Joseph Asked to Adopt Jesus

Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
^{Saturday May 25, 2024}

Matthew 1:18-24

Father, we know from Your Word that Jesus loved obeying Your commands in His earliest of days. As the Son of God, it is entirely possible that Jesus could have walked with You even if His parents were people of bad character. However, there are several verses in the Old Testament that describe the importance of a child being raised by godly parents.

• Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Deuteronomy 4:9 (NIV)
• Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 11:19 (NIV)
• He said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 32:46 (NIV)
• Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Psalm 34:11 (NIV)
• We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. Psalm 78:4 (NIV)
• He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children. Psalm 78:5 (NIV)
• One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. Psalm 145:4 (NIV)
• Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Proverbs 1:8 (NIV)
• “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants - from this time on and forever,” says the Lord. Isaiah 59:21 (NIV)
• Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. Joel 1:3 (NIV)

Father, I surmise that if Jesus had been raised by ungodly parents, but retained His perfect character, we would not consider godly parenting important at all. We would think children could be left to raise themselves because we could cite scripture as evidence that children could walk the godly life without the need for parental instruction in righteousness.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:4 that fathers are not to exasperate (to enrage, provoke, annoy, anger) their children. Instead, they are to train and instruct their children in Your ways deliberately and intentionally. This verse written to the parents in Ephesus implies that a father of bad character can corrupt the character of the child. A godless Joseph might have prohibited Jesus from studying Your Word in the synagogue, making things more difficult for Jesus to have a ministry.

Therefore, I conclude that You deliberately orchestrated the marriage of two of the godliest young people in the land. Joseph and Mary were betrothed in Your master plan because the two would be best equipped to raise the Son of God. However, it is unlikely that Joseph and Mary were “in love”. They may not have known one another very much at all. Marriages in Biblical times were pre-arranged by the fathers of the groom and bride. The father of the groom would pay the father of the bride, essentially purchasing the bride for his son. The bride’s preferences for what her husband should be like were not considered relevant. Once the two fathers had entered into an agreement, a legally binding contract, the young people would become officially engaged. It then became the responsibility of the groom, and his father, to prepare a place in their home for the bride to move into. Once that bridal chamber was constructed, the groom would travel to the home of the bride and, with much fanfare and the blasts of a trumpet, claim his wife and bring her back to his home to enjoy a wedding feast and begin life together as husband and wife. Joseph and his family had made a major investment into his engagement to Mary with the understanding that she would fulfill her part in the contract and remain faithful to Joseph.

Father, Your Word uses the Biblical marriage as a metaphor for what Jesus has done for us, His bride. He purchased us by the shedding of His blood on the cross (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). He has gone home to prepare a place for us (John 14:3). He will return at some point in the future to claim His bride (the church) and, with a trumpet call, bring her home to live with Him (Matthew 24:36, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) and enjoy a wedding feast (Revelation 19-7-9).

Therefore, it was no small matter for Mary to have become pregnant during her engagement to Joseph and his family. According to Deuteronomy 22:23-30, Joseph would have been justified to investigate how Mary had become pregnant. If she were found to have consented to the sexual encounter, she would have been executed by stoning (Leviticus 20:10). If she had been raped, she would have to be declared innocent. In either case, with his bride no longer pure, Joseph had the right to divorce Mary (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). Joseph could have moved ahead with the marriage but made sure that the public knew she was unfaithful, humiliating her. Joseph could walk away from the marriage, and most likely move far away, without giving any reason, attempting to bring the scorn and shame on himself instead of Mary. However, everyone would still consider Mary a woman of poor character. These four options were available to Joseph if he loved himself more than Mary.

However, Joseph chose to marry Mary, protecting her honor and dignity. Hosea comes to mind as he had lovingly rescued his wayward wife from a life of sin, and he forgave her (Hosea 2:19-20). While Mary didn’t need to be forgiven, she did need to be embraced by Joseph when the public was speaking poorly of her.

We learned in our previous passage that Mary was an extraordinary young lady who loved You dearly. We now learn in this passage that Joseph is also a remarkable young man filled with wisdom and love. Joseph had obligations to his father’s marriage contract with Mary’s father. He also loved Mary. He chose to stay on a course to marry her and to bring honor to her.

You were pleased with Joseph’s godly attitude and his compassion for Mary. You spoke to him in a dream, through the voice of an angel, telling him that Mary had not been unfaithful. You told him that Mary had been impregnated supernaturally by the work of the Holy Spirit. Her baby is none other than the long-promised Messiah, the Son of God who has come into the world to save people from their sins. You told him that Mary’s baby is the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel. (NIV)

Father, I am thinking of the final scene from the 1970 film Scrooge. Ebenezer has been visited by three ghosts during the night and wakes up with a new heart, a loving and joyous heart. I imagine that Joseph became a new man after his encounter with the angel that night. He woke up with a new heart, a loving and joyous heart. His precious Mary not only hadn’t been unfaithful, but she had been uniquely chosen in human history to become the human mother of the Son of God. Like Ebenezer on Christmas morning, Joseph must have felt incredible joy. Therefore, Jesus would be raised by two godly parents who would instruct Him in righteousness. Amen.