There are two people called Joseph who have important roles in the Bible. The first is the son of the patriarch Jacob and his amazing story has several chapters devoted to it in the book of Genesis. The second is the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus. This Joseph wasn't actually Jesus' father, because Mary was still a virgin when Jesus was born, but he effectively adopted Jesus into his family, which gave the boy legal status in Joseph's tribe. Mary's husband, it might be thought, is very important in the story of Jesus' childhood, which is true; however, he's given only a few verses. That being said, we do know quite a lot about him.
Joseph was a Jew, a member of the tribe of Judah (Luke's Gospel, chapter 3, verses 23 - 33), which was by far the largest Isrealite tribe at the time. He lived in Nazareth, in Galilee (Luke 2:4), the northern territory of ancient Israel, where he was a carpenter or related type of craftsman (Matthew's Gospel, chapter 13, verse 55). When the New Testament story starts, we find him engaged to a young lady called Mary (Luke 1:26,27 ) who, unsurprisingly, was a virgin. As far as we are aware, life was going well and they were looking forward to their forthcoming wedding. Then, suddenly, Mary says that she's going to stay for a while with her cousin Elizabeth in Judea, down south near the capital city, Jerusalem (Luke 1:39,40). Elizabeth was pregnant, so that's understandable. However, when Mary comes back, three months later, it's clear that she isn't quite what she used to be.
It turned out, of course, that Mary was pregnant. Now in that society, being engaged was a pretty definite thing. You couldn't go around trying out other partners in the meantime. That was almost adultery - and adultery carried a maximum penalty of death. Joseph was, of course, very upset that Mary had cheated on him. Moreover, she was lying through her teeth about it. There's only one way to get pregnant and she was adamant that she was still a virgin. There was this story she had made up about an angel saying that the baby had been conceived because the Holy Spirit had overshadowed her. What does that mean? He couldn't get his head around it. It was all clearly Mary trying to avoid getting into trouble.
So Joseph decided to break off the engagement, but to do it quietly, to ensure that Mary didn't get into trouble (Matthew 1:18,19). This is the first time that we learn something about Joseph's character: he was a good, kind and righteous man. He could easily have reported her and made her life very difficult, as many other men would have done, but he swallowed his pride and probably actually still loved Mary as well. God, though, had other ideas. He had in fact told Mary that the child she was bearing had been conceived by the Holy Spirit and was the Son of God (Luke 1:35); she had also been told to call him Jesus (Luke 1:30,31). So, because Joseph, understandably, didn't believe her, God repeated this to him in a dream (Matthew 1:20,21). After this he took Mary home as his wife, but they didn't lie together as husband and wife until after the baby had been born (Matthew 1:24,25).
Joseph seems to have been someone who was open to hear from God, recognize when he had, and then obey even when what he had been told was difficult. Of course, he was presumably pleased to find out that Mary had been faithful after all and over the moon that they could still marry. However, not everyone was going to go along with their story.
Joseph is a great example of a man whom God saw as trustworthy and so could entrust him with the care of what meant most to him - even his own Son.
The next we hear is that because of a Roman census, Joseph had to go to Bethlehem with his wife, although it seems that they had kept the marriage quiet and possibly had the ceremony later (Luke 2:1-5). She was just about due with Jesus, so it wouldn't have been a comfortable journey, and when they arrived there was nowhere to stay, so they ended up outside overnight, perhaps in a stable. The baby decided arrive then and so was put in a manger to sleep (Luke 2:6,7). Some angels turned up and sent shepherds to confirm that Jesus was the Son of God (Luke 2:15-20), which was probably particularly reassuring for Joseph, because Mary had already had an angelic encounter, whereas Joseph had had to rely on a dream. However, Joseph was now starting to get a better idea of the unconventional life that he had agreed to by marrying Mary.
Joseph had Jesus circumcised on the eighth day (Luke 2:21), as normal, and also followed the custom of taking the boy to the Temple in Jerusalem when he was 40 days old (Luke 2:22-24). There they met a couple of prophets who where overjoyed to recognize the baby Messiah (Luke 2:25-38), but one of them had a rather tough message for Mary in particular. Life settled down after that though. It seems that they may have made a trip back to Narazeth (Luke 2:39), but then started a new life in Bethlehem, where Joseph must have continued his trade as a carpenter. Things perhaps weren't so bad after all with having responsibility for bringing up the Son of God. But then, one day near Jesus' second birthday, some Persian wise men turned up at the door saying that they had been given a sign in the sky and had come to worship the King of the Jews, having been sent on there from Jerusalem (Matthew 2:1-12). That's all very nice, but that night an angel woke Joseph up and told him to take his wife and Jesus to Egypt - now! King Herod was going to send men to find Jesus and kill him (Matthew 2:13).
So off they dashed, through the desert (Matthew 2:14,15), with whatever they could carry with them, to start another new life in a country whose language they probably couldn't speak and maybe not understand much of either. We don't know how long they were there, a few months to a few years, but after Herod had died, an angel told Joseph, in yet another dream, to take his family back to Israel (Matthew 2:19,20). A further dream pointed them on through Judea and Samaria up to Galilee in the north (Matthew 2:21-23). So Joseph and Mary returned home and he presumably took up workworking there again.
The last we know of Joseph is that he took the family regularly to the Temple for feasts (Luke 2:41). When Jesus was 12 years old, they went to the Passover in Jerusalem and after it was over Joseph and Mary didn't realize that Jesus hadn't joined the party until they had been walking north to Galilee for a day. Then Joseph took Mary back and they searched Jerusalem for three days before they found Jesus, safe and well, in the Temple (Luke 2:42-52). After that we know nothing of Joseph. Once Jesus has become an adult, we hear of Mary and her other children, but Joseph is nowhere to be seen, the implication being that he had died by the time Jesus was in his early 30s.
Joseph was a good, kind man, who listened to God and obeyed immediately and unquestioningly, even though much of what he was told to do was not easy. He must have been accused of sexual immorality with Mary before they were married by those who didn't understand, but took that on the chin. His life was disrupted by several enforced relocations and he had the responsibility of looking after the young Messiah, who came as part of the package with Mary. Losing him for five days have been highly traumatic. The untold story is how he also acted as a parent and male role model to Jesus. His Heavenly Father must have decided that Joseph was the best person for that task, which speaks implicitly of his impeccable character and great love for God. Let's learn from his life the great blessings and benefits of presenting ourselves to God as someone that he can trust at all times.
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