#076 "Magnificat in the Mess Because He Has Done Great Things" (Luke 1:52) Artwork

The Abidible Podcast

You love God. You want to abide in Him through His Word. But you just don't know where to start. You're in the right place! Be encouraged weekly as you learn to abide in the Bible yourself. Learn alongside your host, Kate, who is just a regular wife and mom (like you?) whose life has been transformed by learning to study the Bible on her own. If she can, you can! You're meant to be here, friend.

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The Abidible Podcast

#076 "Magnificat in the Mess Because He Has Done Great Things" (Luke 1:52)

December 07, 2025 • Kate • Season 1 • Episode 76

In this unscripted episode, Kate steps into the Magnificat and shows how Mary’s “He has…” declarations become a practical lifeline when life feels overwhelming. You’ll discover how anchoring your praise in God’s proven character can steady you in the middle of stress, fear, or uncertainty.

Kate breaks down how Mary draws from Scripture—not emotion—to fuel her confidence, and she’ll help you do the same in your own everyday pressures. You’ll learn how to: Recognize the patterns of God’s faithfulness in your own story, Push back against doubt with the actual words of Scripture (instead of vague memory or borrowed belief), Spot the subtle ways the enemy twists God’s voice—and how clear biblical truth protects you, and Build your own “He has…” list as evidence you can stand on this week.

With personal stories, simple prompts, and Mary’s bold worship as the guide, this episode gives you the tools to cultivate clear-eyed, Scripture-rooted praise—even when life feels messy.

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Hey guys, this is Kate from Abidible.com, and you're listening to the Abidible Podcast. I'm just a regular wife and mom who's had my life transformed by learning to study the Bible on my own. If I can, you can. On this show, I help you know and love God more by abiding in Him through His Word, yourself. Well, it's Wing It Week. Sometimes it almost happens like every podcast series that there's one episode where part of it is timing and schedule, that it just does not work for me to sit down and write something out. And then there's also just like a sensation that I feel in my spirit that's like this one's not meant to be scripted. I have no notes. I do have some text messages to Kate McKenzie from Kate McKenzie on Sunday night at 1.20 in the morning. And so I'm going to read them to you verbatim so you can see what happens when the Lord wakes me up in the middle of the night and puts some thoughts on my heart. But we are in Luke 1:52 today, continuing our study of Mary's song, The Magnificat. And I'm also in the middle of just life and the holiday season and the busyness. And we're doing the 12 days of Christmas, first time ever with a Bidable. This is something I've wanted to do for many years, just fun little surprises and deals and offers and new products for the first 12 days of December. And so I'm very busy with that right now and also busy with teaching how to multiply decimals. That took an hour and 50, five zero minutes this morning with sixth grade math and then pronouns and antecedents. And Lord, Lord help me. And so I thought I'm just gonna, I have some things that are on my heart, some things that I also want to dive into a little bit more. And so I've sort of never done this before where I attempt to work out my thoughts live with you, but I thought that might be kind of fun to see what happens as I'm studying and trying to learn and put my thoughts together too, and trying to let the Lord speak to me. So let me do something. I want to read our verse, Luke, of course, Luke 152, but I also want to read it in the context of this section. We have been studying that Mary, as a response to what God was about to do through her, rejoices in the Lord, her soul magnifies the Lord, she praises him for seeing her, for looking upon her in her humble estate, and says, He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. So there's this whole first part of her song that is deeply personal where she's recounting who God is to her and naming him, he who is holy, mighty, the God who sees. Like we've talked about all of that so far in the series. I hope you've been enjoying it. This has been really super timely and encouraging for me in the sense that I feel like, and I think by the time this episode, yeah, by the time this episode comes out, so I can say this, it's not a surprise, uh, or I'm not gonna ruin a surprise, but our Magnificat, high-quality hoodie, embroidered hoodie, has a big M, not a big M. It's embroidered on the chest area, the left chest. And then underneath, Magnificat Anima Mea Dominum in Latin. I'm so excited about it. It's beautiful. So that's launching at the end of this week. But I have been just feeling like I know Mary was responding to the amazing miracle, the fulfilled promise of the Messiah that her and her people, and as we know, she was well acquainted with the word, this messiah that her and her people have been waiting for for thousands of years. This wonderful thing is happening and she's praising him. And also at the same time, this terrifying thing is happening where she, as a virgin, is going to show up in town pregnant and face the potential consequences with her betrothed Joseph, who's gonna know that this is not his child, and her parents and her friends, and everybody else at the temple and in her small community, was she gonna be stoned to death? Would she survive? And she just chose and knew because of the history of God and his character, knew that he would take care of her. And so there's this response of praise. But I also wonder if there is I'm gonna stick my stake in the ground and choose. My soul will magnify the Lord, and my spirit will rejoice in God my savior, for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And then she starts the second section of the song listing off some of the specific things that God has done and who he is. And I just feel like I'm in this place right now, and I've talked to so many people who are so broken and so hurting. It's like, I don't know, we just feel it more in the holidays, or just life is extra hard, the world is extra broken. It feels like that. I mean, does every generation say that? I'm sure they do, and it depends on context and who you are and where you live. I mean, we have first world problems that pale in comparison to what people are facing persecution-wise in other places of the world, but there's just this idea of like come what may, my soul will magnify the Lord. I will sing and rejoice in God, my savior, because of what he has done. So it doesn't matter what I'm facing. It is hard, it is scary, but there's just been this like power, I guess, that's been available to me as I've been doing this study to like stick my stake in the ground and say, my soul magnifies the Lord. I choose in this moment with all that I am, despite what I'm facing, despite what I'm feeling. My body is still sort of a wreck, not sort of, my back is like twisted like cement, is how my my physical therapist put it. So I'm in pain a lot of the time. I'm in perimenopause, so I'm having these hot flashes. I had to call time out on a conversation with Jason yesterday because he asked me if I wanted to bake cookies on Friday with my mom. And I just started to cry because I felt so overwhelmed with my schedule and with everything that I'm trying to get done. And I want to be there, but can I be there? And if I'm not there, then does everybody think I'm a schmuck? And what's most important is family and spending time with family and all the things that I preach about, you know, what's so important. And I was trying to, I don't even honestly know. Like, you know, when women, like you know, when your hormones take over and you're just seeing red. I literally had to call timeout and say, please stop talking to me because there's a monster inside. My flesh is screaming, and I just I just sat in my chair crying, and Liam was like, What's wrong with mama? I was like, Yeah, don't get old and be a woman with perimenopause. But like, there's just this thing that I'm like looking at Mary's song and she's like, you know what, this is hard. This is exciting. I can't believe that he has chosen me. May it be, you know, to me according to your word. She's surrendering to him. But there's also the reality of what she's gonna be asked to walk through, not to mention the challenges that come for her, that are going to come for her as being the mother of the Messiah and what she's going to face and see and experience, and ultimately how she's gonna watch her son. She doesn't know this yet, but she's gonna watch her son as we know how the story ends. Yes, victory is coming and joy comes in the morning, and three days later the tomb is empty, but she has to watch her son. I can't even talk about it. So she's just like, I don't know, I feel like there's this element, at least this is what the Lord is speaking to me. I don't know if any of you guys feel like that as you're going through this story, but it's like it's not just like a rote response. Like she's reading some responsive reading, you know, in in church with all the other people, and it's empty and hollow, and just like memorized like a rote response, like my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior. Like, I think it's a combination. I think it's filled with joy, and I also think it's filled with determination. Like I'm going to continue to choose, come what may, to rejoice in the Lord. And so I think what is so critical for us is, as I always say, abiding in the word and being reminded of who he is and what he's done so that we can plant our feet on that firm foundation when our flesh fails, or when, you know, everything is going wrong in our marriage or with our children, or everybody's sick, or the car is broken down and the refrigerator is broken, and now the garbage disposal is also broken and your husband is out of town. You know, like those kinds of things in those moments, my soul magnifies the Lord. I will choose to continue to magnify him because he, who is mighty, has done great things for me, and holy is his name, and he has. And so that's the section that we're talking about today, where she starts to transition outward, right, as this public coming to be a public figure, the mother of the Messiah. She's now turning outward and aligning herself and her heart with the mission of her son to be, the mission to be of her son, which is the mission of God, which has always been the mission of God from the very beginning in the garden when we fell and he set a plan in place that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, right? So she now says the he has section, he has. And so I'm gonna read this to you, I'll highlight which one is 52. Last week, when we read 51, you know, 50 was and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. Okay, right. That comes right after he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. We talked about his mercy for those who fear him from generation to generation. And then last week for 51, he has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. And so that was the beginning of the he has. And last week we talked about the omni qualities of God, God's omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. We talked about what each of those mean, what it means for us practically in real life, and the strength of God, the presence of God, and the all-knowing, unbelievable power of God. So if you missed that, check that out. But today I want to focus on these he has together as a group. So here they are. Again, 50. This is 51 through 53. I'm gonna hold off on 54 and 55 because we're gonna end with those together the week of Christmas, and then the week after Christmas, I do my recap episode. So I just want to read 51 through 53 to you together. He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, he has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of humble estate, he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, he has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of humble estate, he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. Next week, when we go over verse 53, sort of to end this section, I want to focus a little more specifically on the instances that Mary was thinking about from the history of her people, what she would have heard in the temple, what she would have sung about with her family in feasts during feasts and holidays, the stories that came from Torah about who God always had been to his people. Okay, we have specific examples that we're gonna get into in each of these, but today I want to talk a little bit more generally just about the evidence of God. So let me the evidence of who God is. I want to read you this thing that I texted myself in the middle of the night. Let's see if any of it is cohesive and then um have a conversation about it. So I said, Do you have evidence? That's the big question, right? We want evidence that a restaurant is good before we eat there, that a product is good before we buy it, that a person is safe before we meet with them, that so-and-so really said or did whatever they're accused of saying or doing, or credited, I suppose we could say, with saying or doing. We demand the same with God. Evidence. We stand as judge and jury over the judge. I think what I was saying here is that because we are so accustomed, I mean, I read every review for every hotel I'm gonna stay at, for a restaurant I'm gonna eat at. I want evidence. I want to know what everybody else says and thinks about something before I make a decision. And in a world where we have more information and technology in front of us than we've ever had before, there's just this like false sense of really omnipotence, like this notion, which is not a new notion of trying to be like God or thinking that we are like God. It's not a bad thing. What I'm not saying is that it's it is certainly not a bad thing to want clear evidence before you place your faith and trust in God. And I believe genuinely that we have examples all through the New Testament and the Old Testament of God being a God who provided evidence. Yes, he talks about blessed are those who have faith without seeing, but he also understood and provided evidence for people like Thomas, who doubted and who wanted more clear examples. And all throughout the Old Testament, God would do things and then he would say, so that they may know that I am the Lord. He would give them concrete, real life, physical evidence that he was God, and would use that as the foundation for calling them to faith by revealing who he was. And never more so did he do that than what he's doing right now in the womb of our Mary, right? He is coming in the flesh that he will say, you know, Jesus will say, If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. This is the Father revealing, as we talked about too, the right arm of the Lord, like sort of this symbolic right arm of the Lord is Jesus, that he's putting on flesh and that he is coming, that we can see him, touch him, eat with him, talk to him, pray with him, and see him suffer, die, and be resurrected for us with our own eyes. Yes, it was the eyewitnesses of the people who were there, but he came at a specific time, in a specific place for specific people in the flesh, a real human being who was fully God and fully man. This is the hypostatic union that we talked about that is beyond comprehension, one of the mysteries of God, that he was fully divine and fully human and came in the flesh as evidence to prove that he loved us and that he is real. And so it's not a bad thing to want evidence. But when he has given us evidence and we ignore it or we forget about it, or we demand more, or we say that it's not enough, then we stand. This thing that I'm saying here, we stand as judge and jury over the judge. So I said, today we're gonna talk about evidence. We'll get to Mary's words of what she was thinking. My guess is that it's a mix of personal remembrances and ancient ones, which I want to talk about the ancient ones next week. I do want to circle back on the personal remembrances, like what Mary was probably doing. She was thinking about specific times because she says it, right? He who is mighty has done great things for me. And it's not just that doesn't just spring out of somebody who, for the very first time, is experiencing the presence and provision and blessing of God. This is a woman, as we've seen, who's quoting scripture left and right. And so she is going to have a testimony. This woman has a testimony of who God is and what he's done for her. So she's recounting personal, she's also talking about ancient examples. And so then I wrote, Do you remember a time when God demonstrated the strength of his arm personally? So we could even go through each one of these. Like, can you ask these questions of yourself? And I think that would be an exercise that you could use in your workbook, one of the extra note pages, that you could go through this exercise and write a few personal examples of times when you have seen God show strength with his arm, when you have seen God scatter the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, when you have seen him bring down the mighty from their thrones, and when you've seen him exalt those of humble estate. I'm not just talking about examples from scripture. We're gonna do that again next week, like I said, but in your own life, have you seen him fill the hungry with good things and seen him, have you seen him send the rich away empty? I can think of examples for these. I mean, he has shown strength with his arm in my own personal family's life. I mean, we we weren't walking with Jesus. We kind of went to church and did our thing, but the strength that he demonstrated in not just saving, you know, first my dad, then my mom, and then me, all within like a short period of time, he turned all of us to himself radically. I mean, like sold out for him. And I think it's probably because, you know, this idea of um, is it first Peter like proclaiming the excellencies of him who's called you out of darkness into light? Like we had been through a lot as a family. And so I think there was just like unbelievable power. And people would say that I remember being in high school. Some of you who knew me back then were like, who even like who are you? I remember distinctly this one. Who are you? And what have you got, what have you done with Kate? Because God had so radically transformed me. And I have talked about before that one girl in particular who sometimes listens to the podcast and sent me a beautiful letter when I was healing from my surgery just recently, super thoughtful. So, how cool is that? Like 20 years later, we're still getting to chat and and be in communication. But she had told me how how badly I had hurt her. I was a mean girl and very insecure and in a crowd of mean girls. And it was if you're not, if you're not the one on the outs, then somebody else has to be on the outs. And so we just, it was not great. And I was not a kind person. I told Liam, you wouldn't have wanted to be friends with me. And I was a mess looking for identity and all kinds of different things. And God roadblocked my path and roadblocked my parents' path in their marriage. And just, I mean, this is an example in my own story, my own testimony of him showing strength with his arm, particularly if you think of it in light of what we've talked about that Jesus is the symbolic arm, like all throughout the Old Testament. It talks about God's outstretched arm, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm. Like his he's powerful and he's strong, but he's reaching toward us, and never more so in this baby that that's growing in Mary's womb, right? Like Jesus, the Messiah, who's coming for us to rescue us and to save us from our sin. Like the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Like that is the outstretched arm of God, Jesus himself coming to rescue us. And that's what happened to my family. I mean, our testimony as a family, all three of us getting saved together, is not evidence of any of anything. That any of us did in and of ourselves, not anything that um, you know, the counselors or the church or the TV program that I watched when I heard the gospel for the very first time and gave my heart to Jesus at the foot of my parents' bed, where all three of us held hands and prayed, and I sobbed and asked Jesus to be Lord of my life. And I'm laughing because it was Carmen. And if you don't know who Carmen is, you need to look up who Carmen is, was. I didn't know any of his other music, anything else he had ever done. My husband did because he grew up in church, and so he played some of the songs for me. And God bless, you know, God can do anything and God can use anyone, and God bless you, Carmen, for sharing the gospel message in 2000, the year 2000, maybe 1999, when I was 17. 2000, because I got I got saved and I met Jesus because of that. But that is a demonstration, honestly, of the power and might, the strength of God's arm. You know, he scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. I have an example. It's friends of ours that we love, and so it's a personal story that I can't share. But there was, you know, the wagons were circling around dear friends of ours who are some of the most faithful, genuine, sincere, steadfast, Jesus-loving, God-glorifying friends that we have. And man, they were, they were thrown into the lion's pit, into the fiery pit, into the storm, the den, whatever. And um, there were people, you know, hyenas really circling around them, trying to destroy them. And God, I mean, like lightning from heaven scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts and rescued, reached down, literally reached down and rescued my friends. And I had a front row seat to that agonizing season. And I will never forget that when God chooses, you know, sometimes he sits back and he allows the consequences to come from the actions of sinful man. And sometimes those consequences fall on godly men and women, and we suffer because in this world we will have trouble. And it's hard to understand that when we don't have uh God's omniscience and we can't see the full story. You know, we're only on page 17 of a 35,000-page book. Sometimes he comes in and he says enough and he he defends his people. And he always, in in one way or another, he always defends and he always delivers, and there will always be victory for his people in this life or the next. But in this particular situation, I got to see firsthand that he did scatter the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. And, you know, I think for me, when I read these other ones, he's brought down the mighty from their thrones and the rich he sent away empty. I I think that one, you know, we have to think probably further than our immediate circle, even our own immediate communities. I think more global or more national on a more national scale, or I think about Hollywood, some of the most tragic stories and tales come, and it's a repeated story. The tale as old as time of, you know, absolute power corrupting absolutely and seeing how far the mighty fall and how great that fall is. Just shocking things that we hear about people who were, you know, once our heroes. And I'm not going to name names or get into it because each one of you can think about a litany of people who fall into these categories. And that, you know, can bring up another question too, sometimes, which is, you know, why does it seem that those who are mighty continue to have power, continue to get to be on their throne? Why does it seem like the rich are not being sent away empty, that they're prospering? And I think again, we have to remember that this is an ongoing story. Just because it has not yet been rectified. The score has not yet been settled, does not mean that this isn't true. If it is in here, it is true. He will send away the rich empty. Meaning, you can't you can be rich and love Jesus, by the way. Your money is not your God. Your money is a gift from God, and you use it to bless God and bless others. Just because you have to understand this is the rich who are who worship their money. That's you got to understand this verse in the context of all the rest of scripture that money is not the root of all evil, but the love of money is the root of all evil. So, why does it seem like sometimes the people who are prospering are wicked and evil? And why is God not yet bringing them down from their thrones? And I think what brings me great confidence is that the story is not over yet. He can still redeem them, he can still change their hearts. I mean, gosh, I just think about some people in Hollywood or some people in power who God has gotten a hold of. It seems like he's doing it more and more. And it's probably because there's more people who have platforms who are sharing more personally. But some of the people who have been coming to Christ, it's shocking and it's beautiful. And so nobody is ever beyond redemption. If I wasn't, then nobody is. Um, and we know the story of Jesus on the cross with the two criminals. And he said, you know, the one to the one who repented and gave his allegiance to Jesus next to him on the cross. I mean, he said, Today you'll be with me in paradise, right? So there's nobody who is beyond hope, but for those who choose to continue and who do not want anything to do with God, but want to be God, their own gods, they will have their fill in this life, and then they will get what they ask, which is eternity apart from God, right? So let me go back to my notes. I'm like, I knew this would sort of happen, and God bless. I hope you're still with me. But I said, I asked that question, do you remember a time when God demonstrated? And I just encouraged you to think through each of these things in your own personal life. And then I said, Why is it that we will spend hours researching the best hotels in your Disneyland? Kate McKenzie, but zero time researching where God has demonstrated X. Now, to be fair, I do spend a good amount of time in the Word. But it's true, like why are we more willing to get the answers? Is it because like we don't know how? I think that's part of it sometimes. Like, I don't know how to find out that God is merciful. So yeah, I can go on, you know, Yelp and read, or Trip Advisor and read about the best hotels around Disneyland. That's easy to do, but I don't know how to go evidence find the evidence of God's mercy or God's might or his outstretched arm. And so, well, it's just too hard. I'm not gonna do it. And I think this is a critical error in our relationship with the Lord. I think not knowing how is not an excuse. I think it is a reality. I mean, I didn't know how, but the years that I spent stuck in that place, I guess, like comfortable and okay with my ignorance and allowing everybody else to do the work for me and trusting, you know, I was under great biblical teaching and preaching, but that only does so much on Sunday when you're amenning and nodding your head and shaking a lot your your shaking your what leg? Shaking a leg to the sermon when you're responding to the sermon, and then you go live your life apart from God for the rest of the week because you don't know how to abide and find these things out for yourself. And that's like why I'm so fiercely passionate about teaching people and encouraging and calling people to go for the love of God, literally dig into scripture for yourself to find evidence of the thing that you need to know about him right now in this season. Like we are just dangerously passive, and we can't be because life and this world are a battle, and there are powers and principalities in this present darkness that we can't see that are waging war around us, and dude, like we have to know, like Mary knew. How did Mary know she knew the story of God from the people of God? She obviously studied it, sang about it, celebrated it in the annual feasts and festivals, heard about it in temple, but it also had become personal to her, and she was able to recount those, it's like she could extrapolate. Like, we need to be able to extrapolate the characters, uh, characteristics of God and and the traits of God and the things that he's done into our own life, and also have like a pattern of thankful, grateful remembrance in our own life for the things that he's done, you know. Like Mary is specifically talking, I'm sure, about things of ancient time, like I said, but also things from her own life. And we have to be able to do that too. We have to be able to do that. So I said, true crime. Oh boy. Okay, this is at 122. So this is two minutes later. True crime. The big question since the beginning, oh gosh, of man is did God actually did God actually say? And then I said, What I learned in Genesis and why what Mary is doing is important. Well, I said, is importantly, because I can't type when my eyes are half closed at two o'clock in the morning. Something happened to me this last week, and I do, I was like, am I gonna talk about this? But I do feel like the Lord laid it on my heart for a reason. I do think that it's relevant, and I need to grab my notebook here. This is relevant, and I am gonna talk to you about it because this is Genesis 3. This is the fall. I have always historically gone through Genesis 1 and 2 really quickly and beyond and to three and beyond because I'm usually in Genesis when I'm starting some sort of reading plan, right? And I've never really taken the time to camp on this, and I've already, you guys have heard me say that I've been spending my own personal study time, I've been spending a lot of time in Genesis one and two. And then guess what? I literally had been like in it every day for months. And then Genesis three. Now that the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made, I highlighted one word, crafty, looked up what that meant. Why did God allow him in? I asked that question. I I looked up an answer and wrote the answer to that, and then I stopped. It's like I was refusing to. I don't know why this is making me cry. It's like I didn't, like I know this part of the story, and I wanted to stay in paradise because it was so it was so wonderful, you know. Like God had been so kind and so generous in what he had given to first Adam and then Eve, and just bless them. Like he gave them everything, and he planted a garden. Like I just imagine the love and care that goes into not just creating everything out of the words that you speak, but then planting a garden for the man. God is spirit, so he's not on his hands and knees in the garden, but it's just this idea of cultivating something with great care for someone that you love deeply. And God created Adam in his image, right? And loved him, and then saw that it wasn't good for him to be alone and makes Eve. But before he makes Eve, God says, after giving him everything, God says a very specific command, right? This is Genesis 2, 16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now, Eve had not been created yet, so she was not present, physically present, to hear that command. When the devil, Satan, the snake, the serpent, decides to come into the garden, which God allowed in. This is a question that I need to answer real quickly, because I think this is important too. Why did God allow him in? This got questions answer is so beautiful. For love to be proved genuine, God gave Adam and Eve and all succeeding people the freedom to choose. So because the serpent comes, Adam and Eve are given the freedom to choose, right? We can choose to love or not to love, to obey God or not to obey him, to do good or evil. If the human will had never been allowed to be tested and proved, then people would be nothing more than robots. God could have created us to love and obey him automatically. He could have put a fence around Eden and never allowed humanity to be tempted, but God's desire was and is for people to love him sincerely, obey him willingly, and worship him wholeheartedly. So he allows Satan in. And Satan comes to Eve. He doesn't go to Adam, he comes to Eve. And I wonder, I'm sure there's all kinds of theological speculation on why this is, and maybe you've heard sermons on it and you're smarter than me. But one thing I wonder is: did he go to Eve? Because her knowledge of the command that God had given was secondhand. She wasn't there for the original command. And so he says, Did God actually say? And this is the question that he asks you every single day. Did God actually say, Is God actually good? Can you really trust him? Do you really want to obey him? Trying to sow seeds of doubt, which we're going to get into in the beginning of 2026 when we do the in the wilderness study with uh Satan coming to tempt Jesus, which is going to be super powerful. But this is the question that he asks Eve. It's the question that he continues to ask all of us every day. Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? So he's twisting God's words and asking Eve, did God actually say that? So then the question is, well, what's Eve gonna say? Does she even know? Has Adam told her? What has Adam told her? And I think her response is really interesting. And I did a word study on it. And I think maybe this might be something that you've never heard. I certainly had never heard this before either. But here's her response, and then we're gonna compare them side by side. Let me help you one more time with God's actual words to Adam. So this is first God to Adam in 2, 16 to 17. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. So what I learned is that when he says, He being God, says, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden. The Hebrew there is not a word for surely. It is the word I'm gonna say it wrong, a call, a K-A-L, a call in Hebrew that is repeated twice, like a call, a call. And the repetition of that word side by side does not mean you're gonna eat again, but it's to emphasize certainty. So the idea here, it's like this literary device used to emphasize certainty or intensity. It means eating with certainty or freely eating. This heightened emphasis is not captured in the English language. So God says, You can eat with certainty every fruit from every tree in the garden, you can eat with freedom. And then the same expression, surely, is used at the end of God's command where it says, Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Same thing here. This is die, die. It's repeated twice for emphasis to give the consequence, the clear consequence of disobedience. And it's so interesting that God's abundant provision, eat, eat, is contrasting dramatically with the single prohibition. So you can eat from everything in the garden except for this one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for you will surely die. The consequence is clear and certain. God was emphatic, emphatically clear about this. And what happens is that Eve comes in and she says, she said, there's enough of a twist, there's enough, she's speaking in generic language. You know, like it's like us when we we twist the word of God, or when a preacher twists the word of God, or an influencer, or you add to it, or you subtract to it, or you water it down. It's kind of like what Eve does. So, so she says, We may eat versus God saying, You may surely eat. It's a small thing, but her only using that verb eat once compared to God using it twice, removes the certainty of that freedom, removes the beauty of the certainty of that freedom that they could eat from every other tree in the garden. She says, the tree in the midst of the garden. She doesn't name it, it's a generic tree where versus God saying very clearly, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then finally, she says, You will die one time, uses the verb one time versus surely die, where the verb is used twice for emphasis to clarify the clear consequence of that disobedience. So she, whether she twisted it like a game of telephone, inadvertently or intentionally, she's not saying or repeating or standing on the same word command of God. There has been a distortion. I don't know how much time has passed, it's not clear, but there has somehow been a distortion between what God specifically, clearly, emphatically said to Adam about this command and what Eve is now repeating to the devil. Did Adam tell her wrong? We don't know. We don't know what happened, but she gets it wrong. And then this floored me. Satan's response, the serpent, but the serpent said to the woman, this is 3 4, you will not surely die. He gets it right. He says it with the two verbs die, die, repeated, but he also adds a third. And it says, as I was studying what that means, when a word is repeated three times. Times it's meant to show supremacy and express the highest superlative form. Satan knows scripture, he takes it and uses it as a weapon, twists it, adds his own emphasis as he deceives the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. And he even names the two same same um words in Hebrew for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And he lies to her and he deceives her, and she takes and she eats, and she gives it to Adam, who it says was with her, whatever Adam was doing, and we fall. And I just have never taken the time to sit in this and grieve what really happened here because Eve and Adam passively did not know or choose to know or stand on the commandments of God. It got watered down, it got twisted, it got forgotten, it got morphed into whatever worked for them. And in that moment, you know, she saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit and she ate and she gave also some to her husband. And I feel like what Mary is doing is such a significant battle cry, like a revolutionary battle cry of like, like I said, planting her stake in the ground and saying, I will magnify the Lord. My soul will rejoice in God, my savior, for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And then here's who my God is. He's the God who sees, he's the God who knows, he's the God who is mighty and holy is his name. And then here are the specific things that he's done, right? He has shown strength with his arm, you guys. This is who my God is. He's scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, he's brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. And I'm gonna close with this. This isn't even in my notes. Um I gotta like sorry, Ian. The best editor ever, most generous with his time. I feel like I gotta just let these 1:30 a.m. notes go. Is there anything else worth knowing? Mary's background soundtrack was praise. Mine can be doubt, fear, self-glory, excuses, regret. And maybe hers was too at points, but she at some point became a woman whose background soundtrack was praise. Her choice response was praise. So my soul magnifies the Lord and rejoices in God, my savior, based on evidence and faith. It's the choice, right? It's we know this to be true, and I'm going to choose to remember it. I'm gonna choose to continue to praise. I'm gonna choose to continue to put my trust in him. And you know, Satan wants us to fold so badly because he wants us to do what he did. He wants us to be dissatisfied at the feet of a God who's given us everything because of our broken, fleshly sinful desire to be like him or be equal to him. But like we said, you know, when we read that, oh my gosh, if you have not heard that a fear to be desired, when I shared that Charles Spurgeon sermon from 1878, go back and be reminded of why God is so worthy of our fear. I don't know how to transition to this, but I have to read this to you because this is not something, and maybe I'm gonna have to flesh it out a little bit more next week. This is not something that I was seeing on my own as I was reading this passage. Maybe some of you have come across this as you've studied and done your commentary here for verses 51 to 53, but this is McLaren commentary, and it says the main thought. Tell me what you think of this, and we're gonna have to flesh it out next week. The main thought of verses 51 to 53 is that the Messiah would bring about a revolution in which the high would be cast down and the humble exalted. Okay, so this idea of revolution, that's not the only place I saw it. I also saw it in the commentary I was studying for the Gospel of Luke with William Barclay. It says this here we have a passage which has become one of the great hymns of the church, the Magnificat. It is steeped in the Old Testament and it is closely related to Hannah's song of praise in 1 Samuel 2, 1 through 10. It has been said, you need to write this down. I need to write this down too. It has been said that religion is the opiate of the people, but it has also been said that the Magnificat is the most revolutionary document in the world. It speaks of three of the revolutions of God. One, he scatters the proud in the plans of their hearts. That is a moral revolution. Christianity is the death of pride. Why? Because if people set their lives beside that of Christ, it tears away the last vestiges of their pride. Sometimes something happens to us which, with a vivid revealing light, shames us. The American writer O. Henry has a short story about a boy who was brought up in a village. In school, he used to sit beside a girl and they were fond of each other. He went into the city and fell into evil ways. He became a pickpocket and a petty thief. One day he snatched an old lady's purse. It was clever work and he was pleased. And then he saw coming down the street the girl whom he used to know, still sweet with the radiance of innocence. Suddenly he saw himself for the cheap, vile thing that he was. Burning with shame, he leaned his head against the cool iron of a lamp standard. God, he said, I wish I could die. He saw himself. Christ enables us to see ourselves. It is the death blow to pride. The moral revolution has begun. Two, he casts down the mighty. So this is going through the verses, right? 51 to 53. Second part of the revolution, he casts down the mighty, he exalts the humble. That is a social revolution. Christianity puts an end to the world's labels and prestige. Muratus was a wondering scholar of the Middle Ages. He was poor. In an Italian town, he became ill and was taken to a hospital for wafes and strays. I don't know what that means. The doctors were discussing his case in Latin, never dreaming he could understand. They suggested that since he was such a worthless wanderer, they might use him for medical experiments. He looked up and answered them in their own learned tongue. Call no man worthless for whom Christ died. When we have realized what Christ did for each and every one of us, it is no longer possible to regard anyone as being beneath us. The social grades are gone. And three, he has filled those who are hungry, those who are rich he has sent away empty. That is an economic revolution. A non-Christian society is an acquisitive society where people are out for as much as they can get. A Christian society is a society where no one dares to have too much while others have too little, where everyone must get only to give away. There is loveliness in the magnificat, but in that loveliness, there is dynamite. Christianity brings about a revolution in the individuals and revolution in the world. So what are we to do in light of that? Like we have, I think, I I was not anticipating really that this was what was gonna happen. I mean, for me personally, but I feel like I'm just being pushed to the precipice of like a choice, you know? Like, am I going to at all times, not perfectly, but am I going to be someone who, when pushed to the flame, chooses to praise? I mean, that's what I desire, but I feel so weak and so incapable in my flesh to respond in this way where my my soul chooses to praise God in all things, and I say that, but then also offer the hope that I have found in knowing how much he's transformed me through the study of his word. Like I get zero credit because I know who I've been, I know I know who I was four years ago before I started studying this way. And anytime that I choose to see myself correctly, the humble estate of his servant, right? To choose to be his servant and to see myself correctly and accurately and respond in praise, man, that's just complete evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in me, because that's not my natural inclination. And that's just what he does through his word, because as we study his word, we get to do exactly what Mary was doing, which is he has, he has, he has, he has. So he will again because this is who he is, that because this is what he has done, he will do it again. And then we're being pushed now to see things correctly, to see that our God, this this baby that is growing in the womb of our Mary, this baby that is gonna bring about a moral revolution, a social revolution, and an economic revolution as he transforms individuals and entire communities. I mean, this is what Mary is doing now, right? She's turning outward the mission of her son, and her son is going to be a revolutionary. Unlike any who's ever come before. It is a beautiful song, but it is a song filled with dynamite, and I think I'll leave it there for today. I would just super encourage you to go back and think about specific instances in your life, journal through them. When has he shown strength with his arm? When has he scattered the proud? Maybe that's you too, right? He scatters us, he breaks us down in our pride, which is a beautiful thing. He's brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. We're gonna continue in verse 53 next week, but I would encourage you to just sit down and think of personal examples. We'll highlight more of this idea of Christ being a revolutionary, and then we'll talk about the specific examples of God doing these things in the Old Testament that Mary is referring to. You know, from ancient times, this is who he's always been, so this is who he's gonna continue to be. Um, and the confidence and comfort that comes from that knowledge. Uh, we'll tackle all of that next week. But for now, that's it for this episode. If you know someone who would be blessed by what you just heard, please share the Abidible podcast with them. Keep spreading the word so we can make much of the word. Drop us a review, tell us what you love and what you're learning. Check out the link to learn more about partnering with us by buying us a coffee one time, by joining our Avidable Plus membership community for $10 a month, or by becoming a monthly supporter. For those of you following along in the workbook, go ahead and begin working on our next verse in this series, Luke 153 on pages 46 to 49 in your study workbook. Ideally, you would have this section done before you listen to the next episode number 77. And I already said we're gonna talk about in that next episode. We're gonna be reading again Luke 1.53, but we'll be wrapping up this whole section here, this revolutionary dynamite-packed section. But Luke 1.53 again says he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. I'll pray for us and then close us out with our memory work for verse 52. God, I just feel like it's an honor to open your word with your people. And sometimes I'm a little more organized and thoughtful or put together, and today felt a little bit more like just having a conversation with friends and processing things that I'm learning and trying to figure out how it all ties together. But I do know, Lord, that it is a privilege to study your word and that our desire is to know your word. Our desire is to be able to correctly quote and believe and live out without twisting or distorting or forgetting or watering down or conforming your words to our will. That's not our desire. Our desire is to get it right, to understand it, to study it, to apply it. God, our desire also is not to demand evidence, to stand before the judge, the creator of all, and demand evidence, but we know that you have given us evidence, and that evidence enables us to stand in the truth and the reality of who you've always been, what you've done, and therefore what you will continue to do. And I just I feel so connected to Mary, which is and it's growing in this study, which is such a beautiful gift. I don't know, Lord, if my um listeners are feeling the same. I pray that they are, not in a worshipful way. We don't worship Mary, but as a sister in Christ way, right? She um was redeemed and saved by her own son in a sister in Christ kind of way. I just feel so connected to her and her desire to surrender to you, to be your servant, to love you and to bless you and glorify you, but also with the battles that she must have had internally. And ultimately, she chose to plant her stake in the ground and praise you and glorify you and magnify you and list who you were, who you continue to be, all that you've done and all that you will do in a radical revolutionary way, just like her son would too. What a beautiful thing it is to see her personal relationship with you, Lord, the God of her fathers, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the stories that she knew and that she had studied and she had celebrated and she had sang about to see that be the source of all that poured out of her. As she went public with her declarations, in public with her own ministry as the mother of the Messiah. Lord, would we be the same? Would you plant in us the evidence and the certainty of who you are, the desire to study your word and to get it right, and the ability to join the revolution. That we would be people who are transformed and who are able to be used by you to transform all the lives of those around us because of what that one baby came to do. We're so grateful, and we're so thankful that we get to do this right now in this season of Advent as we slow down. Man, I needed this today. Just it's stressful, there's a lot going on. We're so tempted to lose sight of what matters most. And so I just thank you for this time. And I ask you to I ask you to let fall away what needs to fall away from my wanderings and ramblings today, and let stick what needs to stick, and that you would just bless the one who's listening now. Oh, how I love the people that you have given me the ability and the blessing of serving. And so do your thing in their heart, Lord, and draw them closer to you in Jesus' name. Alright, let's close by doing our memory work together. I'm going to repeat Luke 152 five times. Say it out loud with me or quietly to yourself. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of humble estate. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of humble estate. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. Luke 1 52. Remember, you are able to abide in the Bible. We'll see you next time. Until then, let's abide.