Matthew 1:19-21
19 And Joseph her [promised] husband, being a just and righteous man and not wanting to expose her publicly to shame, planned to send her away and divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the Child who has been [k]conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus (The LORD is salvation), for He will [l]save His people from their sins.
The bible says that Joseph was a just and righteous man meaning he was God fearing. This seems to be one of the main characteristics of the people around the Christmas story who got a visitation. Zacharaeus and Mary were also God fearing. Joseph wanted to do the right thing according to the law. He could not go ahead and marry a woman who was with child and he was not the father of the child. But even with that, he did not want to do it publicly and thus put Mary to shame because he was a just man.
Talk about making an honest mistake, Joseph was just about to make one but God intervened. He received a heavenly visitation to direct him on the right path to take. That is one of the greatest lessons I learn from Josephs visitation. As long as I am following God and my heart is in the right place, God will always guide me and direct me especially when I am about to make a mistake.
Joseph heard and obeyed. This was not an easy situation to deal with but he obeyed anyway. He walked in the counsel of the Lord and went on to take Mary as his wife. Joseph took Mary as his wife but he kept her a virgin until she had given birth to her first born and named him Jesus.
Joseph was a man who knew how to take direction from God even when he was not in the full picture of what was happening. This was not the only time he had to do so;
Matthew 2:13
13 Now when they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod intends to search for the Child in order to destroy Him.
When the life of the child was in danger, God knew he could rely on Joseph to take instruction and follow through and he did saving the life of Jesus. As someone once told me, delayed obedience is dis obedience. What If joseph has hesitated?
Like Joseph may we know the voice of God and walk in obedience to it even when it makes no sense.
