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Good morning and welcome to our second part of the Bible Study on the Birth of Jesus. This is the “b” part of “G3”, the third study in the Gospels.

Today we’ll be looking at the events surrounding Jesus’ birth from Joseph’s point of view. Our text is found in Matthew 1:18-25. If you haven’t read this recently, take a moment to do that and we’ll get started.

Matthew 1:18-25

This Gospel writer begins rather abruptly when compared to Luke. There is no mention of Zechariah or Mary’s experiences. We don’t read about Mary’s journey to the hill country of Judah or the three months she spent with Elizabeth and Zechariah that ended in the birth of John the Baptist. Matthew simply begins with this statement: “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”

From Luke’s account, we know that after her encounter with the angel Gabriel, Mary hurried out to visit Elizabeth. She was likely pregnant at the time but hadn’t revealed that to anyone else. Pregnancy for a single woman, especially one who was promised to her future husband would have brought social and religious disgrace and prevented her from leaving quickly. If Mary was early in her pregnancy she would have had little evidence of the life inside her apart from morning sickness. Yet, when she arrived at Elizabeth’s home, we read that Elizabeth was filled with the Spirit and felt her 6-month-old child leap for joy in her womb. She cried out about it being an honor that “the mother of my Lord” would come to meet her.

It is noteworthy here that the unborn child Jesus in Mary’s womb was a tiny developing fetus, one that probably wouldn’t have a detectable heartbeat with today’s technology. Was this a human being? Certainly He was human and a unique person! Jesus was so human that Elizabeth called Him her Lord (Luke 1:43). Never let the arguments about how the unborn child is not a life distract you from the clear evidence in Scripture! Those modern arguments are not made to protect the lives of mother and child.

The next thing Matthew writes seems a little strange: “Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and was unwilling to disgrace her publicly, he resolved to divorce her quietly.” Wait, Joseph wanted to divorce her quietly, and he was a righteous man? Let’s look at that more closely. I wonder if we would call Joseph a righteous man these days, but he was just that. He was a man who reflected God’s character as a human being in a society with its set of values.

Let’s look first at Joseph as a man. We know he was a carpenter, and we suspect he lived in Nazareth. That last part isn’t crystal clear but likely. Couples didn’t meet online as we see today. The parents would play an integral part in arranging such things. They could have met at the local Synagogue or a social gathering like a wedding but the first persons to get involves would have been the parents, at least of Mary. We don’t have a sense of Joseph’s age.

We know nothing of either of their parents, or how close they lived to one another. He was a descendant of David and his family originated in Bethlehem but migrated to Nazareth. Mary had been betrothed to him in a ceremony where promises were made to be committed to one another and a ring of piece of jewelry was typically given to the bride. The marriage usually happened about a year later, especially for a younger couple.

During that time, they would have had very little contact and communications would happen through “the friend of the bridegroom.” Today we would call that person the best man but such a person had a much larger role in ancient marriages. The waiting period of a year was a time to make sure the couple really wanted to live together for the rest of their lives. It was the groom’s job to set in order the place the couple would call home. Such practices can be seen in many cultures to this day.

Mary would have been under her father’s care and authority during the betrothment. Her parents would present her to her husband as a woman whose purity could be assumed.

It likely came as a surprise to Joseph and Mary’s parents when she set out on a journey to visit Elizabeth. There is no evidence that she told anyone what Gabriel spoke to her in Luke 1:26-38. All Joseph and her family would have known was that she returned three months later and was clearly pregnant. We can only imagine what everyone thought of her. It seems reasonable that she tried to explain what had happened when people started asking. It also appears that at least Joseph didn’t believe her. This wasn’t something anyone had seen happen before.

We read that Joseph “resolved to divorce her quietly.” The Greek word translated “resolve” here speaks of a thought process that ended in a decision. He probably sought the advice of a local Scribe and his parents or trusted friends. Her parents must have been concerned and it is interesting that we read nothing about them. It makes sense that there wasn’t much they could say. They had raised her as a godly woman, and this was out-of-character for Mary.

Keep in mind that this all happened in the backdrop of a Hellenized or Greek-influenced world. Israel had gone through Greek and Roman rule as well as the Maccabean revolt many generations ago. There was a well-established branch of Judaism that followed the Law of Moses to the letter. Mary and Joseph and their families were associated to some degree with that section of society.

In the text we read that disgracing her publicly was an option, but he resolved to divorce her quietly. It is likely that the decision process looked at the Mosaic Law found in Deuteronomy 22:20-21. Following that procedure, Mary and her family would be subject to public shame. The punishment if she had done this willfully involved her being stoned in front of her parents’ home. Her only other hope in a Deuteronomy 22 case would be to claim that this happened in a remote place where no one could hear her calls for help (Deut. 22:23-27). That would have involved her pointing out the guilty man and claiming that she cried out, but the remoteness of the area left her helpless. None of these very harsh outcomes would have been acceptable to the Roman overseers and we can guess that the most likely outcome would have been shame for the family and Mary ending up an outcast in society. This just wasn’t something Joseph wanted to do.

It is important to mention here that the laws we find in Deuteronomy 22 seem barbaric to our modern senses. I think they did as well to Joseph and most people of his day. I will talk about my take on such things and how we can navigate through them in our next study. For now, keep in mind that these were ancient practices that were plagued by a poor understanding of human anatomy and reflected the importance of family inheritance through a woman who would marry a son of theirs. The “proof” spoken of in Deuteronomy was something the parents of the bride would keep after the wedding to demonstrate their daughter’s purity. If you have questions about this, please contact me through one of the social media channels or do some studying on your own.

The important thing for our study here is that Joseph either went to a Scribe to find out what the Law said, or he knew it and had his concerns. I can imagine him listening to the Scribe read from Deuteronomy 22 and at the end, when there seemed to be no provision that didn’t hurt Mary, he opted to follow the more modern path of divorcing her quietly. The ways we hurt others when it is our right to do so always reflect on our character. Joseph was a righteous man and resolved to do the best he could under the circumstances.

Imagine how Mary’s life would have been if Joseph had followed through on his resolution. I’m sure that when God chose Mary, He knew the man that Joseph was and how he would handle uncertainty.

Imagine the conversations in the home with Jesus and his siblings. Did the family talk about these times? Did those conversations influence Jesus’ position on the difficult subject of divorce and remarriage? We know He was asked about it and all four Gospel writers recorded His teaching. This was a polarizing question for His day as it is in ours. It’s interesting that He said Moses permitted divorce due to the hardness of man’s heart. Jesus understood the human heart (Jeremiah 17:9 and John 2:24-25) and knew it was always best to forgive and honor your promises. He also knew that kind of character is a result of knowing and submitting to God. He did allow in one of the Gospel accounts for a single reason that would justify divorce (Matthew 5:32), adultery. I suspect that when Moses permitted divorce, it was for the limitations of the human heart and recognizing the damage adultery can bring into a marriage. As I read Jesus’ teaching on this subject it seems to me that there is a focus on the damage done to the people involved.

I suspect most people when they divorce think they have a second chance at being happy. That isn’t how God sees it. It is, to Him, a sad and regrettable event that should be avoided except in the most impossible situations. I suspect that when He was asked about this He was thinking of his parents and their experiences as well as His divine perspective. Being fully God and fully human may be more difficult that we think.

Next, we read: “But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream…” Thankfully, Joseph didn’t act on his resolution! He pondered these things. This is the Greek verb enthumeomai. It conveys the idea of being in a passionate frame of mind. This was important, he was upset, but he wanted to get it right. He knew that the resentment and desire for vindication he was feeling wasn’t right. It was permissible but wasn’t right for a righteous man. He may have had a sense that what Mary had said was true, but we just don’t know. Be careful when you’re thinking with your emotions; they tend to reflect hurt and not reason.

That is where God stepped in. “But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 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.’”

I’m pretty sure he was glad that he didn’t act on his impulses! He finally understood that this was bigger than him. It was about the Savior for all people! It was about resolving the sin issue and paving the way for salvation. This was something he had heard many times in Synagogue. His thoughts had to go to Isaiah 7:14 and related promises in 8:8 and 8:10. From there, he realized that this child was The Child of Isaiah 9:6-7 and that meant God literally with us and an eternal ever-increasing government. That was something that the zeal of the Lord would accomplish.

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel (which means, ‘God with us’).”

“When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and embraced Mary as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a Son. And he gave Him the name Jesus.”

As a rule, when you understand that God is doing something great, try not to mess it up. What seemed permissible to Joseph ended up being wrong. Only a good understanding of prophecy in the Scripture made things clear.

Joseph’s purpose in life was now clear. His mission field was to raise Jesus in a family where mercy rejoiced against judgement and the family unit was protected and nurtured. Our knowledge of Joseph’s life from here onward will be scarce. We will see him acting as a parent in Luke 2:41-52 who understood what Jesus was here to do. I believe that Joseph was a good father to Jesus and his other children. It seems likely that he died before Jesus began His earthly ministry. He wasn’t there to see it in person but I believe he was part of the great cloud of witness we read about in Hebrews 12:1.

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