All Scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated)
Did you notice that I never got to the featured Scripture in the last Gem? Here is Luke 1:30 through 33:
Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God. And behold, you
will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son,
and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and
will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord
God will give Him the throne of His father David.
And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
This says a lot about the Messiah Mary was going to birth. And I think much of what this Scripture is about, Mark Lowry covered in the lyrics of the new classic Christmas carol, “Mary, Did You Know…? ”
Here are the lyrics:
Mary did you know
That your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary did you know
That your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know
That your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered
Will soon deliver you!
Mary did you know
That your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know
That your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?
Did you know
That your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby
You've kissed the face of God!
Mary, did you know?
The blind will see!
The deaf will hear!
And the dead will live again!
The lame will leap!
The dumb will speak
The praises of the Lamb!
Mary did you know
That your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know
That your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know
That your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding
Is the Great I Am!
Oh, Mary, did you know?
We covered the truths found in the first stanza, both the Old Testament prophesies concerning the coming Messiah, and their New Testament fulfillment! Let’s go on to the second stanza.
- Mary did you know That your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Did YOU know that in the gospels, there are records of Jesus healing the blind eyes of seven men? (see Matthew 9:27-30; 12:22; 29:29-34; Mark 8:22-25; John 9:6, 7). But there are three additional Scriptures that mention the Lord healed many more of blindness! (see Matthew 11:5; 15:30, 31; Luke 7:21, 22). But let’s look at the prophesies first.
✡ Here are three Old Testament prophesies:
➔ Psalm 146:8 – “The LORD opens the eyes of the
blind; the LORD raises up those who are bowed
down; the LORD loves the righteous.”
➔ Isaiah 35:4 and 5 – “‘Behold, your God will
come...and save you.’ Then the eyes of the
blind shall be opened....”
➔ Isaiah 61:1 (The Septuagint version, abbrevi-
ated LXX):
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, be-
cause he has anointed Me; He has sent Me
to bring good news to the poor, to heal
the brokenhearted, to proclaim release
to the captives and recovery of sight to
the blind....
✞ Luke 4:18 and 19 – Jesus read Isaiah 61:1 and 2
from the Septuagint version in the Nazareth syn-
agogue:
The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He
has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and re-
covery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
those who are oppressed, to preach the accept-
able year of the LORD.
This was what the first advent of His earthly ministry
was all about! And the next three plus years proved it!
- Mary did you know That your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?
✡ While there are no direct prophesies in the Old
Testament concerning Jesus stilling the storm
on the Sea of Galilee, there is the incident
recorded of a prophet about 732 BC who stilled
a raging storm at sea!
The prophet was Jonah! He was sent by God to Nineveh
to preach against it, warning the Ninevites of the
LORD’s impending judgment, Jonah didn’t want to obey,
and tried to escape in the other direction! Nineveh
was east, Jonah headed west!
➔ Jonah 1:3 – “But Jonah arose to flee to
Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
He went down to Joppa, and found a ship
headed for Tarshish; so he paid the fare,
and went [on board].”
❏ Joppa was on the coast of Israel.
❏ The location of Tarshish has been
lost, but many scholars think it was
in southern Spain.
❏ The quickest way for Jonah from
Joppa to Tarshish was to sail west
on the Mediterranean Sea.
➔ Jonah 1:4 – “The LORD sent out a great wind
on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest
....”
➔ Jonah 1:11 – When the ship’s crew found out
Jonah was fleeing from God, they fearfully
asked him, “What shall we do to you that the
sea may be calm for us?”
➔ Jonah 1:12 – Jonah told them, “Pick me up
and throw me into the sea; then the sea
will become calm for you. For I know that
the great tempest is because of me.”
➔ Jonah 1:14 – The crew didn’t want to throw
Jonah overboard. They “...rowed hard to
bring the ship to land, but they could not,
for the sea continued to grow more tempes-
tuous....”
➔ Jonah 1:15 – So the crew, with a prayer,
“...O LORD, please do not charge us with
innocent blood...they picked up Jonah and
threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased
from its raging.”
➔ Jonah 1:17 – “Now the LORD has prepared a
great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was
in the belly of the fish for three days and
three nights.”
...which is another great prophesy fulfilled! For
Jesus said, “...as Jonah was three days and three
nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the
Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40).
✞ If Jonah’s experience was prophetic, Jesus certainly
fulfilled that prophesy in Mark 4:37 through 39:
And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat
into the boat, so that it was already filling.
But [Jesus]...was in the stern, asleep on a pil-
low. And [His disciples]...awoke Him and said to
Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are per-
ishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and
said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind
ceased and there was a great calm.
- That your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
✡ The Old Testament prophesy is found in Isaiah 6:1
through 3:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the
LORD sitting on a throne , high and lifted up,
and the train of His robe filled the temple.
Above it stood serephim; each one had six wings
....And one cried to another and said, “Holy,
holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth
is filled with His glory!”
✡ Isaiah saw God’s glory, and was devastated! (Isaiah
6:5):
Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen
the King, the LORD of hosts.
➔ But in verses 6 and 7, an angel took a
burning coal from the heavenly altar, and
touched Isaiah’s mouth! He said, “Behold,
this has touched your lips; your iniquity
is taken away, and your sin is purged.”
“But,” one might ask, “Doesn’t this sound more like a des-
cription of God the Father than of the Son?” We will get
back to this in a moment.
➔ Now Isaiah was ready to be God’s prophet!
And the LORD told him in Isaiah 6:8 through
10 what he was to preach, and what to expect
from his preaching:
....Also I heard the voice of the LORD,
saying...“Go and tell this people...‘Keep
on hearing, but do not understand; keep
on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the
heart of this people dull, and their ears
heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see
with their eyes, and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart, and re-
turn and be healed.
✞ However, in John 12:39 and 40, the Apostle John
(quoting Isaiah 6:9 and 10 from The Septuagint Ver-
sion) writes:
Therefore they [the Jews] could not believe, be-
cause Isaiah said...“He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their heart, lest they should see
with their eyes and understand with their heart,
lest they should turn, so that I should heal
them.”
✞ What has this have to do with the fulfillment of
Isaiah’s prophesy? John 12:41 is the key: “These
things Isaiah said when he saw His [Jesus’] glory
and spoke of Him.”
➔ The context shows clearly that, according
to New Testament Scripture, Isaiah witnes
sed JESUS’ glory recorded in Isaiah 6!
(emphasis mine).
➔ So Jesus has walked where angels trod!
- And when you kiss your little baby You’ve kissed the face of God!
✡ One of the most amazing Old Testament prophecies
is Isaiah 7:14 (given over 700 years before Jesus
was born):
Therefore the LORD Himself will give you
a sign; “Behold, the virgin shall conceive
and bear a Son, and shall call His name
Immanuel.”
✞ The fulfillment? In Matthew 1:21 through 23, the
angel told Joseph:
“And she will bring forth a Son, and you
shall call His name Jesus, for He will
save His people from their sins.” Now all
this was done that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the Lord through the
prophet, saying, “Behold, a virgin shall
be with child, and shall bear a Son, and
they shall call His name Immanuel,” which
is translated, “God with us.”
We will continue with the third Gem on “Mary, Did You Know…? ”