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He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers”
– Luke 1:54-55
One of the most striking bits of content in Mary’s God-exalting song is her reference to Abraham in verse 55. Mary finishes her song of praise to our Triune God by proclaiming that our God has remembered “to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever” (Luke 1:54-55).
Why does Mary, who lived at the dawn of the first century AD, mention Abraham who lived 2,000 years before she did? To put things in perspective, we 21st century Christians are as far removed in history from Mary (2,000 years), as Mary was from the patriarch Abraham (2,000 years). But despite this enormous time gap, she highlights our God’s relationship with Abraham in her God-honoring song. The question her song forces us to consider is, what was it about God’s relationship to Abraham that had made such an impression on the pregnant virgin Mary? Why did Mary mention Abraham in her song?
When we flip back to the pages of Genesis, we see that God had made a permanent, unalterable covenant of grace with Abraham and his descendants after him (Genesis 12:1-25:11). God promised Abraham multiple times that in addition to bringing covenant faithfulness and blessing to all of Abraham’s divinely chosen descendants, all of the nations of the earth would also be blessed in his “seed.” What this specifically means, as the Apostle Paul explains in Galatians 3:15-24, is that a particular descendant (seed) of Abraham would bless both Abraham’s descendants and all the nations of the world. In fact, the covenant of grace with Abraham would culminate and be fulfilled in this seed.
Eventually, the patriarch Abraham died, but his family, who became the people known as the Israelites, continued to live on, until finally, after 2,000 years had passed, history arrived at Abraham’s very distant descendant, the virgin Mary. And it was this humble young girl, whom God chose to give the grand privilege of bringing the promised seed of Abraham into the world – Jesus.
Mary’s song is exceptional in terms of its theological depth – it is no superficial jingle. She starts in Luke 1:46 by saying “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Magnifying is the process of recognizing God’s greatness and declaring His grandeur before others. Doing this puts God in His proper place as King, and us in our proper place as servants belonging to Him.
Then, in Luke 1:47, Mary calls God her Savior. Mary knew that the God she worshipped was a God who saves. Since Mary and her family would have surely celebrated the Passover annually, she knew that years ago the Lord had saved Israel from the heavy-hand of the Egyptians. What she would come to find out – about 33 years after she first sang this song – was that the Lord would save his people again, but this time through the life, death, and resurrection of the Son that she was presently carrying in her womb.
Here’s why Mary’s Song matters – it reminds us that we belong to a God who is faithful. Two-thousand years had passed between God’s promise to Abraham of a “seed” and Mary’s conception of that “seed.” Two-thousand years seems like a really long time, but we can see that God’s promise was fulfilled right on time – according to His perfect plan. Now, in the year 2020 AD it has been about 2,000 years since Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father, which to us humans, again, seems like a really long time. But Jesus has promised us that He will come back to earth to gather up His people, and based upon our Triune God’s track record, we know that He will certainly do this. So then, with Mary, we rejoice in God our Savior, who has already pardoned all of our sins and will one day usher us into His glorious eternal kingdom – in His time.
~ Mark Elffers