In a mere six verses (18-24) Matthew gives us his version of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. Who and what components make up his description.

Who are the main characters? We have Joseph, Mary, an angel, the Holy Spirit.

What else is present? We have a dream and a reference to prophecy as recorded in the Book of Isaiah.

Imagine if you will that as a man who is fully in love and devoted to your fiancé, that you are presented with the shocking news she is pregnant and you know that you have not had intimate relations with her. What do you do? How would you react? To understand Joseph’s reaction we must grasp the evidence of his character. Joseph is described as “faithful to the law” and as a man who possessed great integrity “he did not want to expose Mary publicly, he chose to divorce her quietly’. How can one divorce another person when they aren’t yet married? The answer is contained in Jewish tradition regarding marriage. In the Jewish culture when a man and woman became engaged (betrothed) they were considered “married” until the actual ceremony was held. The young man took time to build an addition onto his father’s home in preparation for his bride to join him in their new home and the young woman prepared her wedding attire and chose her bridesmaids. When the home addition was deemed finished in the father of the groom’s eyes, he would tell his son “go get your bride!” So, perhaps Joseph was in the midst of building the home he and Mary would share, we don’t know. What we DO know is that Joseph is hesitant to move forward with marrying Mary. But God!

In a dream, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and assured him how the child was conceived and WHY. This angel even quoted the prophet Isaiah and if you noticed, referred to Joseph as “son of David”. These two things factor into the validity of Matthew’s record–again, appealing to his Jewish readers with information they would have been firmly acquainted with down through their generations of reading from Old Testament scrolls and the meticulous records of genealogy.

There’s another small detail that is contained at the end of this portion of scripture that some may overlook. It’s a detail Matthew felt was necessary to include to prove that Jesus was not conceived by human intervention, a conception that could only be attributed to God. Upon waking from the dream, Joseph has the command to take Mary home as his wife…they are now living in their new home…and the newly married couple does not consummate the marriage until AFTER Jesus is born, thus giving the Jews–and us–evidence of the miraculous birth of God’s Son.

I love how Matthew weaves together the miraculous and practical aspects of Jesus’ birth. The forces of Heaven and earth were united and overturned at the same time upon His arrival.

Read Matthew 1: 18-24