Dream Given to Joseph

First when you read the Holy Scriptures there are two dreams. Joseph has the first dream concerning Mary and the second concerning Herod the Great. One of these you will note happens well after the birth of our LORD. The other happens a little before the Birth of Christ but after the Incarnation. Thus, for this part I will address the picture of the First Dream.

Joseph is a righteous person. You may even look at him like Job always desiring to do the Will of God. He finds himself in a troubling situation. He is betrothed or already married to Mary. They have not yet consummated the Marriage by sexual intercourse. They are in a covenant relationship together.

Now Mary is noticed to be with Child. You do not have a declared time frame here to tell us how they found out. Maybe they did a pregnancy test and she found a little plus sign. Most likely they noticed she missed her period or was actually starting to show. One would hope that if Mary was such a saint she would have told him about an Angel dropping by for a chat.

Joseph finds all this out and knows the Law of what must happen. She should be stoned for pre-marital relations. Now just try that in to days world. Joseph does not want to disgrace her thus he will settle out of court (another great example for peacemaking). He is going to divorce her quietly and find another suitable wife. This will leave them both without any shame.

Now comes the dream, this should make you all pay close attention. The Angel says, "Do not Fear to take your wife Mary for that which is already conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." This is not annulment stage for Joseph and Mary this is divorce only stage. Yet the other point of emphasis is the living thing/person in Mary is God.

Joseph dreams of something that is amazing. He knows that this is something beyond him and Mary. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has blessed both of them. They have a family from the start and God is right there with them (Immanuel).

Some people look to the Angel that spoke to Mary. Other people point to the Angel that shows up in a Dream to Joseph. Both of these parents needed to be convinced this was a special child. You can talk about why Matthew writes and why Luke writes but the point of this is Jesus. The dream gives us the name of the child. Just like when Zechariah is asked what the boy is to be called and he writes John. Here his name is revealed to us at his discovery.

In the Dream we celebrate the name of Jesus. He is the one who will save his people. You can sure use this text to talk about staying together through the tough times of marriage but do not lose sight of Jesus. He is the one who comes for our salvation.

All these little things are written now so that we celebrate them. But here we hear the scripture being fulfilled. The words of the Angel are coming true. Everything seems to be falling into place.

This can be the real celebration of Joseph. You have to love when a plan comes together. The son of Mary is to be the coming Messiah for all the people of the World. The LORD fulfills his promises. So Joseph fulfills the promise he made to Mary.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Set Theory on the Trinity

Many Theologians are not Mathematicians. But Theologies are really into Science. For some reason there is a greater cross over between Theology and Science than any other fields unless you Separate Math and Physic into different fields. But Set Theory at its basic is the idea of taking sets of numbers or things and showing relationships. We see this in Matrices or Venn-Diagrams. Now Theologians generally speaking would use a Venn-Diagram to describe the Trinity. A Theologian would usually talk about three circles one being the Father and another being the Holy Spirit and the Other being the Son. Thus, where these circles connect that is then called God. But this means that there is part of the Son which is not God. Part of the Holy Spirit which is not God. And part of the Father which is not God. This is not true. Rather you take a list of Sets. Take Set God which contains all the attributes of God. Then you take a Set called Holy Spirit it would contain all the attributes of God and y...
Read more

The Death of the Holy Innocents

Many people die for what they believe in. Some die for righteous people. But these chosen few die on behalf of the one who will save us all. These children have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. But these children die on account of the Christ Child. Many people have been martyred because they confessed the faith. These children did not stand or even get a chance to stand. They were cut down because they were seen as the threat to King Herod. Rachael mourns for her children. Rachael died giving life to Benjamin near Bethlehem. Rachael now weeps as all the children of this town are slaughtered. But just as Rachael died giving birth to life. These children die to protect the Christ Child who left the town and will die to give all of us life. St Peter once said that he would not allow Christ to go to the cross. St Peter drew his sword in the garden to die for Christ. But only these Children truly give their life for Jesus Christ to live. Their sacrifice should b...
Read more

Biblical Marriage

Marriage is defined in Genesis as a man clinging to his wife and the two becoming one flesh. This definition is standardized even in the New Testament by both Jesus and St Paul. Therefore, we have generally said Marriage is defined as one Man and one Woman being joined together in a life long union. Most people think that this Marriage union is created through a man dressed in black and woman dressed in white walking down an aisle to be joined together before some kind of altar. But this is only a ceremony of marriage. The Bride and bridegroom are actually joined together through what is known as consummation, or proper sexual relations.  Thus, St Paul can even talk in reference to a marriage bed. This concept may be overlooked by a culture that no longer views the bed as the place where a majority of sexual activity takes place. But he states this because the marriage bed is the location in which a man and woman are joined together. Just as it was Rachael or Leah's tent in which t...
Read more