<p>1:38 <i>And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord Be it unto me according to your word And the angel departed from her</i>- Mary had probably said and later sung to the Lord Jesus: &ldquo;Be it unto me according to your word&rdquo;. In Mt. 15:28 we have the Lord addressing the Canaanite woman: &ldquo;Woman&hellip;.be it unto you even as you wish&rdquo;. The Lord had called His mother &ldquo;Woman&hellip;&rdquo; in Cana. That woman restimulated memories of His dear mother.&nbsp; We see here a window into His humanity, using language in reflection of how His mother had spoken to Him in childhood; and we see too Mary's abiding influence upon Him.</p><p>Not only did Mary see herself as representative of Israel see on :28; she also felt a strong connection between herself and her Messiah Son. Any woman would feel this connection and identity with her child; but in Mary&rsquo;s case, her child was the Son of God, Messiah of Israel. And she had the spiritual ambition to see herself in some way, thereby, as Messiah. Consider the evidence:&nbsp; <br />- Lk. 1:38 &ldquo;the handmaid of the Lord&rdquo; uses the Greek female form for &ldquo;servant of the Lord&rdquo;, a clear title of Messiah.<br />-&nbsp;She appropriates words spoken in the spirit of Christ to herself: &ldquo;You have reduced the proud to lowliness like a wounded thing: and by your powerful arm you have scattered your enemies&rdquo; (Ps. 89:10 cp. Lk. 1:51-53). <br />- She refers to herself in saying that God has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy; yet His Servant was Messiah, according to Isaiah&rsquo;s servant songs (Lk. 1:54,55).<br />- Lk. 1:28,42 &ldquo;blessed among women&rdquo; alludes to Jud. 5:24, as if Mary was already as Jael who had killed Sisera, an incident typical of the Lord's destruction of sin with the hammer of God's word. Mary is tied up with her son's victory- for He was part of her. There is a parallel between Mary and the &quot;fruit of your womb&rdquo;, they were both to be blessed together (:42), as if God recognized this link between the mother and Son. The fact He &lsquo;allowed&rsquo; this, rather than just using a cold &lsquo;channel&rsquo; for His purpose, is simply surpassing in its wonder.<br />-&nbsp;Her words of Lk. 1:47 &ldquo;my spirit shall rejoice in God&rdquo; allude to Ps. 63:11: &ldquo;But <i>the king </i>shall rejoice in God; every one that swears by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped&rdquo;.&nbsp;Mary parallels herself with &ldquo;the King&rdquo;, seeing herself as connected with Messiah. <br />-&nbsp;&ldquo;The servant of the Lord&quot; would rejoice in God: &ldquo;I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God&quot; (Is. 61:10), and yet Mary as the female &quot;servant of the Lord&quot; also rejoices, sharing the joy of her Son. <br />-&nbsp;Lk. 1:48 has Mary rejoicing: &ldquo;All generations shall call me blessed&rdquo;, alluding to how in Ps. 72:17 &ldquo;all nations shall call <i>him</i> Messiah blessed&rdquo;. Mary is equated with her son, Messiah, and she recognized this. He was part of her. <br />-&nbsp;Mary understood that through her conception, God had put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted <i>them</i> of low degree (Lk. 1:52). This clearly alludes to Ez. 21:26, where the princes are to be put down and <i>him</i> that is low is to be exalted, i.e. Messiah. But Mary felt that she had been exalted; thus she shared Messiah&rsquo;s exaltation because He was in her and she in Him. We too are in Him, and we should feel something of the pride and joy, along with the suffering, that comes from that identification. She parallels <i>her</i> low estate with <i>them</i> of low degree (Lk. 1:48,52)- perhaps referring to her and Jesus? <br />-&nbsp;She appropriated the promises to Abraham&rsquo;s seed which according to Gal. 3:16 is one man, Jesus to her personally (Lk. 1:55).&nbsp;</p>