Mensa Otabil - Joseph Followed God's Guidance
- Watch
- Donate
We’re concluding our study of Joseph in the Christmas narrative today. Matthew chapter 1, verses 24 to 25: «Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her until she had brought forth her firstborn son. And he called his name Jesus.»
God spoke to Joseph in a dream, and Joseph woke from the dream. He could have simply awoken from the dream and thought, «Oh, it was just a dream; there’s nothing to this.» But he took it seriously. He believed that this dream was not a normal dream he would have experienced throughout his life; it was a divine revelation.
Sometimes, God speaks to us through ordinary means-through things we do casually, things we do regularly. God uses them to speak to us, and we have to learn how to distinguish the voice of God from our normal experiences. That’s what Joseph did; he discerned the voice of God from a normal, natural occurrence. Joseph, of course, was a spiritual person, spiritually discerning. I’m sure he was a student of the Torah and the prophets; he knew the writings of the Bible and understood what was happening.
So, immediately, Joseph woke from his sleep, or from the dream, and the message he received prompted him to obey God. There was no wasting of time-no saying, «I’m going to pray about it,» or «I’ll think about it,» or «I’ll discuss it with somebody else» or «I’ll talk to my father about it.» He just knew God had spoken, and when God speaks, we don’t debate what God has said; we obey. He determined to obey God.
Joseph was obedient to God. The idea of the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary probably made sense to him because, as a student of the Torah, he would have encountered that concept in the early pages of Genesis, where the Spirit of God overshadowed the earth before it became productive. He could connect with the idea that if God did this with the earth for it to become productive, he could understand that if the Son of God is coming, the Holy Spirit would do a similar thing with a woman to bring forth his Son.
Joseph aligned with God and pieced together what God was saying. The second thing to note about Joseph is that he respected what God was doing through his wife. When he properly married her, he decided there would be no intimacy, allowing God to complete the process he had begun. He showed respect for what God was doing in his wife’s life. Although it was his right to be intimate with her, he chose not to interfere with God’s plan. He dedicated that phase of Mary’s life to the Lord, deciding they could start their married life later. That is a man who respects God and honors his wife.
The third thing to notice is that Joseph provided a covering for the Son of God. He named the boy, thereby claiming him as his own so that this child would not be perceived as illegitimate but as belonging to a family. He named the child Jesus because that is what the angel of the Lord told him to call him. What a character! What an obedient man! What a man whose life speaks volumes to us. No wonder, of all the men in the world, God chose him to father the Son of God. He is a unique man-Joseph, a just man whose heart and actions are right with God. May his example inspire each one of us to do the right thing in every circumstance.
Let us pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, I know that your ways are better than my ways. Give me the strength to follow your leading at all times. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.» Well, we will continue and conclude our Christmas deliberations next week. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.