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.
So this must have been some dream. Its written kind of matter of fact, but I imagine it must have been a pretty powerful dream. I assume he was pretty ticked before he went to bed that night, after all he just found out his fiancee was cheating on him. I assume she tried to tell him the same story about how she became pregnant, I sure that went well.
I'm not sure what my take away is other than I admire Joseph's ability to trust that it is truly God speaking to him and how he then immediately takes action to obey his instruction.
I doubt God has ever asked me to do anything as difficult as this yet I'm sure I have failed in acting as faithfully as Joseph did. So my take away is to better at both listening for his instruction and then being willing to obey with my actions.
knut
It must have been a CRAZY dream! The one thing that's left out of the narrative here, is the interaction between Joseph and Mary. In fact, it doesn't say how Joseph found out that Mary is pregnant. It just says that Mary was found to be with child.........interesting. I'm not sure what the customs of the day were, but I could see 2 scenarios playing out here. 1. The were being set up for marriage and Joseph really didn't know Mary that well. He knew who she was and was excited about marrying here......or 2. They were tight, and Joseph couldn't wait to marry Mary and get his hands on her (I can relate to that one) I think this detail is key to Joesph's mindset when the angel comes to him. He may have been absolutely crushed....or he may have been disappointed. Either way. It must have been really hard to have enough faith to do what he did. I'm not sure I would have been man enough to do it.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's why God chose Joseph.
have a great weekend!