Connections between the Songs and the OT

As has been pointed out already, Luke is showing the connections between God's work in John and Jesus and his work in the past through Israel. The first readers of Luke's gospel would have been deeply moved as they read about all the ways God was continuing his work - work and words first established in the days of Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Daniel, Malachai, and now Mary and Zechariah. People were beginning to waver in their hope that God would remember them and his promises. God did remember...oh did he remember!

Read this piece of narrative between Gabriel and Mary (1v26-38)
…you have found favor with God.
You will conceive and give birth to a son,
And you are to call him Jesus.
He will be great
And will be called the Son of the Most High.
The LORD God will give him the throne of David,
And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever;
His kingdom will never end.

NOTE: the OT references in this short piece - Joshua is the Hebrew name for the Greek translation Jesus; Jesus is to be given the throne of David, Jesus is connected to the tribes of Jacob, who is a grandson of Abraham. Also, the promises that are made to Jesus are the promises that God made to Israel: be a great nation, will be priests of the LORD God Most High, will be a kingdom that reigns in peace forever.
NOTE ALSO: the connections between this piece of narrative and the contents of Mary's Song; it is this announcement that mostly inspires Mary's songburst.


Mary’s Song is partially rooted in the Song of Hannah (1Samuel 1-3)
The LORD brings death and makes alive;
He brings down to the grave and raises up.
The LORD sends poverty and wealth;
He humbles and he exalts.
He raises the poor from the dust
And lifts the needy from the ash heap;
He seats them with princes
And has them inherit a throne of honor.

Mary had spent much time reflecting on God's work in the past, especially through women like Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Zipporah, Deborah, and Hannah. Mary longed to be used by God like one of these women: in God's generosity, Mary will have something in common with all these women - and her song will wrap up their longings, like Hannah's, into one great song.


Mary’s Song echoes a song of Isaiah (Isaiah 49).
It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
To restore the tribes of Jacob
And bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
That my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

Take some time to slowly read through Isaiah 40-49; it is some of the most beautiful poetry in the Scripture. It is beautiful and powerful - God dealing with real people in the real world, God granting mercy and reconciliation out of generous grace. God is continuing in Jesus what he had revealed he was all about over four-hundred years earlier in the days of Isaiah. And Isaiah was scripting out what God had promised over a thousand years earlier to Abraham and the sons of Jacob.