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Luke 1:30-33 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God.  You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,  and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end.”

We must never undervalue the importance and significance of the words of the Angel Gabriel in this message to Mary.

Of all the different names used for God in the Old Testament Scriptures, ‘God Most High’ (El ‘Elyon) has a special relevance.  It was first used in Genesis 14 where we are introduced to Melchizedek, ‘Priest of God MOST HIGH”, and in Hebrews 7 we see that, due to the inherent weakness and imperfection of the Levitical/Aaronic line of the priesthood, Jesus, the Promised Messiah, brought in a brand new, ‘perfect’ priesthood, ‘one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron’.  Throughout the remainder of the OT, the name ‘God Most High’ occurs for the most part in poetry, especially in Psalms, and is always synonymous with ‘Yahweh’ (‘Jehovah’/‘the LORD’).

It also occurs in the exalted language of Daniel 7 which anticipates the coming to rule of God’s appointed Eternal King.

Presumably, Mary, as a devout Jewish girl, would have been familiar with all this terminology, and combined with Gabriel’s announcement that “the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end” would have left her in no doubt whatsoever that the pregnancy she was about to experience represented the long-promised momentous turning point in Israel’s history.  That her son was to be given the name ‘Jesus’ (‘Jeshua’, meaning ‘Saviour’) was further confirmation.

With all this in mind, for the next 33 years, Mary would have been consolidated in her understanding of God’s purposes as she watched her son, God’s Son, performing amazing, science-defying miracles and speaking with super-human grace, power and wisdom.  But, what about when she then was standing, weeping at the foot of the cross?  Praise God, after three days, the Resurrection and the Empty Tomb would have put everything back in the right perspective!

How important it is for us, with Mary, to embrace Gabriel’s announcement of the Virgin Birth, to stand and weep at the foot of the cross, and to rejoice that the tomb is empty, that death has been defeated, and that we can enjoy the reality of eternal life through faith in Jesus, the LORD, God MOST HIGH!
– Bruce Christian