Lesson 4

ALL IS READY

The years rolled by. God was ever at work among this people that He had established. He was teaching and preparing them for the crowning point of His plan. He wanted them to recognize the One whom He would send to them.

But, like all of us, the Jews were slow to learn. God gave them so much, He was so close to them. And yet they turned away from Him. Whenever their affairs went smoothly, whenever they became too comfortable, they grew selfish. They thought only of their own selves and forgot their duty to God and to their fellowmen.

God sent special messengers, called prophets (nabi), to call them back to true love and worship, but they did not listen. The only way they could learn was for God to strip them of the wealth and comforts that so easily blinded them and made slaves of them. Only famine, war, or disease seemed able to bring them to face reality.

Like all of us, they needed some trial or suffering to remind them that they were not sufficient for themselves. They needed God to call them back to Himself.

This cycle was repeated again and again in their history – riches and prosperity, which in time led to forgetfulness of God; then God’s call to them to come back, their deafness, then some disaster, which finally brought them back to their Father in their need.

If, I am honest, I can see that God deals with me in the same way, because I act towards Him in the same way. When all goes well I ignore Him; when trouble comes I run back to Him. 

Slowly God taught His people in this way. Slowly He prepared them for a great event.

 A MESSAGE TO MARY 

We have seen how God called different persons for special tasks in His great plan: Abraham, Moses, the prophets with their warnings to the Jews when they forgot their Lord.

Now the climax is reached. God is about to send His own Son into the midst of His people to complete His plan for their liberation from the slavery of their sins. God’s own Son, Himself God, is about to become a real man and take upon Himself the burden of our sins.

For this He will need a point of entry into our human race. He will need a door. But such a door for such a task will have to be pure and spotless. It must not be used for any unworthy purpose. God had prepared such a door for His own Son. Again we can read it in the Bible:

“When the sixth month came, God sent His messenger, Gabriel, to a city of Galilee called Nazareth where a young girl dwelt, betrothed to a man of David’s lineage; his name was Joseph, and the girl’s name was Mary. Into her presence the angel came and said, `Hail, you who are full of grace; the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.