When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. Matthew 1:24
Introduction In this brief study we will focus on three individuals or characters involved in the amazing incarnation of our saviour. The three are Mary, Joseph and the shepherds Last Sunday we looked at the wonderful and inspiring story of Mary. The woman God chose as the earthly mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we turn to Joseph, the stand in father. I hope you will find the study interesting and thought provoking. Joseph In this study we will focus upon Joseph. Mary has historically garnered far more attention than Joseph. So in this class we will attempt to redress that imbalance and spend some time looking at this fascinating character. Josephs' name In Hebrew = Yoseph or Yosef In Greek = Loseph In Latin = Joseph In English = Joseph Name meaning = His name means "to add." We first read of the existence of Joseph in the lengthy genealogy of Jesus that begins Matthews gospel.. and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. Matthew 1:16 Remember what we said last week; Matthew gives us the story from Joseph's viewpoint The genealogy traces Jesus' lineage back to David, placing him in line for the ultimate Kingship. It shows Him to be the Messiah, the anointed One, the heir to David's kingdom, who would rule over the Kingdom of God forever. Jesus is born of a virgin mother, He is not of Joseph's seed at all. Therefore, was Jesus really a descendent of David after all? We will see later that He was adopted into David's line. Matthew recorded the supernatural birth of Jesus to demonstrate further His qualification as Israel's Messiah. He wanted to show that Mary could not have become pregnant by another man. These verses show how Jesus came to be the heir of Joseph and thus qualified to be Israel's King.
Let's look at it in some detail This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18 It's seems clear from what is not said in Matthew that his readers were familiar with the story of the virgin birth that Luke recounts. He just states simply the facts of what his readers already knew, without embellishment: These can be summarised as follows 1. Mary and Joseph were betrothed/pledged to be married 2. They had not "come together," that is, had sex with each other. 3. But Mary had begun to "show," she was pregnant before the marriage had taken place 4. Mary had not known a man therefore the conception was from the Holy Spirit. Joseph knew 1,2 and 3 but not 4. Joseph as husband 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. Matthew 1:19 Q: What picture does this give us of Joseph? What kind of man was he? Q: What does it mean to be faithful to the law? Q: How can we today be faithful to the law? Joseph was in all probability older than Mary. While girls were married by 13 or 14, old enough at that age to bear children. Husbands were expected to be established enough to support a wife before they could enter into marriage. They were legally obligated to provide their wife and future family with food, clothing, and shelter. Newly married couple did not initially set up their own homes. It was customary for a newly married couple to live with the husbands parents of grandparents. The whole family would live together. Often the new husband would build an extension or additional room onto the family home for him and his new bride to live in. As the family grew in size and become economically stable then they would move into their own new house. Joseph's occupation We know from Matthew's gospel that Joseph was a carpenter "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Matthew 13:55 Nazareth was a small town. Times were hard so it was likely that Joseph had other means of income other than carpentry. He probably kept a vegetable garden and a couple of animals for food and perhaps did subsistence farming to eke out a living in the agrarian society of rural Galilee. However when townspeople needed some carpentry done that was beyond their own skills and tools, Joseph would be the one they came to. As a rule the common man built his own house, probably with the help of family and neighbours A family might have a knife and hammer of some kind. But a carpenter would possess both specialized tools, some fairly expensive, and the skills to use them, saws, axes, awls, drills, plumb lines, chisels, and planes.
With these tools, a skilled carpenter might fashion doors, beams, and perhaps gates. He would make ploughs and yokes and other wood implements. There was no local Nazareth Furniture Store; all furniture would be made by hand. Each town had a rich family or two. They would be wanting some nice things made and their money would help the economy of the carpenter's family. But carpentry was unlikely to make Joseph wealthy. The offering Mary and Joseph brought to the temple on the occasion of Mary's purification from childbirth was the offering of a poor man, a pair of doves or pigeons (Luke 2:24). 22 When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord, ) 24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: a pair of doves or two young pigeons. Luke 2:22-24 8 But if she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean. Leviticus 12:8 Carpentry was Joseph's world, and the world that Jesus grew up in. Carpentry was Joseph's trade and the trade he taught his son. Jospeh's dilemma Joseph is faced with a serious dilemma. It was a small town and people were likely to have been gossiping about the situation. The problem is as follows. The woman he is pledged to or betrothed to marry is pregnant. He knows he is not the father. Mary has not to his knowledges been raped so he can only assume she has been unfaithful. His wife is an adulteress Q: What would you have done in this situation? Mary's pregnancy put her at considerable risk in the society of first century Palestine. 1. Rejection. Her Husband would reject her. Her pregnancy would embarrass him and reflect on his character. She couldn't expect him to understand or accept her condition. 2. She faced a penalty. At worst she could be stoned. The law provided in cases like this for possible stoning (Deuteronomy 22:13-30), especially if the man and married woman are caught in the act of adultery. Stoning for adultery still took place in first century Palestine. 3. She would be shunned. At best, her family would allow her to live at home, though her supposed adultery would hurt their standing in the community. She and her bastard child would be shunned. 4. Little chance of remarriage. No upstanding man would ever marry her, since the stigma of her supposed adultery would remain with her and taint the reputation of any husband. 5. She had no where to go. She couldn't go to the city and be lost in its anonymity. Single women just didn't live alone. This was a family-centered culture where a woman's work was based around home and family. There was no work for single women, except perhaps as a housekeeper in a wealthy home or as a prostitute.
What does Joseph do? and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. Matthew 1:19 RSV Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. Matthew 1:19 NIV Here we get a glimpse of Joseph's character, he is described as just or in some versions righteous. In Greek this is dikaios, "pertaining to being in accordance with high standards, upright, just, fair," here probably, "interested in doing the right thing, honourable, just, good." "Righteous" or just meant that Joseph carefully observed the law and valued his own reputation. According to the customs of that time, adultery would make her unmarriageable to either her betrothed husband or the man she had been unfaithful with. By marrying her, Joseph would compromise himself in the eyes of the law. But his righteousness went deeper than a mere external righteousness before Jewish law. He was honourable and wanted to do the right thing. The wrong thing, he decided, was to demand prosecuting her for adultery. "Expose to public disgrace" (NIV, NRSV) or "make a public example" (KJV) is deigmatizō in Greek meaning to "expose, make an example of, or. disgrace." He couldn't marry her, of course, since he knew that her baby was not his. But instead of a messy public trial, he had decided to divorce her quietly. To do this he would simply write out a certificate of divorce and present it to her in the presence of two witnesses, as required by law. God however intervened and changed his mind. 20 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. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:20-21 God in scripture speaks to Joseph 3 times in his dreams Matthew 1:20, 2:13, 2:19 Q: What is his response on each occasion? The form of address, "Son of David," emphasizes Joseph's honoured position as a direct descendent of David, Israel's greatest king, and from whose descendants the Messiah should come. The message was, "do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife." Of course, according to Jewish law she was already his wife. But the messenger assures Joseph that it is right and just for him to proceed with the relationship. Her pregnancy is not adulterous, but "from the Holy Spirit." The name Jesus Last week we spoke about the meaning of the name Jesus. (check your notes if you have forgotten the meaning). Jesus' name indicated and signalled his mission. Both Mary and Joseph were given this name by the angel so neither would ever forget who he was, Yahweh's salvation embodied in human form. As a little baby, "Jesus - Yahweh saves" might have been born and raised in the humblest of circumstances, but that never diminished who he was. His destiny was to save.
Q: What was Jesus going to save His people from? Q: How does this differ what what people expected from the Messiah? The Jewish understanding was that the Messiah would be their Saviour. Most however had a political or military leader in mind. Someone who would overthrow the Roman oppressors and reinstate the Jewish kingdom. The message that Joseph receives however is that His mission was to save his people from a far more devastating enemy= sin. Jesus came to destroy the power of sin. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. This is a very significant verse. Joseph is commanded to personally name the child. It means that Joseph, in naming the child, acknowledges him as his own son and thus becomes the legal father of the child according to Semitic law. As a result of this legal adoption, Joseph's ancestry as a descendent of David transfers also to his legal son. Jesus through this adoption becomes a descendant of David. Biologically, Jesus is begotten by the Holy Spirit and is thus the "Son of God" (Luke 1:32a), but legally he is the son of Joseph and heir to the promises of David. 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means God with us ). Matthew 1:22-23 Matthew now explains this in relation to OT prophecy. 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14 The original setting In its original setting, Isaiah is exhorting Ahaz King of Judah (the southern kingdom), who faces the daunting threat of a siege of Jerusalem by the armies of Israel (the northern kingdom) and its ally Aram-Damascus, a petty Syrian kingdom. Isaiah tells Ahaz not to fear, but to stand firm in faith. As a sign, the Lord says that a virgin will conceive and bear a child to be called Immanuel as a reminder that God is with his people in times of trouble. In the time it will take this baby to become just a young child, the King of Assyria will have destroyed Judah's enemies. Some believe that the reference is to some child born in Isaiah's day. Others see in it a brief prophetic insight, a glimpse far into the future of a child who will be born to a virgin and bring God's very presence to deliver his people. Matthew sees the virgin conception and the name Immanuel as having a fuller meaning in Christ. 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. Matthew 1:24-25
Q: What did Joseph do? As soon as he woke up, Joseph obeyed. He accepted Mary as his wife, and took her home, but didn't have sexual relations with her until after Jesus was born. Mary the perpetual virgin! Did he have normal marital relations with her after Jesus' birth? Protestants see verse 25 as evidence that Mary and Joseph lived together as husband and wife after Jesus' birth and had additional children together, since there is no suggestion that Jesus' brothers and sisters (Matthew 12:46-50; 13:55-56) were not also children of Mary and Joseph. Roman Catholics, on the other hand, believe that these children were Joseph's by a previous marriage and that the Virgin Mary was a perpetual virgin. Q: What's wrong with the Roman Catholic view? Q: What do you think? Q: Why is it not a problem for us to believe that Mary lived as a normal wife and mother after the birth of Jesus? Conclusion 4 things we can learn from a study of Joseph 1. He was spiritually sensitive. Consider his response to Mary s pregnancy, His rejection of apparent sin combined with compassion for his betrothed illustrates his godly character. Other evidences of Joseph s spiritual sensitivity include the fact that he heard and obeyed angelic revelation repeatedly (Matt. 1:20-25; 2:13-15; 2:19-23).. 2. He was unselfish, assuming fully the role of a father toward a child that wasn t his own. He offered Jesus physical protection during his infancy and childhood (Matt 2:13-15, 21-23; Luke 2:44-48). He trained him in the carpenter s trade (Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3). And he imparted spiritual direction to Jesus both by example (Luke 2:41ff) and instruction (Luke 2:51). 3. He was capable of handling adversity. Joseph s decision to marry Mary in the face of Mary s apparent infidelity doubtless sparked criticism from those around him. He endured the difficult circumstances of travelling during Mary s pregnancy, and later had to flee to Egypt out of fear for Jesus safety. 4. He was a good decision-maker. When faced with the fact of Mary s unexpected pregnancy, he didn t react in bitter emotion and disgrace her publicly. He was objective, reflective, and, ultimately, resolute in his decision-making. Heavenly Father, thank you for Joseph who proved worthy of your trust to raise Jesus. Help us to be as believing, as faithful, as zealous as he was to take on the various tasks that you assign to us. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.