Welcome back to our discussion about life under the New Covenant. As we come to the end of 2015, I wanted to bring to our remembrance a particular individual in the Bible who is often overlooked but was a key person, a VERY key person in the story of how the New Covenant was established. Last week we talked about how an angel of the Lord and a multitude of other angels appeared to some shepherds near the town of Bethlehem in Judea to announce and celebrate the birth of Messiah. They were celebrating BECAUSE that birth marked the onset of a "peace treaty" between God and mankind (Luke 2:8-14) which we now call the New Covenant. And, had it not been for the involvement of the individual featured in tonight's article in the early part of Messiah's life, the New Covenant would not have survived and God would have had to implement a different route to redemption and the new birth.
As any Christian well knows (along with a lot of non-believers too), a carpenter named Joseph became the husband of Mary who was the virgin mother of Jesus. The Bible doesn't talk very much about Joseph and what we know about him is mostly found in the first two chapters of the book of Matthew. Most people turn to Luke, Chapter 2 at Christmas time as well we should because it's the traditional account of Jesus' birth. But another good version of this precious Christmas Story can be found in Matthew.
The Background
The first thing to take note of is that the first seventeen verses of Matthew establish Joseph's genealogy going back almost 30 generations to King David. That's important to the story because it fulfills prophecy that Messiah would be descended from David (2 Samuel 7:14-16). As we know, Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus but he became His father by adoption and according to Jewish LAW, adoption legally established the lineage that was required to fulfill the prophecy. In fact on a number of occasions in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to by various people as the "Son of David" as an acknowledgement of His Messiahship.
We also know that Joseph became engaged to a young woman named Mary and that she was a virgin from the town of Nazareth which is located in an area called the Galilee about 40 miles to the north of Bethlehem. Joseph was from Bethlehem (Luke 2:4) in Judea which is why he and Mary had to travel back there from Nazareth to be counted in the Roman census ordered by the decree of Cesar Augustus (Luke 2:1) which according to historical records started in 6 BC. While they were still engaged and before they went to Bethlehem, Joseph found out that Mary was already pregnant; and since he wasn't the father, that revelation would have normally been more than sufficient cause for Joseph to publically break the engagement. Instead, he chose to break it privately so as not to disgrace Mary and the Bible says that Joseph had chosen to do it that way because he was a RIGHTEOUS man (Matthew 1:18-19) which is to say that he was a serious believer who endeavored to obey God.
Just as he was about to break the engagement, Joseph experienced the first of FOUR momentous dreams that wound up making it possible for the New Covenant to even come into existence. Indeed, the very foundation of Christianity itself is closely connected to these FOUR dreams and to the commitment of one scarcely-mentioned RIGHTEOUS man committed to obey God even in the face of adversity and personal humiliation.
The Four Dreams of Joseph
There have been (and still are) believers in the Kingdom of God involved in the work of God who were (and are) very sensitive to spiritual communication through dreams. According to the Book of Matthew, Joseph was definitely one of those believers because on FOUR separate occasions over a period of several years he received specific instructions through dreams concerning events that were critical to the unfolding of God's New Covenant. It should be noted here as well that the Greek word translated in scripture as DREAM can also mean VISION which may or may not involve physical sleep. In any event, the first dream occurred just before he was about to quietly break his engagement. The Bible says that in that dream an angel of the Lord instructed Joseph to go ahead and marry Mary and that she would give birth to a Son who would save people from their sins (only Messiah could do that). Joseph was also instructed as the adoptive father to be the one to name the Son Jesus. When he arose from that first dream, he did just as the angel of the Lord had commanded and married Mary. In addition, he kept her a virgin until she gave birth so that the fathering of the Messiah by the Holy Spirit would remain pure and so that Jesus could be born of a virgin. And once the child had been born, it was Joseph who named Him Jesus (Matthew 1:20-25).
The second dream occurred shortly after the visit of the Magi who had followed the star in the east to find the infant Jesus and His family still residing in Bethlehem some months after His birth. On their way, the Magi stopped off to interview King Herod to obtain information about how to find the One who had been born King of the Jews (Messiah). They soon continued on their way, found the young Jesus by the position of the star and worshiped Him there. As soon as they had departed, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in the second dream and commanded him to flee immediately to Egypt because King Herod's people were coming to find Jesus and kill Him. The Bible says that Joseph arose in the middle of that same night and departed for Egypt. He didn't question it, he didn't wait around to get three confirmations, he didn't hesitate to obey what the Lord had commanded through His angel. By immediately leaving Bethlehem for Egypt, he avoided Herod's slaughter of the town's male children up to two years of age and saved the life of the infant Messiah so that development of the New Covenant could continue (Matthew 2:1-14).
It is not clear to historians how long the little family lived in Egypt. In trying to establish a time line, they know when the census was decreed (6 BC) and they know the year that Herod died which was during 4 BC. So it was probably less than a year that they lived in Egypt and it was through a third dream that Joseph learned from the angel of the Lord that King Herod had died. The King died a very short time after he carried out the slaughter in Bethlehem and so the angel instructed Joseph in the third dream to go to go back to Israel. Again Joseph obeyed immediately and left for Israel. Apparently his inclination was to return to Bethlehem or some other place in Judea where he was from. But when he heard that one of Herod's sons Archelaus was reigning over Judea, he was afraid to take Jesus into what he thought might still be a hostile environment (Matthew 2:19-22a).
And so we come to the fourth of the special dreams. The third dream had gotten the family back from Egypt to Israel and the fourth dream was to specify where exactly they should settle so the Child could grow and mature in safety. Thus, in the fourth dream Joseph was warned to go north back to the Galilee and away from Judea which took them back to Nazareth where there was safety and a certain familiarity from having previously lived there in the time before the birth of the Child (Matthew 2:22-23b). And so, Jesus grew up in Nazareth and about 27 or so years later He began His public ministry precisely in that same area of Galilee at about 30 years of age (Luke 3:23).
To Summarize
In sum, there were four critical dreams (and/or visions) that God used to speak to Joseph at critical moments in the establishment of the New Covenant. Fortunately for those of us wanting now to live under that New Covenant, Joseph was a RIGHTEOUS man who obeyed God quickly and enthusiastically. Joseph trusted God and God trusted Joseph to carry out His instructions and warnings and commandments. Yes, Mary was highly favored (Luke 1:28) but it was Joseph who was responsible for leading the family and protecting the young Messiah and even giving Him His Name. And as we consider this special, scarcely-mentioned man, there are a couple of other things we might want to keep in mind that particularly stand out:
* The carrying out of instructions in three of the four dreams exactly fulfilled Bible prophecy: Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2 and Hosea 11:1. In addition, Matthew 2:23 refers to additional prophetic fulfillment that can't be confirmed in the Bible so it is probably talking about the fulfillment of commonly known spoken prophecy, but prophecy none the less. Thus, God used the RIGHTEOUS man called Joseph to fulfill prophecy that we use today to PROVE the Messiahship of Jesus.
* Joseph as the head of the family was responsible for the spiritual development of all its members including in this case the Child Messiah. Indeed, the Scripture says that the family went to Jerusalem EVERY year for the Feast of the Passover (Luke 2:41) which confirms that they were seriously committed believers under Joseph's leadership.
* Joseph as the head of the family was responsible for leading the education of the children. Indeed, at the age of 12 Jesus was found in the temple discussing the things of God with the scholars and teachers. And they were amazed at His understanding (Luke 2:47). How do we think Jesus had learned all of that knowledge by such a young age except through the instruction of his parents led by his father with of course the help of the Holy Spirit?
* Scripture goes on to say that after that occasion in the Temple, Jesus went back to Nazareth and continued to live under subjection to the authority of His parents. As a result of that and the continuation of their impartations to Him, Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52).
* Joseph was a carpenter and he taught that trade to his adopted Son. In closing, I want to point out tonight that Jesus' earthly vocation represented profound symbolism for the work of His spiritual vocation that was to come later. In the time of Jesus on the earth, a CARPENTER was considered a master builder. Indeed, the skilled CARPENTER of those days was the most important worker involved in the construction of houses. And from there, it seems easy to connect to the idea that unless the Lord builds our house we labor in vain (Psalm 127:1). Scripture says He IS the master BUILDER of all things (Hebrews 3:4) and that Jesus has been found FAITHFUL as the Son over His own HOUSE (Hebrews 3:6). Friend, Jesus needed to become a skilled builder, a master craftsman in the building of spiritual houses, and the choice of an earthly vocation that the man called Joseph was a vital part of was not an accident. Why? Because it indeed confirms the very Messiahship of Jesus to those who have ears to hear.
Most Christian scholars think by implication from various scriptures that Joseph died sometime before the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, perhaps when Jesus was in His teens or early twenties. From the moment the Child was born, Joseph took on the HUGE responsibility of raising Him until the time came when Joseph was no longer needed. In that process, he obeyed God to the best of his ability, he married a "pregnant virgin" as commanded, he adopted her Son that the angel told him had been conceived in her by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 2:20) and he did what he had to do to protect Messiah from those who wanted Him prematurely dead. He's the man God used to block the devil when he was trying everything he knew to do to kill Messiah and DESTROY that New Covenant before it could be established. The life of Joseph is the rest of the Christmas story and I hope you have a new regard now for this special, humble, RIGHTEOUS man of God! Today more than one-third of the population of the planet professes the Christian religion that Joseph so willingly helped get started.
Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on January 3. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life! AND, GET READY FOR A NEW YEAR OF BLESSING AND FAVOR THAT GOD WANTS YOU TO RECEIVE.
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