We are just two days away from Christmas and I’ve truly been filled with awe this Advent season, increasingly grateful for the birth of the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes but even moreso in the God that orchestrated it all. I think sometimes as Christians, we take for granted the things we know to such an extent that we can miss the opportunity for God to reveal something new to us in the familiar. I’ll speak for myself. I know that Christ was born to the virgin Mary and Joseph and John the Baptist, the cousin and forerunner of Jesus Christ was born to Mary’s elder cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zecharias. I know how miraculous each of these births are but this Advent season, my eyes have been opened so much wider to the miracle that is the birth of Christ, but also the intentional and perfect will of God!
A couple weeks ago, my father taught a Sunday school lesson about the songs of Mary and Zecharias. He discussed how Mary’s song praises God for the honor it is to carry the Savior the world and the way God tips the scales, raising those of low esteem by the world’s standards to high esteem and resists the proud (Luke 1:46-55) and Zecharias’ song, which comes after being silenced for nine months, praises God and prophesies of the coming of the Messiah and deliverance of Israel (Luke 1:67-79). When Gabriel first comes to tell Mary of her fate, that she will bear a child that will save all, including herself, she asks one question, “how can this be since I’m a virgin,” and ultimately, receives the will of God with great faith, which is a beautiful witness, especially because she is quite young herself. But it all began to come into greater focus when my father pointed out that Mary’s song, known as the Magnificat, is evidence of the fact that she knew her Bible, she knew of those who came before her and how her response mirrors Hannah, a favorite of mine, who is the mother of Samuel who was barren until she made a promise to God. She cries out to God and promises that if He blesses her with a child, “then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head,” (1 Samuel 1:11). God answers her prayer and in response, she says, “My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, Mine horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation” (1 Samuel 2:1). Mary’s song begins a similar way,
“And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed” (Luke 1:46-47).
The prayers of Hannah and Mary both celebrate this miraculous thing God has done but also, praise Him for raising them up for His glory! My father pointed out that Mary could have faith in this miraculous birth she was to have because she knew her Bible and she knew her God.
She knew that not only had he performed miracles before but He performed miraculous births before beginning with the father of our faith – Abraham and his wife Elizabeth who begat Isaac after being barren for many years. And I forgot that quickly and took for granted – that all of these great people of faith were not only connected, but the Old Testament, in its entirety, foreshadows the birth of Christ and that might’ve been obvious but once I really began to investigate and dig deeper, I couldn’t help but rejoice! Each person, miracle, event prepared the way for His coming!
I’d like to go back to Hannah for a moment and take it a step further. Hannah gives birth to Samuel and fulfilling the promise she made to God, she returns Samuel to God and He becomes a prophet and priest and the anointer of King David. Focusing on the prophet and priest part, who becomes our prophet and priest? Jesus Christ, so Samuel is what we call a Christ-type, a man of faith who foreshadows Jesus Christ who is not only our Prophet and Priest, but our King! And it is Samuel who God sends to Jesse’s house to anoint David the next king of Israel, which is pivotal in the life of Christ because Christ comes through the line of David! So, Hannah didn’t just give birth to a son, but a son who is priest and prophet and facilitates the will of God, but a son who not only anointed Israel’s greatest king who united the tribes of Israel but an ancestor of Christ himself!
Speaking of David, I’d like to bring two of his ancestors as well. Firstly, Rahab, who was a prostitute who hides the Israelite spies Caleb and Pinchas in her home when the king’s men come looking for them and misleads the king’s men to keep them out of harm’s way. Formerly a prostitute, she became a great woman of faith but I wondered why, in Hebrews 11:31, why the passage says, “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace,” or “David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias” (Matthew 1:6) I knew it was written like that for a reason but it wasn’t a reason I could discern on my own. I was watching a sermon last week on this very subject and the pastor revealed it isn’t there to malign or impugn but rather, to show God’s ability to use anyone of His choice, to use, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:27, “the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” He used a woman who used her body for sex and a man who committed murder because they were more than their sins and because despite their sin, He saw their great faith and the heart they had for Him and both are in the line of Christ.
They, among so many others in the Bible, show us that none of us are too far gone and show us that not only can He save us, but He can use us for His glory if we avail ourselves to Him! David was a shepherd boy and shepherds were thought to be nothing, looked down upon by man and yet, he is anointed King out of all his brothers and the shepherds are the first people to be told of the birth of Christ (Luke 2:8-20). Again, this act of God evidenced Hannah and Mary’s words of how God raises up the low and lowering the high!
For Rahab’s great faith, she is the great-great-great grandmother of David and thus, in the line of Christ Himself! Rahab begets Boaz, who I’m sure we all know, who begets Obed, who begets Jesse, who begets David who we know is an ancestor of Christ! Please just let me make one more connection before I close. Boaz, as we know, is the husband of Ruth, a Moabite, and is in the line of David and thus Christ, for the way she looks after her mother-in-law, Naomi, and refuses to leave her side. In fierce loyalty and ultimately, faith, she tells Naomi,
“Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me” (Ruth 1:16-17).
Ruth and Naomi are both widowers as both their husbands have died, but both women are blessed by God and “the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him” (Ruth 4:14-15).
Ruth’s faith is rewarded and she becomes the great-grandmother of David. Again, you may or may not have known that but thinking about the intricacies of His salvation plan for us brings me such joy and truly blows my mind and I only connected a few dots. There are so many more that we cannot even fathom! Whenever I pray, I always pray in gratitude for provision, for that which He provides and during Advent, I am expressly grateful for the provision of His son and now, more than ever, I am grateful for the provision of His people. I am profoundly grateful for these clouds of witness, these imperfect men and women who were perfected by their faith, foreshadowed the coming of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are daily reminders that He truly does have plans to prosper us and give us an expected end (Jeremiah 29:11).
It also affirmed to me that the Bible truly does substantiate itself and everything God does has order and purpose. He is unmistakably intentional and I pray as we count down to Christmas, open our gifts and celebrate with friends and family that we not only remember that Christ is the reason we celebrate but also, never take for granted that we know the Nativity story or any story in the Bible because we do not serve a one-dimensional God! There is always more to learn, more for Him to reveal and more to glorify Him for!
