Luke 1: 26-30
” In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.'”
Luke the historian has researched a great deal of information that the other gospels did not share, or did not have access to. God’s messengers are very active prior to the time of our Lord’s birth. Such visits were not unheard of in the time of patriarchs, but they were exceedingly rare. Here are two such events within six months of each other.
The angel tells Mary that she is highly favored and that the Lord is with her. She rightly wonders what kind of greeting this might be.
In each case, the angelic message includes the words, “Do not be afraid…”
Clearly, angels are something to be afraid of. Not because they are scary in the monster movie sense of the word, but because of some other characteristic related to their holiness and their power. The word “awesome” comes to mind. They are so awesome that people become awe struck.
Q: How many kinds of greetings can you think of and what kind of greeting do you Mary finally decided that the angel had given her?
I love that when the Lord communicates with His people, He often begins with “do not be afraid” or that someone is highly esteemed (we see this a lot in Daniel as well). Here, telling Mary that she is highly favored and that the Lord is with her would have to be comforting. This is especially comforting considering what some of this news would go on to entail. It is good to be favored of the Lord.
A few weeks ago I read through the story of Balaam. The greeting of the Angel of the Lord was very different to Balaam than meetings between angels with people like Mary, Zachariah, Joshua, etc… While the interactions vary there is a kindness or gentleness when angels interact with those who follow after God. Sometimes they can be blunt or even give a reprimand, but the attitude is different (like with Zachariah). With Balaam however, the Angel of the Lord tells him that if his donkey weren’t wiser than Balaam the Angel would have killed him (Nathan Paraphrase : -). There is a rough or harshness to how the Angel interacts with the enemies of Yahweh.