The Circumstances Leading Up to Jesus Christ's Birth

By way of introduction to this clash, you might reflect back on the Kingdom of God Bible Seminar that we had about a month ago. The first of those two messages focused on how, when Jesus Christ came on the scene, conditions had come to pass as part of a plan God had been formulating for a very long time for the appearance of the Messiah. God's plan was starting to fall in place at that time, and the time was finally right for the many prophecies that related to the coming King of the Kingdom, Jesus Christ, and for the message of the Gospel to begin to be spread with the world.

Just a slight review in that by way of review. The Roman Empire, even though the Jews hated it, had brought a number of benefits to that part of the world. It had established peace throughout the Mediterranean region, a peace that would enable the Church to begin and to grow and for the Gospel to spread.

Some other aspects of that, the Romans established a highway system, pretty much like today's interstate highway in the United States. This enabled people to travel relatively quickly and relatively safely, as we see reflected in the Gospels and in the books of the New Testament as well. The Romans also cleared the Mediterranean Sea of the pirates that had infested it for centuries. This would enable the Apostle Paul and others to travel by sea around the Mediterranean, which we also see reflected in the book of Acts. This also enabled the spreading of the Gospel at that time. The Romans also established a mail system. As a result, a byproduct of that system, we have the Gospels and we have the letters that form the books of the New Testament, the personal letters and letters to congregations that Paul and some others wrote that were distributed using the Roman mail system there.

One other factor is the Greek language that was spoken widely throughout the Roman Empire that enabled the Gospel to be spread in a common language so that wherever the Apostles went, there would always be at least a number of people there who knew and understood Greek. Consequently, they could communicate and spread the Gospel in that way.

That is also the language that gave us and preserved the books of the New Testament for us today as well. So a lot of pieces had to fall in place for the coming, for the arrival of the Messiah, and had to come to pass. It wasn't just a random time in history that all of this took place.

It had to wait for the conditions to be right. As we talked about in the last class with the birth of the announcement to Zechariah and Elizabeth of the coming birth of John the Baptist, God is now—conditions are right, and He is beginning to put in place the next parts of His plan for mankind. We talked about God being a God of planning, of purpose, of perfection in everything that He does.

We talked about the timing of the conditions and how God used a system that had been in place for a thousand to close to fifteen hundred years to work out the timing for this announcement to be made to Zechariah and Elizabeth of the coming of John the Baptist. And now, as we begin today's study, the time is right for the next phase of God's plan, and that's where we'll be beginning today. So let's talk a little bit about Nazareth, where the events we cover today take place. This is where our story begins, and this will be the town where Jesus Christ will grow up.

Nazareth—you can see this reflected on the map on the back of your harmony—but Nazareth, we have the Sea of Galilee over here, and Nazareth is about 15 miles approximately west, slightly southwest of the Sea of Galilee. This is an artist's conception of what Nazareth would have looked like in the first century.

Nazareth was a fairly small, out-of-the-way village population, no more than a few hundred maximum. Nazareth wasn't anything to write home about. Even it looked about this size here in the first century, even as late as around 1880. It was still a fairly small village.

This is a painting done by the famous British painter David Roberts of how Nazareth looked around 1880. Still a fairly small village, not much bigger than it had been almost 2,000 years earlier. Even around the turn of the century, around 1900, here's a photograph of Nazareth, as it looked at that time. Still fairly small, perhaps a thousand or two population. Today it looks very different. If you've gone there, you'll see it's quite a large city. I don't recall the exact population, probably around 100,000 today. So all of this is just covered up by city today.

But it does show that time moves rather slowly in that part of the world. So Nazareth, again, was kind of a backwater town where nothing important seemed to ever happen in that day and age. You might remember the comment of even one of Jesus' disciples, Nathaniel. Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Show something of the reputation that the town had at that time. Just backwater plays out of the way.

Not much ever happened there. So what does the name Nazareth mean? I gave that as one of the study questions that I sent out last night. Anybody find an answer to that? What does the word Nazareth mean? I won't ask how many looked for it, but did you find anything? Yes, Aaron.

Branch. Yes, branch. Very, very good. What source did you look at, by the way?

Smith's Bible. Okay, good. Good. Good. Because I didn't think to look at that one. I looked at a number of other sources and a few different ideas. Most of them said origin unknown. They don't know what it means. But, yes, Aaron is right. It does mean branch. Does that remind you of any prophecy of the Bible? Any prophecy about a branch? Anything come to mind? Let's turn over to Isaiah 11 and verse 1. Famous prophecy of the Messiah. Notice what it says here. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, Jesse being the father of David, of course, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. A branch being capitalized, meaning it's recognized here as a prophecy of the Messiah.

And branch, as Aaron noted, comes from the Hebrew word netzer, which means branch, shoot, sprout, something like that. Nazareth comes from this word branch. Netzer would have been in Hebrew, a netzerith, translated into Greek as Nazareth. So what is interesting about this is, and you see this kind of thing playing out again and again in the Gospels, that Jesus, the prophesied branch, would grow up in a place called in English, we would call it Branchtown, or Branchville, or something like that. Jesus is the branch, and he comes from Branchtown. It's just the way God works things out. Again, God is a God of great planning and perfection and everything that he does.

So this is where our story begins today in this little out-of-the-way place called Branchtown, or Branchville, at that point. So it began our story, we'll pick it up here, beginning in Luke 1, and verse 26, we'll hopefully cover through verse 56 today. Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, Netzeroth, the Branchtown. This is the same angel Gabriel who, as we covered in the last class, had appeared to Zechariah in the temple, who told Zechariah that he and his elderly wife Elizabeth would give birth to the one who would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord, the one who would be John the Baptist. Now when this refers to the sixth month, it isn't referring to the sixth month of the year, it's referring to the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, which we see down just a few verses in verse 36, where Gabriel tells Mary, 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. So the sixth month is a reference to the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy here. Again, Luke, as we talked about in the introduction to Luke, gives a lot of detail, a lot of background on things in what he writes.

So continuing here, Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

Again, when we covered the genealogies, we covered how Jesus is a descendant of David and Abraham and various others on both Mary's side and Joseph's side. The virgin's name was Mary, or in Hebrew, Mariam, a name for the sister of Moses and Aaron. Mariam was one of the great heroes for women throughout biblical times. Mary is the most common name found in the Gospels, the most common name for Jewish women at that time. That's why we have six different Marys that we encounter, mentioned in the New Testament. Now it says she was betrothed to a man. Now in that time, talked briefly about betrothed. Betrothed period commonly lasted about a year in that age. It wasn't technically a marriage because the marriage had not been consummated yet. However, it was a binding legal agreement. I've covered that in a sermon several years ago about the wedding customs of that day. It was a binding legal agreement. A dowry had been paid or committed to, and if anything happened during that betrothed period, the only way that agreement could be broken was by a legal divorce. That's how serious the issue was. Even though they had not been technically married or consummated the marriage yet, it had to be broken by a divorce. I might also mention, let's see, I don't remember if I covered this here in Denver last time, but in the culture of that time, men would typically marry at about age 20 after they had learned a trade, usually from their father or perhaps from an uncle or someone like that. After they had been grounded, they had received a thorough study of the Hebrew Scriptures, the books of the Old Testament, and were able then to support and teach a wife and family. Girls typically married at about age 13 in that day and age. Again, I'm not recommending this. I'm just giving this for information purposes. That's about the way it was. Once they began menstruating, they could become mothers and, let's see again, I think I mentioned this last time, what's the first command in the Bible?

Be fruitful and multiply. So as soon as a girl could become a mother, she was expected to start fulfilling that command and be married and become a mother and have lots of children there.

Also, I might mention, most marriages were arranged in that day and age as well. And that's, even to this day, that's typically the way it's done in much of the Middle East. I won't say the same for Israel, but certainly in the Middle East. That is quite common, even to this day.

So the angel, Gabriel, appears to marry and, picking up, continuing in our story here, and having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women. And Mary was indeed highly favored. I've read in my research that it was basically the dream of every Israelite woman to give birth to the Messiah.

It was something every woman looked forward to. Will I be the one? And lo and behold, the angel, Gabriel, appears to marry and tells her, Yes, she is the one. Verse 29, continuing, but when she saw him, she was troubled at his thing and considered what manner of greeting this was. So basically, Mary has the same reaction Zechariah had that we talked about last time there, when Gabriel appeared to him. They both, as it says, they were troubled when this happened, which basically means greatly upset, filled with fear, agitated, and so on. Here's a depiction of how that might have looked here from a movie that was done several years ago. Actually, quite a good movie about these events, in my opinion, there. So you might think of some of the reactions that other people had when angels appeared to them in the Bible. You find people who fainted dead away. You found people who were terrified, some who fell down on their faces in worship of the angels. That sort of thing. And I think part of this is really, what is an angelic appearance? To put it in science fiction terms, it's like a tear in the space-time continuum, where an individual from another universe suddenly appears before you. And reading through the Bible, you get the impression there's a great deal of power and energy that is associated with that.

And people even sometimes, when they don't see the angelic manifestation, they still know something is going on that is supernatural there. And because of that, I think it does terrify people, scares people to be in this presence of a being from another dimension, another universe. You might say the spirit universe. And again, what has happened with Zechariah? What's the first thing that comes out of Gabriel's mouth? He says, Do not be afraid! Same exact thing he told Zechariah, don't be afraid here.

I'm here to share good news, glad tidings with you here. So the angel says, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And Gabriel encourages and comforts Mary, first thing there. And then he says, And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. Or in Hebrew, Yeshua, or Yeshua. We talked about that earlier in one of the background sermons for the Gospels about the meaning of the words Jesus Christ, and how Jesus, or Joshua, as we would pronounce it today, or Yeshua, as we would pronounce it in Hebrew, means God saves. God saves is the meaning of that. So the angel tells Mary that she will bear a son, and his son shall be named God saves.

So also Christ, to mention that briefly, it's the Greek word Christos, the equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means the anointed one. And in an earlier sermon we talked about the purposes of anointing there, and the significance of that. Continuing in verse 32, he will be great, and will be called the son of the highest. Highest meaning God, God the highest, God the Father.

And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. And again, we mention in the genealogies how Jesus is a descendant of David and Abraham on both Mary's side and Joseph's side.

Let's see, and verse 33 here, and he will reign over the house of Jacob, or Israel, forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. I'd like to quickly take a look at a few other scriptures that tie in to this prophecy of his kingdom, of there being no end to that. You may want to write these down just for reference. Isaiah 9 and verse 7, very familiar one, of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward even forever. The zeal of the eternal of hosts will perform this. So this tells us that the kingdom of Jesus Christ is not something temporary, not something human, but something that will continue forward forever as a divine kingdom. This prophecy also tells us that he will sit on the throne of David, again as a descendant of David, as the ruler over that kingdom, and it will be a kingdom of judgment and justice and peace with no end. Of course, this is something we celebrate every year in the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles, anticipating the time when the whole world will be filled with that coming kingdom and the knowledge of God as the waters cover the seas. Another prophecy relating to this, Daniel 2 and verse 44, And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all of these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. So it will replace all of the human kingdoms and governments with a new kingdom built on a right foundation of God's truth and God's Word. And all of these prophecies are telling us what Jesus would start at His first coming and will finish complete, bring to completion at His second coming. Take a look at one more, Revelation 11 and verse 15. Another familiar passage, Then the seventh angel sounded, And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

You might think of the famous words from Handel's Messiah about that, the chorus from that, just a beautiful, magnificent piece of music that talks about that.

So continuing back here in Luke 1 and picking it up in verses 34, Then Mary said to Gabriel, the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man? So she was a young girl, not married yet, still a virgin. And the angel then tells her how she will conceive through the Holy Spirit to give birth. 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.

And here just is a bit of a side note, but we see the Holy Spirit clearly connected with the power of God, not a separate being as a part of the Trinity.

In Hebrew, it's quite common, particularly in the book of Proverbs, you'll see the same thought expressed in slightly different ways, slightly different words. That's called a couplet in Hebrew. It's very common. And we're essentially seeing the same thing here, said in two slightly different ways. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you. It's saying the same thing in two slightly different ways. So as a result of that, it's connecting the Holy Spirit, equating the Holy Spirit with the power of the highest, or of God there. So again, showing the Holy Spirit is not a separate person within the Trinity, but it's equated with the power of God. And of course, also, Jesus never refers to the Holy Spirit as His Father. He would be conceived by the Holy Spirit, but that is the power of God. He never refers to the Holy Spirit as His Father. He only talks about God the Father being His Father, as we'll see repeated again and again in the Gospels. Continuing on now, indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, the King James, his cousin. The Greek word is just somebody related by blood. It doesn't specify what that relationship is, so we don't know whether she's cousin, aunt.

Pretty sure she's not an uncle, but does say that she is a relative there.

So, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month for her who was called Baron. And we talked about Baroness last time, and what a stigma that was on Zechariah and Elizabeth. And then he says, the scripture we heard mentioned in the sermon today, or parallel with that, with God, nothing will be impossible. Or, as Dave gave it from Philippians, with God, all things are possible there, of course. So, as evidence, the angel tells Mary, as evidence, that this will come to pass. He tells Mary that her relative, Elizabeth, has conceived divinely in her old age. So, Gabriel gives Mary evidence of another miracle to show that, yes, she will miraculously conceive herself. Yes, Aaron? I had a question about the first period of life. Uh-huh. The power of the highest, the power of the universe. Yes. Is that the only time that my mind is in the universe, that the nomads and roots spread out?

Yeah. Yeah, several of the commentaries I read mention this has a, again, a tough English word, tough to translate into English precisely, but it basically means will protectively cover you, which is essentially like Boaz and Ruth there.

It has a conveying of gentleness and protection, comforting there. Again, difficult to translate, but those are some of the concepts involved in it, that it's not going to be frightening or anything like that. Just a gentle, caring miracle will take place is what is connoted in those verses.

Isn't there something in Isaiah about the eagle wings?

Yes, yes. I think there's a reference to covering you with eagles' wings.

Well, even Jesus uses the terminology of the inhabitants of Jerusalem gathering you like a hen or a mother bird gathers its chicks and protects them under his wings. Yeah, same type of connotations used in there. Yes, Dave?

Looks like verse 36 of Elizabeth was a parent.

Yes, she was royalty. Yes, true.

Yes, she was indeed.

Okay, let's see here. Yes, so yes, Gabriel tells Mary that with God nothing will be impossible there. So in other words, if God says that it's going to happen. And again, he offers his proof of that, that Elizabeth has conceived. This might also be a good time to discuss the timing of the conception and birth of John the Baptist and of Jesus, as indicated by the course of a bio. We talked about that concept briefly last time. Go through this fairly quickly here. As we saw in the last class, the priest Zechariah was of the course of a bio. The eighth of the priest's courses that began at the conclusion of the right after the Feast of Tabernacles and the last day. And then the following week is when the first course would serve. And continuing on through the 24 courses, they would rotate through the 24 courses and repeat twice a year with all of the courses serving at the three pilgrimage festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles there. So that year is calculated in the companion Bible. You can refer to that.

He has come up with the dates of the course of a bios serving in that year, the equivalent of our June 13th through the 19th from Sabbath to Sabbath and December 6th through the 12th there. So assuming that Elizabeth conceived shortly after Zechariah returned to his home, he would have had to walk home, which would take at least a day or two, probably live somewhere nearby Jerusalem in the hill country of Judea. We don't know exactly where that's not spelled out for us there. But at their age, frankly, they couldn't wait around too long if they're going to conceive. So let's just assume that for the sake of argument that John is likely conceived around June 23rd, 25th, somewhere along in there the week after he returns home to his wife Elizabeth. So from what we read here in Luke 1 and verse 36, Elizabeth is in her sixth month of pregnancy when Gabriel appears to marry. So six months from June 23rd, 25th would be probably late December, 20-something of December there for when Mary is told that she will conceive as well. So if you count down then nine months of pregnancy from late December, then we come to the conclusion that nine months from late December is going to be late September, early October, which of course falls right during the autumn Holy Days there. And of course, what takes place then? The Feast of Tabernacles, Day of Atonement, Feast of Trumpets, and the Eighth Day, and so on. Luke's account isn't specific enough to tell us the exact day, but the evidence with this evidence and the fact that Bethlehem is packed with people at the time of Jesus's birth, it's pretty obvious that the birth would have taken place during the fall Holy Days season there when everyone is traveling to Jerusalem for the Feast as they were commanded. So I think you could make a good argument for Jesus being born either on the Feast of Trumpets or the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Why those two? Well, think about it. What does the Feast of Trumpets symbolize? Symbolizes the return of Jesus Christ at the seventh trumpet. So it would be perfectly consistent for God to, if Jesus is going to return on the Feast of Trumpets in His second coming, it would be perfectly logical for Him to be born to come into the world the first time on the Feast of Trumpets in the year that He was born. Can't prove that, but it certainly makes sense. Yes, Dave? I was really interested in the analogy, thinking about the first initial trumpet being, you know, the symbolizing that is really amazing. Sure. And what would have happened on the Feast of Trumpets in Jerusalem at the Temple? It would have been blowing the trumpets in Bethlehem about six miles south of Jerusalem. The Messiah could have been coming into the world at that time on that specific day. You could also make a good argument for Him being born on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, because what does the Feast of Tabernacles represent?

It represents Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah coming to earth to dwell among mankind. So the typology is perfect for either of those. I might also refer you to a scripture, John 1 and verse 14.

It says, this is talking about, well, it won't get into the background, but this is part of John's first chapter, talking about Jesus being physically born and coming into the world. And he says in verse 14, And the Word, the Logos, Jesus the Christ, was made flesh and dwelt among us.

And this word translated dwelt literally means lived in a tent or tabernacle.

If you used it as a verb form, it would say, Jesus came and tabernacled among us.

So is John drawing a connection between Jesus's birth and the Feast of Tabernacles?

We don't know for sure, but it's a very interesting choice of words. It doesn't say the way we would say it. If it weren't the case, we would say the word was born as a human being, and he lived among us. John doesn't say that. He says the word was made flesh, and he lived in a tent, or he tinted, or he tabernacled among us. Very interesting choice of words there. So again, I could think you could make a pretty strong argument that he would have been born on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles as well. And various commentators pick up on this and connect it with the Feast of Tabernacles. Again, there's no way to know for sure. We'll find out one of these days, hopefully before too long. But again, I think you can make a good argument for either of those being the date of the birth of Jesus Christ. And of course, it's equally obvious from going through these passages that he was born nowhere near December 25th. That day we'll cover that a little bit more when we get into the census and the shepherds tending the sheep outdoors at night, and so on. So any questions about any of that clear enough there for everyone? Okay, we'll continue on with the story then in Luke 38. And let's focus in on Mary's reaction here as it's revealed to us. Then Mary said to Gabriel, Behold the made servant of the Lord, or as it might be translated, I am the Lord's servant, is essentially what she's saying there. Let it be to me according to your word. Or in other words, yeah, Gabriel, whatever you say. I'm your servant. I'm God's servant. That's fine with me. And the angel Gabriel departed from her. And now we see again an indication why there wasn't much of a time lag that took place between these events. Verse 39, Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country, the hill country of Judea, somewhere probably not too far from Jerusalem, with haste.

So in other words, you didn't wait around after these, after Gabriel had appeared to her. So there's not much of a time lag at all. To a city of Judah and entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. So we do see here that in Elizabeth, where John is six months along in his development there, that there's actually a physical reaction there, that the unborn baby leaps, as it says here in Elizabeth's womb, recognizing the presence of Jesus in the womb of Mary. There, quite a remarkable story there. And continuing on, and we'll come back and pick up on a few things here in a moment, then Elizabeth spoke out with a loud voice and said, Blessed are you, Mary, among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, referring to Mary, who believed, Gabriel. For there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord. So she recognizes this is a divine message, and she is carrying the Messiah. So here's an artist's conception of that, that captures the joy, the mutual joy, between these two ladies who are related. Mary now expecting her baby, and Elizabeth rejoicing that Mary, her relative, is going to give birth to the Messiah here. So I might just mention here, what do these episodes do or teach us about the unborn and about the issue of abortion? It does clearly show that God considers the unborn as alive and having their own separate consciousness, apart from their mothers, within the womb, here with John and Jesus, both of them. God also talks elsewhere calling people from the womb. There, as we read last time, John the Baptist was to have the Holy Spirit from the womb. I don't know if that is within the womb or from the moment of his birth. It's unclear there. But it does show that God considers the unborn to be conscious individuals with a life and thinking, even apart from their mothers, within the womb. So obviously, if you carry that logic through, then abortion is nothing more than the murder of human beings within the womb. Yes, Aaron, you look like you've got a comment or question there. Well, the fact that Elizabeth doesn't seem surprised that she's a virgin, right, Elizabeth's not shocked at all. I find that she's not surprised at all. And everybody else has problems with this.

Right. Right. Yeah, it's obviously, as I talked about last time, it obviously would have taken Zachary Elizabeth a while to process what is going on. And boy, Elizabeth is having a miracle. She's got a miracle growing inside her. So she clearly knows that with God nothing is impossible there. So she's a living, breathing example of sterling faith there and isn't surprised at all by this.

Don't know. Don't know. It doesn't specify there. Just so she was filled with the Spirit, whether it remained in her, we don't know. There is reference to other individuals in, for lack of a better term, Old Testament times before Acts 1, who had God's Spirit. Individuals who prophesied there, who did not receive the Spirit in the way that we receive it in our age there. So we just don't know. We can think and speculate about it, but just don't know. Not enough information there.

Notice a couple of other things briefly in this passage here. Turn back to the scriptural reference, verse 38. Notice Mary's attitude here, how humble and how completely submissive it is. She says, Behold, I am the maidservant of God. Whatever you tell me is fine. Let it be according to your word, just a completely humble and submissive attitude. And again, Mary is probably about 13 years old when this takes place. So she's quite a mature and quite a remarkable young lady there. Again, as we noted in verse 39, this does show that these events took place quickly after that. So there wasn't weeks or months that passed before she conceived by the Holy Spirit. So again, I'd help support the time frame that we talked about earlier. Yes, Dave? I think it's interesting that Elizabeth leads so much in what God has done to miracle. Well, he can see the results of that. She wasn't on the clean ground, so I wanted to realize that miracles have happened in the early years. Yes, precisely. I find it interesting, too. What was Zechariah's initial reaction to Gabriel? Did he believe him? Did he not believe him? He didn't believe him. Gabriel had to perform a miracle and make Zechariah mute and deaf for nine months. Gabriel had to give Zechariah that miracle before Zechariah believed.

Elizabeth and Mary, though, have no problem. They totally accept it, totally believe what the angel tells them. So it's rather interesting between the men and the women there.

And again, yes, Faye?

Exactly. Yeah, very much so. The way the education system worked at that time, I think I've mentioned this here. I sometimes forget what I've talked about in Loveland and Springs as opposed to here. But yeah, the education system at that time, their school, they did have school in the little villages and towns, and Nazareth would have done this as well.

The school was a couple of rooms attached to the local synagogue. And they've excavated all kinds of synagogues throughout Israel. And they see these large rooms next door to them. And those were the schools of the day. And what the students would do, the young boys and girls would go, and they would learn Torah at the feet of the rabbi or the designated teacher. And they would go through scripture after scripture after scripture, scripture memorization. And we'll see that reflected in just a minute here when we get to the next section. So that's why I mentioned the men, the boys in particular, would have been very well grounded in scripture. That's why it took them longer. They're slower learners, you might say. By age 20, they would have to learn a trade to support a family, to build a house for the family, for the bride to live in, and be able to prove that he could support them, and to have worked up a dowry to pay for the bride price for the girl he was going to marry. And the girls would not have had as extensive a background in scripture. They wouldn't have tried to memorize the entirety of the Old Testament, as boys were, as it was hoped the boys would do. Very few would have made it. So yes, that was the schooling. And then they also would have learned the boys a trade from their father, or an uncle, or cousin, or something like that. Usually the father, which is why Jesus would have become a tecton, like his father Joseph, a builder, a contractor, you might say.

And the girls would have learned all the skills for motherhood, cooking, and fieldwork, and sewing, and weaving, and all of these skills. So yes, they would have been much better prepared for marriage and their role in life, even as young as about 13. Yes, Tony? You explained that marriage would be about 13, and Elizabeth was well advanced in her age.

I kind of feel that it's as close to that. I was thinking about this as old, with the older women. Right. Right. And that didn't happen. I'll get you. For all 15, that's what was going on.

She was learning. I'm learning that. And then, I can speak very well with the Bible, with both, especially with Elizabeth, and the marriage of others. Mm-hmm. Yeah, who knows? Considering that age difference, she obviously knew Mary from a child, and may have been her babysitter, been her favorite cousin, or aunt, or great-aunt, or whatever it was. And yeah, more or less took Mary under her wing. Incidentally, it's not spelled out how long Mary stayed here, but apparently it's a couple of months. It's not like she comes and shows up for the weekend and then goes back home. There. Is it okay? Yeah, does it? Okay. Yeah, I skipped over that there. Yeah, so, yeah, three months. So, she would have stayed right up to the point, or possibly even after Elizabeth gives birth to John before she returns back to Nazareth. Yes, Dave? I think it's interesting back in verse 24, not to fall on this too long, but maybe Mary knew a month after Elizabeth conceived and had this in her mind because instead of here, Elizabeth conceived and she did herself five months. So, maybe by the way, that there was something more to identify. True. True. Yeah, let's see. Let me think about the timing here. Yes, so, well, we'll consider that, yeah, clearly, Mary would have known about that. If nothing else, they would, all the families would have gone to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles.

If Elizabeth conceives in June, then yes, you got July, August, September, October, somewhere in the third, fourth month or so. Obviously, Elizabeth is going to share this news or the other family members are going to learn about it at the Feast of Tabernacles, if not before then.

And it's a miracle, too. So, yes, word of this is going to spread very much throughout the family. So, Mary would have been very much aware that Elizabeth is carrying this miraculous baby there, too. Yeah, a lot of human interest stories. I also mentioned in the background that Luke includes a lot of human interest stories in there. Talks about women and children, which the other gospel writers pretty much totally omit here. It's interesting, too. One of the study questions I ask is, where did Luke get his information about this? When is Luke writing? Luke's writing approximately 60 AD. Is Elizabeth still around 60 years later? No, she's long gone from the scene. So, were the other apostles around 30 years before Jesus began preaching? No. So, the obvious source of Luke's information is from Mary herself.

She's probably still alive at this point. Let's see. She would have been 60 AD, probably 75-ish, something like that, 75 to 80 years old there. Possibly Luke would have learned it from some of Jesus' stepbrothers or stepsisters if Mary had already passed away by then. We don't know, but obviously the original source of this information was directly from Mary herself. So, a lot of interesting possibilities there to think about it in human levels, because these events did happen. And how did they happen? How did it get transmitted to us today? So, continuing the story here, let's see. Oh yeah, one other thing I was going to mention just very briefly here. A little bit about the role of Mary in Catholicism. Do we have any former Catholics here? Ah, yes, okay. Well, you can probably tell us a lot about this. But, yeah, in Catholicism, Mary herself is viewed as having been immaculately conceived, not just Jesus.

So, you know, we think of the Immaculate Conception as Jesus, which we get from Scripture, but in Catholicism, they believe Mary was herself immaculately conceived. They also believe she was a perpetual virgin. She was a virgin when she conceived, which is true with Scripture. She was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus. She remained a perpetual virgin after that, which is conflicted by the Scriptures, because we read in the Gospels of Jesus, where Mary had at least four other sons that are named in Scripture, and daughters, plural, so she had at least two daughters as well. So, she wasn't a perpetual virgin there. They also view Mary as the intercessor instead of Jesus in Catholicism. Mary is the intercessor. That's why you say you're Hail Mary's. Hail Mary, full of grace, and so on, rather than Jesus being the intercessor there. So, that might be worth a whole sermon at some point. People are interested in that. I've got a book at home that has a lot of material about that. So, if you're interested in that, let me know. I may give a sermon on that subject at some point. Next in the story, we come to what is called the Magnificat of Mary in verses 46 through 56. You might call it a prayer. You might call it a spontaneous outburst of praise to God because of these events. But, regardless of how you view it, what it does show is Mary is very well versed in Scripture. These are the thoughts that are in her mind, reflecting on what she has been told by the angel Gabriel here. So, let's just go through these fairly quickly here. You won't have time to write down all of the Scriptures, but what she's doing is just siding off Scripture after Scripture after Scripture. She hasn't just made up all of this in her head on the moment. She's siding and paraphrasing Scriptures. We'll go through this in verse 46. Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord. She's quoting or paraphrasing from 1 Samuel 2 and verse 1, parallel with Hannah, who gives birth to Samuel after a long period. And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoices in the Eternal. Also, Psalm 34 and verse 2, My soul shall make its boast in the Eternal. So, Mary is just paraphrasing or reciting these.

Next verse, 47, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. She's probably quoting here from Psalm 35 verse 9. And my soul shall be joyful in the Eternal. It shall rejoice in his salvation.

And Habakkuk 3 and verse 18, Yet I will rejoice in the Eternal. I will joy in the God of my salvation. 48 For he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. And quoting here from Psalm 138 verse 6, Though the Eternal is on high, yet he regards the lowly. Verse 49, For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And she's quoting partially here from Psalm 111 verse 9, Holy and awesome is his name. And verse 50, And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. Quoting from Psalm 103 verse 17, But the mercy of the Eternal is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children.

And verse 51, He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud and the imagination of their hearts. And Psalm 98.1, O sing to the Eternal a new song.

We have this in our hymnal, or our previous hymnal, at least. For he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gained him the victory. Verse 52, He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. Probably quoting Job 5 and verse 11, He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

And probably also thinking about Daniel 5 and verse 21, about Nebuchadnezzar's example, where it says, He was driven from the sons of men. His heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys, and so on, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses. So what we're seeing here is a young girl who is very, very knowledgeable of Scripture. She's quoting from Daniel and Job and Habakkuk and the Psalms and all of this, just a very remarkable young lady here.

Continuing, verse 53, He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. And quoting from Psalm 107, verse 9, for He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.

And verses 54 and 55, He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.

She's referring here to Genesis 17 and verse 7, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you.

And prophecy of Abraham's descendants. And probably also referring to Psalm 132.11, the Eternal is sworn in truth to David, He will not turn from it, I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body. And finally, in verse 56, and Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and returned to her house, as we covered earlier there. So that's where we'll wrap it up today. Any questions on any of this? Okay, we'll pick it up with the rest of the story next time.