People Of The First Christmas-Joseph Series

Introduction: Joseph, the husband of Mary, could be called the unsung hero of the Christmas story. He was a just or righteous man, he obeyed the instructions he received from God, and he also obeyed the command or decree from the Roman emperor when he was told he had to go to Bethlehem, home of his ancestor David, to be registered (“taxed”, Luke 2: KJV).

1 He faced the problem of doubts

Text, Matthew 1:18-25, KJV: 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. 20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. 24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: 25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.

Of all the people in the Bible, few had to face the problem Joseph had. Here he was, the crown prince of the line of David through Solomon, but he would never be king because of the curse placed on his ancestor Jeconiah (“Coniah”, Jeremiah 22:30). Joseph wasn’t even living in the land of his tribe, Judah; he was living about 80 miles north in Galilee in the city of Nazareth. And instead of being prepared for a career as king, he was working as a carpenter or, as several Bible teachers have commented, a skilled builder of things. To his credit, there is not one word of any complaints found in Scripture.

Something good had happened to him, though: he found his true love! Her name was Mary, and she was also from the tribe of Judah, and a daughter of David through another son, Nathan (Luke chapter 3 gives Mary’s ancestry from her father, Heli, on to David and back to Adam). Both Joseph and Mary were just or righteous—we would say they had been “saved”—and were planning a life together as husband and wife. They were “espoused” which was more than an engagement but not a true marriage. They hadn’t been formally married at this time.

And that’s when Joseph faced his problem of doubts.

He thought Mary had been unfaithful to him.

Sadly, the problem of unfaithfulness was not unique to Joseph. He probably knew of Hosea’s wife, Gomer, many years before, who had left Hosea to enjoy life with her other lovers (Hosea 1-3). He probably knew about the “harlots” or prostitutes who were apparently in many places in Israel—they certainly existed some years later during the Lord’s ministry (example, Matthew 21:28-32)—yet he had kept himself pure from that temptation. For Mary to have been unfaithful to him must have been something he almost couldn’t bear.

So what was he going to do? The only choices he had were to have her stoned to death, prescribed in Deuteronomy 22:23-24; or he could divorce her. Dake’s Annotated Bible has a sample of a bill of divorcement that once agreed to by both parties, the marriage was over. This was the choice Joseph considered, namely, to not make Mary a public example but to do this quietly. He must have thought this was the best choice, given the circumstances, but it seems he still had some doubts about it—the text says he “was minded” to do this—but he hadn’t done anything about it yet.

This was because there was a third option. Joseph could go ahead with the marriage, even though he would have had to pay a fine of 50 shekels (exact monetary value unknown) to Mary’s father (Deut. 28:29) and bear the shame of being, in the public’s eye, the father of Mary’s child. It seems he didn’t even consider this option until the angel spoke to him in a dream and told him to do this. Further, it seems Joseph took Mary as his wife very quickly, if not immediately—Matthew says Joseph was “raised from sleep” and that doesn’t imply there was much time between getting up and getting hitched!