“Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She shall give birth to a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins." ... Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself;”
Joseph does not say a single word anywhere in the Bible. Not one line of recorded speech. What we have instead is what he did.
Before the dream, he had already made a decision, and it tells you what kind of man he was. He believed the worst had happened, and his plan was to end the engagement quietly so Mary would not be publicly disgraced. He was within his rights to do far worse. He chose the option that protected her at his own expense, while he was the one who had been wronged.
Then comes the dream, and one line worth noticing: do not be afraid. The same words the angel gave Mary. Both of them needed to hear it, because both of them had real reasons to be afraid. This would cost Joseph too. The math on that pregnancy was going to be done by every neighbor in Nazareth for the rest of their lives.
And Matthew reports his response in the plainest possible way. Joseph woke up and did what he was told.
No speech. No conditions. He took Mary as his wife and he took the child as his own, and he spent the rest of his life as a carpenter raising a son who was not biologically his, in a town that could count.
There is a kind of faithfulness that never gets a stage. It looks like getting up and doing the right thing, then getting up and doing it again. Most of the load-bearing goodness in this world is carried by people like Joseph, quietly, without a line of dialogue.
Talk About It Together
Think about quiet faithfulness, not dramatic moments.
- Who in your life is a Joseph, faithful without any applause?
- Where is God asking you to do the right thing quietly, at a cost?
- What makes it hard to obey when nobody will know you did?
Tonight’s Challenge
Do the unglamorous thing you have been avoiding, and let it go unmentioned.
Prayer
God, thank You for Joseph, who protected Mary when he could have shamed her and obeyed You without a word of complaint. Make us people of quiet integrity. Give us courage to do right when it costs us and nobody notices. Guard the families in our care. Amen.