The Magnificat
Tom Shrader walks through the Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55, unpacking Mary's prayer as a Spirit-inspired tapestry of Old Testament Scripture that magnifies God's power, holiness, and mercy. He draws on Daniel 4 and other passages to show how God consistently humbles the proud and exalts those who come to Him in humble dependence. The teaching closes with a pastoral call for both personal Scripture meditation and corporate worship that overflows from a heart already filled with God's Word.
“God is not good because Sarah lived. God is good even if she dies.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: A Study Of The Life Of Jesus Christ (2003/2004)
Recorded: 2004 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 49 min
Themes: humility, worship, scripture meditation, pride, mercy, praise, prayer, hope, feeling unworthy, struggling with pride, young adult, new believer, mother, seeking deeper worship, longing for spiritual depth, navigating doubt
Scripture: Luke 1:30, Luke 1:34, Luke 1:35, Luke 1:36, Luke 1:37, Luke 1:39, Luke 1:43, Luke 1:46-55, Luke 1:48, Luke 1:49-50, Luke 1:51-52, Luke 1:53, Luke 1:54-55, Luke 1:56, Luke 4:16, Luke 4:28, Isaiah 61:1-2, Daniel 3:13-18, Daniel 4:28-34, Daniel 5, Psalm 34:18, Romans 1:16, Matthew 5:3, Matthew 5:6, Genesis 17, Hebrews 11, James 4:6, John 4:14, John 6:35, 1 Peter 5:6, Revelation 3:17
Theological Themes: magnificat, mariology, pneumatology, holy spirit inspiration, biblical theology, old testament fulfillment, divine sovereignty, incarnation
Full Transcript
Introduction to the Magnificat
Turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 1. Mary has been visited in verse 30 by an angel giving some shocking news. She will be pregnant, she will conceive. The implication in the language seems to be that this is going to take place quickly, if in fact it isn't happening at that very moment. Mary asks a question in verse 34 — it is a biological question. She is not doubting, she is not rebelling. She simply said, "I can't be — I'm a virgin, that can't possibly be." The angel says, "Here's what's going to happen: the Holy Spirit will overshadow you," in verse 35. Then verse 37: "Nothing is impossible with God." That is just great — we could take that and apply it again and again.
In the midst of that discussion, the angel gave Mary some very important and helpful news in verse 36: "Even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month." Mary hears that, and in verse 39, with haste — quickly — she goes to see Elizabeth. When she arrives, Elizabeth feels the baby in her womb jump, and she is filled with the Holy Spirit.
We won't spend a great deal of time on this today, but it is important to note: at this point, Jesus is a zygote — seven or eight days from conception. John the Baptist is six months along, three months from birth. And yet John the Baptist is already fulfilling the purpose for which he was to be born. He is already proclaiming who Jesus is. It is an extraordinary moment, and it lends, I think, credibility and a strong argument to the fact that life begins at conception. That is important for us to see.
In verse 43, Elizabeth said, "How has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" That was Elizabeth's response. Today we look at Mary's response. Beginning in verse 46 and going through verse 55 is a section known as the Magnificat. It takes that name from the first Latin word translated in verse 46 from her prayer. It is this extraordinary prayer — so beautiful, so elegant, so deep, that critics have said it had to be filled in later by somebody else. After all, how old is Mary? Twelve and a half? Thirteen? No thirteen-year-old girl is going to come up with this. Well, she did.
A Tapestry of Scripture
Kent Hughes is helpful here. The Magnificat, he writes, is a brilliantly woven tapestry of Scripture. There are specific parallels to the Song of Hannah, and every line has a counterpart in the Old Testament. Those critics are right about one thing: it is sublimely theological. But we must not forget, as the critics apparently have, that every young Israelite knew by heart the principal songs of Hannah and Deborah and David, and sang them customarily on feast days. In other words, they knew their Scripture.
Mary's mind was filled with Scripture and sacred phraseology from what she had heard both in the synagogue and at home. So when the Holy Spirit came upon her, He took what she had and wove it into this hallowed tapestry. The Magnificat is a poignant, profound, divine-human composition, and nothing less.
What Fills the Heart Comes Out the Mouth
Here is what happened: what comes out of Mary's mouth is what is in her heart. The same thing is true of you, by the way. Now, we are going to move outside the Scripture just a little bit, but consider this. Mary had just made that journey — 80 to 90 miles, perhaps 100 miles — three to five days of walking. What do you think she was thinking about along the way?
My understanding of human nature would be that she was thinking about a whole bunch of things. She is thinking, "What is this going to be like? What about the stigma that comes with this? I am now a pregnant virgin. What is my family going to say? What is Joseph going to do? How is this thing going to unfold?" She has to be thinking about what it will mean that this is the Son of God. Maybe because He is the Son of God, childbirth won't hurt. She must be wondering how this is all going to unfold in some extraordinary way. And I will guarantee you that somewhere in those three or four days, more than once, she reflected back on the Scripture she knew — especially the story of Hannah and this magnificent prayer Hannah utters after God allows her, who was barren, to become pregnant.
So what happens in Mary's response to Elizabeth just pours out of what is already in her. The same thing is true of you. This is a powerful argument for why you need to memorize, understand, think about, and meditate on Scripture. Have there not been times when it seems as though the Holy Spirit has, in the midst of an incident, brought something to mind from Scripture? Have there not been those moments of peril or of joy where a verse comes to mind — and isn't it always a verse you already know? It doesn't suddenly flash up as "Isaiah 3:1" while you think, "I have no idea what that means, I had better look that one up." He brings to mind the things you have already learned — here in this room, around the coffee table at home, in a study or an office, at the nightstand by the bed, or in the times you have heard Scripture while listening to messages.
He takes those moments from the classroom and, when you are out in the real world and life is dishing out things that are not too pleasant, He suddenly brings to mind: wait a minute — you know the truth here. You know better than that. We have talked about this before. When I am facing these things, it is okay to say, "This is what I feel," but I have to go with what I know. What do I know? What do I know from God's Word? That is what happens to Mary.
So let us look at this prayer, and as we do, I think it should have great practical ramifications for us.
Mary's Prayer as a Model for Our Own
Mary says, "My soul exalts the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." A quick observation on verse 47: there is no hint here of an immaculate conception or a life lived without sin. Mary is acknowledging that she needs a Savior, a deliverer, a rescuer — someone to deliver her. She is not exempt. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that includes everyone.
Her prayer — "My soul exalts the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior" — is a Hebrew poetic device called parallelism, using two different thoughts to express the same idea. What she is saying is that every fiber of her being — her mind, her heart, her soul, everything in her — exalts the Lord and rejoices in the Lord. Everything in her is swept away in thoughts of praise and worship for Him.
What It Means to Magnify the Lord
Consider a few other translations and paraphrases of verse 46: "My soul magnifies the Lord," "My soul glorifies the Lord," "My soul makes great the Lord," "My soul enlarges the Lord." We are not making God bigger. What she is saying is that her understanding of Him is growing.
Charles Spurgeon writes, "I sometimes like to leave off praying and singing and to sit still and just gaze upward till my inmost soul has seen my Lord." In the same way, when we take a phrase, a truth, or a scripture and think about it again and again, God does not get any bigger — our understanding of Him does. As we begin to see how He works through the Old Testament, into the New Testament, and through church history, our understanding of Him grows larger and larger. He is an infinite God and we are finite creatures. Even in heaven, we will see far more than we see now, but we will not become God, and He will remain infinite.
This pursuit of contemplation matters. Consider a line from a song we sing often: "I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross." Stop and think about that. As you sit with the truth that God became flesh and dwelt among us — that He was there on the cross and it cost Him — He gets bigger and bigger in your mind and understanding. That is what it means to magnify the Lord. That is what it means to make God great, to let Him be larger.
Worship: Individual and Corporate
This magnifying of the Lord should happen both individually and corporately. There has been a quiet debate over the last few months about whether worship belongs at the beginning or at the end of a service. Someone stopped me today and said that when worship comes at the end, it means so much more. My own view is that the best approach would be some worship at the beginning and some at the end, though we cannot do that right now — time is too tight.
One observation that concerns me is the number of people who said that worship gets them focused. That is not the point of worship. We have been shaped by a pattern where we come in, sing through some songs without really entering into them, work up some energy, wind it down into something contemplative, and then receive a lesson. The music is not meant to be the warm-up act. There is supposed to be something exciting about coming together — not something you are arriving to be prepared for, but something you are already prepared to enter.
Martin Luther captures what corporate worship ought to feel like: "At home in my own home there is no warmth or vigor, but in church when the multitudes gather, a fire is kindled in my heart and it breaks its way through." The idea is that you have spent the week individually thinking, meditating, and seeing God more clearly — and now you come together with thousands of others in that same experience, and it explodes around you. That is what is supposed to happen.
The Power of Corporate Worship
I was sickened by the number of people who said to me, "I wasn't born yet." This is really starting to bother me. I'll make it a little easier for you: it was the Rumble in the Jungle — Muhammad Ali, George Foreman.
Here is how it was. I'm in a hall with 2,500 guys. This was the old days — no pay-per-view. You had a big device, this big tube, as primitive as it could be, with tubes and stuff in it, and they would cast the picture onto a screen. All 2,500 of us are waiting, and this is a big deal. They show Zaire come up on screen, give a little introduction, and then suddenly the scene cuts to the ring. There's the canopy over the ring, the combatants are coming in — "Ali, Kumbaya, Ali, Kumbaya" — the crowd is cheering. Then the challenger, 32-year-old Muhammad Ali, comes in and does his thing. Foreman lumbers in, 26 years old, undefeated, unbeatable, and the place is going nuts.
Round one begins — and that just came to me, that was inspired. All of a sudden the picture goes — zoop, zoop — it's gone. 2,500 guys who spent a lot of time getting themselves ready for this event. A lot of alcohol had been consumed, a lot of hot dogs had been eaten. People were prepared for this day, this moment, this time. There's a little rumble, it takes a little while, there's no projection coming, there's no hint that it's going to come back. Then the audio goes. Guys are yelling, bottles are flying — and then they stopped it, just like that.
You know what they did? They turned on the lights. All of a sudden the guy standing by the bottle is thinking, "Oh man, that's my best client — I don't want to throw a bottle at my best client." It was the closest I have ever been to a mob mentality in a negative sense. I really felt like another minute or two and that place was going to explode.
That is the negative side of mob mentality, but there is a positive side to it as well. Corporate worship ought to have that same dynamic — that same enthusiasm, that one person feeding off another, and I think it takes place the whole time. I have no transition time on Sunday. The way the structure is right now, I come straight out here, and I am edified every time. I just came by the nursery and there was a baby just screaming his head off, and I thought there is not enough money on the planet to put me in there — and yet I see guys in there laughing and rejoicing. I see these babies, I see families. I come in here, I see people worshiping, I see frowns turn into smiles. There is this whole dynamic that feeds off itself.
That is why it is so important that I have my time individually, so that my time corporately becomes a time of exaltation. That is why we want you to be a vibrant part of this body — because we all lose when you are not. And that is what Mary is saying here.
Mary's Explosion of Praise
My soul exalts the Lord, my spirit rejoices. I want to come back to this again, because I think what has happened here is that Mary has been thinking and thinking and thinking — and this moment is as close as she is going to get to corporate worship. There are two of them together, and she simply explodes. She explodes as she begins to think about Scripture and what God has done.
In fact, those are the very words. Look at verse 48: "For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondservant." The New King James says "maidservant." There is a sense of humility here.
Humility as the Ultimate Virtue
C.S. Lewis writes that pride is the ultimate vice. He has a magnificent line in Mere Christianity where he says it was through pride that Lucifer became the devil. If Lewis is right — and I think that he is — that pride is the ultimate vice, then humility is the ultimate virtue. All of Scripture is replete with this idea: God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. He pushes away the proud; He gives grace to the humble.
When I was in the real estate business, there was a saying. As we looked at a piece of property or tried to figure out where to lease a space for a client, we would say there are three things we really need to be concerned about. What are they? Location, location, location. Sixteen hundred years ago, Augustine wrote this: "For those who would learn God's way, humility is the first thing. Humility is the second thing. Humility is the third thing." Humility, humility, humility.
One of the ancient fathers writes, "A man has just so much Christianity as he has humility." Blessed are the poor in spirit — the spiritually bankrupt, the spiritual beggars. "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit" — Psalm 34, verse 18. This idea of humility is an important characteristic — I would suggest an essential characteristic — in the Christian life.
Humility vs. Certainty
I want to spend a moment on this idea, because you and I live in a time when I am not sure we can even define this old idea of humility. We live in a culture that confuses certainty with arrogance. You have had that experience, haven't you? You are at a family reunion or with some friends and you say, "Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Him. It is Him or it is no way at all" — and somebody says to you, "Who do you think you are? You are so arrogant."
Now, I need to check my heart and ask whether I said it in an arrogant way. But the statement itself is not an arrogant statement, is it? John Piper wrote an interesting book called Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry. In chapter 22, he tells his brothers not to confuse uncertainty with humility. What he is talking about is the culture we live in, and how that culture has come to say that if you are certain about something, you are arrogant. And he quotes from G.K. Chesterton —
Certainty Is Not Arrogance
Chesterton, writing almost a hundred years ago with a little British humor, lamented that we tell people to be modest, to be modest, to be modest — and by this we mean: don't really take a stand. He said, "We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication tables." That is really where we are. Two plus two is four. And we have people sitting around saying, "Well, listen, Johnny, you wrote five here — what did you mean by five?" He meant five; that is why he wrote five. You need to sit him down and say, "Johnny, you're wrong." Two plus two is four. It is not five, it is not three, it is not 3.99999. It is four.
I was watching Chris Matthews the other night, and he was talking to somebody and said, "That's not normal." Then he stopped and said, "I shouldn't use a term like that — that's so judgmental." Think about the ramifications of that. We have reached a point where we cannot even talk about what is normal for fear that the abnormal feels abnormal. We have reached the same thing when it comes to scripture.
I am saying to you, there is a place to be certain, and sometimes your certainty is going to be interpreted as arrogance. You have to do a real soul search and look at your life and ask, "Is there arrogance there?" But just because you are certain of something does not make you arrogant. Mary celebrates that, and she celebrates her humility — that is what needs to be in place in our lives.
Jesus Himself Was Misunderstood
Turn to Luke chapter four. I want to show you how, even in Jesus' life, this was misunderstood. Jesus is coming into the city — verse 16 — coming to Nazareth, His hometown. As was His custom, He goes to the synagogue, picks up the reading of the day, and reads from Isaiah 61, verses one and part of verse two: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, and He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." He closes the book, sits down, and says, "This has been fulfilled."
That is a messianic prophecy. It is saying: when the Messiah comes, He is going to give good news to the poor, proclaim freedom to the prisoner, give sight to the blind, and release the oppressed. And Jesus is saying, "That is me." There is no mistake. The men listening knew exactly what He said — the Messiah is going to come, and when He comes, here is what He will do. I have done it.
Look at verse 28: "And all in the synagogue were filled with rage when they heard these things. They rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which the city had been built, in order to throw Him off the cliff." They treated a proclamation of what God was going to do as proud arrogance. Do you see the same thought at work? Mary is exalting the humble. And whether you are reading Paul, reading Peter, or reading the psalmist, this idea is absolutely woven through all of scripture: God gives grace to the humble. That is where this begins.
Three Characteristics of God
In verses 49 and 50, Mary highlights three of God's characteristics: "For the Mighty One has done great things, holy is His name, and His mercy is upon generation and generation." Mary reflects upon His power, His holiness, and His mercy.
First, His power. "Mighty are the things He has done for me." The most obvious expression of that is the virgin birth, but it also encompasses the idea that she has been rescued by her Savior. Paul writes in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation." The power is in the gospel. Mighty things God has done — done for me.
Second, "holy is His name." Wayne Grudem writes, "God's holiness means that He is separated from sin and devoted to seeking His own honor." That word holy is a difficult word because it means separate, or separated, or apart from, or other. When we talk about God, He is other than us, He is separated from us. And because He is holy, we are supposed to be holy — separated.
That does not mean separated from sinful people. It means separated from sin. This is really hard. As you grow closer and closer to Him, you are sickened by your own sin, but you are also sickened by the corporate sin you see around you — what you see on television, in the movies. The natural reflex is to withdraw from it. But that is not what God would have you do. He would have you separate yourself from the world system, but not from the people of the world. Don't think like them, don't act like them, don't behave like them. Be separated from sin and the things of sin — but not from the people caught in it.
You cannot fulfill the great commandment — love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself — if you have no contact with your neighbor. Your neighbor is not just the person in the house next to you; it is anyone in your sphere of influence. I cannot love my neighbor as myself if I have no contact with him. That is something I want to keep fresh and in front of us.
Evangelism and Caring for the Lost
The idea that has been on the front burner for the next twelve months or so is evangelism. We have the doctrines of grace figured out, we have all that. But evangelism does not mean winning people to Christ — it means sharing your faith. And evangelism begins simply with having a passion for lost people.
I have asked you to do this before. Go to the classroom tomorrow, go to the office, get a cup of coffee or whatever it is you drink, walk down the hall, and just try to guess — understanding you are not God, you cannot look into their hearts — whether each person is going to heaven or hell. And you are going to get something that goes: hell, hell, heaven, hell, hell, hell, hell, hell, hell, heaven, hell, hell, purgatory. You always have a Methodist in there somewhere. So you have all of these people, and now go back the other way and just focus on the hell ones: hell, hell, hell, hell, hell, hell, hell.
Then ask yourself a question, and I mean this — I am not being flip — do you care? Here are all these people you have acknowledged, to the best of your ability, do not know Christ. If they die today, they are going to hell. Have you taken the time to share your faith with them? Have you lived the gospel in front of them? Are they part of a conscious effort on your part to live and to proclaim the gospel to them?
If not, you have to ask yourself what is wrong. And the only answer can be that you do not care. Evangelism is not saying, "I am going to win him to Christ." Evangelism is, "I am going to proclaim the gospel to him." That is evangelism — it is the proclamation of the gospel. Whether they are saved or not, that is God's deal. That is not your deal. You cannot save anybody. That is God's deal.
I want to make sure that we as a church understand the doctrines of grace, but do not become so comfortable in the doctrines of grace that we miss evangelism at the same time. There should be a constant in our lives — a constant growth of people in our sphere of influence who do not know Christ, and God using us to proclaim the gospel to them. Do you have that circle of friends?
Living Among the Lost
You do not withdraw from lost people. You do not say, "I am really holy, I do not hang around with them." You cannot build that case biblically — in fact, it is exactly the opposite. The accusation against Jesus was, "What is wrong with this guy? He is hanging around with the hookers and the drinkers and the gamblers and the prostitutes and all that goes with it. Something is wrong with that guy." The implication was that He must be one of them.
I am not necessarily encouraging you to go seek out that particular crowd. All I am saying is there ought to be lost, sinful people in your life. If there are not, you are not near the Christian you think you are — biblically, anyway.
Mercy, Grace, and Patience
Mary then goes back in verse 50 and talks about mercy. Grudem is helpful here because he combines mercy, grace, and patience together. Mercy means God's goodness toward those who are in misery or distress. Grace is God's goodness toward those who deserve punishment.
We know what we deserve. Those of us who understand that God saves us and there is nothing we can do to save ourselves — those of us who really comprehend that — ought to have a sense of humility and brokenness unlike any other, because we understand that salvation is entirely of Him and not of us. It is entirely through grace. And God is even patient. Even with those who deserve punishment, He is slow to anger. That does not mean He will not one day punish them. It simply means that at least to this point, God has not yet dealt with them.
God Scatters the Proud and Exalts the Humble
Verses 51 and 52 read: "He has done mighty things with His arm. He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their heart, and He has brought down the rulers from their thrones and has exalted those who were humble."
All of a sudden Mary moves from talking about her own life and her own humility and how God has worked powerfully in her, and she looks back and says, "We have seen God work all over. He has done mighty deeds with His arm. He scatters those who are proud in the thoughts of their heart." He moves them around, He scatters them, He brings them down.
As I said, Mary would have been very familiar with the Old Testament, and there are probably all sorts of illustrations that drive this point home. So turn left through Luke — we are heading into Daniel. Pass through Matthew, keep turning, pass Jonah and Amos, and stop when you get to Daniel.
Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar
I want to go to Daniel chapter four, verse 28, but I have a hard time going into Daniel without looking at chapter three first. This particular point is not exactly what we are talking about, but I love it, and so I am going to make it again. One of my favorite verses in all of Scripture is there in Daniel chapter three.
Here is Nebuchadnezzar — our principal character. He is a king, a powerful man, who has done great things. He has created a golden idol and commanded everyone to worship it. Word gets back to him that there are three men who are not doing that — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They are not bowing down.
Verse 13 — Daniel 3:13 — they bring these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar says, "Is it true?" He is giving them a chance to recant if they choose. "Is it true that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready at the moment you hear the sound, go ahead and fall down and worship the image that I made — very well." Then the second part of verse 15: "But if you will not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of"
Even If He Doesn't
"Even if he doesn't" — that is the key phrase. The three Hebrew men answer Nebuchadnezzar: "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of the blazing fire and he will deliver us out of your hand." And those who know the rest of the story know that, in fact, He does. But verse 18 is the verse that matters most: even if He doesn't.
We get so carried away by the happy endings in these stories. Because so many of them resolve well, we begin to think every story in our own lives will have a happy ending. We even pray that way — Lord, let business be smooth, let my marriage be smooth, let my dating process be smooth, let my relationships with friends go smoothly.
And even when we pray for our kids, if we are honest, part of that prayer is really about not wanting hassle and not wanting to look bad. You know exactly what this looks like. You are driving over to the grandparents' house, or a friend's house, or a co-worker's house, and you stop around the corner, and you say to those kids: "Now listen to me — I mean every word of this — you do not jack around in there." And even then, if we are honest, that is not primarily about teaching them a valuable lesson. It is because you know that everyone in that house is going to judge you by how those kids behave. That is pure pride, and it drives us to want everything smooth.
The Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11 shows God doing these extraordinary things, and we get excited. But "even if he doesn't" — it does not always work out the way you want. It always works out the way He wants. The very first song sung today said it plainly: God is good all the time, in all events.
Consider September 11th. God was not distracted, not on the phone, not unaware of those planes. That event happened for one of two reasons: God caused it, or God allowed it. If He neither caused it nor allowed it, then He is not God, and we can discard this whole enterprise. The same is true in your life.
God Is Good Even If She Dies
Some of you were at this church six or seven years ago when Sarah had that car accident — a serious situation involving brain seizures. For a time things seemed manageable, and then very quickly the word came that it was grave, that things were not going well. Then the news settled: she would live, but there was much left to deal with.
That Sunday, coming in to preach with a prepared lesson from the Gospel of John, people were saying — and they were kind people, they meant well — "Sarah's going to live, isn't God good? God spared Sarah, isn't God good?" The notes went away, and instead the message became: God is good even if she dies. God is not good because Sarah lived.
It takes real maturity to pray this way: our God is able to get us out of this situation, but even if He doesn't, He is no less God, and we will worship Him all the more. That is an extraordinarily powerful and practical truth for all of us to comprehend.
Nebuchadnezzar's Favorite Song
The real point of this passage comes in chapter four. Nebuchadnezzar is walking on the roof of his palace — and you need to understand what kind of palace this was. It was so vast that they used to race chariots around the walls of the city itself. He is walking around, talking to himself, and here is what he says: "Is this not Babylon the great which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and the glory of my majesty?"
Count the singular personal pronouns in that verse — there are three of them, plus the word "myself." Four times in a single verse he is saying, "Aren't I something?" He is singing his very favorite song: *How Great I Art.* How great I art, how great I art — let's sing it again, I'm really something.
And perhaps you have done the same thing. Walked through the house and said, "Look at that woodwork, look at those cabinets — look at what I built." Or surveyed a business and thought, "It was nothing until I came along." At this moment in the text, God has had enough with Nebuchadnezzar.
The King Who Became Like Cattle
Verse 31: "While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven saying, 'King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared, sovereignty's been removed from you. You will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the fields, and you will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass from you until you recognize that the Most High is the ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whoever he wishes.'"
What happens next is that Nebuchadnezzar is struck with a disease — and this is not invention. It is a rare condition with documented cases, the most recent being somewhere around 1946, in which a person literally believes they are a cow. He goes out and grazes with the cattle. He is naked for
He Raises Up and Scatters the Proud
Nebuchadnezzar is supposed to be the king, and yet there he is — naked, on all fours, eating grass under a tree. That is not the Christmas card picture anyone anticipated. This is Mary's point: God raises up, God scatters, and God will humble the proud. Some He brings low in a different way. We meet another figure in Daniel chapter five — Belshazzar. You know the phrase "the writing is on the wall"? That comes from him. He is presiding over an orgy when he sees a hand moving on the wall, writing words: "Mene, mene, tekel, parsin." The message is delivered, and it means simply: you are going to die. And he is dead.
Here are two men — both entirely self-absorbed, neither one seeking God. One God destroys outright. The other He brings to a breaking point, and then, look at Daniel 4:34, his reason returns to him. God restores it, and Nebuchadnezzar cries out this prayer: "God's dominion is everlasting dominion, His kingdom endures from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, for He does according to His will." He finally arrives at the truth: God is God, and I am not.
Matthew 5 puts it plainly: "Blessed are the gentle." First Peter 5:6 gives the command directly: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time." It is very clear what God will do with those who resist Him. James 4:6 says He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. The pattern is consistent throughout all of Scripture.
He Fills the Hungry and Sends the Rich Away Empty
Luke 1:53 says He has filled the hungry with good things. Those who are spiritually hungry and come to Him are satisfied. Matthew 5:6 confirms it: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." John 4:14 adds that whoever drinks of the water Jesus gives will never thirst again. And in John 6:35, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." God meets that inner need — that deep need that can only be satisfied through a relationship with Him.
If you come, you are filled. Those who understand they are broken, those who are humble — they are filled. But He sends away the rich empty-handed. There are certain people who simply say, "I will do this on my own. I can handle it. I am a self-made man, a self-made woman. I came from meager beginnings, and look at what I have done. If I believe it, I can achieve it." That posture closes the hand that God would otherwise fill.
Pride, Sports, and the Laodicean Mirror
I attended the Fiesta Bowl breakfast and then the Fiesta Bowl itself. The world of athletics is fascinating to me — I went out for basketball, but they already had one, so I was not exactly a standout. But I love sports, and college football especially. There is this fine line, it seems to me, between healthy confidence — believing in yourself, working hard — and the assumption that effort guarantees the outcome. Obviously that assumption breaks down when you are five and seven on the season. Scripture simply says that equation is not as reliable as we think.
I am an Ali fan. The four things I do not expect to see again in my lifetime: Secretariat, UCI basketball, the Beatles, and Ali. When you watch those old films, there is nothing like it. What is sobering, though, is that Ali — the greatest — now can barely speak. God is God, and that is a great warning woven throughout all of Scripture.
Look at Revelation chapter three. Jesus is addressing the church at Laodicea, and He is not pleased. He says they are not hot, not cold, but lukewarm — and that makes Him want to be sick. Then He identifies their problem in Revelation 3:17: "I know your deeds. You say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked." They are looking around and saying: look at our system, our culture, our commerce, our industry, the Dow Jones, the NASDAQ, my house, my vacations, my account, my resume, my portfolio. God is not against material things, but what He says over and over again is that it is very easy for material to become materialism.
The man is so busy looking in the mirror admiring how well he is dressed that he does not realize he is naked. So Jesus says in Revelation 3:18: "I advise you to buy gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see." Laodicea was actually famous for a remarkable eye salve they had developed — a medicinal compound that treated diseases of the eye and helped people see. Jesus takes that very point of local pride and says, let Me give you salve. It is the Holy Spirit, and with it you will see things as they really are.
God fills those who are empty.
The Danger of Self-Sufficiency
To those who are rich — I have a pretty good friend whose father is just rich. I don't care what barometer you use; his dad is really, really rich. I was stunned when I first met my friend, because I knew of his father. When I met him, I asked, "Are you a Christian?" He said he was, and that shocked me. We have become very good friends, and he attends one of the studies every week.
I asked him about his father, and he said his dad doesn't need anything. He is exactly the man that Jesus is talking about here — that is exactly what Scripture describes. His father is old now and sick and closed to the gospel, and it just breaks my friend's heart. He has everything. His funeral service would be one of those services. And this man is a great guy — terrific, humble by our terms — but not humble before the Lord.
The Magnificat's Reach Back to Abraham
Mary then expands her song even beyond what God has done in her own life. In verses 54 and 55 she says He has given help to Israel in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring. She goes all the way back to Genesis 17 and says God made this promise and God kept this promise all the way through. That is her prayer. That is the Magnificat.
One of the great things about preaching this passage six times on a Sunday is that each time you do it, you begin to see more. What you really begin to see is that this song is exalting God and who He is, and placing man in his proper perspective. It is understanding God — that He is sovereign, that He causes and allows everything — and recognizing that we are the great recipients of His grace and His mercy.
The Closing Detail: Three Months
All we know about the next ninety days is found in verse 56: Mary stayed there for about three months. If we work out the calendar, that would mean she probably stayed until John the Baptist was born. Isn't that a fitting close to such a prayer?
And it really is the prayer of what ought to be on every heart — humbleness before God and an understanding of who He is. Humbleness before Him, not merely before one another, because we can play that game. We can always take some human measurement and say, "Aren't I really something?"
The Hollowness of Worldly Achievement
Consider what has really taken place in the world around us. The Sooners are playing tonight for a split national title. That matters, but I remember when Bobby Stoops won the national title a couple of years ago, he said afterwards — and I am paraphrasing — that it was kind of weird. They had practiced for everything, and now it was over, and there was a hollowness there. It was cool at the Fiesta Bowl breakfast when a couple of players had their national title rings and could say, "We won this thing last year," but none of that goes much past a couple of weeks.
Yet we are deceived by these things. We think we are going to find happiness and joy in all the stuff of the world. What Scripture says is no — when we humble ourselves and understand that God has given us even the very breath in our lungs as a grace and a gift from Him, all of a sudden life has great perspective. When I understand who He is, who I am begins to make sense.
When I understand who He is and who I am, all of a sudden I am ready for a rocket ship ride with Him. It will take me to extraordinary places. He will begin to use you in so many different ways. That is where we will pick up next week.
Thank You for this truth. Thank You for the gift that You give us. Thank You for eternal life that we find in Jesus Christ. We pray to You in His name, amen.