Chapter One – The Early Years

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It started with Mary. She was a young Jewish girl engaged to Joseph, a carpenter. Mary thought she had her life planned: marriage, bearing children, raising a family, growing old together with Joseph, one day enjoying her own grandchildren and perhaps great-grandchildren. Mary had no hint that she had been selected to experience a monumental, life-changing event, a major step that would be part of the overarching Plan of God, affecting all peoples—past, present and future.

At a point, Mary came face to face with an archangel named Gabriel. He, with Michael and originally Lucifer, is one of three Cherubim named in the Bible. Each archangel has charge over one-third of hundreds of millions of angels (Rev. 12:4; 5:11).

God sent Gabriel to Nazareth, a small town in Galilee, to carry out a special mission. “Hail, you who are highly favoured,” he greeted young Mary. “The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.”

Mary was familiar with Old Testament accounts of God-fearing men and women who had encountered angels. Now she was standing before such a being. Naturally, she was startled, rendered virtually speechless; after all, God rarely sends angels to appear before human beings.

As Gabriel watched her struggle to find the right words in response, he said, “Fear not, Mary, for you have found favour with God.”

The angel’s words put her at ease—though she was taken aback when she heard the almost impossible to comprehend news: “Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:31-33).

For centuries, the house of Judah had suffered under the brutal attacks, conquests and oppression of foreign empires: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks—and now the Romans. With each generation of the Jewish peoples came a national longing for the long-awaited Messiah, or Christ, which means “anointed.”

“Finally,” Mary thought, “the Messiah will arrive and set things right!” Then she thought deeply within herself: “Christ will be born through my flesh?—How can this be? I have never been with a man.”

Mary was a virgin. Truly the conception and birth of this special Child, who “shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35), would be extraordinary—miraculous—unique in all history.

Gabriel explained that her unique pregnancy would be possible by the power of the Holy Spirit—the same limitless power God used to create and sustain the vast, ever-expanding universe (John 1:1-3; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2).

Mary had much to think about. There was Joseph, her fiancé, who expected to marry a virgin: Would he believe Mary’s explanation that her pregnancy was of God? There was her family: Would they think Mary had shamed herself and her family members by being unfaithful to Joseph? And there were her friends, neighbours and peers: Would they conclude that she would give birth to an illegitimate child?

To encourage her, Gabriel announced that Elisabeth, Mary’s cousin, “has also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:36-37).

His words strengthened Mary. She replied, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). No matter what she would encounter from this point forward—even possibly being ostracized by Joseph and all her loved ones—Mary was determined to follow God’s will.

Two Cousins—Two Very Special Pregnancies

Mary stayed with Elisabeth for a while, and learned that her elderly cousin had also encountered Gabriel. First, the archangel appeared to Elisabeth’s husband, Zachariah, telling the priest that his wife would give birth to a son, despite her advanced age and never having borne a child.

Gabriel told the parents they were to name the baby “John,” saying the child “shall be called the prophet of the Highest: for [he] shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways” (Luke 1:76).

Zachariah and Elisabeth would rear John to be set apart for special service to God. For the rest of his life he would abstain from wine or strong alcoholic beverages. Also, John was to be filled with God’s Spirit from the womb (Luke 1:15).

Gabriel explained that John, “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17), was to “prepare the way before…the Lord” (Mal. 3:1)—Christ’s First Coming. (John’s Elijah ministry would be a forerunner of another man to come centuries later—an end-time Elijah—whose ministry God would use to prepare a people for Christ’s Second Coming.)

Character and Genealogy

Three months later, Mary returned home, not knowing how Joseph would react to her noticeable pregnancy. Joseph, quite naturally, was shocked. As she told of her account with Gabriel and that God had chosen her to give birth to His Son, the Christ, Joseph struggled to control his emotions. As much as he wanted to believe Mary, it was hard for him to accept that she had not been unfaithful to him—that she was somehow a virgin, yet obviously pregnant, and that God was the father of her unborn Child.

How could such a thing possibly be? Joseph must have thought.

According to the custom of the day, an engagement was considered a binding agreement, with the engaged couple viewed as virtually married. Thus, Joseph was considered (by tradition) to be Mary’s “husband” (Matt. 1:18-19), except they were not to engage in sexual relations until after their official wedding ceremony. Seeing that Mary was clearly pregnant and knowing he was not the father, Joseph would have naturally felt betrayed. Legally, it was within his rights to publicly humiliate her.

But Joseph possessed very unusual character, and deeply loved Mary. Instead of calling attention to her alleged adultery, he decided to handle the situation honourably by quietly annulling their agreement to marry.

That night, as Joseph weighed the matter in his mind, Gabriel appeared to him in a dream. The archangel confirmed that Mary had not been unfaithful, and that the Child she carried was of God. Joseph awoke and followed Gabriel’s instruction to take Mary as his wife, not to engage in sexual relations until after she gave birth, and to help her rear Jesus into adulthood.

Since God can turn the hearts of kings and commoners alike to fulfil His great purpose (Ezra 1:1 and 6:22), He could have selected any couple to bear and rear His Son. Yet God chose Mary and Joseph for at least two reasons:

First, God foretold long ago that a Messiah—an anointed King, but also a Saviour—would come from the Israelite tribe of Judah, born from the line of King David. Both Mary and Joseph were Jews, descended from David; through their genealogy, Jesus could confirm that He descended from the Davidic bloodline both physically (through His mother) and legally (through His human father, who was Jesus’ legal guardian).

Second, though Mary and Joseph were not perfect, they were people of honour and character. Adultery and all other forms of promiscuity were common—yet Mary saved her virginity for her future husband. Also, rather than rebelling against God, she submitted to His will, despite the rumours and whisperings of being an unwed mother. And Joseph, despite initially presuming the love of his life had been unfaithful to him, acted honourably instead of with public indignation (Matt. 1:19).

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