Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of
The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
Matthew 1:18-19
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Life had to be pretty good for Joseph. He
was a man who strived to be faithful to the law as God required, such was his
devotion to Him. And as he walked in obedience to God, seeking His
righteousness, he also got to experience the richness of blessings that comes
to God’s faithful servants. One of those blessings was the gift of a wife named
Mary to which he was pledged, or in terms we could better understand, engaged.
Now, don’t think this engagement was
similar to anyone we know of today in the 21st century. It wasn’t like Joseph
and Mary ran into one another one day in the village and fell in love, dating
for awhile (and today, even living together) until the time when their
relationship was ready to go to the next level of marriage. In those present
time instances, typically the man has some elaborate plan drawn up where he
will make a proposal to his girlfriend and ask her to marry him. If she accepts
(and most of the time she does), then a marriage is planned and carried out,
sealing the expected permanency of the relationship (even though today, the
permanency part is a big problem it seems).
This was nowhere close to how it happened
for Joseph and Mary and it’s where the word “pledged” begins to make a little
more sense when we know the context.
You see, in the New Testament times of
Joseph and Mary, Old Testament law and customs were still the order of the day.
The road to marriage started when two families got together to discuss
arranging the marriage of their children and, in the case of our story, Mary’s
parents pledged her to Joseph’s parents to be his wife. Once this was accepted,
Joseph and Mary were considered husband and wife, even though their marriage
had yet to be consummated. And as you see in our passage today, Joseph is
referred to as Mary’s husband before any marriage had taken place.
Once the engagement happened, it would
typically last for one year before the relationship would enter the betrothal
stage for another full year and at the end of the betrothal stage, the couple
would be married in the third year. Again, Joseph and Mary were considered
husband and wife before their marriage occurred and were expected to remain
faithful to one another during that time. Both were to remain celibate and
virginity was to be maintained. Neither would be allowed to have sexual
relations with one another and certainly not any relations with anyone else. To
violate this would be to violate the law and the penalty could be as severe as
death by stoning in public (Deuteronomy 22:20-21).
Given this, you can see how Joseph found
himself in quite a quandary after Mary suddenly became pregnant by way of the
Holy Spirit. They were still only engaged and now she was pregnant which would
indicate that she had lost her virginity, even though we know she didn’t. Her
conception was not done physically but rather supernaturally.
We know this but Joseph didn’t; he had no
idea how Mary had become pregnant. He only knew she was and as a man who was
devoted to upholding the law, he wrestled as to what he should do. Not doing
anything wasn’t an option and because of Joseph’s obvious compassion and caring
for Mary, he did not wish for her to have to go through public shame, humiliation,
and eventual death. Thank goodness that Joseph had another option to go to, one
that would allow him to stay true to the law and yet be merciful to Mary.
This was because the law did allow for a
divorce to be granted in lieu of public execution. In that case, all the
husband had to do was write a certificate of divorce, give it to his wife, and
then send her away (Deuteronomy 24:1). Joseph decided that this would be the
best way to solve the quandary he was in but as we will see God had other
plans, plans that would ensure His only Son, Jesus, came into the world on His
terms and no one else’s.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at that plan via a
divine proposition.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment