By Marie Odell, Bible Mentor
When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son…(Galatians 4:4). The promise of a Saviour in Genesis 3:15 was finally fulfilled after nearly four thousand years. The oppressed Israelites had about given up hope, even though the prophet Daniel told just when the Messiah would appear.
One of the people looking for the promised Messiah was an aged priest named Zechariah, related to a young lady from Nazareth. An angel appeared to him while he was serving in the temple and told him that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a son to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1).
Because Zechariah expressed unbelief that he and Elizabeth could have children at their age, a sign was given him that he couldn’t speak until the son was born. And so it happened.
About the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah’s relative who lived in Nazareth. She was engaged to be married to Joseph, a descendant of King David. Her name was Mary.
Gabriel announced to her, “Rejoice…the Lord is with you…you are blessed! Mary, startled at his saying, wondered what it all meant. Then he told her she was chosen by God to conceive and bring forth a Son and she was to call His name Jesus.
When she wondered how that could happen, the angel told her the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Highest would overshadow her; and the one who was to be born would be called the Son of God. Further, he told Mary that her relative Elizabeth had conceived in her old age, and it was now her sixth month.
Gabriel’s promise to Mary can encourage us too: “For with God nothing will be impossible.”
If you have a question for Bible Mentor Marie Odell you can contact her by emailing: marieodell04@gmail.com
Marie Odell is a member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
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