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Knowing The Word in Luke 1:26-33


Birth of Jesus Foretold

1:26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from 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. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And 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 bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to 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.”


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During the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy Gabriel returned, this time to speak to Mary. She lived in the small village of Nazareth in Galilee. Greek has no word for town or village, so the ESV translates the Greek as city, but Nazareth was no city. Galilee was the unsophisticated north of Israel with poor peasant villages unlike the southern, sophisticated city of Jerusalem and the surrounding wealthier Judean countryside. Luke provides these details because his Gentile readers did not know much about Nazareth or Galilee itself.


Mary is described as a “virgin betrothed.” The term “virgin” is the key to much theology of the sinless nature of Christ. It describes her state before the conception and during her pregnancy. Her virgin pregnancy was a miracle because she had never consummated her marriage with Joseph, her betrothed. Betrothal is like our contemporary engagement period before a wedding but much more binding, since it required a divorce to end it. From the Gospel of Matthew, we learn that Joseph was a very honorable man like the Joseph of Genesis. He was one of David’s descendants, meaning Jesus comes from the lineage of David as the Old Testament promises of the Messiah. There is little more that we know about Joseph.


Gabriel addressed Mary as “one favored,” but what does this mean? It means that Mary is the recipient of God’s grace. Mary has done nothing special to deserve God’s grace. Instead she received it as a gift. She would be the mother of God the Son. Amazing! No one had contemplated such a thing. God was on the move through his Spirit and was doing something new and unexpected, and chose Mary for his purposes.

As he gave Zechariah the name John, Gabriel told Mary to name her child Jesus. The name “Jesus” is “Joshua” in Hebrew and means “The Lord is salvation.” The miracle of John’s conception to older parents pales in comparison to the conception of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, just as the ministry of John would pale compared to what Jesus would do in his kingdom that will have no end. Jesus would be great like John but set apart from all other human beings because he is the promised Messiah who comes from David’s line to reign as king over a never-ending kingdom as opposed to the temporal kingdom of Israel.


Application

In the Bible names are important, especially when God provides them. They tell about the character of the person and who they will be. When people hear your name, what is the character people associate with it? What character do you want them to know? Character takes a bit of work and determination, and yet the person who cares the most about our character is God. He sees our outside appearance but knows the reality of our character on the inside.


Prayer

Father, as you knew Mary and Joseph before the incarnation, you know us and who we are because you created us in your image: Grant that as we come to know you better as the One who gave his Son for us, that we through the Spirit will grow in his likeness and character, knowing that he indeed is our salvation.

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