Joseph: Father, Obedient to THE Father

The Bible doesn't give us much information about Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph. Although, he was an instrumental part of filling the Old Testament prophecy validating Jesus as Messiah. Joseph was of the tribe of Judah and a descendant of the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

There must have been so many doubts in Joseph’s mind concerning his relationship with Mary as he found out she was with child. Any ordinary man would have ended the relationship and moved on. When Joseph planned to put her away quietly, and an angel appeared to him in a dream assuring him there was a greater purpose in this disastrous situation. Here, Joseph took the first of many steps of obedience and “took Mary as his wife and kept her a virgin until Jesus’ birth.” (Matthew 1:25)

After the birthday of Jesus, Joseph received two other dreams; one from another angel and the other from God himself. One was to travel to Egypt to flee Herod’s command to find and kill the newborn Messiah. The other dream instructed Joseph to go to Israel. They settled outside of Jerusalem in a city called Nazareth. Both of these moves were to keep Jesus safe but also fulfilled more of the Old Testament prophecies.

All of Joseph’s actions proved him to be an honorable, faithful, and obedient man. He solidified the lineage of Jesus, the virgin birth and where the Old Testament stated the way he would come. A wise man once told me, “there were probably many betrothed women God could have used to carry the Messiah, but he chose Mary because of who Joseph was.” Jesus himself tells us later in John 14:15, “If you love me keep my commandments.” Joseph modeled this for believers in spite of difficult circumstances. Let us follow Joseph’s example of obedience and faithfulness to God no matter our situation.