Joseph was a king in disguise. I wonder how that happens? Over time, generations forget who they are. As the genealogy has unfolded in my own family, we found that we have everything you can think of in our generations. We have royalty and we have peasants. We have those who have shown greatness and courage, and those who were no good horse thieves. I’m sure it is the same in every family.
A lifestyle can change from the trappings of wealth and royalty to a poor town and a carpentry shop. Over the last few years, I have thought a lot about Joseph, husband of Mary and stepfather to Jesus.
Joseph’s part in Jesus’ life was as indispensable as Mary’s, strange though that may sound. It was Joseph who was in the line of King David. I like it that Jesus’ claim to David’s throne came through Joseph’s adoption of Him. Just as God welcomes us into His eternal family through Jesus’ sacrifice for us that makes our adoption legal.
A humble man, Joseph married a girl who was pure, and when she was “found to be with child,” his disappointment did not turn ugly. He planned to divorce her quietly. Yet, an angel appeared to him and assured him Mary was pure, and the Messiah inhabited her womb, by the Holy Spirit.
How would you feel if you were in this situation? In that culture, if he didn’t have her stoned to death, his family would be disgraced. If he did have her stoned, her family would still be shamed, but Joseph would not bear any dishonor. If he took her as his wife, then both families would be shamed. Would your choice be to endure the humiliation and shunning that would happen to you in the village if you obeyed God? What kind of strength would it take to go through the scandal? Joseph must have seen a glimpse of eternity to overcome the temporal.
Joseph chose to obey God. But God knew he would. Joseph was a man of character, who put others before himself. A man who was hand chosen by God to guide His own Son into earthly manhood. He shielded Mary and her Son from those who would harm them. Again, when an angel told him to pack them up and move to Egypt until the danger was passed, he did it. Instantly.
What manner of man was this?
While Mary bore the Messiah, it was not Mary who got the directions from God for their family, it was Joseph. A man that I think must have inherited this title from his ancestor, King David: “A man after God’s own heart.” Joseph, the king in disguise, the man trusted to raise God’s own Son on earth.
“Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus” Matt 1:24,25.
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