And that God choose young Mary from this insignificant a town to announce to her that she would birth the Christ King. And though terrified at the fact that God noticed her, her response was beautiful…one we all should have when God calls us, Luke 1:38: I am the Lord’s servant, Mary answered, May it be to me as you have said. And with the news that her cousin Elizabeth was with child she made haste to be with her. More on that next week.
But as we know, the account of the birth of Christ does not stop with Mary’s obedience to God. Joseph is also in this account. However, in Luke we don’t hear of him until chapter 2 when he and Mary are on their way to Bethlehem. To remember the full account, we need to turn to Matthew 1:18-25. Looking at these accounts together, the assumption is that Mary and Joseph both live in Nazareth. However, there is no Biblical scholarly evidence for this. In fact, if you look at Matthew 1, you will see nowhere even the mention of Nazareth. According to verse 20 Joseph was a son of David; in other words, a resident of Bethlehem. We read this again in Luke 2:4. The custom in Jesus’ time was that children’s marriages’ were arranged for them often as early as birth. This was certainly the case of Mary and Joseph. So, Joseph grew up in Bethlehem. Now to give you some perspective; Nazareth is to the north about 9 days travel; about from here to Daytona.
Unlike Nazareth, we hear of Bethlehem often in the Old Testament. This little town of Bethlehem had was populated with somewhere between 500 and 1000 people. The closest metropolis, even today, is Jerusalem just about a two-hour walk away, 15 minutes by bus. Bethlehem literally means, the House of Bread.
You may remember in the Book of Ruth, that Ruth, too, was from Bethlehem. The town was known for its wheat, barley and other grains that were grown, harvested, ground and baked. Imagine living in a town where you smelled baked bread all the daylong! So we know that farmers, millers, bakers, shepherds, and at least one carpenter lived there. We also know that besides Ruth, two great men were born in Bethlehem. First, David, the shepherd then king; because of David’s great reign, Bethlehem and Jerusalem became known as the City of David. David was the first great man who was born and of course, Jesus is the second.
So on to Joseph. We know the custom. When a girl reaches puberty, she is engaged for one year before the wedding. This is the betrothal. For this long distance relationship, can you image Joseph when he got the news that Mary was with child? Today’s passage does not do it justice. The passage says that Joseph being a righteous man, had in his mind to divorce her quietly but after he considered this, an angel came in a dream. Wow, what a switch in just two verses. What the passage does not say is that Joseph, like any of us, must have been angry, jealous, confused, frustrated! Joseph was human. But he was righteous, not only because he wanted to do right for Mary but also because he was open to listen to God. Righteous men listen to God! And in a dream the Lord told Joseph to take Mary as his wife and he did! (vss 20 –22).
It was then, in verse 22, Matthew picked up the text again. All of this took place to fulfill what the Lord has said through the prophet: the virgin should conceive and bear a son. We find this text in Isaiah 7:14. This is 735 years before Jesus was born. Ahaz was king, living in Jerusalem and he had two enemies coming to surround the city. A messenger came to him and said …the Lord will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel. Immanuel, God with us. Before the boy knows the difference between right and wrong, the kings will be dead. History tells us that the two kings were overthrown and slain in 722, just when the child was 13, when he learns the difference between right and wrong. Matthew knew this Isaiah account well. The child was a sign for Ahaz that he was not alone!
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