Courage To Obey

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 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.
-Matthew 1:18‭-‬24 NLT


Joseph

Do you remember Joseph, the man who was engaged to Mary? He heard a pretty crazy story one day, and he didn’t know what to think. He discovered that Mary was going to have a baby, but he and Mary were not married yet. She said she had been visited by an angel who told her she would have God’s Son. But that story sounded too hard to believe, and Joseph decided that he probably should not marry her after all. 

Then something amazing happened. An angel came to Joseph, too! He had a dream, and in his dream, the angel told him that Mary was telling the truth and that God wanted Joseph to go ahead and marry her and take care of her and the baby. He even told Joseph that the baby should be named Jesus. 

Now Joseph had a choice, and it was a pretty scary one. He could choose to tell Mary that he would not marry her. That would be the easy choice. Or, he could obey the instructions that the angel of the Lord had told him. But, that would mean taking care of God’s Son! 

The Bible does not record how Joseph felt about all of this, but take a minute to think about how you would have felt about these instructions. Would you have been afraid of taking care of Jesus? 

According to Jewish custom, a young man learned a trade and established himself in a job before getting married. That way, he could support a wife and children. Joseph was a carpenter, which meant he built things out of wood or possibly stone, which was a more common building material in Israel. He could support a family, but that did not mean he was rich. How could a poor man like him care for the King of kings? 

God gave Joseph instructions that were not easy to follow. They were even a bit scary. But, Joseph decided to make the courageous choice instead of the easy choice. He chose to obey God and follow through with his commitment to Mary. He became her husband and Jesus’ earthly father. 

Obedience is not always the easiest choice. It takes courage to obey! Joseph chose to be courageous. 

What choice will you make?

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