JOE

I was reading in Mathew, like I normally do when Christmas time comes around. I love reading about the birth of Jesus at this time of the year. As I was reading in Mathew 2, I realized, there is what we might call the forgotten man of Christmas whose influence we need to make everything work. Joseph is the forgotten and ignored man of Christmas.

Yet, Joseph models for us the kind of sensitivity God wants us to develop to hearing his voice.

Think about this, Joseph was engaged to be married to a pretty young lady named Mary. She’s the kind of young lady he can commit his whole life to; she’s godly; quietly submissive; has a good testimony and she’s dedicated to him. Then the bomb drops as Joseph finds out some shattering news …Mary is pregnant!

Now that news is bad enough even when you are the unmarried father of the earlier than expected new baby! But it’s shattering news when you discover that it’s not your baby and even worse when the bride to be is saying, “I’ve been faithful to you all along”! This is where Joseph’s sensitivity to God saves the day!

Sensitivity to God is what saves men and women in the midst of life’s sometimes horribly confusing circumstances. Joseph could have been mad, angry, upset and even ready to do Mary or himself violence.

Now think about this, there is a battle raging on two fronts at once. On one hand Joseph has a young lady on his arm every day in the market place.

As they walked along the roads of Galilee going to a friend’s house for dinner or something like that, who is pregnant! He is beginning to notice the groups of people standing together and talking while they look in his direction! He is no doubt dubbed the sucker of Galilee, ‘poor guy, he’s going to marry Mary who is pregnant to another guy!”

But on the other front here is a battle that is raging in his heart as God speaks to him in that still small voice that says trust Me in this Joseph and everything will work out! You see God builds on our breakthroughs to lead us on to greater challenges.

Now as the confusion begins to ease up, Joseph has heard the angelic choir; seen the adoring shepherds; been visited by wise men and met Simeon the prophet in the temple. And as he is recovering from the whole scene there at the Barn, God calls upon his sensitivity once again.

Mathew 2: 13 - Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word;

Are you kidding me? Now he has to leave town again and go to Egypt! When we look at Joseph what we see is a man who has patience in discovering the will of God. For Joseph the call of God meant going down into Egypt, a place every spiritual and God fearing Jew understood as outside the will of God.

For Joseph it meant bearing reproach; being a foreigner; living as an outcast and being scorned. Does that sound anything like the will of God you’re called to today? The truth is that if you’re doing the will of God you’re not going to completely fit in!

Joseph role was temporary but in this he was able to see the eternal! Joseph gives every one of us an example to follow because although his role is temporal His influence is eternal.

Don’t underestimate your place in the eternal plan of God for your life.

You may appear in God’s great plan for a moment but your influence could last for eternity!