Joseph of Bethlehem

     Throughout the mortal life of Jesus Christ, He touched the lives of many incredible men and women of faith.  Many of these people of faith probably had a good impact on His life as well.  His mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph, were two excellent examples of faith and probably had a large impact on the faith of Jesus Christ.  Today I wish to focus on the faith of Joseph.

     Joseph was a man of God with incredible faith.  The simple fact he was chosen to be the father of the Only Begotten Son of God is enough to teach us this fact.  Jesus would come to earth with the same knowledge as the rest of us, meaning He would have to grow up learning by faith and trust.  It’s very obvious that He would only be entrusted to the care of parents with incredible faith.  This is why Mary and Joseph were chosen.

     Fortunately the scriptures give us more evidence of the fact Joseph was a man of faith than this reasoning.  The scriptures give us very little history from the life of Joseph.  Yet the stories found in the New Testament of the Holy Bible demonstrate the faith of this incredible man.  These stories help us understand why Heavenly Father would trust the Joseph to teach His Son the faith He would need to fulfill His mission in life.

     The first of these stories comes before Joseph and Mary were engaged.  Mary was betrothed to Joseph when she was visited by the angel and informed she would give birth to the Son of God.  Mary undoubtedly knew this could bring hardship to her life.  Many would mistakenly believe she was promiscuous and unfaithful to her betrothed when they found out she was with child.  She could be publicly humiliated and rejected by Joseph.  Yet she trusted Heavenly Father and chose to accept the privilege of being the mother of Jesus.

     When Joseph found out Mary was with child, he did mistakenly believe she had been unfaithful to him.  Any man betrothed to an unfaithful woman had the right to make a public example of her, and Joseph would have known this.  But this would have destroyed the life of Mary.  Joseph was a righteous man who loved God.  So he had no desire to ruin the life of Mary, even though he thought she had made a terrible choice and given up her morality and virtue.  So he decided to “put her away privily”.

     Then he had a dream.  In this dream an angel of God appeared to Joseph and told him what had happened with Mary.  He was commanded to take Mary as his wife, name the child Jesus, and raise Him as his own.  This is where we first see just how much faith Joseph had.  He wouldn’t have known for sure that this dream was from God. 

     But he knew the impressions this dream had left upon him.  And he believed they were from God.  So he acted with faith and did as he was instructed.  Joseph took Mary as his wife and refrained from consummating the marriage until after Jesus was born.  He then named the child as he had been instructed and raised Him as his own son.  He taught the Son of God to believe in Heavenly Father.  And from the lessons Jesus received from Joseph and Mary (and probably from angels of God, though this form likely started when He was a few years old), He learned how to be the chosen Messiah.

     At the time Jesus was born, a man named Herod was allowed by Rome to rule over the people of Jerusalem.  He learned from wise men who were seeking Jesus that the true King of Israel had been born.  He feared he would lose his kingdom to this child, so he sought to kill him.  He asked the wise men to bring him word of the location of Jesus so he could also go worship Him. 

     But the wise men figured out Herod’s wicked plan.  When they found Jesus, a couple years after his birth, they worshipped Him as they desired.  Then they departed without returning to Herod.  Herod decided to kill all the children old enough to be Jesus to eliminate the threat.

     Joseph was warned in a dream this was about to happen.  He probably again had a few doubts, but he knew the feeling he was left with again.  So he obeyed this dream just as he had the earlier dream.  He took Mary and Jesus to Egypt to await for the Lord’s command to return.  In this way he saved Jesus from death at the hands of the soldiers of Herod.

     Joseph obeyed dreams from God twice more that we have record of in the scriptures.  This is the pattern of faith we see from the life of the man chosen to be the father of Jesus.  Though he would have had doubts, he trusted the impressions given to him by dreams.  And he obeyed in faith.

     The Lord communicates to each of us differently.  At times some of us will have dreams like Joseph did.  Sometimes we receive communication from God through other people around us.  Most often communication from God comes from the Holy Spirit through small impressions. 

     No matter how God chooses to communicate to us, we will find there is room for doubt.  What matters is how we choose to look at these communications.  Will we act with faith as Joseph always did?  Or will we foolishly turn aside?  Will we trust that God loves us enough to communicate to us?  Or will we foolishly believe there has to be some scientific explanation to the feelings, dreams, or impressions we get and it couldn’t be from God?

     Joseph had the wisdom to follow the promptings given to him.  I hope I can learn from his example and always follow the promptings of God in my life.  And I hope you can as well.