A fascinating piece appeared in The Wall Street Journal concerning the skill levels of new hires. Or, rather, the lack of skills, even in fields such as engineering.

Firms are taking in new graduates only to discover that while they might know much, they can’t actually do anything, not even basic things that every engineer is supposed to know. The reason is that most of these kids have only done Zoom classes. They have no practical experience.

Think of this. The freshman class of 2020 got hit with virus mania in the spring, and in-person classes ended. Their sophomore year was awful, just staring at a screen. When they came back, if they did, they had to wear masks and get jabbed and jabbed again. Their junior year was more of the same nonsense, with off-and-on classes but seriously truncated experiences. Then they graduated.

So much for college. So much for the six figures of debt they accumulated in these years. And so much for learning by doing.

It all serves as a reminder. Skills come from what we do, including screw-ups, failures, adaptations, and gradually getting better at something, anything, whatever it is. Without hands-on experience, the only skill you learn is rote memorization and gaming the system. To be sure, today’s college graduates are very good at that, but their skills are severely lacking in many practical areas of life.

What are young people prepared for? Maybe a Zoom job pretending to work in a management position—exactly the sort that’s vanishing as major corporations are desperately cutting labor costs by purging management of its outrageous excesses. It goes on daily. When CVS announced huge layoffs, it made it clear that there would be no losses among the people who are “customer facing.” Those people remain in huge demand.

But how many of today’s college graduates are even prepared to stand behind a checkout counter and speak coherently to people, much less handle money or deal with scanning codes and the like? Not many.

I’m sure you have noticed this in general since the onset of the digital age, when everyone was tempted by the idea that we would migrate to the cloud and dispense with the burdens of physical reality. It turns out to be one of the greatest lies ever told. The costs are huge.

Real skills are what make the world work. We’ve got an entire generation, or maybe two, that simply lacks skills we once took for granted.

Let’s just consider one example: ironing clothes. It so happens that I’m a real expert in this skill, at least as compared with most other people I know. This is because I worked in clothing stores for years and learned under real experts. I developed the skill myself and now do all that’s involved without thinking about it.

But, yesterday, I was ironing a white cotton shirt and began to think through all that could go wrong but didn’t go wrong. There are so many variables. Steam or not? Starch and, if so, how much? What’s the right temperature setting? How does one know if the fabric is getting too hot and on the verge of being scorched?

Should the sleeve have a crease? And what of the cuffs? And do both sides need to be ironed or only one? What’s the best way to navigate around buttons without accidentally popping them off? How can a collar be positioned on the ironing board in a way that’s most effective and efficient? How long should ironing a shirt take—5 minutes or 25 minutes—and what’s the reasonable expectation?

It might all seem easy by description, but it simply isn’t. I’ve spent years screwing up every aspect of this process. I’ve scorched collars, broken buttons, creased cuffs, and clumped up the starch. My skills improved gradually over time by virtue of making errors. And this is with only one type of clothing. Taking on a wool suit introduces a full range of other problems.

Honestly, I can’t think of anyone I know under the age of 30 who knows how to do any of this. As a result, most people don’t iron at all. They just mill around with rumpled clothing or only wear stuff that requires no ironing at all. The skill itself has experienced a cultural atrophy, so far as I can tell.

But that’s just the beginning of it. Real expertise takes years and stakes that are much higher. Engineering is an obvious case, but there are less obvious ones. There’s a butcher in town of whom I’m in complete awe. He runs a bone-cutting machine that’s the meanest and most potentially vicious thing I’ve ever seen. Someone will order a rack of ribs, and he grabs a big carcass from the refrigerator. He throws it on the machine and shoves it this way and that, moving the bones and meat with incredible expertise.

I watch him because it’s at once terrifying and wildly impressive. It seems like he’s hardly paying attention and moves like lightning through all meats: chickens, goats, lambs, or anything. It’s awesome. And consider: one wrong move, and he would be missing a finger, a hand, or an arm. Just observing his work makes one’s heart race. It’s utterly beautiful.

You think you’ll never need this skill because others have them. Fine. But real skills are needed in everyday life. Cooking is an example. Just making a burger in a skillet isn’t as easy as people think. You have to know how to shape the meat, and it depends on how lean the mince is because that determines how it will respond to the heat.

You need to know how hot the skillet should be. You need to know when to deglaze the pan so that the sugars in the fat will adhere to the meat and become more delicious. You need to know when to take the burger out of the pan with knowledge that it will continue to cook as it cools.

None of this knowledge comes from ebooks or screens. It’s simply not possible to learn to cook this way. Even recipe books are of limited value. You can’t just follow a list of ingredients and cause a dish to magically appear.

For years, I baked bread. I started in college to use the resulting loaves as a tool in bartering for services. I did this because I was poor. It mostly worked. More importantly, I gained a life skill. Perhaps, I followed a recipe early on but gave it up quickly. I haven’t looked at a recipe in many years. I’ve taught others to bake bread, but only by showing and doing. It isn’t possible to learn how to knead dough by reading about it. It’s something that one has to do.

The loss of skills is having a profound effect on our lives. Sales of older homes are taking a dramatic dive simply because there are no workers available to do the necessary repairs. The few people out there who know plaster repair, wiring, or roofing are too expensive, and the wait is too long. Instead, people are buying new or just renting.

It’s true in car repair, too, which is why you have to wait a week or longer to get even the simplest task done. The loss of skills is even affecting the vaunted transition to green energy. If there aren’t enough engineers who can do things, it simply can’t happen.

And, yet, the economic transition away from bloated management structures back to doing actual work is happening very quickly, leaving an entire generation raised on TikTok and Zoom at a loss. We somehow managed to rob millions of the ability to be useful to others. This is true regardless of how many degrees they carry.

From 2020 to the present, people without actual medical skills, but rather only theories plus force, took over public health in most parts of the world. Look at the mess they made! This is what happens when abstract knowledge overrides real experience. You can destroy the world this way.

How to repair the problem? Start small. Iron a shirt. Make a hamburger. Clean a bathroom. It doesn’t matter what it is precisely. Just be useful, and see just how hard it truly is.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Watchman Research Media

Copyright © 2023 Jeffrey A. Tucker Author

 

Isaiah prophesied that a king would come who would reign like no other. Details of his reign are given: his birth; his ministry in ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’; his lineage, from the line of Jesse; his anointing to do God’s work. Anyone who doubts the validity of Christ’s claim to kingship needs to look back to the accuracy of Isaiah’s predictions.

For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from the [latter] time forth, even forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us) Isaiah 7:14).

In scripture we find the word “Mashiah” which means “anointed one”. The term was applied to the High Priest (Leviticus 4:23); the King (2 Sam 1:14) and also prophets of God (Psalms 105:15). It speaks of these men being set apart by God for God, and with the power of God helping them. However, at a later date we find Daniel predicting that after the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, a period of time would pass after which the Messiah (meaning Anointed one) would come (Daniel 9:25).

In this prophecy he uses the word “Messiah” as a title. This caused the Jews to speak freely of the one to come as The ‘Messiah’. Scripture reveals that the one to come will be the supreme Anointed One. He will be the one who fulfills the offices of prophet, priest and king, which were only shadows that pointed to Him.

Biblical prophecy (including Messianic prophecy) is unique amongst all the religious books of the world. It covers a vast period of time and includes all the nations involved in the history of Israel. The prophecies reveal God as the only God of history.

He is the Master of all events and can work through both good and bad to bring about His purposes. One example of this perfect mastery of all events is seen in Micah’s prophecy foretelling the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Micah went on to say that the King is going to come from the little village of Bethlehem:

But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of Judah; yet out of you shall One come forth for Me Who is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth (origins) have been from of old, from ancient days (eternity) (Micah 5:2).

Beth means ‘house’ and lehem means ‘bread’, so the name literally means ‘house of bread’. It was this little village that supplied corn to Jerusalem, as well as lambs for sacrifice. The above prophecy refers to Christ is seen from Matthew 2:1

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men astrologers from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, Where is He Who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east at its rising and have come to worship Him.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Herod conferred with Jewish hierarchy about their prophecies to ascertain Bethlehem from Micah 5:2.  The Jews and wise men would have been familiar with Daniel’s prophecy (9:25-26) and known the timing was upon them for the Messiah.

That it Might be Fulfilled

Matthew refers to the Old Testament more than any of the other Gospels. One of his favorite sayings is ‘that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets’. This is seen in particular in Matthew’s birth narrative.

He takes a long time explaining why Jesus was born in Bethlehem–because the prophets had predicted that Bethlehem of Judaea would be the birthplace of the king. During the time of the Roman Empire, several special taxations were ordered. Under the rule of Caesar Augustus one of these taxations was levied for years before the birth of Jesus. The Jewish people protested against this order, yet were overruled. However this delayed the enforcement of this taxation order for four years, bringing us to the time of Jesus’ birth.

Under the order Joseph and Mary were required to be present in Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7) and so prophecy was fulfilled. Mary and Joseph later returned to Nazareth, thus fulfilling Messianic prophecy that stated the Messiah would be called a Nazarene (Matthew 2:23).

Yet this would be crucially important for Jews wondering if this was the Messiah God had promised long ago. “Behold, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel—which, when translated, means, God with us (Matthew 1:23).

Matthew is keen for readers to understand that the prophets spoke of the birth to a virgin, the slaughter of the innocents, the flight into Egypt and the return to Galilee. The phrase ‘that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets’ occurs 13 times in the story of Jesus’ birth, where Matthew quotes Micah, Hosea, Jeremiah and Isaiah.

From the very beginning, Matthew focuses his readers’ attention on Christ’s ancestry in the royal line of David, describing how his birth fulfils prophecy and has the marks of God’s involvement, heralded by archangels and welcomed by an angelic choir. While Luke includes the shepherds, it is Matthew who records the worship of the child by wise men from the east.

The Wise Men

Most people are familiar with the Wise Men who followed a star to Bethlehem. Whilst they have been commonly regarded as Gentiles, it is more likely that they were descendants of the Jews who had been left behind in Babylon after the Exile.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen, from David to the Babylonian exile (deportation) fourteen generations, from the Babylonian exile to the Christ fourteen generations (Matthew 1:17).

They had remembered the prophecy of Balaam that a star would arise out of Israel to be the King of the Nations. I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but He is not near. A Star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall crush all the corners of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth…. (Numbers 24:17).  So when the wise men or astrologers from the east saw His star in the east they followed it. Their presence in Matthew’s birth account says much about the importance of Christ’s incarnation.

It is interesting that there will be signs in the sky because the sky responds to significant events on earth. This doesn’t mean that when Wise Men followed the star, it proves astrology is all right. Astrology believes that the position of the stars influences a baby at the moment of birth, but at Bethlehem, it was the position of the baby that influenced the stars!

The Beloved Physician Luke

Luke was a doctor by profession – the apostle Paul refers to him as ‘the beloved physician’ when writing to the Colossian church. Because of his medical background, he was able to bring his considerable skill as a writer and physician to search out diligently and follow all things closely and traced accurately the course from the highest to minutest detail and record what actually took place, even when it was outside medical knowledge or ability.

The birth of Jesus, for example, is told from Mary’s angle. She made her life available to Jesus Christ and she was willing to trust God’s plan for her life. Here was a young girl around 13-14 years old, who is approached by an angel, and he tells her that she is found grace with God and she will become pregnant and will birth to a Messiah she will call His name Jesus (see Luke 1:30-32).

Here again, Matthew’s birth narrative says:

And her promised husband Joseph, being a just and upright man and not willing to expose her publicly and to shame and disgrace her, decided to repudiate and dismiss (divorce) her quietly and secretly. But as he was thinking this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of (from, out of) the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus (the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua), which means Savior, for He will save His people from their sins that is, prevent them from failing and missing the true end and scope of life, which is God (Matthew 1:19-21).

In first-century society, this would be a total disgrace! That’s why Joseph had decided to divorce her quietly and secretly. And yet, Mary basically says, Here am I. Do with me as you please.” Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done according to what you have said (Luke 1:38).

Many times, we wonder what the will of God is for our lives. Let me suggest that you simply say, “Lord, I am willing to obey, even though I don’t completely understand what it is that You’re asking me to do.” That is what Mary did. She didn’t fully understand what the angel Gabriel was telling her, but she obeyed just the same. She took a leap of faith. This is the attitude God looks for in His servants: childlike faith and obedience.

Luke also gives further details of the virgin birth, Jesus’ circumcision, and mentions the swaddling clothes or diapers – all the kind of things a doctor would be interested in. Some doctors are sceptical about anything which is outside the natural, physical realm, but God used a doctor to report the supernatural!

Medicine had been developing for 400 years and doctors received careful training. Luke needed to be observant, analytical and careful in his records – skills which he also uses in giving intimate details of the conception and delivery of Jesus Christ.

And this will be a sign for you by which you will recognize Him: you will find (after searching) a Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12-13).

Luke also records the involvement of the shepherds in witnessing and broadcasting news of the birth of Jesus. He records that Mary and Joseph brought pigeons to the temple for sacrifice at the birth of Jesus. This was the cheapest possible sacrifice allowed under Levitical law (see Leviticus 12:1-4).

And when the time for their purification the mother’s purification and the Baby’s dedication came according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord—As it is written in the Law of the Lord, Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be set apart and dedicated and called holy to the Lord (Luke 2:22-23; see also Exodus 13: 1-2, 12; Numbers 8:17).

The greatest miracle that has ever taken place happened when our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, left His throne in glory and choose to born in a cave in Bethlehem. He could have been born in the most elegant palace on this planet, but instead He was born in a stable in Bethlehem which was cold and damp.

He could have had aristocratic parents who boasted of their status. He could have heard the finest clothes from the most exclusive shops. But He had none of that. Instead, Jesus chose to humble Himself and became poor that through His poverty we might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Our Savior did not come as a Monarch draped in gold and silk, but as baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.  He went from the glory of God to a stable filled with animals. Someone has said that history swings on the hinge of the door of a stable in Bethlehem. Jesus took His place in a manger so that we might have a home in Heaven.

As you enjoy your Christmas today with your loved ones, take time to contemplate what Christmas is really about. It was the day Christ Jesus came into the world to bring us salvation, the most wonderful gift anyone could ever have-and it’s completely free!

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He even gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him (John 3:16-17 AMP).

The most wonderful and most powerful miracle opened the way for the miracle of rebirth –when you are “born again” When you are “born again”- your whole life changes because, just as Jesus came into the world, he comes into our hearts. He came not to condemn us, but to save us from eternal damnation.

Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!

God created a special sinless blood in a very special and involved manner. 800 years before Christ, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah predicted that: Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us) (Isaiah 7:14 AMP).

In the Old Testament, the rules provided for a Jewish lady after giving birth to a son or a daughter was:

When the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb a year old for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering to the door of the Tent of Meeting to the priest; and he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female child (Leviticus 12:6-7).

Did Mary observe this law as required in the Old Testament? The Gospel of Luke tells us that she fulfilled this law:

Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child; so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. The law of the Lord says, “If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the LORD.”So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord—“either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” (Luke 2:22-24).

The Blood of Jesus Christ saved Mary just as it saves all those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The medical profession tells us that the mother’s blood does not pass the placenta, therefore had Mary’s sinful blood flowed in Jesus’ veins there would be no salvation. She is described as a chosen human vessel to incubate God’s Son and bring Him into the world.

Jesus, Himself prophetically tells us that: Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but instead You have made ready a body for Me…… Behold, here I am, coming to do Your will, O God—to fulfil what is written of Me in the volume of the Book (Hebrews 10:5-7).

The life principle which flowed in the veins of this Child was sinless blood; it was human blood as the life of heaven is not blood but the spirit; His DNA was made up of earthly chromosomes from his earthly mother and perfectly created chromosomes from His heavenly Father. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ was fully human and yet fully divine.

Throughout His life, He showed us both sides of His deity. The human side of Him was subject to temptation, remember temptation is not sin. For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning (Hebrew 4:15). The Bible also tells us he learned obedience through His sufferings:

In the days of His flesh Jesus offered up definite, special petitions for that which He not only wanted but needed and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him Who was always able to save Him out from death, and He was heard because of His reverence toward God His godly fear, His piety, in that He shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father. Although He was a Son, He learned active, special obedience through what He suffered (Hebrews 5:7-8 AMP).

Jesus’ Family Misunderstood and Doubted Him

When Jesus was young, Joseph and Mary must have given Him similar treatment to that which they gave to their six or more children. Probably when Mary called the children for dinner, she called their names-Yeshua, James, Simon, Joses, Jude, Judas, and Salome to come for dinner.

The Bible tells us when Jesus grew, He became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him. His parents went to Jerusalem every year to the Passover Feast. When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. After the celebration was over, they went home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t miss him at first, because they assumed he was among the other travellers.

But when he didn’t show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they couldn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son,” his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere (Luke 2:45-52).

Now when his parents were looking for Him, He didn’t even offer an apology. When a Jewish boy reaches 12 years of age he is able to perform a “Bar Mitzvah.” From that time on he is considered a man. At this age, he becomes responsible for his own choices or behaviour. He’s reached an age of accountability.

Up to the age of 12, the parents are punished when a boy does something wrong, but from then on he is responsible for his own choices and for keeping God’s commandments. This sheds further light on the reply Jesus made when Mary found him in the temple. He actually said: But why did you need to search?” He asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they didn’t understand what He meant.

Amazingly when they returned to Nazareth, he was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart. The story reveals that Yeshua knew who He really was, even at the age of 12, but Mary had never told Him who He was. In fact, the Bible doesn’t record Jesus calling Mary “mother.” It seems that Jesus almost dissociated Himself from His mother until the cross.

An example was when a wedding was held at Cana in Galilee. Jesus was there with Mary and His disciples. They ran out of wine and Mary went to Jesus and said: They have no more wine.”Jesus said to her, Dear woman, what is that to you and to Me? What do we have in common? Leave it to Me. My time (hour to act) has not yet come (John 2: 3-4 AMP).

At another time, Jesus is speaking at a public meeting when He is told His mother and brethren were outside, apparently wishing to talk to Him. But He replied: Who is My mother, and who are My brothers? And stretching out His hand toward [not only the twelve disciples but all His adherents, He said, Here are My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother! (Mathew 12-46-50)

One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon He and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. When His family heard what was happening, they tried to Him away saying, “He is out of His mind” (Mark 3: 20).

As Jesus was teaching about the unclean spirits as recorded in the Gospel of Luke chapter 11, a certain woman in the crowd took the opportunity to express her thanks to Mary who brought Jesus into the world. She raised her voice and said to Him, Blessed (happy and to be envied) is the womb that bore You and the breasts that You sucked! But He said, Blessed (happy and to be envied) rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey and practice it! (Luke 11:27).

When a person moves into a born-again relationship with Jesus, fellow believers (including relatives) often become closer to them than to non-born-again relatives. The Bible tells us that His immediate family didn’t know what to make of Him because they did not believe in Him either:

After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death. But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” For even his brothers didn’t believe in him. Jesus replied, “Now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime. The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil. You go on. I’m not going to this festival, because my time has not yet come.” After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee (John 7:1-9).

Imagine living with someone for 30 years and they suddenly go around saying they are the Messiah who the prophets wrote about, what would you think of that person if his identity is not revealed to you? It can’t be easy and we shouldn’t blame them. After all, even His disciples, some of whom were possibly His cousins deserted Him on the eve of the Crucifixion. When the real clash came with the powers of darkness, we saw every one of the disciples fail in that hour-in spite of all their surrenders, their vows, and their devotion to their Master.

When Jesus was dying on the cross and shedding His blood on the cross for His mother Mary and others who will put their faith and trust in Him, He saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing near, said to His mother, Dear woman, See, here is your son! Then He said to the disciple, See, here is your mother! And from that hour, the disciple took her into his keeping, (own home) (John 19:26-27).

As Jesus’ earthly brothers didn’t believe in Him, He handed Mary His mother over to John his beloved disciple. But despite this unbelief and disdain, two of His brothers James and Jude became one of the writers of the New Testament.

It is recorded that when Jesus died on the cross, his brother James was so deeply upset and full of regret about what he had said about Him and how he had teased Him that he said he would never eat food again. He would have fasted until he died, except that three days later Jesus appeared to His disciples and James personally. From that moment on, James called himself a bond slave of Jesus Christ.

Mary Was Chosen by God

Apart from Mary being mentioned as one of those who were at the prayer meeting before the Day of Pentecost; that is the last we hear of Mary in the Gospels. You never hear her name again. She prophesied that all generations would call her blessed but not “virgin” Mary because she had other children with Joseph after Jesus. He was the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us. They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him (see Mark 6:3).

Mary was chosen by God as the woman who would bring Yeshua into the world to fulfill His divine mission of salvation for all humanity. The angel said to her that she would become pregnant after the Holy Spirit came upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her like a shining crowd; and so the holy (pure, sinless) Thing (Offspring) which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:30-33). Mary believed these words and acknowledged her role when she cried out with a loud cry, and then exclaimed:

My soul magnifies and extols the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked upon the low station and humiliation of His handmaiden. For behold, from now on all generations of all ages will call me blessed and declare me happy and to be envied! For He Who is almighty has done great things for me—and holy is His name to be venerated in His purity, majesty and glory!

And His mercy (His compassion and kindness toward the miserable and afflicted) is on those who fear Him with godly reverence, from generation to generation and age to age. He has shown strength and made might with His arm; He has scattered the proud and haughty in and by the imagination and purpose and designs of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree.

He has filled and satisfied the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty-handed without a gift. He has laid hold on His servant Israel to help him, to espouse his cause, in remembrance of His mercy, even as He promised to our forefathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever (Luke 1:44-55 AMP).