When we think about the birth of Christ Jesus our LORD, we don’t usually think about Joseph. In a way, he’s just there, rounding out the “Holy Family.” We set his statue out in our nativity sets, but he’s not the center of attention. That honor rests with the Christ Child and His mom. Even the shepherds that came that night and the wise men who showed up later get more attention than poor Joseph.
Joseph is just the background. He leads the donkey from Nazareth where he was a simple carpenter, to Bethlehem. He finds a bit of privacy for his expectant betrothed. Maybe he helps deliver her baby, although I’m sure he was fairy clumsy in his efforts. And then he retreats once again into the background.
Yet, God chose this man to be the protector, the guardian for His Son’s early years on earth. He chose him to teach Him a trade, to raise Him in the admonition of the LORD, to teach Him the Word of God.
The Scriptures describe him as a righteous man. We know he was kind and compassionate. Before God informed him by an angel in a dream that Mary was pregnant not because of infidelity but because of the miraculous working of God’s Holy Spirit, he was going to put her away “quietly” rather than expose her to ridicule or scorn. [Matthew 1:18-22]
We know Joseph was obedient. He did what the LORD commanded him to do. When it became necessary to leave Jerusalem after the visit from the wise men and Herod’s avowed attempt to kill the newborn king, Joseph gathered his wife and child and fled in the middle of the night to Egypt and stayed there until God told him it was safe to return. [Matthew 2]
Read the account of Joseph in Matthew. Matthew must have thought him important for he concentrates on this man in the background more than any other aspect of the birth of our Savior. There were so many ways in which this all could have turned out differently if Joseph had not been a man of compassion, obedience, and quiet strength.
