Matthew 1:20-25

Matthew 1:20-25

And after he was giving consideration to these things, behold, an angel of the Lord was being made to appear to him during a dream while saying, “Joseph, Son of David, you should not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.  For the one who is being begotten within her is out of the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a Son and you will call His name Jesus – for He will save His people from their sins.  And this whole this has become in order that this which was being spoken by the Lord through the prophets should be fulfilled: “Behold, the virgin will have in the womb and she will give birth to a son.  And they will call His name Emmanuel.”  This is being translated as “God with us.”  And after Joseph was being raised up from the sleep he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and he took his wife and he was not knowing her until she gave birth to a son.  And he called his name Jesus.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Joseph is visited by an angel.  Look at the first words that the angel says.  “Don’t be afraid.”  We as modern Christians – who think being visited by an angel would be the coolest thing on earth – forget that when angels appear they always (or almost always) say, “Don’t be afraid.”  In other words, when God sends a message something about our life is about to change.  When God sends a message to us our natural reaction is to be afraid.  The angels need to caution Joseph.  What God is about to ask Joseph to do is going to take courage.  It’s going to take resilience.  God is going to ask Joseph to marry Mary, to take her Son as his own, and to live in a community that will know Jesus wasn’t Joseph’s natural son.  This is a mighty undertaking indeed, with much cultural reason to fear indeed!

Have you ever considered that angels always tell people to not be afraid?  What has God done in your life that might bring fear?

Second Thought:

Joseph was obedient.  Joseph was visited by an angel, given a message, and he obeyed.  Here we get a close view of why God would choose Joseph to be the human male parent of His own Son.  Not only is Joseph righteous and compassionate as we learned yesterday but he is also obedient.  What another great witness to godly character!

Do you think obedience would have been easy for Joseph?  What would make it easy?  What might complicate things for Joseph because he was visited by an angel?

Third Thought:

Let’s look at the names attributed to Mary’s Son. 

• He is to be called Jesus.  Jesus is derived from the word “savior” as this word indicates.  In fact, Jesus (Iesus in Greek) is the Aramaic form of Joshua (Yeshua).  In Hebrew, Joshua means “God is salvation.”  Therefore, anyone named Joshua is technically named not only after the Old Testament hero but also after Jesus.
• The other name that Jesus is given in this passage is Emmanuel.  This means God with us.  This name describes how God will save.  In other words, “Emmanuel” explains “Joshua.”  How woes God save?  God saves because God came among us.  God saves because Jesus came and died for our sake.

But now I’m jumping about 25 chapters ahead of myself.

What does it mean to you to know that Jesus is God’s salvation?  What does it mean to you to know that Jesus is also God dwelling among us?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 2:1-2