Why Did God Choose Mary? by Bobbie Ann Cole

 

Mary was a  poor Jewish girl from a small, inward-looking community. (Remember, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ John 1:46) She would have been about thirteen when God ‘overshadowed’ her, as the Angel Gabriel predicted, and she became pregnant with Jesus, the Son of God. Her young age was no oddity in her day: she was already betrothed to Joseph and the two were about to marry.

So, why this girl? What made God choose her?

Perhaps the fact that she had nothing special to recommend her was the point. After all, Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah would appear unremarkable: “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind,” (Is 53:2-3).

Since such a son could not be expected to emerge from a palace, it is likely that his mother would also be outwardly unremarkable. The only outstanding prophecy about her was that she would be a virgin, (Is.7:14).

RENDERED EXTRAORDINARY

Her pristine womb would become a second Ark of the Covenant. The Ark, long missing, had contained the Tablets of the Law, manna that sustained the Children of Israel and the staff of Aaron, the first priest. Mary’s womb bore the priestly founder of the New Covenant who is the Bread of Life. Her virgin womb also foreshadowed the prophesied virgin tomb in which Jesus would lie at the end of his life (Is. 53:9).

This is what rendered her extraordinary, rather than something innate in her. There were many virgins in Israel at the time Mary conceived.

That she lived and was fertile at that time is  relevant, too. God timed Jesus’ ministry at an ideal moment of relative peace during the Roman occupation of Judea and Israel, when roads were passable and relatively safe and information could travel far and wide across the broad Roman Empire, enabling early Christians to spread his message.

GOD'S NEW THING

In contrast to super fertile young Mary, her elderly and presumed barren cousin, Elizabeth, was pregnant with the Messiah's forerunner, announced by Isaiah (40:3) and Malachi (4:5-6): John the Baptist. Elizabeth stood at the end of a line of Old Testament women, like Sarah, Rachel and Hannah who struggled to become pregnant. Each of them eventually became mothers to significant sons.

 In Mary, however, God did a new thing, choosing to father a child supernaturally through a girl on the cusp of womanhood, (in 1^st century Jewish eyes), ahead of her wedding. Joseph’s initial reluctance to marry her in this condition would confirm he was not the birth father  but the adoptive father.

LINEAGE

An adoptive father was considered a fully-fledged father  and Jesus could legitimately claim Joseph’s lineage as his own. 

Joseph’s two gospel genealogies demonstrate that Joseph was of the tribe of Judah, from King David’s line, from which the Messiah was widely expected to come. Isaiah predicted that from David’s father Jesse’s “roots a branch will bear fruit,” (Is.11:1). (The origin of the name Nazareth is thought to be netzer = branch. So that town, however insignificant, would appear a fitting home for Jesus, the ‘branch’.)

Mary’s lineage has not come down to us. It is evident she was partly— and perhaps fully— of the priestly tribe of Levi, since Elizabeth was her relative. Married to the priest Zechariah, Elizabeth would of necessity have been a purebred Levite (See priestly marriage rules in Leviticus 21). A prophet, also called Zechariah, had prophesied centuries before that the throne (Judah) and priesthood ( Levi) would be united in one leader (Zech.6:1-15).

STRONG FAITH

From Mary’s conversation with Gabriel in Luke 1, we understand that she was full of faith, accepting what God had for her, despite the potential shame that such a pregnancy could bring upon her family’s name. In an honour-shame society like that she lived in, this could even cost her her life. Her trust in God is further underlined by her warrior-woman-like song, (Luke1:45-55), that follows the great tradition of women’s songs, like those of Deborah, Hannah and Miriam.

From the perspective of her profile, geography, era and faith, Mary was a good candidate to bear God’s son, Jesus.

JOSEPH

But what clinched it for God and made him choose her? Why does He choose any one person for a role? Why did He choose Sarah, the wife of Abraham, to ultimately become the mother of as many offspring as the stars in the sky or grains of sand on the shore (Gen.22:17)? The answer has to be because she was the wife of a man of unwavering faith: Abraham.

So, perhaps it was Joseph's qualities that made God choose Mary. Joseph was a man ‘faithful to the law’ (Mat.1:19). God knew the two would bring Jesus up in faith and love of the Scriptures.

THE FOOLISH THINGS TO SHAME THE WISE?

That doesn’t seem enough, does it? We want more tangible reasons. But, try as we might to get closer to what made this pair so special, ultimately, we have to accept that God had His reasons, which we may not always know.   

God chose Mary and Joseph because He chose Mary and Joseph. His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways, Isaiah explains. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are (His) ways higher than (our) ways and (His) thoughts than (our) thoughts,” (Is.55:8-9).

Bobbie Ann Cole is a Christian writer, speaker and writing teacher, who is currently writing Mary of Nazareth’s story. Check out her coaching, courses and free groups here.