Shawn Moynihan - Mary of Nazareth - Class 4 - Mary's Community

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is day four of the 2025 Palm Springs Bible School. Our first period teacher is Brother Sean Moynihan. His general subject is Mary of Nazareth. Today’s topic is Mary’s mission Brother Sean. Good morning, brothers and sisters. Today, Godwin, we’re going to take a look at Mary’s mission. Well, as a parent, she had a general mission, mission to bring up a child and the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

2. 0:32

   But she had a special mission, didn’t she? She was told that 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. So God had clearly shared through Gabriel what Mary’s mission was. It wasn’t just to give birth to a baby, it was to raise a man to sit on David’s throne, but Jesus was also to save people from their sins.

3. 1:02

   So I think that Mary had a handle on number one from the start. You know, in this task, she could look at several things. She understood that the Queen Mother had an important role in the Davidic dynasty, something that Solomon started when, as we can see in this picture, he had Bathsheba sit at his right hand. She had the parts of the Mosaic law that dealt with kings. She had the example of Hezekiah’s mom, her spiritual sister in the Isaiah 7 prophecy.

4. 1:34

   And finally, she had the example of Proverbs, especially the the teachings that were directed to the king. And I’d really like to contextualize our discussion this morning around this quote from Psalm 31. What my son and what son of my womb and what son of my vows? And we know that that’s a very hubristic structure, right?

5. 2:00

   Of repetition of important points, but adding something slightly different each time. In this context, Eidersheim writes in sketches of Jewish social life. The book of Proverbs introduces the Queen Mother as training the heir to the throne and the knowledge and fear of the Lord. So we see this through the Davidic dynasty. Solomon began this practice in First Kings 2 and all the way through the Davidic dynasty. The queen was the mother of the king, not the wife of the king. We see in Jeremiah 13 say to the king and to the Queen Mother, humble yourselves.

6. 2:41

   And in First Kings 15 and he removed Makaya his grandmother from being Queen Mother. And there’s other examples in Second Kings 10. And in Jeremiah 29. Edward 3 comments on this. He says when Elizabeth addresses Mary as the mother of my Lord, you recall she said that who am I that the mother of my Lord should come unto me.

7. 3:01

   In doing so, he writes, Elizabeth hails Mary as the mother of the king. For Mary, Elizabeth’s words are a confirmation of what the Angel told her. She is the mother of a Davidic king. In ancient Israel, the queen ship and the Davidic Kingdom was bestowed not on the King’s wife, but on the King’s mother.

8. 3:19

   Therefore, when Elizabeth calls Mary the mother of my Lord, she is honoring Mary as the mother of the King, the Queen Mother. But then, brothers and sisters, when and how did Mary understand the second part of the mission? Because Joseph clearly would have told her, and they would have had long discussions over many years about what it meant that they would have a son named Jesus who will save people from their sins.

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   Over the next two days, we’re going to see the evolution of Mary’s understanding of this second part of the mission. Tomorrow we’re going to see how recognition and understanding created some sword wounds. But it didn’t dim her faith. It didn’t dim her trust, because even before she really understood what it meant. She understood that salvation would come through the covenant love found in God’s promises.

10. 4:21

    And she tried to make sense of how Jesus would save his people from their sins. She founded that understanding and that thoughtfulness on the firm belief in the exceeding great and precious promises that we have. That’s why she sings. And his mercy, His covenant love, is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.

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    He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His covenant love. As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to His seed forever.

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    Mary had the foundation for understanding how this saving would take place. Now before we continue, there’s three important contextual things we need to establish. First of all, to accomplish his goal, Jesus had to learn and, and Mary had an important role in that, but God was Jesus most important teacher. So in our discussions of Mary, we’re, we’re not minimizing at all the absolutely essential integral role that God had. And #3 the Bible teaches that moms, and I put moms in quotes because there’s lots of moms in our ecclesia that never had physical children, right?

13. 5:31

    Talking moms. The Bible teaches that moms are vitally important. So let’s take a look at the first context. In Hebrews 5, we read though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And Mary’s mind would have been foregrounded because the Isaiah prophecy that she fulfilled The next sentence is the next verse. Curds and honey he shall eat that he may know. Some translations have learn to refuse the evil and choose the good.

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    Luke mentions in a couple times how Jesus grew and learned and Mary of course was not only important witness to that, but was an important catalyst to it. Now God was Jesus most important teacher by far. Now we could do four years worth of Bible classes on this. So I’m just going to pick this verse in John 8. So Jesus said to them, when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he.

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    I do nothing on my own but speak only those things the Father has taught me. So again, in our discussion this morning, we’re not minimizing the role that that God would have played. Now, moms are vitally important.

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    Let’s look at Proverbs 18. My son, hear the instruction Musar of your father, and do not forsake the law Torah of your mother. Proverbs 620 My son, keep your father’s command mitzvah, and do not forsake the law Torah of your mother. So teaching the way of God is a partnership between the father and the mother.

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    But did you notice that in Proverbs the Father’s instruction is two different words, but the mother is always Torah. Now rabbinical thought suggests that this is because the mother provides the foundational teaching. She literally does the the literal and the spiritual ABC’s which you rely on for your whole life. And Second Timothy Paul talks to the profound maternal and and grandmotherly love that was so evident in Timothy as a result of Lois and his mother Eunice.

18. 7:55

    Now you know, I was raised by my grandmother, so I can speak to the example of a grandmother. And then we have Roman 16 where Paul says, greet Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. Now Paul, Christ appeared to him. Christ said, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul needed a mom in the ecclesia, and we can speculate that perhaps his parents disowned him and he’s had a mom in the ecclesia.

19. 8:43

    So if Paul needs a mom, we all need a mom in Ecclesia, don’t we? Paul in Galatians 4 talks about the mother’s vital role. So he establishes in Galatians 4 the importance of the mother by referencing Mary. That’s how he starts out in verse four and five. He says when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And then later on in that chapter, Paul assumes a maternal role.

20. 9:20

    You know, other places he talks about being a father in Christ, but here he says, no, I’m being a mom. He says, my dear children, I am suffering the pains of giving birth to you all over again. And this will go on until the Messiah takes shape in you. And then he finishes by quoting Isaiah 54. He says that everything depends on the mom. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

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    And he’s saying that the mom makes the difference, right? There’s the Hagar covenant that’s about slavery and about the flesh and about Sinai. And there’s the Sarah covenant. Remember it says in Isaiah, look to Abraham your father, and Sarah who bore you. And the covenant through Sarah is about freedom and about God keeping his promises, and about Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. So Mary prepares to give birth to Jesus. We know that throughout the accounts, Mary is a thoughtful, deep thinker about biblical things, and I’m sure her mind would have gone to Psalm 22.

22. 10:35

    But you are he who took me out. And there’s an interesting Hebrew word there that’s not used very often. Took me out of the womb. You made me trust while on my mother’s breast. I was cast upon you from birth. From my mother’s womb You have been my God. Now it’s interesting as she was thinking about that, that word get only occurs a few times and it’s translated in weird ways, like it’s translated in judges as ambush.

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    No, I’m, I’m smart enough as a man never to comment on that the the rigors of childbirth. So I’m just going to leave that alone. But we don’t tend to think of it as an ambush, right? But the other time that it’s used in relation to giving birth is in Mica.

24. 11:27

    And I think that Mary would have been thinking about Micah as she was waiting to give birth because she knew from Micah 5 two that she had to be in Bethlehem. So here’s the reference. And you, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, to you it shall come.

25. 11:47

    For pangs have seized you like a woman in labor, be in pain and labor to bring forth. There’s that word, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in birth pangs.

26. 11:59

    So she made the connection inevitably to this and being the daughter of Zion. And, and I would suggest to you that she had begun to make that connection to the daughter of Zion even earlier. Greek scholars look at Gabriel’s initial word to marry Kyrie, and that’s a special word, and that’s a word that’s connected to the daughter of Zion, Edwards, 3, writes. Gabriel’s initial word to Mary, hail, or Kyrie in Greek, means much more than a simple hello.

27. 12:36

    Luke’s Gospel never uses Kyrie in a Jewish milieu to express an ordinary salutation, and it’s the word that’s used in connection with the daughter of Zion and Zechariah. 2 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord. What did Mary’s deep spiritual, biblical mind do with those connections? Well, I think she took a look at Zechariah. 2 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord.

28. 13:14

    She connected that to behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. I will dwell in your midst, God with us. And I think she’s a thought of Isaiah 62. Indeed, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world, say to the daughter of Zion, surely your salvation is coming. And in her great song, she rejoiced. And my Spirit has rejoiced, and God my Savior. So Mary had to ensure that Bethlehem was the birth place. Mary knew that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, because even Herod’s advisors understood that that’s where it was going to happen.

29. 14:05

    We read in Matthew 2. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him in Bethlehem, Judea. For thus it is written by the prophet. But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah. For out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

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    But you Bethlehem and fought that, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet one shall come forth to me the one to be a ruler in Israel whose goings forth are from a bold from everlasting. So just like the the different translations there. So the broader context, we’ve already seen the connections that Mary would have made.

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    Now you have to think that Joseph and Mary were in Nazareth and they were thinking, how do we get to Bethlehem? What should we do? What should we do? They prayed about it. I’m sure they prayed about it. What should we do? Should we move? And then the census comes as an answer to prayer.

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    God answers our prayers in unusual and unexpected ways, right? I don’t think that, you know, being taxed was on their list of oh, OK, that’s how it’s going to happen. But God works and, and brother Doug did an amazing job last night talking about the visible and invisible hand of God. God answers our prayers in unexpected ways and the prayer was answered and it resulted in a 90 mile journey late in Mary’s pregnancy.

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    Now let’s talk about the inn. There was no room for them in the inn. Now what kind of inn are we talking about? Are we talking about Holiday Inn? What kind of an inn? Well, let’s take a look at what’s actually said. The inn is not an inn like we think of it.

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    The inn was the Cataluma. It was the guest chamber. It was the room in in someone’s house. It was talking about being in a house. We know that because Luke uses a different word for that. Mary and Joseph were staying with family. They weren’t staying in an inn like Holiday Inn because Luke uses a different word for that. And the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 1034, we read that.

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    So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. That’s an inn. This is not an inn, this is a house, and probably a family house because they were going back to stay with family.

36. 17:06

    Barry Beitzel writes that it is most reasonable to assume that Joseph would have sought refuge for marrying himself in the House of a family member in Bethlehem. However, because the guest room was apparently already taken, perhaps by another extended family member also there as a result of the census, it was necessary for Joseph and Mary to stay in the lower part of the family house where there would have also been an animals feeding through.

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    Think of the humility of Mary and Joseph. They get there and the room that they were going to stay in is taken. She’s about to give birth to the Son of God. You’d be tempted to say, you know, I know that you like the room, but we really have an emergency, so could we just. Her humility is immense.

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    And so it was unusual for a newborn to be in a Manger because that was a sign that was given to the shepherds. So for the sign to be meaningful, it had to be unusual. So let’s take a look at what that would have looked like. So grab my pen here. So here’s the Cataluma in a house, here’s the main family living space, here’s the Manger. Now the stable is out here, and sometimes the stable was in a cave or grotto.

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    Now I understand that when you go to Israel and they show you where Mary gave birth, it’s a cave, right? So that comes from the proto Evangelum of James that says it was in a cave. I don’t think it was in a cave. I think it says pretty clearly that it was in the house, in the house. The Manger was there in the house. So why a Manger?

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    Why a Manger? Because we’ve already established it’s in the house. You know, sadly, all those nativity plays and the Charlie Brown Christmas, not how it happened. So why a Manger? Well, some have suggested that this is a connection to Habakkuk 3, and it speaks to Mary’s frame of mind. Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, though the labour of the olive may fail in the fields, you’ll know food. Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there’ll be no hurt in the stalls.

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    And there’s that unusual word really for Manger fatne. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Now that makes perfect sense to me. That’s pretty plausible.

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    There’s another thing, though, that I think is going on, and it has to do with Mary understanding her mission. When, under the Mosaic Law, did you bring an animal into the house Passover from the 10th day to the 14th day of the month? And did you know, brothers and sisters, that it was common practice to take that lamb and put it in the mangers to keep it safe and clean? So I would suggest to you that there’s something else going on here, something that’s helping Mary understand this mission about saving people from their sins. So we’ll come back to that.

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    The Birth, there are volumes of books written about how Mary just had a completely painless great delivery. No issues there. That’s just wrong. I mean, certainly Mary would have had the normal arduous ordeal of delivery. Genesis 316. I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception pain. You should bring forth children now.

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    The Proto Evangelum of James identifies a midwife called Salome. So like I said, the Proto Evangelum of James has a kernel of fact buried in a ton of fiction. So one of the things you might we might consider is that Salome, Mary’s sister, would have travelled with them. And maybe that’s why this is preserved, that it wasn’t a midwife.

45. 21:24

    It was it was Salome and Mary’s sister helping with the delivery. It’s interesting that Mary is seeing seems to be alone here. But Mary, I think would have been surrounded by family. You know, you got to think was Elizabeth there? And because Elizabeth was close by, a few miles away, but although she would have been surrounded by family, you know, none are mentioned.

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    Let’s take a look at the shepherds we read in Luke 2. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And brothers and sisters, this was a special flock. And behold, an Angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were greatly afraid. Who’s the Angel here, Gabriel, in charge of all things Messiah, Right Then the Angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

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    For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling claws, lying in a Manger. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God, and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill towards men.

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    And so it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, Let us go now to Bethlehem, and see this thing that has come to pass which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying in the Manger.

49. 23:09

    And when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told to them concerning this child. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

50. 23:25

    So heavenly rejoicing they left in haste. So if you’re a shepherd and you’re out in the field, what’s job? One? Don’t leave the sheep. So we can infer that they took the sheep with them. Unto you a child is born. Christ the Lord. And these shepherds were special. They are watching the flocks exclusively destined for the temple sacrifice.

51. 24:01

    They are the tower of the flock. The Migdel Idar mentioned in Micah 48 Eidersheim goes into great detail about why that’s true. His his arguments make a lot of sense to me. So Mary is confronted by the shepherds in charge of the flock for the spotless animals used in temple sacrifice, and the flock is outside for her to see.

52. 24:37

    Now I found this passage, and I invite you to help me make sense of it. Not right now, but think about it. So as I was doing my study, I came across this passage in Jeremiah. I have likened the daughter of Zion to a lovely and delicate woman. The shepherds with their flocks will come to her. So the passage in Jeremiah doesn’t really fit in this context.

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    But you know how sometimes, especially from the writings of Paul, we understand that that prophecies aren’t always easily understood in the first round. So anyway, think about that and, and, and enjoy talking about that. If you see that there are any connections or you can say no Sean, that makes no sense whatsoever.

54. 25:19

    That’s helpful too. So Mary’s experience in delivering Jesus caused deep and continuing thought and reflection. Mary was preserving all these things, pondering them in her heart. The disciples little New Testament captures the kind of continuous action that it’s ongoing.

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    She’s thinking of these things, and I would say to you, brothers and sisters, that one of the things that she’s starting to understand is how Jesus will save people from their sins.

56. 25:59

    It would have been jarring, I think, for Mary to see her son in the same place, in the Manger, where normally she would have seen the Passover lamb, the shepherds in charge of the spotless lambs destined for the temple sacrifice, telling her that the Angel shared a message of salvation. Can imagine Mary’s thought about that and with her mind steeped in the promises to Abraham remember that great song that triumphant final note to Abraham and to his seed forever did she begin to think about that God will provide for himself a lamb.

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    So we see the days of purification we read about in in Leviticus 12 and and Mary does that. And you know, Bible students have taken one verse and extrapolated that the reason Mary and Joseph didn’t offer a lamb is because they were desperately poor.

58. 27:13

    That could be, I’m not being dogmatic about this, but even if they were poor, couldn’t Mary have gone to any of those shepherds that had the temple flock and say, can we have a can we have a sacrifice? We want to use the best? Can we have one? Do you think they would have said no? They would have said, please.

59. 27:39

    I mean, Joseph and Mary literally had a whole flock of temple approved lambs to choose from. So I think that they chose not to. I think Mary chose not to offer the lamb because she she was beginning to understand Jesus saving role, the saving role that John the Baptist talks about so early at the start of Jesus ministry. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So brothers and sisters, I’m not dogmatic about that. Just something to think about,

60. 28:11

    OK? Do not forsake the Torah of your mother and brother. Khan Mitsos points out that the Gospel records emphasize that all that Mary and Joseph did, they did according to the law of God. That’s repeated over and over and over again in Luke’s account, over five times. It’s all about according to the law of God, according to the law of God, according to the law of God. So right from the beginning, Joseph and Mary were scrupulous in their observance of the law, helping Jesus understand the law and helping understand understand how He would fulfill it.

61. 28:53

    OK, so teaching the Son of my womb right from birth, this happens right from birthright. Psalm 22 says it, Eidersheim writes. The influence exerted upon his early education, especially by his mother, seems implied throughout the Gospel history. Now we know that’s important, right? At birth, 25% of the brain development is there by age, 275%.

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    By age, 590%. Now, I’ve taught middle school students for a long time. So the ground kind of dips after that. But but all kidding aside, this is incredible, right? And it speaks to how important the role of the early learning is and the mother’s role. Do not forget your mother’s Torah.

63. 30:02

    You know, we’re blessed to have have young folks with us and you just look at them and you know, they’re learning machines. And you know, one of the great blessings of being a grandparent

64. 30:16

    is there’s no stress. So you can sit back and watch the learning happen. It’s amazing. So Mary had a mission that began right from the start. So we know how important zero to five are, right? Learning the alphabet, learning to read. Think about what Mary would have been doing, learning the stories of Israel, learning to pray, learning to pray, all these things, learning the spiritual and literal AB CS that Mary would have been sharing with Jesus.

65. 30:52

    We have to honour our moms and our Sunday school teachers and our spiritual moms impact in this way. We have to honour their work because it’s crucial.

66. 31:05

    Kathy’s aunt Betty Moore Sister Betty never had children, never married. She taught Sunday school for decades, decades. And when she passed away, sadly too young as a result of pancreatic cancer, we got all these emails and cards from people that said Sister Betty changed my life. Let’s be honest, brothers and sisters, we remember the lessons of our Sunday, Sunday School teachers long after we’ve forgotten what the adult teacher had to say. So Mary would have begun those fundamental things with Jesus, like learning to pray Mary Athens in search of the Jewish Mary rites.

67. 31:58

    Since the Jewish children often learned their first prayers and home rituals from their mothers, Mary would have taught Jesus to his earliest prayers and instructed him in simple Jewish rituals. And you have to think when his disciples said, Lord teach us to pray as John the Baptist did taught his disciples, you have to think that his mind would have flashed back to being taught to pray.

68. 32:25

    So we see the wise men visit the king of the Jews. That’s the next scene we’re going to take a look at. So we read in Matthew 2, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.

69. 32:43

    And of course, folks have mentioned in passing, of course, this is their understanding of the great 70 weeks prophecy and acting on it. Now when the wise men come to visit, Jesus is not a child, he’s a baby. There’s a different word there. And the family is living in a house. So this seems to be when Jesus would have been much older, perhaps as old as 2.

70. 33:11

    The Magi seek to visit the court of the King of the Jews. Only Jesus the king, and Mary the Queen Mother, are mentioned. Did you notice that Joseph was sent in the account? It’s the king and the Queen Mother.

71. 33:30

    So I think the writer Matthew invites us to see this as a delegation to the court of a Davidic king. And there’s a passage in Psalms that really resonates. So in Matthew we read they saw the young child with marry his mother and fell down and worshipped him. And there’s that word proschinio, and that’s used in Psalm 72 in the Septuagint. The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles will bring presents. The kings of Sheba and Siebel offer gifts. Yes, all kings shall fall down.

72. 34:07

    There’s that word before him. So a powerful and beautiful foreshadowing of the Kingdom that we all long for. I think Mary also would have looked at Abijah, Hezekiah’s mom we read in Isaiah 7. Therefore, the Lord will give you a sign the young woman is pregnant and about to give birth to a son, and she will name Emmanuel.

73. 34:34

    He will eat butter and honey and learn to reject evil and choose good. You know, Brother Hay Whitaker, brother George Booker do a great job of connecting Hezekiah to this prophecy we read in in the Second Chronicles 29. Hezekiah became king when he was 25 years old, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father had done.

74. 35:04

    Abijah is the exemplar of a godly mother’s impact because the father was a train wreck, completely completely ungodly, but Abijah a budget was the difference.

75. 35:25

    So I think that Mary would have inevitably thought about Abijah and they were the two mothers in the Isaiah 7 prophecy, albeit it was Mary who fulfilled it in a unique and miraculous way.

76. 35:38

    OK, Now one of the things that the Queen Mother would have done is she would have ensured that the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 17 happened. He shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book we read in Deuteronomy 17. And it shall be when he sits on the throne of his Kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the priests, the Levites.

77. 36:06

    And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes. That his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the command to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his Kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

78. 36:32

    So Jesus would have written this out. Mary would have ensured that he did. You know how we know that? We know that? Because Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy more than any other Old Testament book. Here’s just an example of what happens in Matthew. We’re not going to go through it for the sake of time, but there it is.

79. 36:59

    And we’re blessed to be in the company of amazing Bible students. So some of those amazing Bible students are saying, wait a second, you left out Matthew 4. What happened in Matthew 4? The temptations in the wilderness. You know, there’s a saying, you know, people think the Navy Seal’s invented it. But it was actually a Greek poet named Archelaicus who in 650 BC, he said in war we do not rise to the level of our expectations.

80. 37:35

    We fall to the level of our training. And in spiritual training, that’s true, too. So in the wilderness and a time of intense stress, what book did Jesus quote to refute the temptations? Yeah. Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 83. Deuteronomy 616. Deuteronomy 6/13 Another thing that Mary would have done is the Queen Mother as she would have ensured that Jesus took care of the poor and marginalized. In Proverbs 31, the commandment from the Queen Mother is open your mouth, judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

81. 38:20

    And Mary understands this and that’s why she celebrates it in her song. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty.

82. 38:31

    And this is just one quote because Jesus whole ministry was a litany of caring for the poor and the marginalized, loving the unlovable, accepting the marginalized, caring for those who were not cared for. So we read in Psalm 116, I am your servant, Lord, I serve you just as my mother did. Kenneth Bailey writes that the reader is led to understand that Jesus was raised by an extraordinary mother who must have had enormous influence. And I love this quote because it comes from a guy who doesn’t think the Bible is true.

83. 39:24

    He says Mary provides Jesus with a multifaceted parental example of a woman who interacts directly with the divine and with Scripture and who takes responsibility for her own obedience. The emphasis and early Christian literature. He means the Bible on Jesus as one who obeys and submits to God should not be separated from his mother’s paradigmatic example as one who did the same.

84. 39:52

    See, even for an unbeliever, Mary’s example cries out. So did you ever think, as a parent, how did my kids become good at the things they’re good at?

85. 40:11

    And what role did I play in that? Do you ever think that you know? It’s a it’s baffling to me, like all four of my kids are really different from each other, but all four of them have a tremendous work ethic and I’ve literally never talked to them about working hard.

86. 40:39

    So again, as an example of Mary, it must be sister Kathy that’s coming through there. But isn’t it interesting, right? And you know what I think it is? It’s the power of example because I like to work hard. Sister Kathy likes to work hard. It’s the power of example. And especially for our young people, they are observing everybody.

87. 41:08

    They’re observing their parents, but between like 15 and 22, they don’t have any credibility. So they’re observing everyone else in the ecclesia and they’re looking for your example.

88. 41:23

    That’s a good example. Let’s be like Mary. Let’s create eccleses where people can say I serve you just like my parents did. I serve you just like my auntie and uncle did. I serve you just like my Sunday School teacher did. Mary’s mission, 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. Mary understood that.

89. 41:52

    She had some had kind of an instruction manual on how you raise a king. It would be great if our kids came with instruction manuals. I often thought that, you know, you get them home. I remember when we took Braden home from the hospital in 1987. We plunk him in the in the living room. He’s in his car seat.

90. 42:12

    And we’re like, oh, what do we do now? You know, an instruction manual would have been good. You know, especially to see things like, how do you put things back together when they fall apart? You know how we cannot avoid the warranty, things like that. But Mary had an instruction manual to raise a godly child and to raise a king in the line of David, and that was the Torah. So he will save his people from his sins. Merit began to understand that.

91. 42:45

    And over the next, the next day, God willing, we’re going to take a look at what she did to keep her son safe and the sword wounds that she suffered. NK Jemison writes there is no greater warrior than a mother protecting her child.

92. 43:10

    Queen mothers acted to keep their sons safe. When Adonijah sought the throne, Bathsheba ensured that David was would keep his vow that Solomon would succeed him. According to rabbinical literature, Abijah saved the life of Hezekiah when his father Ahaz tried to sacrifice him to Molech. And you have to wonder, Mary’s biblical mind, how did she start to understand Daniel’s prophecy?

93. 43:37

    How did she start to understand what Messiah the Prince will be cut off? What did that mean? So tomorrow, God willing, we’re going to take a look at Mary’s sword wounds because there’s this incredibly powerful scene where Simeon is there and it’s a time of great rejoicing. And then it says that he turned to Mary and said, indeed, a sword will Pierce the soul of you yourself, the disciples.

94. 44:21

    Little New Testament emphasizes that in the Greek that doesn’t always come across the soul of you yourself. This is a warrior’s wound because the the word used for sword here is that sword. They are on Thea. It’s a, it’s a weapon of war. And so tomorrow we’re going to see Mary’s trials, her sword wounds as she engages in spiritual warfare. We’ll take a look at Mary leading up to the cross as she begins to understand more and more the truth of the fact that the Lord will provide himself a lamb.