JOSEPH'S DREAM

Matthew 1:20-23 And as he considered this, he fell asleep and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.  “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary.  For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.  And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”  All of this happened to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and he will be called Immanuel (meaning, God is with us.)”

     Joseph was deeply troubled over what to do with Mary, his fiancé.  He loved her dearly and did not want any harm to come to her because of her pregnancy.  He didn’t understand how she could do such a thing, but that really didn’t matter.  While weighing things out in his mind, he fell asleep.  Maybe you can identify.  Maybe you have fallen asleep trying to figure things out.  If you have, chances are that you did not sleep too well.

     God send an angel to Joseph while he was dreaming with a life-changing message.  Mary was pregnant alright, there was no mistaking it.  But, she was not pregnant because she had been unfaithful to Joseph, she was pregnant because the Holy Spirit had made it happen!  Now, trying to figure out the details would have to come later, but for now, the only message he had to hear was that God was at work in Mary’s life and it was good for him to go ahead and marry her.  Mary was bearing in her womb a son, but not just any son, He was the Jesus, the promised Messiah, our Immanuel! 

      I would suspect that when he woke up Joseph had a lot more questions than he had answers for.  Was it really an angel that spoke to him or was he just imaging it in a dream?  After all, we all dream about many things that make no sense at all when we wake up.  Who was the Holy Spirit?  Was he really going to have a son?  What did the angel mean when he said He would be the promised Messiah, our Immanuel?  Why would God enter into the world through Mary instead of someone else?  Why would God chose him and Mary to be the parents of the Christ-child? 

     Just like Joseph, we often have a lot of questions that we don’t have answers for.  Sometimes we never do find answers that we think we need.  We often do not know why does what He does.  We don’t know why the Lord chooses us for a particular task.  We don’t know why things happen the way they do in our lives.  Yet, we are reminded of Isaiah’s declaration that God’s ways are different than our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  Instead of always having to figure things out, we need to trust the Lord.  We need to by faith go along with God’s plans.  We need to not question the Lord, instead we need to trust Him and let Him has His way with us.  We may not be a part of God’s plan to change the world, but perhaps we are a part of His plan to change a life for Him for all of eternity.  Let the Lord have His way with you.