He Did What the Angel of the Lord Commanded Him

 ¹⁸This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.  ²⁰But 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. ²¹She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."  ²²All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" which means, "God with us."  ²⁴When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. (from Matthew 1)

The first thing that the angel told Joseph is familiar. It seams the angels always start their conversations with this same line: "Do not be afraid."  The angel gave him reassurance that Mary had been faithful to him, that she was telling the truth, and he was still to marry her.

Guess what Joseph did? He got up in the morning and married her.

I have been thinking a lot about Joseph this weekend, and I'll share more about that later. But one of the things this story gives me reassurance of, is God's ability to speak to our husbands.

Have you ever sensed that your husband was making a bad decision? Have you ever had to deliver bad news to him and didn't know how he would react or respond to you? Has the trust in your relationship ever been broken? Mary was experiencing all of these things. We don't know how much Mary may have pled her case with him. But we do know that what changed his heart, was a message from God, delivered by an angel.

Can you trust God today to speak to your husband on your behalf? 

With the kids: Tell this story to your kids and talk about how Joseph obeyed right away. Ask them if they can obey like Joseph today? Talk about how important it was for him to obey right away because he had a big job to do. Talk about how we get bigger jobs when we can be trusted to obey with our little jobs.