Read and Believe in Jesus.

“She shall bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

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REVIEW – Matthew was the first of the four Gospels written; its author was an ex-tax collector named Levi, until the Lord saved him. In his own writing, he uses his other name – Matthew – which means “gift of the Lord.”

Matthew writes mainly to a Jewish audience (look for many O.T. references, no explanations of Jewish words or customs, and a respect for God’s name). He does not write chronologically; instead, he groups his information into five themes.

His genealogy of Jesus, beginning with Israel’s patriarch Abraham and their great king, David, shows his purpose in writing this gospel: to present Jesus as 1) the promised Jewish Messiah and 2) the King of Israel.

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Matthew 1:18.

Joseph and Mary were “betrothed” to be married. (Betrothal in Bible times was “marriage but without consummation,” and needed a divorce to be broken.)

In Luke’s Gospel, the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her of the miraculous conception of a baby in her womb by the Holy Spirit. Soon afterward, she went to Bethlehem to stay with her cousin Elizabeth, who was also pregnant. Elizabeth’s son would be John the Baptist. Mary stayed there for 3 months until John was about to be born, then returned to Nazareth. It was probably then that she told Joseph of her own pregnancy.

Joseph was a just and gentle man. But he didn’t know what to think. The woman he was betrothed to was pregnant, and he knew HE was not the father. What did that mean? Should he believe her quite unbelievable story, or accept the more plain possibility of infidelity?

In turmoil and grieving in his heart, he decided to divorce her privately. (That meant he would obtain a writ of divorce from an official and hand it to her privately, apart from any witnesses.) And it would be over.

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Matthew 1:19-21.

Dreams remembered upon waking were thought to be a special blessing in Bible times. It was believed to be a sad thing if one went more than 10 days without one. (Those were normal, eating-too-many-lentils type dreams, and not like the one Joseph received from an angel of the Lord.)

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“Joseph, son of David,” began the angel in his dream. Wait. David? From Matthew’s list of Jesus’ genealogy yesterday, we saw that Joseph’s father was named Jacob. The angel (probably Gabriel) addressed Joseph as a member of King David’s royal line. Yes, he was, but Joseph probably didn’t think about being in the ancient king’s line very often.

“Do not fear to take Mary as your wife,” continued Gabriel. Oh! Just the answer he was seeking! Joseph thought with relief. But…

“…for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit,” the angel answered Joseph’s unasked question, leaving him even more stunned.

“She will bear a son, and YOU shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Then the angel was gone, the dream ended, but everything remained vivid in Joseph’s mind.

Mary was pregnant by … the Holy Spirit. (Oh, my!) Her baby was a boy, and when He was born, Joseph was to name Him Jesus (or Savior). It was the father’s duty to name the children, so this was no surprise. But “Jesus”? What did it mean that the boy would “save His people (the Jews) from their sins”?

Perhaps, as he thought about all this, Joseph recalled Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call Him Immanuel,” which Joseph knew meant, God with us. This boy, this Jesus, this Savior who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was GOD. With. Us!

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When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel commanded and took Mary as his wife. No questions. No reservation. “Mary, be my wife!” “Yes!” Done.

But Joseph did not “know her” (have sex with her) until after she had given birth to the Son, and Joseph had named Him JESUS.

(NOTE: the naming was at 8 days old, when baby boys were circumcised.)

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Next time, two years later….