By Audrey Bauman

Matthew 1: 18 – 24  (NLT)

“The Birth of Jesus the Messiah

¹⁸ This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

²⁰ As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
     She will give birth to a son,
 and they will call him Immanuel, (Isaiah 7: 14; Isaiah 8: 8, 10)
     which means ‘God is with us.’”

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.”

Matthew tells us the story of an incredible man, Joseph, - a “righteous man”. Can you imagine how devastated a man like that would be to discover his fiancée was pregnant? Was he that wrong in his choice of wife?  What would people say about him? What should he do about this situation?  

Engagement in those times was a much more serious agreement than it is today. Intervarsity Press online Commentary gives us more information about the engagement process:

“Ancient Mediterranean fathers generally arranged their daughters' marriages through a custom called betrothal. Betrothal was much more serious than our modern practice of "engagement": it left the survivor of the man's death a widow, and if both partners lived it could be ended only by divorce. Yet though Joseph was preparing to divorce Mary, the text calls him righteous.

At the same time we should observe that the circumstances under which Joseph was planning to divorce Mary were hardly light. Unlike today, Joseph had no option of giving Mary a second chance, even if he wanted to. Jewish and Roman law both demanded that a man divorce his wife if she were guilty of adultery. Roman law actually treated a husband who failed to divorce an unfaithful wife as a panderer exploiting his wife as a prostitute 

Further, Joseph had another reason to divorce her. Because others would assume that Joseph himself must have gotten her pregnant unless he divorced her, his reputation was at stake for the rest of his life. Joseph probably also did not know Mary as well as we would expect of engaged couples today and had little reason to trust her innocence; if our sources are reliable, Galilean couples apparently enjoyed no privacy together until the wedding; Joseph hence experiences the pain of betrayal, the breach of a contract more binding than a business deal in his culture. Because a wife's adultery could imply the husband's inadequacy or his family's poor choice of a mate, Mary's apparent unfaithfulness shamed Joseph as well."

The fact that Joseph decided to end the engagement quietly, tells us so much about his character. He was willing to take some of the shame, and try to alleviate some of the shame for Mary.  He could have gone to court and asked for the dowry money back. Even before God stepped in, we realize that Joseph was a compassionate person.

Joseph also trusted God completely. An angel appeared to him in a dream with the request to continue with the arranged marriage. As soon as he woke up, he took Mary as his wife.  The wedding happened immediately.  When I try to put myself in Joseph’s shoes, I wonder if I might have thought I had a bad dream, and continued on with my original plans. In the broad light of the day, who would think that their fiancee was pregnant by the Holy Spirit?  Isn’t that quite far fetched?  Yet Joseph did. Mary and Joseph were ordinary poor people, but God saw them as trusting Him so much, He could trust them to raise His son.

Matthew goes on to quote verses from Isaiah.   This very unusual situation was prophesied. Once again, we see Matthew including all the facts necessary to proclaim Jesus as Lord and Saviour. This Messiah is special right from the beginning.

Intervarsity Press online Commentary summed up the situation Joseph faced.  It made me think about how much I trust God, especially if I think my reputation might take a hit. 

“Joseph trusted God enough to obey him. Yet such obedience was costly. Because Joseph married Mary, outsiders would assume that he had gotten Mary pregnant before the wedding. Joseph would remain an object of shame in a society dominated by the value of honor. This was a stressful way to begin a marriage! By waiting to have intercourse (1:25), hence failing to provide the bloody sheet that would prove Mary's virginity on the wedding night, Mary and Joseph also chose to embrace shame to preserve the sanctity of God's call.

Joseph's obedience to God cost him the right to value his own reputation."

Would I do that? Would you?

Our song for today is The Carol of Joseph by For King and Country.