Key Verse: 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."
Matthew 1:20
Joseph is yet another key player in God's plan of salvation.
He is descended from Abraham, from the
tribe of Judah and of the house of David. Physically, it makes sense that he could be
chosen to be the father of the Messiah. Joseph,
however, is more than just physically appropriate. He also has the character and attitude that
the Lord can work with. Even before the
angel told him that Mary was telling the truth, Joseph showed great love and
restraint in wanting to protect Mary from public disgrace.
Joseph had to swallow a lot of pride and personal dreams and
ambitions to follow God's call on his life. He had to endure the shame of a pregnant,
unwed mother for a wife. He would have
to leave his home and country to protect his new family. If he had had simple dreams like carrying on
his father's carpentry business and hoping to, someday, pass it on to his
children, that dream vanished when he chose to obey the Lord and take Mary for
his wife anyway.
Being a carpenter itself would prove to be a difficult hurdle
to overcome. If man were writing the
script, it would have made sense for Jesus to be born to a scribe or a priest,
one of the learned men of Israel. Who
would believe the sayings of a carpenter's son, a simple, rough, blue collar
worker with rough hands and probably unrefined habits? How could Jesus come from such unrespectable
stock? Oh sure, he may be good for
making furniture, or perhaps a cross bar, but be Messiah or the father of
Messiah? Yet, Joseph was obedient and
trusted God, bearing personal shame and humiliation for Jesus’ sake.
Joseph would have to deny the pleasures of physical union
with his wife until after the child was born. He would have to be content with being
protector and guide and, hopefully, friend. While Mary was more caught up in the
excitement of what this baby would mean for Israel, Joseph had to immediately
face the responsibility of just what this commitment would mean. He could have walked away, but instead, he chose
to take up a cross for the sake of his son and Savior.
Amazingly, if we are understanding scripture correctly,
Joseph died before Jesus ever began His ministry. This means that Joseph may have gone to his
grave still wondering why he never saw the true fruit of all His sacrifice,
yet, he obeyed god. Of course, it also
meant that Joseph was spared the pain of watching his adopted son die on a
cross, and was rewarded early in Heaven with the knowledge and understanding of
exactly what the Messiah was all about.
One more thing makes Joseph like many of the Israelites who
passed a promise on from generation to generation. Even the prophets, who were responsible
for proclaiming that promise to the people, mostly did their work without
ever clearly understanding how it would be fulfilled. We want to see
answers to our prayers in our life
time, but the Jews had much more of a sense of being a chapter in a story and
not being the whole book. Or, closer to
our road sign theme, the Jewish prophets saw themselves as sign posts, and not
the whole road.
Do we complain when the responsibility of
bearing our cross, of being a Christian, becomes difficult? Perhaps we need to pray for a little more of
Joseph's character and attitude in our own lives today. Joseph sets out the example before us of what
it truly means to say, "It's not about us. It's about Him."
Hymn: "Of the Father's Love Begotten" “How Can it Be?” by Michael Card
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