Not long ago, someone gave me a legitimate reason to keep believing in Santa Claus. She said when you stop believing in him you get underwear for Christmas! Boy, how true that is!
Of the thousands of Jewish men to choose from, God chose Joseph to be the “father” of the Messiah. Why? In Joseph, we find the ingredients of a godly man! There are things about Joseph that characterize the kind of person God uses. And so this devotion will be dedicated to learning some Lessons from Joseph. In doing this study I’m not attempting to remove Jesus from the Christmas “spotlight.” Rather, Jesus wants to shine some light on the kind of person that pleases Him — because the kind of person that pleases Him brings Him honor!
To make the characteristics of Joseph’s life easier to remember we’ll use the acrostic J — O — S — E — P — H: Just, Obedient, Spiritual, Essential, Passionate, Humble.
Just: From Matthew 1:18-23 we learn that Joseph was a “righteous” man. This refers to his relationship with God and also speaks of his concern that he handle this situation with Mary in the right way. Joseph really wanted to do the right thing — and that pleases God!
God doesn’t expect us to know what’s right in every situation we face. What pleases Him though is when we want to do right! A “just” man or woman will be led of God — it’s only a matter of time. Joseph was deeply concerned about doing the right thing — and eventually was given the answer.
Obedient: Matthew 1:24-25 shows Joseph was an obedient man, a man of faith: “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”
Joseph did not question God, even with the most perplexing things:
- He was asked to believe in a miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit.
- In the middle of the night, he received an angelic message to leave Israel and go into Egypt (Matthew 2:13).
- While in Egypt, after the death of Herod, he was told by an angel to go back to Israel — He wasn’t told where only that he was to move (Matthew 2:19).
- Once in Israel further instructions came and he moved to Nazareth in Galilee (Matthew 2:22-23).
Jesus said “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me…” (John 14:21). Often in the Christian life the call to obedience requires a step of faith. Without faith we cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6). Faith and obedience go hand in hand.
This being the Christmas season, we’re giving some thought to Joseph, the “father” of Jesus. I’m calling these reflections Lessons from Joseph (kind of sounds like a cough syrup commercial!).
To make the characteristics of Joseph’s life easier to remember, I’m using the acrostic J — O — S — E — P — H: Just, Obedient, Spiritual, Essential, Passionate, Humble. Thus far we’ve observed that Joseph was a “righteous” ( just) man, referring to his relationship with God — as well as his concern that he handle this situation with Mary in the right way; Joseph really wanted to do the right thing — and that pleases God!
Next, we observed that Joseph was an obedient man, a man of faith. Joseph did not question God, even with the most perplexing things.
Spiritual: Matthew 1:20 and Luke 2:25-38 reveal that Joseph had a supernatural side to his faith. Along with several angelic visitations, Luke reveals manifestations of the Spirit in Joseph’s life.
This quality serves as a reminder that Christianity is not just a matter of the mind — study, logic, rational answers for everything; it is also a supernatural experience, subject to God’s intervention. While everything God does always conforms to His Word, not everything He does can be explained, nor does it always make complete sense.
At our church in Willits we knew a couple, Herb and Karla Kamphausen, who had served as missionaries in China. They told me and Laurie about inviting a few of their Chinese friends over for a meal. Instead of four or five people, something like fifty showed up! What Herb and Karla had planned on serving was boiled chicken.
The Holy Spirit directed them to simply pray over their boiling pot and then begin feeding the people. Using tongs and pulling chicken out of the pot, they kept reaching in and pulling out pieces of chicken, enough to feed all fifty people!
They told us this story so matter-of-factly that it seemed like a common, routine experience. For them it was! It happened to them more than once!
The application is simply this: If you need a miracle God will provide one, in His time. Pray, praise (to the Lord for what he will do), then proceed.
Essential: Scriptures such as Luke 2:1-5 and Matthew 2:6 tell us that Joseph was essential to the fulfillment of God’s plan! Concerning Messiah, the Old Testament said:
- He must be a descendent of David (Psalm 132:11)
- He must be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
- He must come “out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1)
- He must be from Galilee (Isaiah 9:1-2)
Joseph was God’s man! He was at the right place at the right time because he obeyed God.
Like Joseph, we are essential in the plans of God — He uses people to do His work on earth. And like Joseph we will not always understand what’s going on; we will not always see how the plan of God is unfolding — but it is!
To review, we’ve learned thus far that Joseph, the “father” of Jesus, was a “righteous” (just) man, a dedicated servant of God who wanted to please Him — as well as handle the news of Mary’s pregnancy properly. We’ve also seen that Joseph was an obedient man, a man of tremendous faith. Joseph was spiritual as well — a man who had many brushes with the supernatural!
Passionate: Another wonderful example from Joseph is the love he had for Mary: he was passionate, he was compassionate in his affection for her! When he discovered she was pregnant, his immediate concern was protecting his future bride: “Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and 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’” (Matthew 1:19-20).
Joseph loved Mary! When he discovered she was pregnant his immediate concern was protecting his future bride! She was priceless to him. Legally, and according to the customs of his day, he had several options:
- Stoning, Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22
- Trial, Numbers 5:11-30; Mishna
- Bill of divorcement, Deuteronomy 24:1-4
As a devout Jew, Joseph took the sin of adultery seriously but wanted to protect Mary, so he soberly considered a bill of divorcement (divorce), but he even had trouble with this because of his love for her.
Humble: Joseph was a humble, common person, a blue-collar worker in his community, a carpenter (Matthew 13:55). He lived in Nazareth which scholars believe to have been a small, rather insignificant town when Joseph lived there.
Like most of us, Joseph was spiritually dull and forgetful at times: In spite of repeated angelic revelations concerning who Jesus was, the testimonies of the Magi, shepherds, Simeon, and Anna, by the time Jesus was 12, Joseph (and Mary) seem to have forgotten!
Joseph reminds us that what we do, where we do it, or even how gifted we are at doing it are not important; it’s who we are wherever God places us that really matters. We could never calculate the legacy of Joseph as foster-father of Jesus, yet he was a common human being just like us, a man who simply walked with God. That is something we all can do!
J— O — S — E — P — H: Just, Obedient, Spiritual, Essential, Passionate, Humble. As you’ve pondered Joseph’s life, how has it affected you? Late one Christmas day, a resident of the posh Bay-area community of Hillsborough, accompanied by his wife and children, set out to sing carols for the neighbors. As they were tuning up outside their first stop, the woman of the house came to the door, looking frazzled and distraught.
“Look fella,” she said, “I don’t have time! The plumbing’s on the blink, I can’t get anybody to fix it, and there’s a mob coming for dinner. If you really feel like singing carols, come back about nine o’clock!” “Yes ma’am,” replied Bing Crosby respectfully, as he herded his troupe elsewhere!
Let’s not allow God-given opportunities to pass us by during this most wonderful time of year!
“Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) Do you know, personally, Savior Jesus? Are you walking with Him?