Hey Matt, this is the 10-minute Bible hour, and I don't every single one of you listening has got 110 billion things to do today, and you still shoehorned this in. So hey, that means a lot to me, and hopefully it's a really useful thing in the rhythm of your life too, and helps make the other 110 billion things you have to do with your time make more sense and be centered and grounded in something that's a bigger story than you, me, or any of us. And the part of that much bigger story than us that I want to look at today is more of this birth narrative of Jesus in Matthew chapter one. So we've been hanging around on verse 18 for, I don't know, whatever, it's been like three days, I guess, looking at this from the big picture theological perspective, from kind of the how do you explain a virgin birth perspective. But now I want to move forward with this passage, focusing on how this all would have come off through the lenses of Joseph. He's obviously a very important character, but I think rightly gets overshadowed by Mary. At the same time, Joseph's conduct is what really makes this whole Jesus thing work out, because he was in a position to do a whole lot of damage or to get a whole lot right. And because of his character and the work of God, he gets a whole lot right. So just imagine you're him, and let's game this out. Here's a treasured Christmas verse that doesn't sound so good if you're the dad in the equation. This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. All right, so you're Joseph. I don't know if you're a young man, a lot of people theorize that he was maybe a little bit older, but whatever the case, you're single, you've earned a few bucks on a pretty legitimate trade as a carpenter, and through familial connections, you've kind of been wondering if you were going to end up with this young lady named Mary, who is young, but she is beautiful, and she is coming into marrying age, and all of a sudden you get the word from the extended family that this thing is going to happen. You'd kind of hope this thing was going to happen. Finally, everything's in place, and all the needed parties sign off. And sure enough, dude, you're getting married. And you're getting married based on what I read from the rest of the text to somebody you actually want to be married to. This is awesome. Now, as we've talked about before, there are all kinds of proper steps that we go through to get here. And now you've got this year of being married to the girl you want to be married to in some senses, but not married to her in some other senses, like the physical side. So it's going to be kind of a weird year, but there's anticipation. This gives the community time to adjust to the idea and for arrangements to be made. And well, while you're getting your household ready, probably as a carpenter, you're doing some work in anticipation of this new union. All of a sudden, according to what we read, if we flip over here to the beginning of Luke, Mary gets in this big rush and goes on a road trip. At that time, verse 39 of Luke 1, Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. Wait, what? She just wake up one day, and your bride to be is gone. She's young. She's a kid. That's a risky trip. It's it's your job to provide for her and take care of her in this culture. She shouldn't be on a trip like that by herself. And also, why did she go? Back over in Luke chapter 1, verse 56, it says Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. Well, a lot happens in three months. One of the things that happens is that's 90 days for your brain as a dude to just go berserk, wondering what the heck is actually happening here. Have you ever been in a relationship where things were on tenuous ground? Do you remember early in your relationship, if you're a guy, or heck, ladies too? And and when the communication wasn't there and that silence would make you paranoid and wonder if everything was okay or not okay, or what are they thinking? Now imagine that for three months in this situation, gone with no explanation. Is she ever even coming back? Did she die on the road? Three months is also a lot of gestation time. So she comes back, and now there's no hiding it. At first, I'm Joseph, maybe I'm still working away on this house, hoping I'll still have my wife at some point, and oh, people start yelling, and here she comes down the road, and I'm like, okay, alright. And then I run up to see her and I'm like, what are we doing here? Maybe Joseph knew enough about how human sexuality and reproduction works to know that this couldn't have happened in the three months while she was gone. That wouldn't be long enough for her to show. Maybe he didn't know that and panicked about where she was on this trip. Whatever the case, one glaring reality is present. She's pregnant. And she's supposed to be a virgin. She's supposed to be my wife. Well, there's all kinds of social pressure that immediately would have been heaped on Joseph. People would have come to him and been like, hey, look, obviously this can't work. This damages family relationships, this damages community, this damages your reputation. The law basically binds you, Joseph, to divorce her. And you know what? Frankly, this is a huge disgrace, Joseph. Stick it to her. Let everybody know what kind of woman this was that you were engaged to. But something happens in Joseph's brain. And it doesn't look like it's even supernatural because the text doesn't indicate there's any kind of supernatural stuff until verse 20, but verse 19 says because Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had it in mind to divorce her quietly. Why? Well, the text says it's because he's a righteous man. But how righteous? Surely Mary, who sang this beautiful song about how blessed she is and what God is doing in those three months that she was hanging out with Elizabeth in another part of the country, surely she came back and was like, Well, this is gonna seem weird, but here's actually what's going on. Uh, this is from the Holy Spirit. I wasn't with any man, and I'm told that this is gonna be like the king of kings, and so we should be excited together and figure out where we're gonna She told him that, right? I mean, surely she said that. Um did Joseph buy it totally? Oh, it would seem that he didn't, because he's still going to divorce her. But it it maybe in the back of his mind he was like, Well, I mean that Messiah has to come from somewhere. The King of Kings has to come from somewhere. We would theoretically be the right family on paper. Nah. Nah, it's just too much. That can't be. But you know what? On the outside chance that this is true, and because I don't want to ruin this girl's life, I'm gonna do this thing quietly. He had every right and every cultural expectation to divorce her loudly and to make a point about this. There was even legal precedent for her to be stoned or abused because of this disgrace, but he didn't want that to be upon her, so he chooses an option at his disposal to do it quietly. But after he'd considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She'll give birth to a son, and you're to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us, which is right from again, uh, what is it, Isaiah 7 that we looked at the other day. So Joseph, after wrestling emotionally with all of this stuff, realizing now I don't get to get married, will I ever get married? And whose kid was that and what's going to happen to her? And I still care about her, clearly he does. All of a sudden, this thing happens. Now, look, I don't know what to make of a dream. I've had some very vivid dreams. I've had one crazy dream that I remember that I maybe thought had supernatural overtones, but very little has ever happened to me in a dream that would be so compelling that I would dramatically alter the course of my life. But Joseph experienced something here that is beyond your, oh, the weirdest thing I forgot to wear my pants and I was at school and everybody laughed, kind of vague recollection dream that we all have from time to time. This shook him. He cast his lot with this dream, with his bride to be, and with this little baby who he didn't know and he couldn't even say absolutely for sure where it was from. He was compelled. So if we have a cheap image in our head of what actually happened here, I think we're missing the point. This profoundly shook him in light of all the other things that were going on around him. He's convinced that this is the deal, and then he does everything that he was told to do. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and he took Mary home as his wife, but he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus. Joseph could have derailed so much about this whole plan. He could have set this whole thing back forever. But by the grace of God, by what God had done in his life and his character as a young man before any of this stuff happened, and because of his willingness to obey what he believed God wanted him to do, instead of this thing derailing right here, instead, this vulnerable situation with a pregnant lady and soon to be this vulnerable little baby is given care in the infant phase of this stage of the redemptive plan. Joseph changed the game with his character. Now look, he pretty much drops out of the picture here in not too long, and we're not going to hear much more about him. I assume he died before Jesus became an adult, or there would have been no reason for Jesus to hand off care of Mary at the crucifixion. But this guy was a fork in the road of the story of the redemptive plan, and he is the right fork in the road because he chose what was right, he was used the right way, and he propped up the most important lady ever in all of history in one of the most difficult situations she could ever find herself in. He nurtured young Jesus, he fathered young Jesus in every sense other than physically, and lent his credibility to a situation that needed that at this exact vulnerable moment. More on all of this stuff about the birth narrative of Jesus next time around.