We read in chapter 1 that Joseph was a just man who was engaged to a virgin woman by the name of Mary. But, Mary became pregnant while she was still engaged to Joseph. In a society that judges women very severely for any indiscretion, Joseph upon finding out about Mary's pregnancy decided to break it quietly so as not to disgrace the young woman publicly. [A gentleman, he was!] While considering this he fell asleep and in a dream, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him not to break off the engagement, rather to go ahead with the marriage to Mary. Without questioning the dream, without considering the societal implications of marrying a woman who had become pregnant out of wedlock, Joseph believed the angel of the Lord who appeared in his dream and told him that Mary was still a virgin and had become pregnant with a child who was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The Bible says,
When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife... Matthew 1:24 (NLT)
Joseph was obedient to the instructions of the angel of the Lord.
Secondly, after baby Jesus was conceived in a manger in Bethlehem and following the visit from the three wise men, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream again and told him to get up and flee to Egypt with the child and Mary. The angel further instructed Joseph to stay in Egypt until he received instructions to return. The reason for this was King Herod wanted to eliminate any competition for his crown and wanted to kill the baby Christ, the future king of Israel! In a manger! Joseph had every right to question the veracity of his dreams, question the power of the almighty God who appeared to be fearful of the motives of an earthly king towards God's child. And where were the mighty angels of God, couldn't they have defended against an earthly force of human soldiers? To add insult to injury, the instructions were to "flee." Flee...Flee!!! Was that the instructions from a mighty God, the supreme being? But we read none of these questions arose in Joseph's mind. He simply obeyed without questioning God's motives. The Bible says,
After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother...Matthew 2:13-14Then following the death of Herod, the angel appeared again to Joseph in yet another dream and told him to return with his family back to Israel. The Bible says that he returned "immediately" to Israel. Following his return to Israel he was yet again instructed in another dream to move to Galilee as Herod's son, Archelaus, was now the king in Israel, and Joseph moved with his family to the town of Nazareth in Galilee. The Bible says,
When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”
So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”...Matthew 2:19-23In the shoes of Joseph, I may have questioned all these dreams and questioned the omnipotence, omnipresence and the omniscience of this God who was sending his angel to me in dreams and was asking to "flee" a mortal king Herod's jealousy driven motives. But, Joseph never questioned God's intentions, nor his power, nor his authority. He obeyed without questioning! And for that he was rewarded by God, blessed of all men, to be known as the father of Jesus, Christ - The Anointed One!
When we read these scriptures we also see that each time Joseph obeyed God's instructions, a prophecy was fulfilled, to God's glory! I would conclude that Joseph had to be a godly man, who had a very close and personal relationship with his God; full of personal experiences of God's faithfulness and goodness in his life; that had built his faith to be of complete obedience to God's instructions. Obeying God, one can never go wrong!
May God's grace complete our faith to unquestioning obedience to God's instructions!
PS: this message I write here came to me at a time of my disobedience! I recommend you to listen to the following message by Rev. Charles Stanley - When a Fellow Christian Stumbles posted on November 18, 2011. Just click on the link with the title above.
No comments:
Post a Comment