We suppose that Mary was not the sort of young woman who was sleeping around. If she had been raped, she would surely have shared the shock of that with her family, as well as with Joseph. In the following verse we read of the dream that brought Joseph peace.
This is the first mention of the first Mary this month. She probably deserves a month to herself. They all do! Often people get confused about which things happened to which Mary, it is not always clear. So a month looking at all of them seemed like a good idea.
As we read the gospels, there seem at certain moments to be too many Marys! Three of them are mentioned in this verse. So we will attempt this month to decipher which Mary is which and look at the roles they played in and around the life of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is introduced in this passage as the one who is Faithful and True. And we could easily spend a few more days looking at those names for Jesus. But the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS sounds a good and complete name to finish our study with.
In Jeremiah 51 we read that the prophet is pleading with the people to escape from the place of evil. God had promised to destroy Babylon because of their false gods and their injustices towards His people. And if the Israelites did not flea they too would be destroyed also.
The Revelation of John calls Jesus the Faithful Witness. What a great name that is. Jesus witnessed everything about life on earth, and through every one of His trials, difficulties, disappointments and pain, He remained faithful to His Father. And to the mission He was sent to earth to accomplish.
These verses come at the end of the conversation that Gideon, a very scared young man, had while hiding in a winepress to thresh the grain. He was terrified of the Midianite army who were causing fear and chaos amongst the Israelites. The change began when Gideon obeyed the instructions.
The idea of Jesus being a gate for us to enter Heaven begins in the first verse of this chapter, but that verse also is a continuation of the conversation with the Pharisees that began in the previous chapter. Read John 10 today. In your mind go through the gate.
One of the most known things about Jesus, when He predicted His death, is a verse encouraging us to eat of His body at the last supper. Jesus took bread, and gave thanks. He broke it, and gave it to His disciples saying Take and eat, this is My body.
We might not actually see all those reactions of the Lord while we live on the earth, but our children and grandchildren will. Our lives and what we do have a huge effect on the generations that follow us, as well as in our own personal present situations.