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The Prophetess Mary
Kendall
Faull
NEWSPAPER CLIPPING FROM DECEMBER 21, 2002
In his prayer to Mary on the eve of the new millennium, the Pope said, “The Holy Spirit loved you as His mystical spouse and He filled you with a singular gifts…To you, Mother of the human family and of the nations, we confidently entrust the whole of humanity, with its hopes and fears. Do not let it lack the light of true wisdom. Guide its steps in the ways of peace…Sustain us, O Virgin Mary, on our journey of faith and obtain for us the grace of eternal salvation…” That is blasphemy, for it addresses to Mary that which can only scripturaly be addressed to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Recorded for us in Luke 1:46-55 is the “Song of Mary.” Mary joined ranks of Miriam, Deborah, and Hannah as a prophetess. Through the beauty of Jewish poetry, these women glorified God at times of great joy and triumph.
Ø Miriam sang as God delivered Israel from the bondage of slavery.
Ø Deborah sang in praise as God delivered Israel from her enemies.
Ø Hannah glorified God for the miracle son He had given to her who would lead Israel.
In Mary’s song she proclaims praise to God for all three of these things and more. For through her Son God would free us from bondage, deliver us from our enemies and give us the miraculously born Messiah to lead His people. It tells us many things about God and His salvation. What we may not have considered is what Mary’s song tells about her.
Luke 1:46-55, “46 And Mary said: “My
soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he
has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the
Mighty One has done great things for me – holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation. 51 He
has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud
in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but
has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has
sent the rich away empty. 54 He has
helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his
descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.”
SHE WAS THE
GIVER OF PRAISE, NOT THE RECIPIENT.
· Mary’s soul glorified the Lord. She is the saved and He is the Savior. She is the servant and He is the master. He is the recipient of glory and she is praising Him. As she spoke this prayer, this song, this poetry, she was glorifying God.
· Mary was to glorify God. That was her purpose in life. God is the source of all glory, and like a mirror, we reflect God’s glory when we reflect His will in our lives. Any glory Mary had came from reflecting God’s Will in her life.
·
She
was the one offering up prayers, not the one being prayed to.
GOD HAD TO SAVE HER.
·
Mary
had a Savior. You can’t have a Savior unless you need saved. You can’t be saved unless you are lost,
damned and condemned. Mary needed saved
too. In Luke 1:47 she calls him “my Savior.” It was personal to her.
·
Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God.”
That includes Mary, too.
·
Mary
struggled with doubts. At one point
Jesus’ friends came to “take charge of” Jesus with his younger brothers. As they came to get him they said he was
“out of his mind.”
·
Mark 3:19-21, “19…then Jesus entered a
house, 20 and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not
even able to eat. 21 When his own
people heard about this, they went to take charge of him for they said, “He is
out of His mind.”
·
So
Jesus’ own people said He was crazy and came to haul Him off. We know Jesus’ brothers did not believe in
Him because John 7:5 says, “For even
his own brothers did not believe in him.”
And when his own people came to get Jesus, who they said was “out of His
mind”, was Mary among them? Yes!
·
Mark 3:31-35, “31 Then Jesus’ mother and
brothers arrived. Standing outside,
they sent someone in to call him. 32 A
crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are
outside looking for you.” 33 “Who are
my mother and my brothers?” He
asked. 34 Then he looked at those
seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my
brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s Will is
my brother and sister and mother.”
·
Doubt
is a sin. Romans 14:23 says, “The man who has doubts is condemned” and James 1:6 says, “…he who doubts is like
a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
·
So
Mary was a blessed woman and a great character of faith, but she was not perfect. She had her moments of doubt. Like Jesus’ younger brothers who would later
come to faith after they saw Jesus’ resurrection, Mary’s unbelief would be
overcome by her faith in her miracle Son.
SHE WAS GOD’S
SERVANT.
·
Mary
was a servant to God. Mary will worship
Jesus. We know she will worship Jesus
because Philippians 2:9-11 says of
Jesus that, “9 … God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name
that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus ever knee should bow, in
heaven and on earth and under the earth 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
· Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is the Lord to the glory of the Father. Mary will bow and confess Jesus as her Lord and Savior, just like every other human being.
SHE STARTED
OUT IN HUMBLE CIRCUMSTANCES.
·
Mary
was not some pre-existent glorious “queen of heaven” who left her majesty to
take on humility as Christ did for us.
·
Jesus
is the one who left glory to take on humanity. Mary was from a humble state and
was lifted up by God her Savior.
·
It’s
about Jesus, not Mary that Philippians
2:6-9 says, “6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very
nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in
appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even
death on a cross! 9 Therefore God
exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every
name.”
THE “MIGHTY
ONE” DID GREAT THINGS FOR HER.
·
It
was Mary who was blessed by God. Mary
couldn’t have done anything without God.
God stretched out His mighty arm.
She did not have a mighty arm to stretch out, for she was helpless,
humble and was in need of God’s blessing, salvation and mercy.
·
It
was God’s Spirit who performed the miracle of creating Jesus within her womb
and giving her a child in her virginity.
It was God who led, protected and provided for her in Jesus’ coming and
early years. Mary and Joseph were in
awe of what God was doing with Jesus. Luke 2:50-51
·
Mary
was the recipient, not the source. She
was the blessed, not the blessing. She
was the saved, not the Savior.
SHE FEARED HIM.
· Luke 1:50 says, “His mercy extends to
those who fear him, from generation to generation.” Mary received His mercy so therefore she must have feared Him.
· Psalms 33:18, “But the eyes of the LORD
are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love”.
· Psalms 34:7, “The angel of the LORD
encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”
· Psalms 34:9, “Fear the LORD, you his
saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.”
· Psalms 111:10, “The fear of the LORD is
the beginning of wisdom.”
SHE WAS LIFTED
FROM HUMILITY.
· Luke 1:48-49 says, “48…he has been
mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One
has done great things for me…”
·
She
started humble, not glorified. She was
a servant, not a master. She will be called “blessed” not because of what she
did, but because of what God did for her.
She was blessed because the “Mighty One has done great things” for
her. It was God blessing her, not her
blessing God, that made her great.
SHE WAS HUNGRY
AND EMPTY.
·
She
was given good things and Luke 1:53
says, “He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away
empty.” Therefore if she was given good
things from God, then she was humble and hungry at first.
·
Hunger
is used as a metaphor of being in need.
Jesus later uses this metaphor to say He is the bread and water of life
and thus He fills these needs. She
admitted her need.
·
Mary
was the hungry one and Jesus is the Bread of Life. Mary was in need and Jesus is the provider. Mary was the humble one who relied on the
mercy and provision of the God whom she feared.
SHE RECEIVED
MERCY.
· Luke 1: 50, 54 indicates that Mary was the
recipient along with all Israel of God’s mercy. Mercy is the actions of kindness toward those who are in a miserable
and helpless state. Mercy is to give people not what they deserve, but what
they need.
·
Mary
and all Israel needed mercy. Like us,
they were trapped by sin, caught in the clutches of death and bound for
hell. But God has had mercy on us all
through the Son of Mary, who is the Son of God.
·
The
facts that she needed a Savior and mercy show that she was not sinless.
SHE WAS A
DESCENDANT OF ABRAHAM.
·
In
Luke 1:54-55 Mary says, “54 He has
helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his
descendants forever, 55 even as he said to our fathers.”
·
She
called Abraham’s descendants “our fathers.”
She was a woman born of the union between a man and a woman. She was not divinely conceived as Jesus was. She was not miraculously born. She was born under the same circumstances as
all descendants of Abraham. She needed
mercy, as all descendants of Abraham did.
She was born in the same cursed world as everyone else. Mary sinned too.
· Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as sin
entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death
came to all men, because all sinned.”
·
Peter
said of perfectly keeping the law in Acts15:10,
“Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples
a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?”
No one was ever sinless, except the Christ.
From this passage we can concluded that Mary was a
great woman. She was a great
prophetess. She found favor in the eyes
of God and was blessed by Him. From a
humble and lowly position He lifted her up and blessed her by allowing her to
be the mother of the Messiah, the Son of God.
She was truly blessed and “found favor” in God’s eyes because she feared
Him.
However, she was not perfect. She was human. She was in need of a Savior and mercy just as we are today. She was a great woman blessed by God, but
was not perfect, sinless or miraculously born.
She was a servant of God, a descendant of Abraham, who in faith feared
God and was blessed with salvation. She
is an example to us all of how to overcome doubts and through faith find
eternal blessings in Christ.