Scripture Passage: Luke 1:26-38

Let's begin by having a brief history lesson so that we can understand what the engagement process was like at the time the angel visited Mary. We know that Mary was engaged to Joseph, but we don't know how long they had been engaged. Engagement was a serious commitment, a legally binding contract. Engagement meant that Joseph had paid a bride price for Mary, a dowry. A bride price was paid because the bride's family not only lost a daughter they loved very much, but also a worker towards the well-being of the household, while the groom's family gained a worker. A price was negotiated for Mary to compensate the family for their loss.

Engagements usually lasted approximately a year. During that time Mary would have remained with her parents and would have been being earnestly taught how to manage a household. While Mary was learning to be a wife, Joseph was building their "home", a room added on to the parent's home. Or, it could be the extended family, where the grandparent's home was the largest, and there might have been aunts and uncles, etc. As each son married he would build a on a room. The oldest son's home would be the closest to the parents and each subsequent son adding to each side. Eventually they would have a built a compound with an interior courtyard. The courtyard was the common area of the household, where the women would work together on the chores such-as cooking, weaving, and tending to the children, etc. This complex was called an insula.

The wedding date was actually set by the groom's father when he deemed the "house" was ready. The men's side of the wedding party would go to the woman's village, making noise, singing and probably playing instruments. When the women's village heard the wedding party coming, they did not know which groom it was, so ALL the engaged women got ready. Those that did not get married that day became the bridesmaids. The whole wedding party would travel back to the groom's home. The bride and groom would enter the wedding chamber and privately consummate their marriage. What would now be considered the best man stood outside the home and waited for the groom to announce that they are married.At that point the wedding feast, modern day reception, would begin.

So, Mary is engaged -- she had been bought with a price - and an angel appears to her. Can you imagine? You're a young girl by today's standards, still a virgin, and an angel comes and tells you will become pregnant! I used to think it would be so cool if an angel to came and talked with me. But as I considered this situation I realized that often when people were that close to God they heard the message and then died. It was just too much to be in the presence of God. That helped me understand why the angel told her not to be afraid.

As if seeing an angel and hearing him talk isn't enough, now Mary has to try to grapple with the news the angel has shared with her. She will become pregnant by the Holy Spirit while still a virgin! I used to think it would be SO thrilling to find out you were pregnant with the Messiah, but I never stopped to put myself in the context of Mary's time. In those days, after a man and woman consummated the marriage, if the groom found the bride not to be a virgin, the bride would be taken to her father's home and the men of the village would stone her to death (Deuteronomy 22:20-21). Already being pregnant, there would be NO WAY to convince most people that you are still a virgin. Her very life was at risk here! Can you imagine going home and having this kind of discussion with your mom? "Hey, mom, weirdest thing happened this afternoon! An angel came and said that the Spirit of God is going to come over me and that I will be pregnant by the Spirit, but I'll still be a virgin!" I think my mom, as close a relationship as we have, would have seriously considered having me committed! I think I'd be taking my daughter to a psychologist to have her analyzed for hallucinations.

How Mary must have tried to make sense of it all. She had grown up hearing the stories, some of them the same as we have grown up hearing: Noah's Ark, Daniel and the Lion's Den, and David and Goliath. But Mary would have also been very familiar with the prophesies of the Messiah coming: Isaiah 11:1-10; Jeremiah 23:5-8. How confusing! "Ok, I'm a pregnant virgin?!" What an oxymoron! "I'm engaged to Joseph, who, yes, is from the line of David, whom the Messiah is supposed to come from, but ME? The Lord wants ME to be the mother of the Messiah?!"

They've been waiting for generations for the Messiah to come. It must have seemed like such a long wait, yet not really expecting it to happen, at least to you! I find myself comparing it to how I sometimes feel about Jesus' second coming, I KNOW it's coming, and it could be before I hit the send button, but yet it still feels so far away. At times it feels SO tangible, so exciting, others, it feels SO far away and unattainable. I would imagine that Mary and her contemporaries felt much the same way. And how humbling. Don't you find yourself totally amazed and astonished when God chooses to use you to do HIS work? I certainly do. I can't imagine WHY he would CHOOSE me, but he does and it is a very humbling, yet exciting and rewarding experience. Can you imagine how much more Mary must have had those same feelings? "Me, the mother of Immanuel! WOW!"

Week 2 - Women's Advent Study - What Was it Like?

Sources: That the World May Know Series 3 teacher's, Focus on the Family.
Reader's Digest Great People of the Bible and How They Lived.