“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
The story about Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, is too good to tell only at Christmas. He was an amazing example of trusting God. It’s worth thinking about him more than once a year, and today is as good a day as any.
Joseph was a good man, but he was also human, and he became very stressed in learning that Mary was already pregnant. He prayed and worried through sleepless nights, wanting to do the right thing, without exposing her to public shame.
I think everyone can relate to being a firm believer, praying about a problem, but still worrying to the point of having sleepless nights, suffering with anxiety. Joseph has been there and done all of that.
A marriage engagement in first century Judaism was permanent, a sealed betrothal which could not be broken without a legal divorce. Joseph tried to think of a way to secretly divorce Mary and send her away, to protect her reputation. Even people of faith, who regularly pray, still have a tendency to try solving a problem by their own effort, and in their own way.
That night an angel appeared to Joseph, telling him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, because the child in her womb was conceived by the Holy Spirit. It was an unheard of concept for Joseph to accept since no other time in biblical history had a virgin become pregnant by the Holy Spirit. This was a first and he didn’t fully understand it, but he trusted God, and believed the unbelievable.
Joseph was chosen for an immense honor and privilege.
The Lord and Creator of the universe entrusted His only incarnate son and Mary His mother, into the care and protection of one special man. Joseph lived in the days when protection was important, especially with the injustice and cruelty under the rule of a brutal Roman government.
So, God trusted Joseph and Joseph trusted God, which is the normal result of any close relationship. God probably asks us to trust Him, more often than we are aware of. He also trusts us with responsibilities and missions that He has asked us to do.
Like Joseph, we also struggle with trust in different areas of our lives. We learn from Joseph’s example that God calls us to trust Him now, and get the details later.
Joseph was visited twice by an angel. The first time was to assure him that Mary conceived the child in her womb by the Holy Spirit, and the second time was to warn him of imminent danger, ordering him to take his family straight to Egypt and stay there until further notice. He knew nothing of the actual details that required him to flee so quickly, which was Herod’s evil plot to have every newborn male murdered, up to the age of two.
While living in Egypt, Joseph and Mary had no support of a faith community, and had no relatives or friends living nearby. It was just Joseph, Mary, and young Jesus, trusting God together as a family.
Anyone who has ever felt like they are living outside the norm, facing a situation that is too difficult to explain, or living in a proverbial Egypt, should remember that Joseph and Mary went through the same thing. God knew every anguish that they felt from the start, and He knows everything that worries us today, even those things that we keep to ourselves.
God can surely accomplish any of His plans without our help, but He chooses to have us participate in His plans, which is evident in the life of Joseph. There is no better place to be, than in God’s will, doing what God has asked of us, even when all the details are not revealed, and Joseph shows us how trusting God will keep us on the right path.
Lord, thank you for Joseph’s life and his great example of trust. Help us to trust you as he did, even when we don’t understand the purpose or details of what is happening in our lives. Amen
