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Joseph doesn’t always get the credit he deserves.
While reading my Bible this evening, since it’s the Christmas season, I decided to look again at the story of Jesus’ birth in Matthew’s gospel. I found two notes that I wrote in the margin years ago, and saw where I had underlined passages that were significant to me at the time. I remember well when I wrote those notes, and when I underlined those passages. I was sitting at the breakfast table at our home in Maple Valley, and I was astonished by this remarkable man, Joseph.
The part of the birth narrative, as it’s called, that I’m telling you about is found in Matthew 1:18 to 2:23.
Here are my margin notes, made that morning after breakfast, while sipping coffee and reading. The first margin note is this:
Joseph
1) A righteous man, 1:19
2) 4 dreams, 100% obedience
3) Afraid twice: 1:20 and 2:22
The other margin note says this:
1:21 — Joseph knew who Jesus was, and what Jesus would do!
Poor Joseph isn’t given much credit today. He’s the incidental person in the story, the guy who fills a plot hole, little more than a prop. Mary is revered. Joseph is tolerated. And yet — and yet! — Matthew, who learned about…