Come Follow Me LDS- Christmas Part 2- Mary & Elizabeth

'Mary & Elizabeth'

-  Gabriel visits the young Mary

-  Mary visits Elizabeth. They have a conversation.

-  Mary is the fulfillment of prophecy

-  Zacharias prophecies of the Oath & Covenant of the priesthood

 

 

 

all right so this is part two of the

Christmas series I want to start off

talking just briefly again about John

the Baptist and bringing the prophecy of

the birth of Christ in and coupled with

the prophecy that you prophecy of John

the Baptist

it's important to remember that these

were a coupling right that this was

everything to do with John the Baptist

had been foretold by the prophets

previously even in the Book of Mormon

even Nephi is telling us about John the

Baptist he is the preparer of the way

this is where we have again the joining

of the preparatory priesthood and the

Melchizedek Priesthood or the priesthood

after the order of the son remember the

birth of Christ here is all about the

title the son of God so it's

bringing these together here in the

Gospels as we talk about John the

Baptist and about Jesus Christ when

later thirty years later here Christ

comes to John the Baptist at the waters

of the Jordan what we have there is not

just that image you know of Christ being

baptized by John in the Jordan but what

we have there is a image of the Aaronic

priesthood John the Baptist and the

Melchizedek Priesthood in Jesus Christ

right John baptizes with water

an ironic priesthood ritual and

ordinance and Jesus Christ can baptize

with the Holy Ghost

right when we are confirmed a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day

saints and we receive the gift of the

Holy Ghost that is a Melchizedek

Priesthood ordinance and so those two

are brought together there in that scene

in that baptismal scene but it starts 30

years earlier here

with Gabriel appearing to Zacharias

which whose name by the way means

Jehovah remembers Yahweh remembers right

he remembers the covenant and it's

coming now through the priest Zacharias

to his son and then we'll have the Lord

being born to Mary so after Zacharias

and his group go home and they are gone

now from the temple for six months

Gabriel makes a second visit and this

time it is to the young handmaiden to

the young Virgin Mary first the visit

was for John the Baptist the preparer

and now the visit is for the King Jesus

Christ so Gabriel visits Mary in a town

called Nazareth in the province of

Galilee and Luke tells us in verse 27

that he visits a virgin espoused - or

betrothed to write a fiancée of a man

named Joseph who is of the house of

David there being very specific both

Matthew and Luke are very specific about

the genealogies in showing that Jesus is

a Davidic King and descends from royalty

and Gabriel says to Mary and we can

again imagine just like with Zachariah

sure you have a visitation of an angel

missus probably Mary as a very young

woman probably completely overwhelmed by

this visit but what he says to her is

hail thou art highly favored

with ads and chosen of the Lord blessed

art thou among women and what he is

doing here in introducing Mary to us the

the author's here and Gabriel is that

they are showing that she is in a sense

kind of a third part of this overall

prophecy where we have John the Baptist

as the preparer then Jesus as the king

but the third figure in these

Annunciations here and in the

fulfillment of this prophecy is the

mother of Jesus Christ the mother of

Jehovah Mary she also is a fulfillment

of prophecy and so as we read about her

it's important to understand that this

isn't just something new that has been

brought up in to her and a Joseph right

all people used to look forward to her

before probably the time of Babylon and

Lehi etc but there are still several

pockets of people that would know about

the lady that would know about the

mother and the Virgin she is part of the

prophecy we can see her also as stated

in the last episode along with John the

Baptist and the baby Jesus in me Phi's

vision she is there in fact she's the

first one mentioned in the condescension

of God so she is the fulfillment of

prophecy also and Gabriel says to her in

31 behold thou shalt conceive in thy

womb and bring forth a son and shall

call his name Jesus this is also

important first of all let's go back to

Mary in the infancy gospel of James

which was whether we look at it as

doctrine or not which we don't but it

was revered by the very early Christians

and in that gospel there is

story about Mary and she is basically

brought up in or at the temple

she is a pure woman she is a righteous

individual and she as a young woman is

at the temple and she helps weave the

veil because she's gonna be a mom

because women are the Veil the veil

represents physical matter and it's

women who provide the physical

Tabernacles that we all have

remember that Mary's name in Hebrew is

Median by just like the sister of

Moses and Miriam means woman so kind of

like Eve is the icon of with her name

is given a definition as the mother

of all living

medium or the woman also is the mother

of the Savior and people have probably

been talking about her giving stories

and repeating oral traditions and

reading from perhaps older scripture

about her for centuries and centuries

maybe millennia and she wouldn't know

about this right she's probably a part

of one of those pockets or those groups

that's my guess that were persecuted

that were outcasts from the

establishment in Zechariah and Elizabeth

were probably the same way so when

Gabriel tells her that what is going to

happen here that she is going to have a

son and she's going to call his name

Jesus and that he is the son of God not

only is this overwhelming to her but

it's not the first time she would have

heard about this she would have heard

about this over and over and over again

and now just realizing that this is her

so you can imagine kind of in pulling

back the layers of history and story

here getting into her experience and

her mind maybe just a little bit of a

taste of what she is going through here

and the realization the awakening that

would just be overwhelming for her and

Gabriel continues and says here in verse

32 he shall be great and shall be called

the son of the highest you'll notice

here in these types of terms when we're

especially focusing on Jesus being in

mortality or Jehovah coming down into

mortality you're going to see the term

the son and the son of God here

the son of the highest often and

remember this is the exact term by the

way the son of the highest that was

found in the Dead Sea Scrolls before

Jesus was ever born so this here this is

fulfillment of prophecy just like when

Moroni comes to Joseph Smith in his room

three times one night remember what does

he do he's repeating prophecy he goes

over it and over it and over it from

Joel and Malachi etc that I think is

what Gabriel is doing here he's saying

you are the lady you are the mother that

has been prophesied about and your son

one of the titles that had been used in

prophecy was the son of the highest just

like we read in the Dead Sea Scrolls and

he continues here and says and the Lord

God shall give unto Him the throne so he

is the king the throne of his father

David also a fulfillment of prophecy now

another thing to realize here is when he

tells her that his name shall be Jesus

remember that essentially Jesus means

the Savior right it means Savior so when

we say together the full phrase or name

of Jesus Christ in a sense we are saying

the Messiah the Savior or the Messiah

who is the savior so again he's not just

the Messiah he is Jehovah he is God

and then Mary says to Gabriel houses to

be i don't know a man he's never been

with a man and Gabriel answers and says

and the angel answered and said unto her

the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and

the power of the highest shall

overshadow thee therefore also that holy

thing or child which shall be born of

thee shall be called the son of God

there it is again this is what is

crucial right and this is probably a

confirmation we don't know for sure that

Joseph and Mary and Zacharias and

Elizabeth were part of a sect that had a

hold on to previous traditions right of

the older traditions that they still

knew about the Son of God that they

still knew about the prepare of the way

but there's a good chance that they may

have been that there's a lot of evidence

that says that they were the ones that

were kind of the outcasts on the outside

of the established theocratic system

here so they recognize what is going on

Mary knows exactly what these titles

mean that they are a long-lost truth

that are held now by probably only AI

minority of the Jews there's probably

echoes of this all over including among

the Sadducees and the Pharisees but they

want to squelch it out so from the

outside looking in Mary and Joseph and

in Zacharias and Elizabeth they know

about this they have been looking

forward to this they just didn't know it

was coming from them and then Gabriel

says and behold thy cousin Elizabeth she

hath also conceived a son in her old age

and this is the sixth month with her who

was called barren so here Jesus then is

going to be a similar age to John the

Baptist roughly about six months younger

so we have these two miraculous births

one to an aging couple and one to the

Virgin Mary it needs to be very

clear that all of this is coming from

the hand of God and so Mary replies to

Gabriel very different from the way

Zacharias replied to Gabriel and she

says Behold the handmaid of the Lord be

it unto me according to thy word and the

angel departed from her so she doesn't

look for how this is gonna happen she

doesn't look for a sign she simply has

faith and then we get here this image

this important part of the story where

we're going to join the two mothers

together we have the very young Mary and

the elderly Elizabeth that are going to

be joined together and so soon after

this visit from Gabriel to Mary she

leaves and she goes out to a city in

Judah somewhere where Elizabeth and

Zacharias are and she stays there for

three months this would be the last

trimester of Elizabeth's pregnancy and

when she meets Elizabeth this is what

Elizabeth says blessed art thou among

women this is what Gabriel said and

blessed is the fruit of thy womb she

knows what's going on she is repeating

prophecy and in fact most of what is

repeated here in this short conversation

these words of these two wonderful

women these two mothers amongst

themselves is a recitation of poetry and

prophecy that Luke is giving us and so

Elizabeth also knows who Mary now is now

they are cousins it says that means

basically that they are relatives or

perhaps even just country men you could

say but there's some

relationship they're not cousins as we

would think of cousins in a modern

Western world but probably some type of

a relationship that remember that

Zacharias and Elizabeth

are from priestly families and when I

say priestly I mean they are they are

from Aaron directly Zacharias is from

Erin and Elizabeth is from Aaron so

they're very strongly arenites

within the Levitical tradition within

the Levitical genealogy Jesus of course

is from Judah but may also have some

Levitical ancestors as well but they may

not be really close in their

relationship their familial

relationship but Elizabeth knows now who

Mary is and what I mean by that is she

knows that Mary is the mother of the

Lord that she is the one that Elizabeth

has undoubtedly heard of over and over

again in prophecy and so she says

blessed art thou among women and blessed

is the fruit of thy womb just like

Gabriel and once is this to me that the

mother of my lord this is a title so to

speak the mother of the Lord that the

mother of my lord should come to me and

then she seems to continue to fulfill

prophecy here with her words when

she says to Mary and blessed is she that

believed right again unlike Zacharias

that looks like something that was

supposed to be part of the prophecy that

she would believe the words of Gabriel

of the Lord and there shall be a

performance of those things which were

told her from the Lord in other words

all this will be fulfilled and then in

response to this Mary has about the you

know more or less the next ten verses

here from verses 46 to 55 and her words

are make up something that is called the

Magnificat and this is something that is

sung in church services all over the

world again this seems like if it was

translated back into Hebrew and brought

back into Hebrew this seems like poetry

or something that would have been

written as prophecy that would have kind

of been sung or repeated in an oral

tradition and we get this recurring

theme again about the condescension of

God the way that he is lowering himself

here Mary's

and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my

Savior for he hath regarded the lowest

state full of his handmaiden so you know

her humility she is not anything you

know great of the world in in possession

and of renowned etc but what she is

chosen what she is righteous but

she's in a more humble circumstance for

behold from henceforth all generations

shall call me blessed again she knows

who she is now her identity is now tied

to the prophets of old since the

beginning of time back all the way to

Adam and then in 51 she says something

really interesting she says he hath

shewed strength with his arm he has

scattered the proud and the imagination

of their hearts now before we get into

the proud here the first part of this

verse he hath shewed strength with his

arm

I really wonder here if this isn't from

Isaiah 53 verse 1 this is also part of

what a Benedict goes over with the

priests of Noah and that if the strength

of his arm of God's arm is not it looks

to me like they're talking about Jehovah

they're talking about Jesus Christ here

as the one who is the strength of God's

arm and if that's the case it may be a

repeat of what is being told us in 53 1

and that the strength of his arm is

Jesus Christ which is very different

than the way many biblical scholars

interpret isaiah 53:1 just a thought

it would go right along with what i

believe is going down with a Ben and I

and the priests of Noah and then back to

the second part of that verse he says he

hath scattered the proud in the

imagination of their hearts and he hath

put down the mighty from their seats and

exalted them of low degree

he's basically turning everything on its

head right that's what Jesus is going to

do because condescending down into this

world where the rules and the laws are

wrong and carnal and temporal he's going

to turn that all on its head because his

rules are eternal and spiritual and so

in that sense we can think about the

first shall be last and the last shall

be first right the first of the world

maybe they're going to be last and the

last of this world in that sense may end

up being more the first the poor blessed

are the poor poor of spirit poor

financially poor of the means of society

this becomes a theme of Jesus throughout

his teachings in his ministry but I

think that also we need to keep in mind

here that as they're talking about this

as if this is what Jesus's mission is

and what he's going to do well all the

way through this story of Christmas of

the Nativity and of John and in Jesus we

are surrounded with mostly people that

are probably of a low estate and of a

low degree it seems to me that these are

individuals here that we're talking

about that are kind of on the fringe a

little bit of the established religion

and of the established society in

Jerusalem Zacharias may be a priest by

lineage but that doesn't mean that he's

well accepted based on what he believes

and Joseph and Mary don't seem to have a

lot of means even though they are

descended from David and they are not

living inside of the walls of Jerusalem

with high society and are in a palace

they are out in Galilee where they the

Jews are a minority separated by the

Samaritans

and they bring up a couple of other

words here that I think are important

here Mary says he hath hoping his or

helped his servant Israel in remembrance

of his mercy well what is his mercy we

can just see that as a broad word the

love of God for mankind but the mercy

here is the atoning sacrifice of Jesus

Christ of the Son of God so if these are

words that are similar to what Mary

actually said at this time she is

talking about prophecy she is talking

about mercy

that would have been prophesied from all

of the prophets since the beginning of

time

she would be talking about the sacrifice

sacrifice of Jesus Christ that is the

mercy of God and she qualifies this what

she just says here about mercy and the

next verse and says as he spake to our

fathers to Abraham and to his seed

forever in other words we're in the

minority here in believing in the Son of

God but this has been preached since the

beginning of time and now it's being

fulfilled this is the environment that

they're coming into and so these two

women are together understanding that

they are fulfilling the prophecy of all

of these prophets of what has been

spoken of for hundreds and thousands of

years would be great to be a fly on the

wall at Elizabeth's house and just see

what a few of their conversations apart

from this one were or really like who

was going to believe them there had been

miracles people knew about Zacharias

they knew about what he said about the

visit of Gabriel they know

that that Elizabeth was too old to get

pregnant they know that Zacharias is

deaf and dumb and that he hasn't been

able to speak or to hear for 6 2

nine months here and now they may know

that marry those around them has also

had a visitor Gabriel but there is a lot

of pressure on them I would think right

I mean who is this really what is really

happening this is a mystery and a lot of

people don't take kindly to this kind of

thing

a lot of people talked about Mary as

being a harlot or somebody who cheated

on Joseph or was promiscuous so as

exciting as all of this was and as it

would continue to be this was not going

to be easy they are in the minority of

believers and certainly not in power and

in a theocratic state like Judea what is

about to happen here is going to go

against everything that has been taught

for centuries and completely against the

power structure of Judea so Mary stays

here for about three months what is hard

to tell from the scriptures here is

whether or not she was there when John

the Baptist was born it says she stayed

for three months which would be right

about the time that John would be born

but Elizabeth's full time came that she

should be delivered and she brought

forth a son and it came to pass in verse

59 that on the eighth day they came to

circumcise the child this is kind of

interesting here because Joseph Smith

tells us in the Old Testament that

circumcision on the eighth day of a

man-child was a representation of being

baptized at eight years old and here we

have John the Baptist so this is when he

would receive his name when he would

kind of officially become a part of

Israel and so there's a lot of people

that are gathered around you can think

about the hustle and bustle that has

been going on for the last nine months

for Elizabeth's family and friends and

for the neighbors and the gossip that's

going on and what's going to happen here

people are going to want to see this

baby and so on the eighth day john the

Baptists

is circumcised and they call him this

would be those that are conducting the

circumcision here they call the baby

Zacharias after after the name of the

father but his mother Elizabeth says no

no you can't call him Zacharias but he

needs to be called John and so they

turned a Zacharias and say well they

don't say anything they can't he can't

hear this is how we know he was also

deaf they make signs and write out what

is the name of the baby and Zacharias

writes down the signs and he the letters

and he says John and they're astonished

is that was not a name that was not a

family name and immediately as he does

that his tongue is loosed and now he can

hear because remember what the what

consequence was or the curse was for

Zacharias for not believing Gabriel the

curse was that until John was born and

was given the name John he would not be

able to speak or hear so now he can

speak and he can hear there's probably a

lot been bottled up with him over the

last nine months and so he comes out and

he prophesies and the people around him

are saying well what kind of a

child is this this is a miracle that

this has happened and now he's

prophesying so again a sign and a lot of

hustle and bustle that would be going on

here around this people know who John is

and what the story is the backstory on

him it would not be hard for him to

gather a following pretty early on when

he goes out and begins his ministry

so Zacharias is filled with the Holy

Ghost and he says blessed be the Lord

God of Israel for he hath visited and

redeemed his people right so he has the

Holy Ghost but again he knows the

prophecies and he knows what is

happening and that this is the

fulfillment of those prophecies a

portion of those prophecies

and in verse 70 he says here also this

is really important to understand the

the cognitive dissonance here and the

difference in theology between the

establishment and the majority which do

not believe in the Son of God and that

Jehovah is coming down to earth and

those that would be in the minority like

Zacharias and Elizabeth here and maybe

Mary right he says as he spake by the

mouth that the Redeemer was here as he

spake by the mouth of his holy prophets

which have been since the world began

he is prophesying he is giving testimony

of something very different than what

the majority of the Jews believed than

what those in power believed and that

those in power did not want anybody else

believing this they had their own Dogma

something that you know as I call the

Nehor principle the head evolved and

then been hit pretty hard a couple times

several centuries before where the

doctrine of Christ was chipped away at

and then completely removed so this

isn't just an exclamation of

fulfillment of prophecy but this is a

testimony going against the common

belief of their society and he also says

Zacharias also says he's there to

perform the mercy promised to our

fathers this would be Christ and to

remember his holy Covenant well why does

he need to remember the Covenant he

needs to remember the Covenant because

it's the higher covenant it's the new

and everlasting covenant of the

priesthood represented by the

Melchizedek Priesthood represented by

the higher ordinances of the temple

these things are all gone they don't

exist that's why it has to be remembered

it is a restoration they know this they

know this from the old traditions the

old oral traditions and teachings and

many things that would have been written

know

maybe they had books of zenok and zenus

and Miam or maybe they had versions of

Isaiah that clearly spelled out the Son

of God as the suffering servant they

certainly knew Daniels prophecy and knew

that it was around this time that the

Messiah would be here and then he adds

something again really important here in

73 talks about the new and everlasting

covenant and what would go along with

that new and everlasting covenant here

it is right here this is pure Joseph

Smith right here 73 the oath which he

swore to our father Abraham that's what

he's remembering as well the oath that

goes along with the oath and covenant of

the Melchizedek Priesthood that oath is

of the promised land

of exaltation of the holy of holies and

it is only achieved through the mercy

and redemption offered by the sacrifice

and mercy of Jesus Christ they know all

of this they are Jews and they know all

of this that's important to understand

so that's a big part of this conflicting

environment that they're in

understanding this gives us a new nuance

as to their attitudes and perspectives

on not only what is happening right now

but the events that are going to

transpire here very shortly and then

also what we read as we go through the

Gospels in Zacharias continues here in

verse 79 he that the Savior is going

to give light to them that sit in

darkness think of the beginning of the

Gospel of John and in the shadow of

death and then here again to guide our

feet into the way of peace this makes me

think about also a Ben and I and the

priests of Noah the very central

scriptures of that conflict which is

between what it's between those that

believe in the doctrine of Christ and

those that do believe in the doctrine of

Christ or the one that believes in the

doctrine of Christ have been a die and

then eventually Alma this looks a lot

like Isaiah 52 7 to 10 that is the

axis scriptures on which revolved the

entire argument of not only Obinna died

in the priests and Noah but really of

the entire Book of Mormon that is about

Christ and his servants and then finally

in the last verse of the chapter and

verse 80 this is about John Luke says

and the child grew and waxed strong in

spirit and was in the deserts till the

day of his shooing unto Israel when he

goes out and prepares the way for the

King Jesus Christ to come through in his

procession to the tempter I'll talk to

you next time