December 17: The Father
The Bible doesn’t give us a lot of details about Jesus’s dad. We know His name (Joseph), His job (carpenter), and we know he disappears from the biblical narrative when Jesus begins His ministry, presumably because he had already died by that time.
He’s a bit of a mystery! But, lack of details aside, we do get a beautiful glimpse into his character. We get to see how he reacts in a very high stress situation and we get to see His big faith. Let’s jump into Scripture to learn more.
Read Matthew 1:18-25.
Even with this little, tiny look into Joseph’s story, we can learn three things about him.
1. Joseph was kind.
Joseph was living his rom-com fairytale romance, engaged to Mary and likely so excited to start his life with her. Then, BAM. She’s pregnant.
Oof, we feel for the guy. That had to have been tough! His response was a lot nicer than ours probably would have been.
“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 1:19
It was already a huge hit to the heart to hear that your future wife was pregnant by who you can only assume is another man. But, on top of that, it was very much against the Jewish law, an affront to the rules God had laid out; rules that Joseph himself had dedicated his life to following. But instead of flying off the handle, abandoning and shaming Mary for her assumed indiscretion, Joseph had a tender heart toward her. In kindness, considering her feelings, he chose to try to keep it quiet; to obey God By leaving, trying not to cause further damage Mary’s already mangled reputation in the process.
Well, he intended to leave her. But God had other plans. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him what was going on, that Mary was pregnant by the Holy Spirit with the Savior of the world nestled in her womb. Wow! Big news! What the angel says gives us another hint about Joseph’s character.
“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 1:20b
Here’s a fun Bible fact! Every time you hear “don’t be afraid,” you can assume that the hearer may have been terrified. Joseph (understandably) must have been freaked out by the whole situation, necessitating a word of comfort from the angel. Just like any of us, He needed God’s comfort to be able to live out God’s plan.
2. Joseph needed God’s comfort.
So often, we dehumanize these Bible characters. They become superheroes, immune to pain and hurt and always armed with strength. But Joseph was just a guy! He slept, he sneezed, he ate, and, sometimes, he was scared.
Do you beat yourself up when you need God’s comfort? Maybe it’s time to give ourselves a little bit of grace. If Joseph needed God’s comfort, why wouldn’t we?
The third thing we learn about Joseph’s character lies in verse 24.
“When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.”
Matthew 1:24
Scared out of his mind, fresh off a life-altering vision from God, what was Joseph’s response? Obedience.
3. Joseph was obedient to God’s plans.
We want to be more like that! We want to read God’s commands in His Word and immediately obey them. We want to feel a nudge from the Spirit to do something, and we want to do it boldly, not talking ourselves out of it. We want to follow Joseph’s example:
God speaks, we obey.
Pray: God, make me kinder, give me comfort, and empower me to be obedient to your plans.
Further Study: Look at the other three gospels (Mark, Luke, and John) and see if you can find any other references to Joseph, Jesus’s dad.
Interact: Which of the three attributes we see in Joseph do you want to grow in?
