<p>1:48 <i>Because He has looked upon the low estate of His handmaid- </i>See on :38 for the allusions to Hannah's song.Mary&rsquo;s quotations and allusions to the OT are nearly all from the LXX, and it is almost certain that she would have been familiar with some of the Apocryphal books bound up with the LXX at that time. Consider the words of 4 Ezra 9:45, where Zion speaks as a barren woman: &ldquo;God heard your handmaid and regarded my low estate, and considered my distress and gave me a son&rdquo;. Clearly she saw herself as the representative of Zion. Moses told Israel that God &ldquo;has done great things in you&rdquo; in her womb? (Dt. 10:21). She felt that God had helped her as &ldquo;His servant Israel&rdquo;- alluding to Ps. 98:3 LXX &ldquo;He has remembered His mercy to Jacob&rdquo;. Unto <i>us</i>, Israel, a son was to be given (Is. 9:6 cp. Lk. 2:11), but it was actually given to Mary.&nbsp;See on Lk. 1:28.</p><p>God recognized her &ldquo;low estate&rdquo; humility and exalted her above all women, just as He would His Son among men. He did not choose some well heeled Jerusalem girl, but a poor, barefoot teenager in despised Nazareth. The same Greek word is used in Acts 8:33: &ldquo;In his humiliation &lsquo;low estate&rsquo; his judgment was taken away&rdquo;. It occurs too in&nbsp;Phil. 2:8: &ldquo;He <i>humbled himself</i>&rdquo;. In the cross, indeed throughout the seven stage self-humiliation of the Lord which Phil. 2 speaks of, He was living out the spirit of His mother. She taught Him the life and the way of the cross. Hence the way she insisted on being there at the end, and the comfort she would have given Him, and the love He showed by asking for the only one who really understood Him to be taken away, for her sake as well as His own. The Lord directly alluded to His mother&rsquo;s pattern of humiliation and exaltation by using the same word again in Mt. 23:12: &ldquo;Whosever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself s.w. be abased- we must either humble ourselves or be humbled, it&rsquo;s such a powerful logic shall be exalted&rdquo;. Thus the Lord Jesus alludes to His mother's words in order to set her up as our pattern &ldquo;whosoever&rdquo;. And yet He Himself showed the ultimate obedience to her pattern in the death of the cross. For this and many other reasons, the Lord&rsquo;s mind was upon His mother in His time of dying. And according to the Messianic Psalms, He even asks God to have mercy upon Him <i>for Mary&rsquo;s sake</i> (Ps. 86:16; 116:16).</p><p><i>For from this time forward all generations shall call me blessed</i>- When Mary spoke of all generations calling her blessed, her mind was in&nbsp;Gen. 30:13: &quot;The daughters i.e. future generations of them shall call me blessed&quot;, and yet at the same time on Zilpah the servant maid cp. Mary the handmaiden bearing Asher happy. These women were seen by Mary as representatives of herself. She was so humble to compare herself with the servant girl. Yet she also had in mind Prov. 31:28, where the virtuous woman is blessed by all. She saw herself as the virtuous woman who excelled all- yet she was so humble. She was the most highly favoured woman, but was so humble. It&rsquo;s hard to know your true value without being proud about it. It seems to me that we must learn to value ourselves far more, to love our neighbour <i>as </i>we do really love / respect ourselves, without being proud. The ability to see your own worth and value in God&rsquo;s purpose is crucial;&nbsp;we tend to be either proud, or too negative about ourselves. Mary was so spiritually ambitious to want to be the mother of Messiah, understanding He would be God manifest. &nbsp; <br />Mary realized that her great honour was being given in response to her humility- God had regarded her &ldquo;low estate&quot;, her humility. She was humble enough to know God had noticed her humility- and still not be proud about it. She had enough self-knowledge to perceive this. It&rsquo;s as if she is saying &lsquo;'Thank you for taking note of my humility'. This is really a deep essay in humility-&nbsp; to recognize she was humble without being proud about it. And to be able to say it sincerely. Mary&rsquo;s humility was programmatic for Jesus on the cross; for there He humbled Himself that He might be exalted. This was the theme that, according to Phil. 2, was ever in His mind.&nbsp;</p><p>Later Scripture seems to allude to Mary&rsquo;s words of praise in Lk. 1 and set her up as a representative of us all. She speaks in Lk. 1:49 of her &ldquo;low estate&rdquo;, alluding to&nbsp;Ps. 136:23, which describes us all in this way.</p>