Can a mother’s son be her father?

Can a mother’s son be her father?

Read Luke 1:26-38

How many features of the person and mission of the promised child can be discerned in the words of the angel? Make a list of them.

Whenever you are doing a Bible study and you get a question like this, seemingly simple to put on paper. “Just a list? I can do that…” But then ask yourself, why this list? What does it mean? Is there a pattern to the list at all? Here is the list from the reading:

Son of Mary

Name him Jesus

He will be great

Son of the most high

Give him throne of father David

Reign over house of Jacob

Kingdom will never end

Holy

Son of God

So I made a list. I can be done. I can feel like I did something. That is all true, but like all things involved with God, there can be so much more if you are willing to “dig deeper.”

So let’s dig deeper… when I look at the list I see a pattern develop. He is the son of:

Mary

Most high

David

Jacob

God.

This list is book ended by Mary (human) and God (deity). Is this stating that Jesus will be both man and God? Next I see that he will be the son of David, then the son of Jacob. These are out of chronological order. What does this signify? Jesus is outside of time? (It does not say literally that he is Jacob’s son, but it does say that he will reign over his house. This is the honor of the first son, so it is implied.)

What else is in the list? He is great, He will be a ruler, and He will be holy. Webster states that holy is:

1 : exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness
2 : divine
3 : devoted entirely to the deity or the work of the deity .

If you read over the verses fast, this word “holy” can get missed for all its meaning. Another observation is that all these items on the list appear to be interlinked by Jesus signifying that he is the “glue” that holds everything together.

You can read these few verses and think it is a quick explanation of how Jesus cam to be, or you can read over these verses and see that they state many attributes about Jesus, his character, some of his purpose, his position, and nature. This could have been added: You will have a son. He will be both human and God. (Omniscient) He will defy time, (omnipresent), He is both your descendent and your father. He will rule the world, and he will by Holy, or worthy of God.

These are just a few things I was able to pull from this list. What else is there?

chrisv@goodfaithappraisals.net

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