Matthew 1:18-25
Planning is a part of all of our lives. Some people love to plan and seem to have
their lives scheduled out for the next five years. Others are less structured and like to kind
of take life as it comes on a moment by moment basis. However, both types have dreams and
aspirations that they plan to fulfill in their lives and they make decisions
based on those hopes. No matter what our
tendency in the area of planning, it is important that we recognize God’s
sovereignty in all of our planning. We
know very little about Joseph, the man who was engaged to be married to Mary
and the earthly father of Jesus. We know
that he was a manual laborer who likely had a rather simple plan laid out for
his life. This plan might have looked
something like: marry Mary, work hard, raise a family, be faithful. He is called a just man. He seems to love Mary deeply. Never in his wildest dreams would he have
imagined the way that his plans would be changed by the Lord. His role in life turned out to be far
different that he had imagined but through it all he was sensitive and
submissive to the will of God.
JOSEPH MAKES HIS PLAN: When Joseph finds out that Mary is
pregnant he sets a plan in motion to dissolve their engagement quietly so as
not to cause further embarrassment to Mary.
We do not know how he discovered the pregnancy; but we must be careful
not to impose our “dating culture” on their situation. This was likely an arranged marriage and the
two of them, more than likely, had very little knowledge of one another and
even less contact with one another. It
is very unlikely that Mary was able to sit down with Joseph over a cup of
coffee and explain to him about her encounter with Gabriel. It is far more likely that he got word of her
condition through other sources that could tell that Mary was with child. Once the rumors were confirmed, Joseph set his
plan into motion to end their engagement without publicly humiliating her or
brining her to judgment. The reality of
the situation was that his plans were going to have to change. He knew that he was not the father so he must
have presumed that Mary had been unfaithful.
His hopes and dreams of a happy marriage and raising a family with Mary came
crashing down around him. Life as he
knew it would never be the same. Most of
us end up facing situations in our lives where we come to an unexpected turn of
events. During these times we must not run
from God, doubt God’s goodness or become angry with God. These are the moments in life through which
God is usually at work to build our character and make improvements to our
plans.
JOSEPH HEARS GOD’S PLAN: God comes to Joseph in his sleep
through a vision in which an angel told him of the Holy Spirit being the Father
of Mary’s child. He is instructed to go
through with his original plan of taking Mary as his wife. God reveals to him that this child would be
named Jesus and that He would save His people from their sins. This was clearly a revelation to Joseph that
Mary’s baby would be the Messiah promised in Scripture. Joseph would have known these prophecies
about the Messiah, but it is very likely that he, like most people who read the
Scripture, could not have known exactly how it would be that a virgin would
conceive and give birth to the Messiah.
God reveals His plan to Joseph.
It must have been an incredible moment in Joseph’s life when he realized
that he would be part of the God’s plan for bringing the Messiah into the
world. His life would never be the
same. God’s plans for our lives rarely
line up with how we imagine that things will be. But He is in control and He is sovereign and
absolutely knows what He is doing. We
can rest assured that His plans and His ways are higher than ours. When God’s plans begin to shake our plans to
the core we must remember to trust Him fully.
JOSEPH DOES GOD’S PLAN: As we look back on Joseph’s decision
to go through with God’s plan for his life it seems like the obvious choice to
make. I don’t think that there was anything
easy about this choice. His life would
never be the same. There would be
questions from family and friends about Mary’s presumed infidelity. There would be many who would presume the
couples promiscuity. In Joseph’s day
these were important issues that carried great stigmatisms. Those issues coupled with the fact that he
would be the father of Messiah were not an easy task to take on by any stretch
of the imagination. His hopes and dreams
of a “normal” life and “typical” family would never happen. Joseph answered the call and stepped up in
obedience to do just exactly what God called him to do. His plans went out the widow and God’s plans
now became his new plans. This is the
expectation that God has for all of our lives.
There is nothing wrong with us making plans for what we want to do; but
we must hold these plans loosely in our hands and make it clear that God is
free to make radical changes at any time He so chooses. God has a mission to accomplish in this world
and He desires to use us in the fulfillment of that mission. All of our plans must seek to prioritize His
mission for us and we must be flexible in our directions as we seek to follow
His will. When we insist on our own plans
we will inevitably miss out on tremendous blessings from God in our lives.
APPLICATION: We should all make plans to the best of our
understanding of God’s will revealed in Scripture. God’s mission to reach the nations with the
Gospel must be the priority in all of our planning. Our plans must always be open to amendment
and redirection from the Lord as He determines how He can best use us in the
fulfillment of His mission in and through us.
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