Matthew 1:24-25 – December 8th, 2020
Advent Day 8 Joseph Obeyed
Matthew 1:24-25
24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
What would you have done if you were Joseph? Your wife is pregnant and she tells you it’s from God. Yea….right! Good one Mary, I wasn’t born yesterday. Joseph decided he was going to divorce Mary, and according to their customs, he had every right to do that. Secretly, he was going to make the problem go away.
God had another plan though. God sent an angel to visit Joseph in a dream. The angel revealed to Joseph what was really going on. Joseph believe the Angel. He did exactly as the Angel had said, he took care of Mary and he named the baby, Jesus, which means “Yahweh Saves.”
Joseph demonstrated remarkable faith in obeying God’s command through the angel. He risked his own reputation among his family and friends, in order to obey God. Do you think his friends would have believed Joseph about this situation? Even Joseph didn’t believe Mary until he had the dream from the angel. There had to be a great cost to Joseph during this time. But Joseph took Mary as his wife and protected her throughout the rest of the pregnancy.
Fast forward when Jesus was challenged by religious leaders, they threw it back at Jesus that he was an illegitimate child. So you know, Joseph’s family had to deal with this issue their whole lives. But, Joseph and Mary were obedient and we’re talking about them today.
God asks you and me to be obedient too. There are times, even right now, that you and I have to make decisions. And sometime that decision is to be either politically correct, or to obey God. Which one will you do?