A baby is coming, and it’s not yours. Your friends, your culture, and your sense of justice are leading you to reject the baby and the young expectant mother. But in the quiet of the night, you hear a voice say that God is using this uncomfortable circumstance to release His Promise. What will you do?
In this season’s nativity, the role of Mary is already taken, and I am certainly not the Baby. But I hear there is an opening for Joseph – the one who decides to protect the promise against all odds. Herod is trying his level best to destroy the promise and retain his tetrarchy. But God is appointing Joseph to ensure that the hope of the ages will become the substance of history.
The name Joseph means “God will increase“. Certainly God will bring provision and increase to this man. What appears to be a lowly stable will turn into a focal point for the stars, the angels, and kings of the earth. Joseph will be blessed with more than enough to carry his family through the difficult season.
We don’t spend a lot of time talking about Joseph, but if there is any role available to us in the 2020 nativity – it is that of a strong man that decides against all odds to Protect the Promise and the one who is pregnant with promise.
This Christmas season – I’m grateful for the opportunity to fill this role. Many who are wagging their heads will one day bow the knee… Until then, God Will Increase over this family, for I have decided to accept the role of Joseph…
What will you do? What role will you play in this epic?
Matt 1:18-25 (NIV)
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel“ (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.