Joseph's Vision

Matthew 1:18-25

Have you ever endured a life experience that you would consider to be a nightmare? It is possible Joseph went from a nightmare experience, to a dream and a vision of reality. Joseph was the espoused husband to Mary, having plans and hopes for the future. Then it was discovered that Mary is with Child, and it was not his child. His future was now taking a very different direction, and may have looked quite frightening. His natural response would be doubts and fears. Scripture explains that this child was of the Holy Spirit, but Joseph isn’t told this until he “was minded to put her away privily.” In spite of the presumed violence affecting their relationship, Joseph displayed a gracious and loving spirit.

Joseph was meditating on the Lord, and his thought-out plan came directly from the Scriptures. It is written in Deuteronomy 24:1—the ability for a man to give a bill of divorcement to his wife if some uncleanness had been found in her. Joseph was following the orderly way that God had provided in the Old Testament. Joseph was not acting independently of God; everything he did was in dependence upon God. Yet the Lord was doing a wondrous work, and ushering in the New Testament. Scripture tells us he was a just man, righteous, upright, and virtuous, observing divine laws. For Joseph to be a “just man,” he had to have had a vision of God even before the vision of the angel in his dream. Joseph had a relationship with the Lord that would cause him to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Being a just man, he did not want Mary to be subjected to public humiliation, for he loved her. Joseph did not rely on human reasoning, he waited on the Lord, and while he thought on these things, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him expanding his vision through a dream. His eyes were on the Lord, and he quickly received the word that had been spoken by the prophet. “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Joseph surrendered his own control and quickly listened to the Lord, obedient to the vision of God’s wonderful plan of salvation. “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife.”

The disclosure of the coming Messiah as this child JESUS, who would “save His people from their sins,” was the very message given so long ago, “Let My people go.” Sin and self holds each of us in captivity. Jesus came to do a wondrous work—to seek and save the lost, set us free from sin and the power of guilt, and to baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire. Our hopes and dreams may vanish before our very eyes, but God has a vision to give us of a wondrous work that He is doing in so many lives. We can trust the Lord with our future, even when our plans go awry, and fear tries to creep in. Therefore, in our worst nightmare experiences, by God’s grace and mercy, we can receive vision to see things as God sees them. This Christmas, let us wait on the Lord in trust, hope, and expectancy for the glory of His name, rather than the success of our plans.

~ Rosemary Parrotta