December 24th: A Good Man

Joseph's Visit

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. 19 Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement[h] quietly.

20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus,[i] for he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!

    She will give birth to a son,

and they will call him Immanuel,[j]

    which means ‘God is with us.’”

24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.

Joseph of Nazareth was a carpenter.  Every day of his life, he would use his hands to shape and form something as rough and as hardened as wood into something useful or beautiful and new.  

Joseph was a good man.  That’s all we really know about him.  He was a carpenter and he was a good man, and he did what the Lord asked of him rather than what people expected from him.

When Mary became pregnant with the Son of God, people would not understand it.  They would look down on her and judge her as a woman without wisdom or worth.  They would give Joseph the option of running Mary out of town or even killing her for being pregnant with a child without being married.  Things could have turned out very, very badly for Mary…but Joseph was a good man.

Joseph was good and he listened to God.  He cared more for Mary and what God wanted than he did about his own pride and what people thought of him.  You see, before Mary could do her part in God’s plan to rescue the world, Joseph first had to rescue her.

And that is what Joseph did.  He rescued Mary from shame and death and gave her his name and his protection.  He married her and gave her the home,love and support she would need to get through the challenges ahead.

And just like he formed the wood in his workshop, Joseph would play a huge role in forming the life of Jesus. Everything that Jesus would learn about being a man, he would learn from his earthly father Joseph. Joseph was there behind the scenes, loving Jesus and helping to form him into the man that God would use to rescue His people.

Choosing to do the right thing is not always easy, but it is always the best thing. Choosing kindness over cruelty is always the right thing.  Choosing to listen instead of judging is always the right thing.  Choosing to help those who are helpless is always the right thing.  Choosing God’s way over our own pride is always the right thing.  Jesus would be the Son of God by birth and the son of a carpenter by the goodness of Joseph.  

Today may we each choose God’s way over our own way, just like Joseph.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are some of the things that we read in this story that were good about Joseph?

2. Why do you think God chose a simple carpenter from a small town to be the earthly father of Jesus?

Family Activity:  Color your ornaments for day 24 (the hammer and the saw). Tonight, in the midst of excitement about gifts and things to come tonight, take time to love, and like Joseph, be good to one another.

Prayer for the World: Pray for the redemption of the Princely People who live in six small, rural communities about two hours from our (Josh and Betty’s) home.  Over the past two years roughly 100 of them have heard the full Gospel story from our team.