What Joseph Does Next

Matthew begins this part of the story with the marriage still ahead of them. Mary was pledged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child. The account identifies the pregnancy as being through the Holy Spirit. Joseph’s knowledge of it, and what he would do next, enter the story separately.

He was a righteous man and unwilling to disgrace her publicly. He resolved to divorce her quietly. Those two things stand together in the account: his unwillingness to expose her and his decision to end the marriage. The quietness of his plan did not make it a plan to stay.

Mary is not given a speech here. Matthew does not record an explanation she offered Joseph or a conversation in which they settled what to do. He tells us what Joseph considered. For this stretch of her story, the decision about their life together is being weighed on the other side of a silence the account does not fill.

Joseph pondered these things. His resolution had been made, but he had not yet carried it out when an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. The message began with his name and his place in David’s family. It addressed the very thing he had decided against.

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

The angel told him to embrace Mary as his wife. The pregnancy that had occasioned his decision to leave was now explained within the command to stay. He was also given something to do when the child was born. The name was already chosen, and Joseph was to give it to Him.

Matthew places the prophet’s words beside the dream: “Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel”. He explains the name as “God with us”. He presents what is happening to Mary as the fulfillment of what the Lord had said through the prophet.

Joseph woke, and the next thing recorded is his obedience. He did as the angel had commanded and embraced Mary as his wife. The account does not pause over a second period of deliberation. The man who had resolved to divorce her now acted on a different instruction.

What Mary heard about the dream is not recorded. There is no account of Joseph repeating its words to her, and no answer from her to set beside his waking. What Matthew gives her story is the action itself: Joseph embraced her as his wife. The separation he had intended did not take place.

He had no union with her until she gave birth to a Son. Matthew carries the account forward to that birth and records that Joseph gave Him the name Jesus. The instruction spoken in the dream became something Joseph did. The promised child was named as he had been told.

Luke will tell the journey and the birth at greater length. Before the child is laid down to sleep, Mary and Joseph must leave Nazareth for the town of David’s family. Joseph has accepted Mary as his wife; now a decree from Caesar Augustus will require a journey while she is expecting. Their next road leads to Bethlehem.