Lucas 1:32-33

“He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High,

And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,

And he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever,

And of his kingdom there will be no end.”

The angel then made clear Who it was Who was to be born.

· He will be ‘great’.

· He will be called the son of the Most High.

· He will receive from the Lord God the throne of His father David.

· He will reign for ever over the house of Jacob.

· Of His kingdom there will be no end.

‘He will be great.’ We can compare here the words concerning John in Luke 1:15. ‘He will be great in the sight of the Lord.’ But this One will be great in His own right because of Who He is. He is the Son of the Most High.

We can compare here Acts 8:9-10. ‘Great’ was a title used by the Jews of God describing Him as ‘the Great One.’ In Psalms 48:1 we read ‘Great is YHWH’ (compare Psalms 76:1). In Psalms 86:10 we read, ‘You are great.’ In Psalms 96:4 ‘YHWH is great (compare Psalms 99:2; Psalms 145:3; Psalms 147:5). In Psalms 135:5 ‘YHWH is great’. The description therefore has divine overtones, especially in parallel with ‘the Son of the Most High’.

‘He will be called the Son of the Most High.’ This is in direct contrast with John who is to be called ‘the prophet of the Most High’ (Luke 1:76). The Son far exceeds the prophet in glory. This is brought home in Luke 20:9-18 where after the prophets came the only Son. So that distinction is here drawn from the beginning. There are no external examples of the Messiah ever being called ‘the son of God’. So this went beyond just being the Messiah. This in itself would be a new conception to Mary, and as the phrase was put in inverted parallel with ‘He will be called holy, the Son of God’, which follows the description of His conception through the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), it would lift her thinking, and should ours, to a new level.

In Psalms 82:6 the leading judges of Israel are called elohim (gods), and ‘sons of the Most High’ in that they act in the place of God. But here was to be One Who was to be uniquely His Son. Outside the Psalms the title ‘Most High’ is used of the God of Israel mainly on the lips of foreigners, and its most emphatic use is in Daniel 7:0 (four times in LXX Hupsistou as here) where ‘the saints of the Most High’ will receive the everlasting kingdom from God by means of a son of man who will come with the clouds of heaven to the throne of God to receive it. That this approaching ‘son of man’ must be the representative of Israel is clear in the passage, and would undoubtedly bring to mind Israel’s king, the son of David. Thus ‘son of the Most High’ may well also have in mind this earthly/heavenly figure who acts on behalf of ‘the saints of the Most High’, thus already connecting Jesus with the Son of Man, and with the saints of the Most High.

A similar connection comes out in Luke. Here Jesus is the Son of the Most High, clearly in context a title revealing His exalted station, but in Luke 6:35 God’s people are urged to reveal themselves as sons of the Most High (those who behave like the Most High and thus demonstrate their relationship with Him) by revealing their unselfish generosity and by loving their enemies, in the same way as ‘He is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish’. The sons of the Most High are those therefore who look to the Son of the Most High and seek to be like Him, just as the saints of the Most High looked to the son of man.

The receiving of the throne of his father David would by itself merely have signified to Mary that He would be restored to the throne that was his birthright. But the indication that His reign would be of an everlasting kingdom which would know no end would demonstrate that there was to it at least some aspect of the supernatural. Here was a more than earthly Messiah. Certainly in Ezekiel 37:25; 2 Samuel 7:13; 2 Samuel 7:16 the coming king was to reign for ever, but that may well have been interpreted as meaning that his house would reign for ever. Here, however, it is made clear to Mary that as in Isaiah 9:7 the child born is to reign everlastingly, for He is to be born through a supernatural birth with a supernatural future in view.

We know that she did not fully understand all this. How could she? Nor would she fully understand Him in the future. But it was being made quite clear that this was more than just an earthly kingship. It was to be an everlasting kingship on the everlasting throne of His father David. Heaven would break through to earth in everlastingness. He was to be the expected Messiah, but as an everlasting Messiah and more.

Note that His reign on the throne of David over ‘the house of Jacob’ is to be for ever. This is no earthly kingship, nor is it a limited house of Jacob. Here ‘the house of Jacob’ is all who are connected with that house through the ages, which includes the ‘Israel of God’, the church of Jesus Christ. They too are part of the house of Jacob. For all Christians are, in Christ, made one with Israel, that is, with the house of Jacob (Ephesians 2:12-17).