Matthew 1:23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Joseph was going through a tough time. Everything had been going along just fine until he is informed that his bride-to-be, Mary, is expecting a child. At this point, he is faced with a couple of options, but neither of them will end well for him or his betrothed wife. If he denounces her as being pregnant before they have been together as husband and wife then she will be stoned to death. He can’t do that, so he chooses the only other option — to quietly call off their betrothal and thus live with a broken heart and she with a broken life.
What Joseph is about to learn is that God is always at work, bringing about good things even when we are not aware of His presence. What seemed to be an impossible situation with no chance of a happy ending will turn out to be out-of-this-world wonderful! With this whole matter weighing so heavily upon Joseph’s heart and mind, he falls into a fitful sleep and behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and revealed the Lord’s plan to him. When he awoke, he pursued the path the Lord laid out for him, even though it was a walk (maybe more like a leap) of faith. He took Mary as his wife. That certainly gave everyone in his small community plenty to talk about!
The lesson for Joseph and for us today is found in the prophesy that Matthew references here from Isaiah. From the beginning of time, God has desired to have fellowship with man. That fellowship was broken by sin but the Lord promised that one day the Seed of woman would crush the serpent’s head. The Lord revealed to Joseph that the day had finally come.
It seemed as if Joseph’s life was falling apart before his very eyes. All of his hopes and dreams for the future had suddenly come to an abrupt end. Or had they? God was at work in a very special way in the life of Mary and Joseph. They were just ordinary people living an ordinary life in a very ordinary rural area, but all the while God was with them.
Sometimes the Lord can seem so far away. All of the great things you read in His Word seem to refer only to others in another time and another place. Right here and right now His love and mercy, even His presence, may be hard to see. Or are they? Jesus is not just your Savior, He is Immanuel. He is with you. He is God with you, always and forever. Even when everything in life seems to be falling apart and you feel as if you are running into one dead-end after another, remember that God is with you and He is working in ways that you cannot see to bring about a happy ending!
Joseph chose to do the best he could for Mary given the circumstances even before he could see what God was doing. Once the Lord revealed His will to Joseph, he obeyed and was blessed beyond measure. In the midst of the unknown and unseen plan of God, keep doing what you should be doing and trusting in the Lord to do what He promised He would do. In other words, walk by faith. All that Joseph went through during those agonizing days before his dream were a part of what made him the man he was to become — the man who would be entrusted with Immanuel. Walk on in faith knowing that, as always, God is with you!
Need a gift that keeps on giving? Order some extra copies of the book to give to others Here
Don’t forget to join our Email list and become a Fellow Traveler! Just Click HERE
And, please help us spread the word by sharing this post with others!