OUR FATHER WHO GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON Part 1
Proceeding to Mathew chapter 1 verses 18 - 25, we learn of how Joseph found himself in a conundrum pertaining to the surprise pregnancy of his fiance and how an existential crisis was averted.
18 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.
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.
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.”
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”).
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.
In this passage following the genealogy, we are immediately plunged into the phychological and social pressure cooker that engulfed Joseph, the fiance of Mary.
Having secured an agreement to be married to Mary, he was confronted with the news that Mary was pregnant.
Joseph, dealing with his own disappointment and sense of betrayal, thought through a plan that would legally un-entangle himself from Mary while at the same time, shielding her from the harshness of social recriminations.
This explosive circumstance was the milieu in which the saviour of the world was gestating.
Here, a man and a woman, about to be married, are suddenly interupted in their plans and pulled into a highly sensitive political and spiritual intrigue.
Because the Messiah's mission of conquering of the kingdom of darkness had long been prophesied, His arrival was being carefully watched for by the agents of darkness in order to prevent the predicted Messiah from establishing a foothold on the earth.
The saviour of the world had to be discreetly smuggled into the human timeline and as such, everyone on the ground had to be on a need-to-know status.
As hazardous as the scandalous situation that embroiled Joseph and Mary was, it successfully threw searchers off the scent and only after the reputations of the participants were sullied, was Joseph let in on the secret.
As Joseph was finalizing his plan to divorce Mary, an angel intruded into his dream and revealed to him the plan of salvation that was foretold in the scriptures by the prophets and explained to him that the fulfilment of these texts was already underway and that he had a part to play.
These are the tasks that Joseph was given to do;
- Believe that Mary did not violate her vows
- Take Mary to his home as his wife
- Give the name of Jesus to the arriving son
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