INTERVENTION

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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. 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.

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. 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.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage.

Matthew 1:18-25

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We have our plans but then the Lord has plans for us and so often there is a big difference between these two.

How often has this happened to you in your life?

You thought your life would go in a certain way, you believed you knew what your future held, but then saw things shift drastically in ways that were totally unexpected, ways that placed you in positions that you never thought you would be in.

I know it has happened in my life and on more than one occasion.

You see, the Lord’s plans for us will always supersede our own and do so every time. After all, He is the Lord, the Master and Ruler of us all. He has absolute authority to intervene and put us in places He wants us to be.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were in their older years and by all indications doing well as they lived out their final years together. Neither of them would have ever expected to become parents in that stage and season; it would not have been in their plans. But God intervened and changed everything for them (and for many others as Jesus was about to burst on the scene, the way paved by John, the son Elizabeth would give birth to).

Mary was a young virgin who was living with her parents, waiting for the day when her marriage to Joseph would become official. There were a lot of unknowns ahead for her as marriage would be completely new for her but she knew her future and was comfortable with it. That was until an angel named Gabriel entered in and altered everything, bringing an intervention plan from God which included a supernatural impregnation and the promise of a special child who would be of God Himself. It was a major change of plans for the teenager but she showed maturity and faith well beyond her years when she submitted fully to the will of the Lord.

Mary’s sudden conception caused ripple effects because as we look at today’s scripture passage, we find Joseph wrestling with the changed circumstances. He too thought he knew what the future held, waiting himself to take his new bride in marriage and make a life with her. But then she suddenly and unexpectedly became with child and Joseph knew he didn’t play a part in it. We know questions had to be racing through his mind:

Why was she unfaithful to me?

What should I do now?

Do I want her killed or is there a way where I can spare her and still remain obedient to God and the law?

As for the latter, here’s what the law said about this matter:

If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.  Deuteronomy 22:22:24

Joseph was a devout Jew and faithful to God and His word. He could have outed Mary and had her stoned but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. The grace and mercy that would be found perfectly in Jesus was also in His earthly father because Joseph decides to just divorce Mary quietly and send her away to avoid public disgrace. All that would be needed were the legal documents to make the divorce binding. This was Joseph’s plan and he was going with it. That is, until there was an intervention.

You see, God had other plans and they were ones that Joseph had not considered.

The intervention, just as it had been for Mary and Zechariah before her, came from the angel Gabriel. The only difference in Joseph’s case was that the angel came to him in a dream instead of in person. We read where Gabriel, as he had in the two prior instances, speaks to Joseph in the midst of his uncertainty and exhorts him to not be afraid to take Mary as his wife, despite her being pregnant. He could do this without fear because Mary had not violated any law of God; rather, she had been chosen by God to bear a very special child, conceiving by the Holy Spirit and delivering a son who will save all “his people from their sins.” It was an intervention that was divine in nature but also in step with the words of the prophet Isaiah who had foretold of what had happened to Mary some 700 years earlier. Mary’s conception was merely the completion of a plan God had set forth centuries ago. Immanuel was coming and he would have two earthly parents, his mother Mary and father Joseph. This was the will of God for them both.

And so when Joseph woke up from his dream, he fully knew what he should do and it wasn’t anything he had considered when devising his own plan. Rather, he did what Gabriel commanded him to do, taking Mary as his wife but not consummating their marriage as Mary was pregnant.

Left to his own intentions, Joseph could have completely messed up the plans that God had in mind. This is why intervention needed to happen and thanks be to God that Joseph, like Mary before him, was obedient and submissive to the will of God, decisions that would lead to the coming of our Savior Jesus as God fulfills His promises to mankind. We’ll look at that later today before we enter into the joy of Christmas day.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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