There's something so unique about the first years of Jesus' life. For starters, He fulfilled at least 3 prophecies: 1. Born of a virgin. 2. Born in Bethlehem. 3. Born in the lineage of Abraham and David. A fourth prophecy was fulfilled more so by King Herod when he killed all the young boys in order to try to kill Jesus.
Obviously these fulfillments alone are great. I'm so very thankful that the Messiah came and that through Him, we have salvation, life, and freedom. But, I realized something awesome about Joseph today when I was studying the first two chapters of the book of Matthew.
When Joseph first heard that Mary was pregnant, he was going to quietly end their engagement so that no one would be put to shame. What a respectful, honorable man of God! He loved Mary, no doubt, and yet he was willing to sacrifice that so that both of them would be just in their actions. Wow.
Secondly, Joseph was obedient to The Lord. He was definitely more obedient and trusting in The Lord than I am. Just in Matthew 2:13-23, he moves Mary, Jesus, and himself three times just because an angel appeared to him and told him to.
Now, I can imagine that Joseph had some hesitations. I think that I would be like, "Really, God? First you make me the earthly father of a son that is fully You and fully human. Now, you want me to protect him by moving to these far away places? Like, for real You want me to do that?"
This may seem a bit ridiculous, (because, let's be real, I often say ridiculous things that make no sense, not even to me), but think of the pressure Joseph must have felt. And, this happened three times just within the first few years of Jesus' life on earth. Crazy.
After I realized how faithful, and trusting Joseph must have been toward God, I asked myself if I would do the same. If an angel of The Lord appeared to me and told me to pack up and move away for my safety, would I? Would I take the God of the universe seriously enough to obey what would seem like a crazy, spontaneous move? In all honesty, I'm not sure that I would right now. I don't have my own family, so I don't know if I would do it to protect my husband or children, either. (That's a question for another season of life.)
The point is this: I don't know if I would pack up and move or not. But, I should be willing to no matter what. My heart should always be obedient to The Lord. I'm thankful that God is faithful to transform my heart into one that is obedient and willing to submit to the will of God - no matter what He asks me to do.
I feel like I need to end this post with some sort of alter call or something. (I grew up in a Pentecostal church - there's rarely a service without some sort of alter call.) But, anyway, where is your heart? What is God calling you to do? Is it challenging for you to obey and submit to Him? Maybe He's not calling us to move around and protect ourselves and our families, but maybe He is challenging us in a different way. I'm not sure what that is in your life, but I have a feeling you do know. God tells us to do things that we think are absolutely crazy. The beauty of listening to God is the opportunity to know Him in a new way and to grow in a new area. How awesome is our King!
