To begin today, imagine this scene with me. A man and woman are engaged to be
married. They are planning all the
hundreds and hundreds of details of their big day. One day, the girl says to the guy, “Sit down
for a minute, honey, please. We need to
talk.” “Okay,” he says. “What’s up?”
“This is very difficult for me,” she begins. “I’m pregnant.” The man sits there for several seconds in
stunned silence. He stands up, and paces
for a few moments. Finally, he speaks up. “But you and I haven’t made love. We were going to wait until our wedding
night. You cheated on me?” He asks, angry and wounded.
The woman jumps to her feet and quickly replies, “No,
it’s nothing like that.” She sighs,
summoning the courage to give her explanation.
“An angel from Heaven came to me,” she remarks. “I was told that the Holy Spirit is going to
“overshadow” me. God has chosen me for a
special privilege: to give birth to the Son of God.” Now it’s quite clear what couple I’m talking
about, isn’t it? I wanted to try to
capture the scene without any context.
Let me jump right back into it.
What was Joseph’s initial reaction to all this? First of all, the law in that day stated that the consequence for infidelity was
death (Deuteronomy 22:20-24). But Joseph, we are told, didn’t want to bring shame and disgrace to Mary.
Joseph was simply
going to, “Divorce her quietly” (Matthew 1:19). Why does it say “divorce her”
here? Matthew 1 tells us that Mary and
Joseph were betrothed but, it also called Joseph Mary’s husband. The betrothal was actually more binding than
being engaged is today; it required much more than to simply call off the
wedding. A divorce was necessary to
break the betrothal.
The overarching point here is that Joseph was gracious. He could have been vindictive, cruel, and
unkind toward Mary upon her announcement that she was pregnant by someone (or
better stated: ‘Someone’; capital S) other than Joseph. But he didn’t go that route. He was sympathetic, kind, and civil with
her. He wasn’t going to marry her anymore,
but what a gesture by Joseph here! He
simply was going to “divorce her quietly” and move on with his life.
But that’s when God intervened. To summarize Matthew 1:20-22, an angel speaks
to him in a dream. He tells Joseph that
Mary is speaking the truth, the baby is indeed from the Holy Spirit; he is to
go ahead with his original plan and marry her.
One quick note: in that day it was common for God to communicate through
dreams, so don’t get confused by that.
Can God communicate through dreams today? Of course He can. However, if a dream contradicts the Bible, disregard it. The final authority is the
Word of God, not a random dream.
Notice Joseph’s response in verse 24; it says, “When
Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took
Mary home as his wife.” Joseph
obeyed. Consider what God was asking him
here. To go back to that situation was
to endure scorn, ridicule, and condemnation from everyone in town. Once again, it’s not like our day where a
couple might have a baby and then get married.
It was a very different world back then.
But Joseph said, though his actions, “I’m in. Sign me up.
I’m going with God’s plan.” Well
done, Joseph! By the way, God
communicated with Joseph by dream on three other occasions. Each time, the text says that Joseph was
obedient to what God revealed to him.
Matthew 1:25 highlights something else regarding Joseph’s
character; check this out: “But he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a
Son” (NASB). Wow! It’s one thing to practice sexual abstinence
before marriage, but it’s an incredible thing for me to contemplate being
sexually pure and chaste after marriage.
What restraint and self-control Joseph had to resist his natural,
God-given urge to have sex with his new wife until Jesus was born!
In conclusion, Joseph is an unsung hero in the Christmas
story. Mary had an incredible privilege
of being the virgin that God chose to give birth to Jesus. Her faith and trust in God is commendable. But Mary was not alone; God chose a special man
too. Joseph had an important part to
play as well. He displays several
admirable characteristics for us. Joseph
truly was, as it says in Matthew 1, “a righteous man” (verse 19).
Kevin
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