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When you read Jesus’s genealogy in the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, what names stand out to you? Is it Abraham, the father of our faith? Or maybe David, the revered king of Israel? Maybe it’s Jesus’s mother, Mary. Jesus’s lineage includes a fascinating mishmash of characters, some of whom are well-known and others who are more obscure. One name that’s often overshadowed is Jesus’s father: Joseph.
Is there anything we can glean from this seemingly unremarkable figure?
While it’s true that Joseph is often overlooked and there’s relatively little written about him in the New Testament, he’s an important person to ponder during Christmastime. Although he is “barely mentioned in Scripture [and] forgotten mostly in church history,” as Dan Darling writes in The Characters of Christmas[1], there is much that we can learn from him today.
After the opening genealogy in chapter 1, Matthew’s Gospel transitions immediately to the “birth of Jesus Christ” (v. 18, ESV) and introduces readers to Jesus’s parents, Mary and Joseph. Matthew describes Joseph as “a just man” (v. 19). In light of the scandalous nature of Mary’s pregnancy (Joseph was not the biological father, and they were not married), Matthew details Joseph’s unwillingness to shame Mary, his betrothed. Joseph “resolved to divorce her quietly” (v. 19), which was no small decision.
It’s clear from the next verse that Joseph spent time mulling over what he should do—the Greek word used here is enthumeomai, which means “to revolve thoroughly in the mind” or “consider carefully.” What do you think Joseph was feeling? What do you think his prayers were like?
As Joseph “considered” (enthumeomai, v. 20) what to do, he fell asleep. Have you ever prayed and wrestled with God long into the night, begging to hear from him and pleading for help? I imagine this is where Joseph found himself, out of options and out of energy, drifting into a restless sleep. But while he slept, God sent him a message. Through an angel, God spoke to Joseph. And Joseph heard him.
When was the last time you heard from God? Maybe it’s been so long that you aren’t even sure what his voice sounds like anymore. Keep wrestling. Keep praying. Keep pleading with God. And keep your ears tuned—he may just send you a word when you least expect it.
In every recorded instance when the Lord’s angel visited Joseph and spoke to him (Matthew 1:20–24; 2:13–15; 2:19–22), Joseph responded with obedience. Three times the angel of the Lord “appeared” to him in a dream and three times he “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” Every time, Joseph obeyed immediately.
In Matthew 2:13–15, for instance, God sent his angel to Joseph to deliver hard news: “Herod is on the hunt for this child (Jesus), and wants to kill him” (v. 13, The Message®). God instructed Joseph to gather his family and their things “and flee to Egypt.” As you might imagine, moving was much more disruptive in the first century than it is for us. But the Bible says that “Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight” (v. 14, The Message®, emphasis added). That isn’t just obedience; it’s obedience without delay, no matter the cost.
What about you? How difficult is it for you to obey God’s Word immediately like Joseph did? For most of us, the answer is obvious—immediate obedience is immensely difficult, especially when it’s costly. But take heart: by God’s grace, we can obey God like Joseph did.
In the book of James, the author instructs his readers to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (1:22, ESV). If we’re ever unsure what hearing and doing the Word looks like—what it requires of us—Joseph gives us an example. Joseph was not a “hearer who forg[ot] but a doer who act[ed]” (v. 25).
And so it should be with us. When we read Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, or the warnings in Paul’s epistles, or the exhortations in the book of Hebrews, or the commands in Peter’s letters, or the sweet encouragements in 1 John, we should recognize that we are hearing from God much like Joseph did—not news delivered by angels but by the very breath of the Almighty. And like Joseph, we should “[a]ct on what [we] hear” (James 1:22, The Message®).
Daniel Darling,[1] The Characters of Christmas: The Unlikely People Caught Up in the Story of Jesus (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2019).
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