Advent Reflection 2 - Joseph's dilemma

1. Read  Matthew 1: 18-24 NIV
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. 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.

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. 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.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

2. Consider

Joseph is betrothed to Mary, but she is pregnant with God’s son.  She can no longer hide the shape of her expanding belly, and he must also endure the shunning and shaming by the very community who have known them since they were children playing in the heat and dust.

How can he be expected to believe such a story?

And yet...dear Mary, a liar?

He has grown up with the Scriptures - knows the stories of the Torah back to front.  Familiar with the ways of God as told by his people, nor a stranger to the unusual and often complex relationship between man and his Creator.

Joseph now faces a dilemma. Before him lies a decision bigger than anything he has ever had to consider…

And yet?..’The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel’… (Isaiah 7:14)

Doubt and faith held in tension. Wanting so badly to believe her but, at the same time, it just doesn't make sense...can’t be true.

We have all been there in our own unique ways, pulled by our culture and by the world, and yet pushed, gently, always gently, by the spirit of God towards faith and belief that it might just be so. It’s so risky, isn’t it, to rest in the promises of God, to resist the temptation to doubt that He really will provide, really will protect, really will show up, that this is really Him?

And yet…?’God is not a man, that He should lie’  (Numbers 23:19)

Joseph has a choice to make.

Two thousand years later, we too are making such choices. Will I choose to believe even when it doesn't make sense and I don't understand how this will all end? Or will respectability and ‘common sense’ be the safer, easier route? We can always defend ourselves, can’t we, by doing ‘what’s right, what’s sensible’?

I believe that Joseph cared deeply about the decision he was making - I believe he wrestled with God as he searched for answers, and then…he met an angel.

Reflect

• Have you ever felt that God wanted you to do something that didn’t make sense at the time?
• Did you do it? How did it feel?
• If you didn’t, how do you feel about it now?
• Not many of us have had an angelic visitation to persuade us in our decision making process. What would make being obedient to God easier for you?