What is the image, the ‘sign’ of the woman in Heaven with the sun and stars and ready to give birth supposed to make clear? Who does she represent? Israel? The nation Israel, which has always been pregnant and was called to bring forth, to give birth to the Messiah? Some texts that speak of ‘birth pangs’ with reference to Israel are within the framework of an apostate nation and of God’s judgment over an unfaithful people of Israel. “I hear a cry as of a woman in labour, a groan as of one bearing her first child—the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands and saying, “Alas! I am fainting; my life is given over to murderers.”1 But Israel has always suffered too because she has been created and chosen by God to bring forth the Messiah. Darkness hates the Light. Psalm 83:1-5 is the cry out to God of a man in Israel, experiencing daily threats and hatred of the surrounding world. Because they are God’s chosen people. But he fully understands that hatred towards Israel – anti-Semitism – deep down is hatred against the God of Israel: “O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God. See how Your enemies growl, how Your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against Your people; they plot against those You cherish. “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.” With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against You…” So the world hates Israel, and always will. Because it is God’s instrument to bless the world and to bring salvation by a Saviour to the world.
However, the ‘motherhood’ that the promised ‘seed of woman’2 was to bring into the world is wider that Israel alone. All the faithful ‘people of God’ have been ‘pregnant’ with ‘the Christ’ from the beginning of mankind. From Eve, the mother of all the living, via the line of Seth and his wife,3 Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah and their wives to Shem.4 After the Flood, the lineage of Shem led to Terah, the father of Abraham, the patriarch of Israel.5 Abraham and his wife, Sarah, receive the ‘miracle-baby’ Isaac.6 In fact, God created Israel, because He personally created from these two elderly people this male child Isaac. Abraham was a hundred years old and Sara in the age of 90 – long past the age that people can have children of their own. ‘Israel is My firstborn son’, God says, Isaiah 43:7, whom I created for My Glory, whom I formed and made. Exodus 4:22-23: Let My firstborn son go, says God. About 2000 years later another ‘miracle-baby’ was born from His Jewish mother who was a virgin. God says: He is My only- begotten Son, John 1:14. Luke 1:30-35 “The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His Kingdom will have no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”
Jesus is His only-begotten Son, and Israel is His firstborn son – created by God to bless the world through them.
From this point, after the birth of Isaac, the Lord continually cuts off lines in Israel with regard to the Covenant promises. The line of Ishmael, Isaac’s half-brother, the forefather of the Arabs, is cut off, although Ishmael and the Arabs get their blessing, Genesis 17:15-22. Ishmael was the son ‘of the flesh’ and Isaac the son ‘of the Promise’. Of Isaac’s two sons, Jacob is chosen, Esau is not.7 With regard to the royal line of Jacob’s children, Judah is selected, not one of the other brothers.8 It then continues further via David, the son of Jesse,9 and the kings of the royal line of Judah. After Solomon, the son of David, the country splits into two and the ten tribes (the northern kingdom of Israel) go their own way, and the two tribes (the kingdom of Judah) continue the line. And we thus finally arrive at Mary, the mother of Jesus. “For a virgin was to become pregnant and bear a son,10 whose name was to be: Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”11 This is how the seed of woman, which will crush the serpent’s head, came into the world, at Bethlehem12— without being conceived of male seed.13 Joseph’s lineage is excluded, among other reasons because Jeconiah14 is one of his forefathers and the Lord had said that none of his descendants would sit on the throne of David, his father.15 Mary is a descendant of David16 via Nathan, and Joseph stems from David via Solomon.17 This is how the legal royal line and the biological line of the Lord Jesus came to be. He was God’s Son and He was Mary’s son. Son of God and son of man. Born from a virgin (Genesis 3:15, from ‘her seed’), and a fully adopted son of Joseph. Scripture cannot be broken and is proved to be trustworthy in every detail. We assume, in this respect, that the genealogy in Matthew 1:1–17 is that of Joseph and that the one in Luke 3:23–38 is that of Mary.
Does the ‘sign in Heaven’ of the ‘woman’ who is pregnant therefore refer to Mary? The Roman Catholic Church believes it does, and thus also calls her the ‘Queen of Heaven’, and has woven a cult around her that makes her equal to Christ—not only in theory, but also very much in practice, calling her ‘Co-Redemptrix’. In the year 2017, the International Marian Association submitted a request to Pope Francis, asking for the public recognition of the title of Mary as “Co-Redemptrix with Jesus the Redeemer.” Though we don’t think that is right, it also has to be said that Mary is often undervalued in the Reformation. She is the blessed among women.18 The whole world will talk about her.19 Her obedience of faith is exemplary. She was willing to bring the Saviour of the world into the world. But does the celestial sign (only) refer to her?
• The reason why the sperm of Jesus’s father-in-law Joseph is not allowed to be involved in the birth of Jesus was to become the Lamb of God would take away the sin of the world. He could not be part of the seed of Adam. He had to be flawless as the sacrificial Lamb of God. He was just like us in every way, except for sin. Otherwise He could never have taken the sins of others upon Himself, or have been made into sin itself for us.
• Apparently sin came into the world through Adam. Not through Eve. Adam is held responsible. Eve was deceived, but Adam fell into transgression.
• ‘The son of Heli’ (‘son of Eli’) could mean: ‘Heli’s son-in-law’ (‘Eli’s son- in-law) in Mary’s genealogy, Luke 3:23. ‘Son of’ is missing in the Greek. Genealogies were always constructed via the names of men. Apparently, this is the meaning of the strangely added ‘supposedly’.
Bible References:
1.Isaiah 26:17–18; Jeremiah 4:31; Micah 4:9–10 2.Genesis 3:15 3.Genesis 4:25–26 4.Genesis 5 5.Genesis 11:10–32 6.Genesis 17:17-2 and 21:1–7 7.Genesis 25:23 8.Genesis 49:8–10 9.Isaiah 11:1–2 10.Isaiah 7:14 11.Isaiah 9:5–7 12.Micah 5:1–3 13.Matthew 1:18–25 14.Matthew 1:11 15.Jeremiah 22:30 16.Luke 3:31; 1 Chronicles 3:5 17.Matthew 1:6 18.Luke 1:42 19.Luke 1:46–49
