Did Mary Consent

Luke 1:38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

It is very irritating when people who apparently do not know the Bible and may not have even read it come up with crazy stuff. It is more irritating when people who claim to know it come up with crazy stuff. That is another post in itself.

Anyway, it seems that in our world of #METOO and contracts for consent and such someone has decided that the Virgin Mary is a candidate for the #METOO program. Someone thinks that she did not give consent and was thus assaulted by God.

First thing to consider is that as we are all here due to His creation of Adam and Eve and the reproduction system He would have the right to do whatever He wishes to do with His creation even including throwing this whole planet into the sun and be done with us since we are not very cooperative with Him and His creation. Human kings have been known to do horrible things to people even their own children. However, we can be thankful that He is not like His erring created beings.

Indeed, God is the author of freewill, much to the consternation of many Calvinists. He allowed Adam and Eve the choice of eating the forbidden fruit and to either trust Him or that blasted serpent. Even in judgment He gave people the freedom to choose and believe Noah and get on the Ark or not. All but eight chose not to do so. We cannot cover all the instances of free will in a short post though some might question of my definition of short.

Unlike our current age, since Eve women have longed for children. One wept so much at being barren that a not so spiritual priest thought she was drunk. One begged her husband for a child and he had to remind her that he was not God. One posed as a prostitute to get the child that was due her when a man would not give her his last son as a husband. One wife bartered mandrakes, considered to be an aphrodisiac, to have the opportunity to sleep with their shared husband obviously hoping to be impregnated again. Every Jewish woman hoped to bear the Messiah so having children was blessed and to be barren was a horror and shame. They thought they were cursed.

If God was not giving Mary a choice, He would have told her after the fact and that would have been that. Instead, He sends an angel to detail the plan and Mary consented. She consented because the dream of bearing the Messiah was coming true albeit she had hoped Joseph would be the father as would be the norm. However a male born the normal way could not have been a sinless Messiah or sit David’s throng due to curse on Joseph’s side of the family tree.

Being a pregnant virgin would not be well believed. She knew this when she agreed. Joseph would have the legal right to divorce her. She would be mocked and considered a harlot. Yet, because God told her the plan she was willing to endure this because she loved God and trusted Him. Did she fully comprehend how He could do this? Maybe, maybe not, but then that is what faith is all about. You trust even when it seems crazy or impossible if God said it.

Verse 38 clearly shows she gave consent. Later in the chapter she sings about the blessing of being chosen. She does not sound like a candidate for #METOO. If she would have said no, Naomi or Sarah or someone else qualified would have said yes, but God does not need a backup plan since in His foreknowledge He knew she would accept and be blessed.

The Bible was given to change us and our cultures, not the other way around. We need be careful when interpreting the Scriptures. What the words meant in the time they were written is what they mean not some dynamic equivalence or cultural adaptation. That is why historical-grammatical interpretation is the only solid means of interpretation. God breathed every word in its fullness of meaning into the writers and yet allowed their personalities to show through not just using them as a keyboard. That is called verbal-plenary inspiration. Anything else opens up many Pandora boxes of heresy.