The Plot
“18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”
Matthew 1:18-25
Devotion
This passage is quite exciting! There is controversy, an almost breakup, an angel prophesying, not to mention it’s the birth of the King. But the point I want to make is that all of history hangs upon this birth, and it had to happen exactly this way.
Yesterday, we looked at the genealogy of Jesus, and it shows us that Jesus is the rightful heir to King David’s throne. Now in the ancient world the royal lineage was passed down through the father. This means that Jesus could only be the King if his father belonged to the royal line of David. Do you see the problem found in verse 19?
Joseph was betrothed to Mary, which is similar to what we call engagement, but it was a lot more serious. And Joseph thought that Mary committed adultery – I’m not sure if he would have believed Mary if she told Him it was the Holy Spirit’s child, which I think is fair enough. So, being a zealous Jew, Joseph resolved to divorce her, because that was what the law of Moses commanded him to do, in fact the law stated that this sin was punishable by death (Deut. 22:23-24), but Joseph wanted to divorce her quietly so that wouldn’t happen.
But if Joseph followed through with this then that means, Jesus would not be the promised ‘Son of David’, He would just be another baby born into this broken world, He wouldn’t be the Saviour. A lot is on the line here, all of history is at stake!
But praise God, for He sent an angel to tell Joseph that Mary had not been unfaithful, however, the Child whom Mary is carrying is the long-awaited Saviour of the world. So, Joseph would be the parent of the King of kings, who would save His people from their sins. Well Joseph did all that He was told to do, and here we are 2000 years later; me writing, and you reading about the story of the most significant birth in all of history, which went perfectly to plan.
It may seem that it almost didn’t go to plan, but from before God created the world, He planned every detail of this story. And the same is true today, even when it looks like God has lost control of this world; when chaos and confusion surrounds us, and tragedy strikes, God has not lost control. He has planned out every detail, and what we see is the unfolding of this great plan, we must simply trust Him knowing that He is good, wise and sovereign, which means His plan is good and wise, and He hasn’t lost control – King Jesus sits upon His throne today, and nothing will overthrow Him.
