Matthew 1:18-25 “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 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. 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.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus." This episode is about how faithful Saint Joseph is every time God asks him to do something. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Saint Joseph’s Faithfulness
Matthew 1:18-25 “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 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. 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.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
I thought since Christmas is coming, less than a week if you are listening to this when I first published it, then I would focus on that this week. Today I want to focus on Saint Joseph. I think he is someone that we don’t talk about enough. This year Pope Francis declared 2021 the Year of Saint Joseph. I have been hearing a lot more about St. Joseph this year and several ladies I know did the consecration to St. Joseph. Everyone I know that has read or learned more about Saint Joseph just keep talking about how incredible he was. Let’s talk about the different things in this verse.
The verse begins by describing how they were pledged to be married but before they were together he found out that Mary was pregnant. Joseph now finds himself stuck because it says he is faithful to the law. He wants to follow the law and yet according to the law back in the day if a woman was caught cheating on her husband she was to be stoned to death. Joseph didn’t want to disobey the law and he also didn’t want to publicly disgrace Mary. He was a good man and so he was going to quietly divorce her as to keep her from all of that. However, he was visited by an angel in his dream before he could do anything. This angel explained what was going on and told Joseph to name the baby Jesus.
Can you imagine being visited by an angel in your sleep? When I was little I used to imagine what it would be like to have an angel come and visit me like Mary or Joseph. I wondered what it would feel like. I wondered if I would believe what I was seeing? I wonder how Joseph felt when he woke up from that dream? Did he know it was a visit from a real angel and not just a normal dream right away? I wonder why the angel came to Joseph in a dream, but to Mary when she was awake. I think it is hard for us to imagine what it would feel like as it is so foreign to most of us. I like to think things were different back then. That it was easier for them to believe because they lived in a time when there weren’t so many distractions or when the faith was stronger. However, I don’t think, even back then, it was a common occurrence to be visited by an angel. I don’t know that those around them would have any easier time believing it than we would. Yet, Joseph did believe and he did obey.
Joseph had a choice, just like Mary did. Joseph could have decided that it was all just a dream. He could have believed that Mary had cheated on him and he could have left her. However, he made a choice to stay. He chose to listen to the angel and to name the baby Jesus. He was faithful to the Lord and he raised Jesus as his child. Did you know that Joseph was visited by an angel a second time in a dream? This time was right after the Magi visited baby Jesus. Matthew 2:13-15 recounts, “ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Again, Joseph had a choice to make. His wife had just given birth recently. He had a baby and I am sure they were all tired as she gave birth in a manger. I can’t imagine they were getting great sleep there. Then the angel of God tells Joseph to get up in the middle of the night and take his wife and baby to Egypt. Remember the first time the angel visited he was told that what he was asked to do was to help fulfill the Lord’s word through a prophet, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” Now the angel is asking Joseph a second time to fulfill the Lord’s word, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” The benefit that Joseph has over many of us is that he would have been well versed on the Old Testament prophets since he was a Jewish man. The Jewish males went to school/class to study the Jewish scriptures.
I wonder if knowing about all these scriptures or words from the prophets made it easier or harder to say yes? I wonder if knowing what he was getting into made it harder or easier. I am not sure I would want to know the fate of my child if it was to suffer like Christ suffered. I wonder if knowing all he knew about Jesus and what he was to become put added pressure on Joseph as a father. I think most parents feel a pressure to be a good parent. We feel like we don’t want to mess our children up. When they are babies they are completely dependent on us and as they grow they want to become more independent. However, I don’t think that sense of responsibility for our children ever goes away. I can just imagine the pressure that I felt not to mess my kids up too badly would be multiplied by 100,000 if I knew I was raising God’s child.
I am hoping it wasn’t like this for Mary and Joseph. I am hoping that they didn’t feel constant pressure to measure up or to be perfect. I like to think that they were able to be a somewhat regular family at the time. Although I am sure it was super stressful when Jesus stayed back in the temple to talk to the teachers when they left. I can’t imagine not knowing where my child was for that long. I did actually lose my child at a fair once and although it was less than 5 minutes real time it felt like a million years. I can’t imagine if I had to have that feeling for days. I know things were always perfect for them, but I hope that they were able to raise Jesus without too much pressure to be perfect parents and also without feeling that they weren’t worthy. The bible doesn’t share many interactions with Joseph in the bible, but you can tell by the reverence that Jesus had with Mary, that he was very respectful to his parents.
Joseph had two more dreams where an angel appeared to him. These are described in Matthew 2:19-23, “After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.” Again, Joseph had a choice and he said yes.
Joseph had several changes to say no, to refuse his destiny or fulfill his purpose and yet he didn’t. Each time he was given a task he completed it. He did not ask questions, it doesn’t appear that he argued or did it begrudgingly. Joseph had four dreams where an angel of God appeared to him and told him to do something and he said yes. They were not easy things that the angel was asking him to do and yet he did them anyway. I wonder if we would have the same strength? I wonder if we could stay when we thought we should go? I wonder if we would move to another country after just having a baby and then move back. Joseph was so faithful to do what God wanted him to do. There is very little that I know about Joseph, but what I do know, I admire. He had so much strength and so much faith. I think we could all benefit from getting to know Joseph a little more.
Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we thank you for choosing Joseph to be Jesus’ earthly father. He was so faithful to your word and your commands. Help us to be more faithful. Help us to do what you want us to do whether we feel like it or not. Help us to be willing to listen more for Your word Lord. We thank you for giving us Mary, Joseph & Jesus. You are so amazing and you love us so much to have sacrificed your son for us. Lord, we ask that you help us keep our hearts and minds focused on you this week and not on the commercialized version of Christmas. Help us to remember the reason for the season. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. For those of you that have joined me and kept me company on this “10 weeks to be more like Jesus challenge,” thank you as well. I hope it was beneficial for you. I would love to hear anything you may have liked or didn’t like about the challenge. If you would like to email me my email is Catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com. I would love to hear from you. This week’s final character trait is Patience. With Christmas coming this week and families and friends getting together, along with last minute shopping, I think the Lord is going to give us plenty of chances to grow in patience this week. I sent out an article last night and I will put a link here in the show notes titled, “7 Strategies to Build Your Patience Muscles,” by Melissa Eisler. (click here for article) If you read this article it might help you navigate through all the stressful situations that may come up around this holiday season. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Have a blessed and patient day!