But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit... when Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. Matthew 1:20, 24
Many things in the story of Joseph show the kind of man he was. In his story, we see the mark of a righteous man: when he felt betrayed by Mary, he was embittered, and seeking revenge. In this passage, we see him ready to quietly dispose himself of Mary, but then something happens: he went to sleep, and an angel of the Lord appears to him asking him to rescind his decision to put Mary away; he awakes from sleep, behold it was a dream. Could this be his mind playing a trick on him because of his affection for Mary? No, that was not his thought; he believed it was a dream from God, and on account of what he perceived was from God, he withdrew from the cause he had decided upon, and did what the angel, in his dream, had commanded him to do.
In Joseph, we see a man of great moral character and reverence for God. He may have thought, ‘though I had decided to quietly send Mary away, but because of what I sense that God is saying to me by this dream, I will turn from my decision, and do what God says’. We are daily confronted with situations like this, when our minds are made up on the course of action to take regarding something that affects us vitally, but what do we do in the face of what God says to us in His word, when it conflicts with the action we contemplate taking? This is the test that reveals the sincerity of our claim of His Lordship over us. Such claims will be affirmed by what we do when God instructs us to decline from a particular course of action. Do we, at such times, like Joseph, change our decision? This shows the value we put on God.
I pray that when our time of testing comes, as it will certainly come, we will be found standing on the same side as God on every issue of life.
Toni
