The Miracle of Mary

Isaiah 7:14 KJV 1900

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, And shall call his name Immanuel.

Matthew 1:23 KJV 1900

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

‘Jesus is not a “chip off the old block”. Jesus is the “old block”.’

There are some who will argue that the word hYLMh means young lady and although sometimes is translated as virgin, the underlying meaning is a young lady of marrying age. However, if it is argued that Isaiah did no t say virgin then the N.T. narrative is furthered strengthened because there was no reason to argue for Jesus to be virgin born. There would have been no expectation of the Messiah to be born of a virgin.

Following Isaiah 7 we see that by chapter nine there is a strong understanding that this Immanuel is not a son of the king but rather someone special.

Isaiah 9:6-7

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

The Miracle of Mary is that a virgin conceived. Mary is not the focus of the story, Jesus’ Divinity is the main focus. Joseph was not Jesus father, God was the father.

However, it must be noted that this does not mean that there was a physical relation between God and Mary. A God that breathe into man the breath of life and spoke and the worlds came into existence, had only to speak and it would come to pass. God was the father of Jesus but not through physical relations but through His will.

What is the significance of the virgin birth?

The virgin birth confirms the Divinity of Jesus.

Without the virgin birth Jesus was nothing more than mortal man.

A mortal man, by Christ own message, would be unable to pay the price of atonement.

However, a child born of a virgin would require a supernatural act. If Christ was born a a virgin then the only explanation is that it was a miraculous birth.

The rest of Jesus life would confirm that He was not a normal man.

No mere human could feed 5,000 with just a couple fish and a few loaves. No human could give sight to the blind, healing to the leaper, hearing to the deaf, or life to the dead. The life of Jesus proved His virgin birth.

Why was Mary chosen?

If we look at the Genealogy of Jesus in Matthew we will notice something unique. There are four ladies mentioned in the genealogy leading up toMarry.

Their names are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah.

The fact that ladies are mentioned is somewhat special in recorded genealogies of antiquity.

Typically it was only the men mentioned.

In present day Egypt, and many Muslim countries, ladies are referred to by their sons. The mother of Randy, etc...

This is a tradition that has been preserved from historical traditions.

However, not all mothers are mentioned in this passage. These four ladies are listed for a purpose.

A stark contrast

Tamar, was abandoned but remained faithful, Rahab was a harlot who did right, Ruth was forsaken but found favor through her righteousness, Bathsheba suffered great loss but God blessed her.

All of these ladies either suffered from or were accused of immorality. Although it was false in the case of Ruth.

The Jews during the first century of the church alleged that Jesus was an illegitimate child. Matthew is displaying that even if that were the case it would not remove him from the Davidic line.

Furthermore, Matthew mentions these ladies to show the contract of Marry.

She was the opposite of these ladies and was pure.

An unknown Lady

We find very little information about Marry.

She came from Nazareth. A town of around 400 people.

Nazareth was a small town surrounded by hills with only one well as its water supply. Very little is known about this town and the only surviving thing is the well.

If you take 400 people and remove the men, we are down to 200 ladies. Then we must remove the mothers, children, and elderly, what we are left with is probably only a handful of girls that were capable prospects.

Little more is known. We do not know any details of her early life, or the life of Jospeh. However, in a town this small there would be no hiding that she was pregnant. The entire town would know.

The only information we have as to why she was chosen comes from the genealogy and from her life after Jesus was born.

She was obedient to God.

She was a faithful mother, even when facing adversity.

She loved her son to the end.

She didn’t attempt to take the light away from her son.

There is no record of Mary doing anything to supersede Jesus.

She lived for the glory of God and recognized that Jesus was that God for whom she lived.

Jesus was the savior of the world and that included Mary. We do not worship her but we can rejoice in the miracle that God performed through her life.

Mary needed faith in Jesus the same as you or I. Yet we never see that her faith wavered.

She even pointed others to follow him.

At the wedding in Canna she said, whatever he says do.

The miracle of Mary is two-fold.

A virgin would conceive. The child was God incarnate, Deity.

That God could use a human do to such a wonderful thing as to introduce the Son of God, the Savior of the world.