I have been thinking about the man who was the earthly father of Jesus - Joseph - over the past week or so. I'm not certain what brought him to mind - Dwayne and I have been reading through the Bible via a "Historical" reading plan, so we have gotten to the New Testament in the last months of the year, so the gospels have been recent in our reading (we finished John this morning and will finish with 1-3 John and the Revelation to end the year).
Anyway, I was struck with things that Joseph had to deal with -
- His betrothed tells him she is pregnant, but that God did it (yeah, right). (Matt 1:18)
- Then an angel comes and says, "Mary's not lying, she really is carrying the Son of God." (Matt 1:19-21)
- So he commits to becoming her husband and the father of the child. As I understand it, this would imply to his culture that he had slept with Mary and he was responsible for getting her pregnant. (Matt 1:24-25)
- Then he has the responsibility of a pregnant wife on the long trip to Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-5)
- ... and then they can't return to Nazareth but must travel on to Egypt due to Herod, where they stayed until Herod's death. (Matt 2:13-15)
- He must have taught Jesus his carpenter trade. (Mark 6:3, Matt 13:55)
Dwayne and I pray every night for many things; one of those that we pray for almost every night is for families where there is no father present. We pray that God would turn the hearts of the fathers toward their children and their wives. God knew that even for His Son, it was going to be important that He have an earthly father, and Joseph fulfilled that role.
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