EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
3/2/2026 8:30 PM
My
Worship Time Focus:
“The Divine
Messenger”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
1:27
Message of the verse: “to a virgin engaged to a man whose name
was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.”
Now as we think back to the way that
Gabriel announced to Zacheriah about the birth of John the Baptist (1:11-13),
as this was in the temple of God, but this announcement of Jesus’ miraculous
birth came to a young girl in a small, insignificant village. I don’t think that I thought about Nazareth
as being an insignificant town before, and I guess the reason was that this was
where the Lord Jesus Christ would grow up and even preach there, and so I guess
that is why my thoughts were that this was a very important town, which it
proved to be.
Mary is first described as a virgin. Let me just say that if I remember
correctly the word in the Hebrew language for virgin does not necessarily mean
that the woman never had sexual relations, while in the Greek the word parthenos
(virgin) refers to a person who has never had sexual relations, and would
never be used to describe a married woman.
In Jewish practice, girls were usually engaged at the age of
twelve or thirteen and married at the end of a one-year betrothal period. Now the betrothal, arranged by the parents,
was a more binding legal arrangement than a modern engagement is our country
today. Only death or divorce could sever
the contract, and the couple could be referred to as husband and wife. Now if her betrothed husband died, the girl
would be considered a widow. The couple
did not live together or have sexual relations during the betrothal
period. During that year the girl was to
prove her faithfulness and purity, and the boy was to prepare a home for his
bride-to-be. When the year was up there was a seven-day wedding feast, seen in
Matthew 25:1-13; John 2:1-11, after which the couple began their life together
as husband and wife. Only then was the
marriage consummated.
(Matthew 25:1-13; John 2:1-11)
“1 ¶ "the kingdom of heaven will be like ten
virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
3 For when the foolish took their lamps,
they took no oil with them, 4 but the
wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became
drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight
there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their
lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the
wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there
will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for
yourselves.’ 10 And while they were
going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to
the marriage feast, and the door was shut. 11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying,
‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he
answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ 13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day
nor the hour.”
“1 ¶ On the third day there was a wedding at Cana
in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his
disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the
mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this
have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever
he tells you.” 6 Now there were six
stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty
or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the
servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take
it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water
now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who
had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good
wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have
kept the good wine until now.” 11 This,
the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory.
And his disciples believed in him.”
MacArthur writes:
“This particular virgin was betrothed to a man whose name was
Joseph. Though just an ordinary
carpenter, he was by lineage one of the descendants of David, Israel’s
greatest king, from whose loins the Messiah would come (2 Sam. 7:12, 16; Ps.
89:35-36; Jer. 23:5; Matt. 22:42; Mark 10:47; Acts 2:30; 13:23; Rom. 1:3). Matthew’s
genealogy of Christ traces His ancestry through Joseph (1:1-17), showing
that He descended from David, thus Jesus is also ‘the son of David’ (Matt.
1:1). Although Joseph was not Jesus’
natural father, his adoption of Jesus made Him legally part of David’s
lineage. The genealogy in Matthew thus
establishes Christ’s claim to the throne of David as Joseph’s legal heir.” Now in David’s line there was a king named
Jeconiah (also known as Jehoiachin or Coniah. Now let us look at Jeremiah 22:30
“30 Thus says the LORD: "Write
this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none
of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling
again in Judah.’” It looks like to
me that there were more than one reason why both bloodlines are mentioned in
Matthew and Luke.
MacArthur goes on to write: “Luke simply reports that the virgin’s name
was Mary. Unlike the commendation
of Zacharias and Elizabeth that he recorded earlier (1:6), Luke ascribed
nothing to Mary except her status as a virgin; he added nothing that would set
her apart as a noteworthy young woman.
Though she must have been righteous and obedient (as her testimony in
vv. 46-55 proves), perhaps the Holy Spirit was avoiding anything that might
make the Romish ‘Mary cult’ any worse, if that were possible.
“Like Joseph, Mary also traced her
ancestry back to David; as noted in the exposition of 3:23-38 in chapter 21 of
this volume, Luke’s genealogy of Jesus records His ancestry through His
mother. Thus Jesus inherited from His
adoptive father, Joseph, the legal right to David’s throne, while His physical
descend from David came from His mother, Mary.
In every legitimate sense—both legally and physically—Jesus Christ was
the Son of David and born to be Israel’s true King.”
3/2/2026
9:04 PM
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