THE VISITATION TO MARY
THE VISITATION T0 MARY
By The Angel Gabriel
November 28, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
The visitation of the angel Gabriel to Mary is God’s divine action in His divine time for the Son of God to be born of flesh (earthly) to save His people from our sins.
In a lonely village among the hills of Galilee, this ‘Sweet story of old’ begins.
The highland village of Nazareth was very much apart from the rest of the world. It would have looked much like a secluded bird’s nest. No great highway or road led to it. No din of traffic was heard in its streets. No prophet like Isaiah, or Psalmist like David, had ever spoken about it or sung about it. No battle that we know ever raged on its slopes, no blood had ever stained its thymey fields. In other cities of Galilee there were many rich men, traders, soldiers, merchants and nobles, who had splendid houses with slaves and servants to attend them.
But no proud Roman or Greek would have cared to live here. It was simply a retired country hamlet. Some of its villagers would look after flocks of goats and sheep,---others would train vines and olives to make wine and oil. Perhaps the Carpenter’s place of business was one of the few shops. The synagogue of Nazareth would have been on the highest ground available.
Yet, Nazareth became the home of the Prince of Peace. We are to pray in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The name Nazareth means, “the guarded one”. The “Nazarene” means “set apart”.
Today, Nazareth is the Arab capital in Israel.
On one of the steep and narrow streets, Joseph, a humble tradesman once dwelt. He earned his bread, just as honest working men in our country do, by the sweat of his brow.
There was a beautiful young woman of Nazareth who lived near him, and who was soon to become his wife. Her name is one familiarly known, Mary or Miriam. Among the few females mentioned in the course of Jesus’ life, no less than four of them had the name, Mary.
A great honor was in store for Mary, and for her future husband, Joseph, poor and humble as they both were.
Matthew 1:18: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on the wise…”
The Lord had set an appointed time, and a Divine messenger to announce the birth of His Son.
Gabriel was the name of the divine messenger. He is the same angel who appeared four hundred years before to the Prophet Daniel in Babylon, and informed him about the coming of “Messiah the Prince.”
The message to Daniel from Gabriel was a double prophecy: (1) The temple and wall of Jerusalem and (2) the birth of the Messiah.
Daniel 9:25: ‘Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublous time.”
We have been studying the time of dispensation and visitation of power, authority and strength given to Zerubbabel and Jeshua to build the fourth temple. This was a sovereign (time) move of God on the earth. After seventy years of exile, a remnant under Ezra and Nehemiah were sent back to Jerusalem to build the temple. Zerubbabel was appointed governor and Jeshua the high priest. Zerubbabel is named in the book of the generation of Jesus Christ (Mt. 1:12 – Zerobabel) of the generations of Joseph. A pure remnant was used to build the temple. The purpose was to prepare for the birth of the Messiah.
Daniel was in Babylon when Gabriel visited him. At the same time Zerubbabel and Jeshua were in Jerusalem. Haggai and Zechariah were positioned as prophets for this time of visitation. Esther was in Persia. The Lord had in position the people at His set time to usher in his Kingdom purposes for a sovereign visitation of the Lord upon the earth.
I will briefly mention the eight temples of the Bible. Each one is a sovereign move of God that He may dwell with; and fellowship with man:
- God in the garden---God dwelling with man.
- God in the tabernacle of Moses---“Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.” Ex. 25:8
- God in Solomon’s Temple---The glory of the Lord (His Presence-parousia) filled the house of the Lord (1 Ki. 8:11).
- God in Zerubbabel’s Temple
- Herod’s Temple --- The Bible does not give an account of this temple, but history does. Herod built the temple for the perpetuation of his name.
- God is Christ ---His name was Immanuel which means God with us.
- God in us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit --- You are the temple of God. – The visitation of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
- God with man and man with God. “We know if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Cor. 5:1)---New Jerusalem --- The glorified community of God in Heaven and earth.
Likewise, in the fullness of time,
Luke 1:26: “…the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth. To a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel came into her and said, Hail, you that are highly favored, the Lord is with you blessed are you among women…(vs. 31) You shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son and shall call His name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give to him the throne of His father David. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.”
The Lord God sent Angels as messengers and ministers throughout the history of the Jews. Angels came and spoke to Abraham in his tent door at Mamre. A band of Angels went up and down the ladder which Jacob saw in his Bethel dream. Angels appeared to Moses, Joshua, Gideon and many others. Angels still appear today and are ministers to the heirs of salvation. The ministry of Angels continues to perform the Word of God for the Kingdom purposes of God.
Mary was to be the mother of a King, One who is greater than David. He is to “sit upon a throne,” not for a lifetime only, but “forever.” His name is “The Son of the Highest,” and the Great God is His Father.
What a visitation!!! The song, “Mary did you know” barely describes such a wonder. She and Joseph both lived in lowly cottages in Nazareth. However, Mary and Joseph were not lowly. There were aware of the fact that would have made many like them very proud. They were both “of the house and lineage of David”(Lk. 2:4).
What does this mean? It means that though they had lost their worldly position and wealth---Joseph was nothing but a humble craftsman and Mary a humble maiden, yet they were descended from the royal line; they were children of a royal race. The blood of the Shepherd King of Israel flowed in their veins. Through the Blood of Jesus, we as Christians are of the same blood line.
Knowing as they did, that the coming Messiah was to be “the son of David”---“a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch growing out of his roots,”
Joseph’s ancestors read like “Who’s Who” in Matthew 1. The remnant of the remnant who returned from Babylon, had to prove the purity of their lineage. Out of the remnant, the Messiah was to be born. It was recorded in Ezra, in Nehemiah and affirmed in the Book of Matthew. Joseph and Mary were royalty. Mary was from the priestly family of Zechariah, of the course of Abia; and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
(Abia was the grandson of Solomon – 1 Ch. 3:10). Mary was heir to “Solomon in all his glory”. Solomon was also in Joseph’s genealogy.
Poverty and the lapse of time had made them exchange the grandeur of a palace for a humbler life.
The neighbors knew them as fellow-villagers. Although at the time of paying taxes, Joseph knew he had to go to Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David.
Little did anyone dream that the crown of David and the priesthood of Aaron was their splendid birth-right. Therefore, the purity of the genealogy of the Messiah as King-Priest had been secured.
Mt. 1:20: “…behold the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying Joseph, you son of David, fear not to take Mary for your wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. She shall bring forth a son, and you shall call His name JESUS; for He shall save His people from their sins.”
The Angel Gabriel further spoke to Mary about her cousin Elizabeth. Luke 1:36-38: “Behold your cousin, Elizabeth, has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. Mary said, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to your word'. And the angel departed from her.”
Zechariah and Elizabeth lived in Hebron, one of the thirteen towns which had been assigned to the Levites. Zechariah took his turn ministering in the Temple. Hebron was between eighty and a hundred miles distant from Nazareth, far off in the wild hill country of Judah.
When Mary arrived at the “house of Zechariah, and saluted Elizabeth, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. She spoke out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. What is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me’”? (Lk. 2:39-44).
Through the unction of the Holy Spirit, Mary prophesied in the words of that hymn of devotion, worthy of a seraph’s tongue.
“My soul does magnify the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden;
For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He that is mighty have done to me great things;
And holy is His name.
And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm.
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things.
And the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy.
As He spoke to our father, to Abraham, and to His seed forever.”
The Holy Spirit revealed the glory of the Son of God through His chosen witness, a handmaiden.
The world at this period was increasing in wickedness and crime. The Romans now ruled over its kingdoms. They were the mightiest nation that ever existed; mightier than Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon or Tyre. The Mediterranean Sea has been called at this time “a Roman Lake;” the cities which bordered its shores with their wealth and commerce were all in the hands of the great Caesar who swayed the Roman scepter.
The Jews, too, were not the holy people they once were, loving God and seeking to please Him. There was no longer a good King David or a righteous Hezekiah on the throne of Zion. They were more takn up with the color of the fringes of their robes and shape and breadth of their “frontlets”; about outward rites, washings and observances, than about justice, truth, purity, mercy, love to God and love to man.
For the remnant of the devout, they were crying out, Oh! when will the great Deliverer come? When will the blessed Messiah apear?
Mary was the first to be told, “He is indeed coming at last”. Hers was the first “Morning Hymn” of welcome and joy hailing the truth “Light-Bringer” “Brighter than the brightest”.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V.
I entered into the labors of John Ross MacDuff, “Brighter Than The Sun”. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those form whom I gleaned. Notes from Ezra 6 by: Carolyn Sissom – (see Bible Studies-www.eastgateministries.com).