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Luke 1:26-28

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed[a] 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!”

The angel Gabriel is sent to Mary in the ‘sixth month’.  The preceding verses take note that Elizabeth, Mary’s relative, has remained secluded for five months after her miraculous conception as foretold by the same angel, Gabriel.  Elizabeth had not been able to conceive. Now, both she and her husband, Zechariah, are old. God, as prophesied in Isaiah 40, needed someone to ‘go before the Lord’, to ‘make ready a people prepared for the Lord’. God’s need coalesced with Zechariah and Elizabeth’s need. Zechariah prayed. God answered, in a baby named John.

Next in the timeline of events, in the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel with another message, to fulfill another need.  God had previously promised, in the third chapter of the Bible (Genesis 3:15), to send a snake crusher from the line of the woman.  He later, in Genesis 12, narrowed the promised seed to come from the line of Abraham, promising Abraham that ‘all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  In 2 Samuel 7, God narrowed the promised seed even further to come from the line of David, promising David that his ‘house and kingdom will endure forever, his throne will be established forever.’  Now, after 400 years of silence, the angel Gabriel has another highly anticipated message to deliver to a virgin named Mary, one who is ‘highly favored’ and ‘pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendent of David.’ 

As evidenced throughout the pages of scripture, God keeps his promises and continues to use some of the most unlikely of people in his global redemption plan.  As the psalmists writes of God in Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be [emphasis added] exalted among the nations, I will be [emphasis added] exalted in the earth.” 

  • What does this passage teach you about God?
  • Who are the people in this text? In light of the text, what does this teach you about people?

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