18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[a] because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[b] —which means, “God with us.”
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
I find a lot to admire in Joseph when I read passages like this. Yes, it took a visit from an angel to convince Joseph, which some may feel means he didn't have trust or faith in his wife-to-be. I think her story was farfetched enough that I would question his intelligence if he simply accepted it at face value!
I noticed these things that speak well of Joseph:
1. The Bible calls Joseph a "righteous man". This is not done lightly, I believe. There aren't too many individuals in the Bible who are described as being legitimately righteous. Joseph was a man of good character. Of course, he would have to be if God chose him to care for the woman who would give birth to His son, and the son himself!
2. He did not want Mary to be disgraced. It would have been reasonable for him to be angry and upset and want her to face some sort of consequence for this presumed betrayal. And yet, he cared enough to want her to be safe and not humiliated.
3. Joseph had faith enough to believe the words of the angel and follow the instructions of his God. He must have had at least some personal misgivings about the whole situation, but he was obedient. He married Mary, he accepted the responsibility of raising a child that was not his own, and he obeyed the instructions of the angel with regard to Jesus' name.
4. Joseph had respect enough for God and for Mary to wait to consummate their marriage until Jesus had been born. I think this is pretty impressive. Joseph is a guy, after all. I don't know about you, but all the guys I know, Christian and non-Christian alike, are pretty concerned about their... physical needs, shall we say?
Anyway, that's what stood out to me today! Happy Thursday!
1 comment:
Great points here Miriam. Joseph was definitely a stand up guy! I'd love to know more of the personal stories behind so many of these Bible characters. Heaven's going to be filled with some great storytelling I'm sure!
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