βBehold, a virgin shall be with childβ (Matt. 1:23).
Mary was highly honored that she should be chosen to be the virgin mother of Messiah. This was a distinction for which every Jewish woman had hoped and prayed. But β now that she had heard the glad news from the angel Gabriel, she was to find herself in the most embarrassing position of an unmarried maiden with child. Little wonder that Mary hastened to the hill country to visit Elisabeth, the mother-to-be of miraculously-born John, later called John the Baptist. Who, in such a case, would better understand, or be better fitted to give sympathetic advice to Mary?
Mary remained with Elisabeth for about three months, or until the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:36,56), but now the real test lay ahead, for she must return to her home in Nazareth to face her relatives and acquaintances β and Joseph, her love. What would they say? And above all, what would he say? How could they be expected to believe her story? An angel had appeared to her, indeed!
In the record of Josephβs reactions we are given light as to the extreme embarrassment in which Mary now found herself. Consider Josephβs position. Mary was his βespoused wife.β Why had she gone away β and stayed so long? And now, what is this? She is found with child β not by him. Her explanation, if indeed she offered it to him, must have seemed most unsatisfactory. He could have charged her with adultery and had her stoned, but βbeing a just [Lit., βfair-mindedβ] manβ he βwas minded to put her away privilyβ (Matt. 1:19).
But βwhile he thought on these things,β with a heavy heart, βthe angel of the Lord appeared unto himβ and Joseph learned the truth; that she was indeed to be the honored mother of the Messiah of Israel, the Redeemer of sinners.
It was because our Lord was the Son of God, born into the world by a virgin and not partaking of Adamβs sinful nature, that He could go to Calvary and pay the full penalty for our sins. He βsuffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to Godβ (I Pet. 3:18). source
