often than not had significant meaning for the bearer.
Abraham: “father of many nations”; Isaac: “laughter”; Jacob: “supplanter, deceiver”/Israel “prince of GOD”; David “beloved of GOD”; Cephas/Peter: “a stone” or “a small rock”.
For the child of Mary, the Son of the Father – His Name in Hebrew is Y’shua, which is a contraction of YHWH’shua which literally means, “Our GOD is our Salvation”. That was His Name, that is His mission!
32 "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
Her Son is “the Son of the Highest” which is a clear declaration of His Deity. How’s that? Just as any human father is a member of the human race, so also is their son a member. In the same way, the Father is a member of the Trinity (“Godhead”) just like the only begotten Son of the Highest is a member of the Godhead (COL 2:9).
We’re in the season of gift-giving – but no one outgives GOD the Father Who gave His Son the Name Y’shua, and He will also give His Son “the throne of His father David” as well as the Gentile nations (PSA 2:8).
Question: the throne of David – is that figurative or literal? Why then do so many so-called Bible scholars claim that this expression is only figurative, not to be taken literally?
2 SAM 7:10-13 specifically tells us that GOD is establishing His people Israel (vs. 10) and a House of David (royal lineage) that shall endure (vs. 11); the Messiah who is David’s descendent as well as GOD made flesh, and His kingdom aka the kingdom of Israel (ACTS 1:6-7), will be established “FOREVER” (vss. 12-13) with the throne of David set in the holy city of Jerusalem.
33 "And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
The LORD Jesus Christ provided ample proof that He is the Messiah-King of Israel, and that He will establish His Millennial Reign after the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (the Seven Year Tribulation; FYI, on the SBC YouTube channel you can find these two teachings I did on The Millennial Reign of Christ and Messianic Miracles).
34 Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" 35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
Gabriel visited Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist six months prior to this point and with similar news of GOD’s miraculous plans. Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth who were “well advanced in years.” (vs. 7) – nevertheless they were going to have a son!
Zacharias’s response? It seemed similar to Mary’s:
LUKE 1:18
"…How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years."
So why did the angel strike Zacharias dumb, unable to speak until John was born, but not Mary? You can tell by Gabriel’s response to their questions, their attitude.
Zacharias was struck dumb because “[he] did not believe” that they could have a son in their old age.
The way that Gabriel responds to Mary reveals that she is simply baffled about how she would conceive a child when she hadn’t had any relations with a man (she was virgin – that is, “a young maiden” AND “not yet coupled together with a man”). So Gabriel explains the procedure by which the Spirit of GOD created a body for Y’shua.
Christ fulfilled more than 300 Old Testament prophecies recorded hundreds, if not thousands of years before His birth. Such as these words from the prophet Isaiah:
ISAIAH 7:14
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call His name Immanuel.
These hundreds of prophecies, like biblical threads, form a tapestry of truth woven by the LORD presenting the portrait for us of the Son of GOD. Born with a body small enough to fit in a manger and yet He grew up as the GOD-Man with a heart big enough to hold us, His dear ones, forever and ever in His grace and truth!
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