Try Standing in Joseph's Sandals, Part 1

Christmas has come and gone, but it's never too late to celebrate the miraculous birth of Jesus. And today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues his brand new study in the Gospel According to Matthew. It's a series he's called The King's Arrival. In the first chapter of Matthew's book, we read the storyline of Jesus' birth with fresh eyes.

Although many of the specific details are familiar to us, Chuck will help us see the powerful back story that's not as obvious or well-known. He titled today's message, Try Standing in Joseph's Sandals. Amen.

Thanks for listening. We're reading from the Word of God today out of Matthew chapter 1, beginning at verse 18 to the end of the chapter. I'll be reading from the New Living Translation and we'll be reading the account in the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew 1, beginning at verse 18. This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph, but before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Joseph, her husband, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the betrothal quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. Joseph, son of the angel, said, Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through his prophet. Look, the virgin will conceive a child, she will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God is with us. When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife, but he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born, and Joseph named him Jesus. You're listening to Insight for Living.

To search the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scripture studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. Today's message is titled, Try Standing in Joseph's Sandals. In no wedding ceremony are all eyes on the groom.

Oh, he's there, of course, but he's not all that important. Stop and think about that. When the bride walks in, usually in the center aisle, everyone stands up and often they will applaud. When the groom walks in, everybody sits down and stares. When the bride walks down the center aisle, you will hear words among those sitting around you, oh, doesn't she look lovely? What a gorgeous gown. And look at those flowers.

I've done hundreds and hundreds of weddings. Never once have I heard anyone say, isn't he lovely? Or what a great tuxedo. Look at that flower.

How nice. You see, nobody thinks. I wonder what kind of wife or mother she will be once they marry. But let me assure you, there are always some, especially the bride's parents, who wonder what kind of husband and father he is going to be.

Isn't that funny how we are? It's not about him. It's all about the bride. I have the joy to marry one of our granddaughters to a young man who has stood the test. You know, you can marry a son and it isn't that big a thing, but when you marry your daughter or your granddaughter, it's like giving a Stradivarius violin to a gorilla.

You know, it's just something different. All of this is true regarding the groom not being all that important until you get to the birth of Jesus as recorded in Matthew's Gospel. Then all of a sudden, it isn't the bride that gets our attention, it's the groom.

Isn't that interesting? When you read the account, you realize that as you stand in his sandals and try to imagine the topsy-turvy world her words have come to you, your heart goes out to this man named Joseph. You see, he's never read Matthew 1. He doesn't know what's coming. All he knows is that for all these years, he's known this young girl who grew up to be a lovely teenager and will soon be his beloved bride until she uses the three words no fiancé ever wants to hear, I am pregnant. He couldn't believe it. Now, you are so familiar with what I read earlier for you that you read over it and you want to get on into chapter two. You know all about it.

No, no, no, no, you don't. Not until you enter into this scene do you really feel the depth of the feelings this man had. While he loved this woman dearly, he heard her say something he didn't dream he would ever hear her say until after they have consummated their marriage. And on top of that, her words are followed by her departure. Read Luke's account that is a parallel.

Talk about the importance of correlation. Read the correlating section in Luke chapter one as we read She hurried away to the hill country to be with Elizabeth. Luke 1 39 and she remained there until Elizabeth comes to term. She was six months when Mary arrived and Elizabeth reaches term and delivers John and then Mary returns three long months and there was no email. There were no cell phones.

She had no courier to send a message back and forth. All Joseph had was silence. Think of it. Complete silence for three months after the jolting announcement and the sudden departure and the lengthy absence, Joseph is left to figure it all out.

And you know what? Our admiration for Joseph will only grow as we try to walk in his sandals for these next few minutes. We will appreciate him perhaps more than never before because of his willingness to believe and to obey and to follow through with his instructions from the angel even though he would never be able to explain fully for the satisfaction of the critic how his bride became pregnant. Oh, he would hear about it intellectually. He would know the truth of it but just to this very day we cannot explain it for it's a miracle. And if you can explain it, it isn't a miracle.

It is beyond explanation and in many ways it's beyond our ability to understand. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me unscramble the custom of this day because it is so different from our custom regarding courtship, engagement and marriage. We're all familiar with what we do but understand something. We live in the 21st century. They lived in the first century. We live in a Western culture. They lived in the Mid Eastern culture. We are almost to a person Gentiles.

They are both Jewish. To us courtship leads ultimately to the altar and to marriage. To them none of the above applied.

It wasn't like that at all in their day. So force yourself for the next few minutes to set aside what you're familiar with and enter into the unfamiliar world of the first century Jewish couple who are to be married. Let's take them in three steps. First, the engagement. Unlike our culture, fathers engaged children when they were still small to be married to that little boy or to that little girl. It was an agreement that was reached between fathers. They determined this would be best and this would lead ultimately to the next phase as they grew older, the betrothal. We have no such custom in our day. There is no betrothal.

Let me explain why. The girl is usually a teenager by the time she is betrothed and the boy is usually a couple or three years older than she. It wasn't like our engagement where having fallen in love you put on a ring. It's called an engagement ring and you wear that ring and you talk about your plans for marriage and then you carry that out whether it's a few days or weeks or months. You are engaged and you are free to break off the engagement.

It happens all the time. In those days, the only way to break a betrothal was through a divorce. You understand when the couple becomes betrothed to one another, they appear before the rabbi at the synagogue, their names are recorded on the register, a public register for all to read, his name, her name, with plans in a year for there to be a marriage ceremony in that synagogue. The year passes as this couple anticipates their marriage and it is absolutely binding.

Only through a legal divorce could it be broken. You see, during this period of betrothal, she's known as his wife and he's called her husband, though they have not lived together or slept together. She's his wife, he's her husband. That explains why in verse 19 we read Joseph, her husband, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly.

Now let me explain that. There were three options because Deuteronomy very, very clearly taught that there was not to be sexual relations between the couple during the betrothal or the woman with any man or the man with any woman, other than what would ultimately be consummated at their wedding. However, if the woman, let's say, showed up pregnant, the man has three options to keep the law.

Number one would be the most severe and the most public. He would go on record that she is an adulteress and she could very well be stoned publicly for the shame she brought herself, the potential marriage, and her family. The second possibility is a quiet divorce.

Not a lot would be said about it. They would visit with the rabbi, they would explain that this has occurred, she's pregnant, the man does not want her publicly disgraced but would like to have the names removed, and legally they would be divorced in the betrothal. The third possibility is that he would ignore the teaching of the law in Deuteronomy and out of grace and forgiveness he would embrace the woman in spite of the pregnancy and take her to be his wife. Now you can understand some of the wording and some of the struggle that went on in the life of Joseph. Understand, please, how binding the betrothal period was. That is where we find this couple in Matthew chapter 1, 18 through 24, until they are married. Remember this when you read your Bible and you come to a verse like verse 20 as he considered this. That took time.

That led to a number of sleepless nights and struggling days. Because Mary, the mother of the child, betrothed to her yet-to-be husband, though she's called wife and he's called husband, before the marriage ceremony took place, we read while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant. How? Read it for yourself at the end of verse 18. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, that's as close as I can get.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, implanted in the womb of Mary is the embryo that would ultimately nine months later become the promised Messiah. He loves this young woman. He's known her since they were children. They've talked together about the importance of faithfulness, never allowing unfaithfulness to break the bond. So he is in the midst of all of this when she breaks the news to him and he begins to consider this, which is my point of staying at verse 20 and asking you to take your time. Because he is now exhausted in the struggle. What should I do?

What is best? You know what's interesting in the whole story of the birth of our Savior? Grandparents are never mentioned. Very unusual, isn't it?

Especially among people who placed great emphasis on heritage and gave great respect to those who were older, especially older parents. But they're never mentioned. You wonder what their reaction might have been? And I know we're only left with speculation.

We can only imagine. All of this is occurring as Joseph falls in bed, exhausted, alone, still alone, and his night is interrupted with a nocturnal revelation. You see, in the days before the Bible was completed, God revealed his will in various ways, sometime through an audible voice, sometime in a vision during the day, or in a dream during the night. And God would reveal his will sometime by using an angel as a messenger, as in this case, as in the case of Mary, you remember, from Luke 1, when the angel came and told her she would be with child and she said, How can this be since I'm a parthenos? I'm a woman who's never known a man intimately.

How can this be? The Holy Spirit will come upon you and will overshadow you. Episkeiazo, meaning cover over, to bring a shade over you or to overwhelm you. A very vague term, it seems.

Schia means shade or cover, and epi means over. He will cover over you. Somehow, the Spirit of God, because the Lord God made your womb, he will visit that womb with an embryo. And for the first time in all of time, God will take on lungs and lips and lymph nodes, a head, a heart, hands and feet, arms, legs, the organs of a human body, including the brain, the nervous system, the spine, the whole humanity that will become his. Never before was there ever such a one as the God-man, hyphenated, until this one is conceived. Understand, the birth was not miraculous. The conception was miraculous. The birth is normal. Nine months after the miraculous conception where she is pregnant without ever having known a man, she goes full term and then delivers her baby as any other Jewish woman or any other woman of that day would deliver her infant. But that conception, that was the sticking point.

That was the struggling point. And I'm sure as any man would do who would hear such words of explanation as this from his bride-to-be and then she departs quickly and won't return until she has almost begun to show and certainly would have shown shortly after they married since she was gone a full three months. All of this turning over in his mind and he struggles with what to do.

Now then, look for yourself. Look at the words of the angel that appears in the dream. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. Joseph son of David, the angel said, first, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Why would he begin like that?

Because in his own imagination there were a number of things he would have to set aside. Knowing what the future would hold in a small town as they married, let's say immediately after she returns, after six months of marriage, there's a child born. And the wagging tongues that would accompany that. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. It's a very, very difficult assignment because Joseph only has the words of the angel to go on.

So he explains why there's no reason to be afraid. And the angel verifies what Mary had said. The child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. That alone would cause him fear.

Do you know why? I learned in my study that when Jewish couples married and they had their firstborn and he was a son, he would always be named for the father, unless he was illegitimate. So Joseph is being told, if you don't name him after yourself, you have nothing to do with his conception. You name him Jesus, for he is the promised one who will save his people from their sins, putting further distance between him and the conception. Nevertheless, he is to serve, if you will, as a surrogate father, or whatever name you may choose to call Joseph.

He is not the father. The voice you hear belongs to Chuck Swindoll, our Bible teacher on Insight for Living. He's teaching from the first chapter of Matthew in a message titled, Try Standing in Joseph's Sandals. To learn more about Chuck Swindoll or this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org.

Matthew, the New Testament writer, tells the story of Israel's king, from his arrival in Bethlehem through his earthly ministry, all the way to the Great Commission, in which he commanded us to make disciples around the world. In order to make the most of this brand new teaching series from Chuck, you may want to secure Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Matthew. The commentary comes in two hardbound volumes, and they're written in a style that's easy to understand, and the format is simple to navigate. Chuck's deep insight, conversational style, and humor bring a warmth and accessibility rarely found in commentaries. These are excellent reference books that belong in the library of anyone who's a student of the Bible.

You'll be pulling them off the shelf and looking up information for many years to come. So to purchase Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Matthew, go to insight.org slash store. If you prefer, you can call us.

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Or you can give online at insight.org. Music I'm Dave Smicher inviting you to listen Thursday when Chuck Swindoll invites us to Try Standing in Joseph's Sandals here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Try Standing in Joseph's Sandals, was copyrighted in 2014 and 2021. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2021 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited. Music