During this season of Advent I am thinking of Joseph. He was the man God called to be the foster father on earth of Jesus. His call came unexpectedly from two sources, from news that Mary gave him, and from a dream God sent him.
We might imagine the scene: Mary, his betrothed wife-to-be, approaching him, eyes to the ground. “Joseph, I have something to tell you.” She was pregnant. He knew this was not his doing. This seeming betrayal was the greatest disappointment of his life. The shock was beyond words. His sadness inconsolable.
As a faithful Jew, he knew enough of the Torah to know that he could either publicly expose Mary’s apparent infidelity, shaming her, and possibly risking her life, or divorce her privately. The gospel of Matthew gives us the story (Matthew 1:18-20).
Joseph was a thinking man. “He considered this,” the text says. His mind ranged back and forth. On the one hand, guided by his heart, he loved Mary and felt a need to try to protect her from public scandal. On the other hand, guided by his head, he had a reputation as a righteous man, and he must have felt a duty to safeguard his own good name. The law of Moses permitted divorce in cases like this. That is what he was inclined to do. Until . . . he received a message from heaven.
We call it divine intervention. An instance when God shows up and speaks with unmistakable clarity. The Bible is full of instances like this. When life is at its worst, when people are pulled in opposite directions and they don’t know what to do, or when they are overwhelmed with sorrow, the Lord reveals his will. God sent a messenger to Joseph with gentle guidance.
“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. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins'” (Matthew 1:20-21).
“A son,” not “your son.” Matthew adds the interpretation from the prophet Isaiah, “They will call him Immanuel — which means God with us” (Matthew 1:23). He will be conceived by the Holy Spirit, a miraculous conception and birth. He will be “God with us,” divine and sinless. He will be a male child, fully human.
In Bible times, dreams were reliable media for transmitting divine guidance. This was the first of four dreams Joseph would receive from the Lord. In this respect he is like the Old Testament Joseph for whom he was named. He responded to the message with faith and obedience.
He knew what to do. “He did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25).
As a thinking man, Joseph was open to divine guidance.. He accepted by faith the message from heaven. The holy angel confirmed what Mary had already told him, that she was a virgin (Luke 1:34). He did as he was directed and gave the baby the name Jesus, which means “savior,” or “deliverer.”
As you and I contemplate this, let’s be like Joseph, obedient to God’s revealed will. Let’s be like Joseph, thinking things through and responding with faith in God’s word.
Pastor Randy Faulkner