After six months of preaching, John the Baptist was jailed. Again we dont know for how long, it could have been between 6 months and two years. All that preparation for 6 months of preaching! But the lesson we can learn is that Johns role in preparing the way for Jesus, was Gods plan and an extremely important one. Johns ministry was critical for Jesus to have an impact on Israel and the world. In Matthew chapter 1 from verse 18 peaks of Joseph. We will look at Marys faith later on, but Joseph was no slouch when it came to faith and he was a Godly man.
It says that Mary was espoused or engaged to Joseph. In the old Jewish tradition when you were engaged, you were basically married. There was a total commitment and the only thing was there would not be any sexual relationship between man and woman.
God chose two Godly people to be the parents of Jesus. If Mary was promiscuous God could never have used her. God loves us regardless of who we are, however if we fail in certain areas, the chances of the Lord using us in that specific realm, is slight.
If a bank robber becomes a Christian God could use him as a preacher or some other calling, but you wont find him being used as the accountant. He would not be asked to handle the churches finance. If Jesse James became a Christian, he would not have been an accountant or a banker.
Joseph and Mary were committed to their relationship, not like today where most couples are so flippant and then people wonder why so many marriages end up in divorce, because there is just no commitment.
When Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, he wanted to put her away or allow her to go away. According to Jewish law he could have actually had Mary stoned to death, but he was an honourable man and so to avoid embarrassing her, he wanted to send her away. What his intentions were from there on we do not know, maybe he would have wanted the child to be adopted, but Joseph had no intention of divorcing Mary. (Remember in those days being engaged was like been married)
In verse 20 it says while he thought on these things. He did not have some knee jerk reaction and responded emotionally and approached Mary seething with anger. He thought what he should do. What an example to us. How often when we find things out, our reaction is to be angry and take it out on the person or persons involved. Joseph thought what he was going to do before making a decision. Joseph was thinking more about Mary than himself.
Post published in: Opinions