"journey To Bethlehem: The Carpenter And The King"

“Journey to Bethlehem: The Carpenter and the King”

Matthew 1:18-25

Joseph must not have believed Mary’s story about the angel and her pregnancy through the Holy Spirit.

If he had believed it, he wouldn’t have been looking for a way to break off the engagement.

The only logical explanation for him was that Mary had been unfaithful.

And Joseph would have been devastated.

He must have felt betrayed, dishonored, humiliated, hurt by Mary and whoever the other man was.

In his anger and humiliation Joseph may have reminded Mary that the law commanded that women who were unfaithful were to be put to death.

If he told others what he knew, she would die.

Joseph probably learned from Mary that she was pregnant while she was staying with Elizabeth.

Bethlehem was only a few miles away, and Joseph must have left Elizabeth’s home heartbroken.

At some point during Joseph’s ninety-minute walk back to Bethlehem, his anger must have given way to concern for Mary’s life.

He was hurt, but he still didn’t want to see her die.

So, he started to make a plan to break off the engagement formally and legally, but without explaining why.

Joseph knew that after the engagement, everyone would soon find out that Mary was pregnant.

Naturally, they would assume that Joseph was the father.

The shame would be his, not Mary’s.

Her life would be spared and she would have the pity of her family.

They would keep the dowry that had already been paid, and Joseph would pay an extra amount to provide for the child, and if Mary’s father insisted, he would still be required to take her as his wife.

Joseph was willing to do all this because “he was a righteous man.”

It’s interesting to know that the earthly father of Jesus was willing to risk his reputation, and a whole lot more in order to save the life of a woman whom he knew, in his mind, had cheated on him.

Joseph was quite a guy.

It was his compassion and mercy that led Matthew to call him righteous.

This would be a theme of the life of Christ.

(pause)

Unlike Nazareth, Bethlehem was a well-known town.

Although it wasn’t large it had a lot of history.

It was known as the place where Rachel had died giving birth to Benjamin.

Rachel’s husband, Jacob, buried her in Bethlehem and built a monument to her that stood for hundreds of years.

Bethlehem was also where the Book of Ruth took place.

And Ruth’s great-grandson was no other than a child named David, a shepherd boy whom Samuel the prophet anointed to be king over Israel.

Bethlehem became known (along with Jerusalem) as “the city of David.

Then, several hundred years after David, the Prophet Micah foretold of the day when a new king would come from Bethlehem.

The prophecy is found in Micah 5: “But you O Bethlehem…though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times…He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the Lord his God.

And they will live securely for his greatness will reach the ends of the earth.

And he will be our peace.”

Because of this prophecy, Bethlehem is the place where the Religious rulers and Experts expected the Messiah to be born, and growing up, Joseph would have known this.

The boy children of Bethlehem, in particular, probably grew up pretending to be David slaying Goliath, or David defeating the Philistines, or David as the great king of Israel.

But, at the same time, in the days of Joseph Bethlehem was a humble working-class town.

More than likely, only one King ruled over Judea during Joseph’s entire life, and that King was Herod “the Great.”

Herod ruled with help from the Romans.

Herod was the type of guy who desperately wanted people’s praise and admiration.

He wanted to be seen as the messianic King that Micah spoke about, even if he didn’t meet the criteria.

Herod loved wealth and power.

And unlike Jesus and Joseph, Herod had nothing of a servant’s heart.

For Herod, greatness was found, not in servanthood but in praise from the people and a life of luxury and ease.

He also worked hard to try and build his legacy.

One of the things he did was have massive building projects.

He rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem, on a grand scale, much grander than the original one.

He built cities and seaports, fortresses and palaces.

One of his building projects was called the Herodium…

…yes, Herod named it after himself.

The Herodium was a man-made mountain—Herod’s version of a pyramid—but unlike the Egyptian pyramids that were used only to bury the dead, Herod’s pyramid would be his winter palace and fortress.