Joseph

Joseph and Mary were in terms we know today as being engaged, promised, espoused to each other to be married in a future date. At that time the couple would remain with their individual families and communicate through someone else such as a family member. Joseph found out at this time that Mary was pregnant. I can't imagine what his initial reaction most of been, I am sure shock and heart broken. He had yet to understand the important significance of the babe that Mary was carrying. So we find that Joseph had a decision to make. The Jewish costume at that time was to do two things. He could either take her to trial and more than likely Mary would of been condemned to die or privately annul the contract of their future marriage. We learn that he must of truly loved Mary and did not react in anger or revenge, but decided to privately break the agreement. This is a great lesson to me of the love that Joseph had for Mary and his personal restraint in a time that must of been very difficult for him to face.

In Matthew 1, we read, "Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily."

After this decision, an incredible event happened to Joseph where an angel appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins."

Wow, Joseph's heart had to be filled with wonder and awe at the great responsibility God placed on the shoulders of Joseph. Of the little we know of him, Joseph always obeyed the word of God. We have three accounts of Joseph being told to do something in a dream like we find in Matthew where it states: "Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife." (Matthew 1:24) He is also warned in a dream to flee into Egypt to avoid Herod's edict. He later on has another dream where he is told to go back to Jerusalem. In all three events, Joseph left immediately. He didn't stop to question or say just a moment. He heeded the call and followed God. What a great example of diligence and faith in our Father in Heaven.

Joseph must have been one of the greatest men to have ever walked on earth for the Father above to have entrusted him with the noble calling of the legal guardian of the Only Begotten Son of our Father in Heaven.