Matthew 1:18-25 (English Standard Version)

The Birth of Jesus Christ

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
²³ "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel"

(which means, God with us). ²⁴When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Matthew the first book of the New Testament doesn't start with Mary's story. I always thought it odd that it started with Joseph's story. We don't know a lot about Joseph except that He had his genealogy that could trace back to David as well and this passage her tells us that he was a "just man." Another version puts it as Joseph was "a man of the law." Joseph was honorable in another way that he had decided to divorce Mary quietly. I remember as a child when ever there was someone misbehaving sometimes one of my sisters or I would crow as loud as possible and tattle. At other times we would try and settle the matter quietly among ourselves so that justice was still done, but we weren't disgraced in front of the entire family.

I have always wondered how people visited in a dream would remember what God said to them in the morning, but I don't take into account that our God is all powerful. To me a dream seems so easily ignored in the morning. "Did I really dream that?" Yet here we have a man carried out what God had commanded him to do. Joseph named the baby baby, but I wonder did he fully understand "God with us". Did he understand that now for the first time since the beginning of the world we could have communion with God. Our sin that separated us from God so strongly could be tolerated by this baby called Jesus. He could stand the weight and the sting of our sin while in this world. We could now have communion with God.