Advent Meditation #18




The Crown of Thorns....  red as blood...

 

And exults my spirit over GOD,

The Deliverer of me.

Luke 1:47 (Gk)

... Of me... yes, even of me. 

Young and chaste, Mariam was blessed, yes, but because she chose the Will of GOD, she faced the accusations of impurity... with ramifications.   Those ramifications were so serious that they could lead to her stoning, at worst.

At best, those accusations of impurity could bring her a life-time here on earth of bitterness and grief, which were at the very root of her name.

The bitterness and grief of accusations of impurity... of separation from family and kinsmen ... of a future filled with shame and innuendos... this was the portion for Hebrew young women who were truly un-chaste... if they were not stoned to death first, that is. 

Then, there followed the bitterness and grief that no decent young man -- or old --- would ask for her hand in honorable marriage. A castaway and ostracized even from Temple worship and the Passover meal awaited an un-chaste Hebrew woman.

This is what Mariam faced for her obedience to The Will of GOD. 

Did she HAVE to accept GOD'S plan? In other words, did she have a choice? 

Scripture is silent about that. But Scripture is not silent about this: JESUS HIMSELF+ had a choice to accept the death of the cross or not. 

What bitterness and grief awaited her? What would obedience to the Will of The LORD cost this chaste young Hebrew woman?

Yet, she gloried in GOD Who purposed this pathway for her entire life. 

Meditation ~~~

Our FATHER, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will on earth be done... as it is being done in Heaven, O LORD GOD of the Divine Heavenly Armies. 

Train me also, O LORD, unto the obedience that pleaseth THEE. 

Train me, O REDEEMER, to exult in THEE+ when I am given a path of obedience to walk which I would not choose.

Help me not to shrink back and to pretend I did not hear Thy Word to me, to feign I did not see Thy direction pointers, to become dull and unresponsive when Thy Spirit nudged me. 

O Great REDEEMER, I thank THEE+ for setting my feet on a road towards Thy+ Kingdom --- no matter the cost to me --- so I might be saved from the kingdom of darkness. 

Purge me with hyssop --- that bitter herb --- and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which THOU hast broken may rejoice. 

Yea, my soul doth magnify The LORD and my spirit doth rejoice in CHRIST my SAVIOR+. For HE+ Who+ is mighty hath done great things and Holy is His+ Name ! 

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