When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
God sometimes acts in ways so utterly new and unprecedented that we are at a loss for how respond. We recognize that our normal ways of thinking about history come up short, as if there is something behind the scenes, a missing piece, that we are unable to find. At such times we are given a choice about how we respond. We can choose faith, even when we cannot fully grasp the logical sequence of events. Or we can choose suspicion and doubt.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Joseph would have had a profound sense of the sanctity of his bride, of her utter transparency, her complete honesty. If she shared with him what she herself heard from the angel it would have seemed a fitting thing to happen to one such as herself. If she was indeed vowed to virginity from her childhood it would have made even greater sense of his role as husband and protector. Even if Mary did not share the message of the angel out of her own humility it is hard to imagine a "righteous man" jumping to conclusions and letting suspicion and doubt get the better of him.
Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
More likely than suspicion, Joseph was overwhelmed by the holiness of this situation in which he was now involved. He may well have feared to bring his own fallen human nature into the mix, that doing so would somehow taint the beautiful plans of God for Mary and her child. Righteous though he was, Joseph was not without sin. How could he, a man, hope to do anything in the face of this miraculous manifestation of God's power?
Joseph, son of David
The angel first reassured David about the importance of his own identity and therefore of the role he himself would play. He then went on to help him to understand that these events were part of a plan, the work of the Holy Spirit, a work that still left a pivotal responsibility for Joseph himself.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.
It had to be Joseph who would give the child the name made known by the angel. In doing so he conferred on Jesus the full covenantal status as Davidic heir. Because of this Jesus, as the legal son of Joseph, would also be a son of David. It was because Joseph obeyed the angel that Jesus became "the righteous shoot to David" who could then become the true king who would "reign and govern wisely and do what is just and right in the land." It was of this royal heir that Jeremiah wrote when he said that in "his days Judah shall be saved", not only from their enemies as many guessed, but even, somehow "from their sins".
Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name they give him:
“The LORD our justice.”
Israel would dwell in security because of the one who had come, and how close. In Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, was now perfectly fulfilled. His presence made it possible for us to receive justification because his own righteousness and obedience would be offered to us by faith. His own presence within our souls would make him "The LORD our justice." It was this proximity, closer to us than even we to ourselves, that would finally free us to dwell in the security for which we had always longed.
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.
Joseph could not have hoped to fulfill his role on his own strength, or in virtue of his own righteousness. It was precisely in choosing to believe, in deciding to accept God's invitation to be involved in the story of salvation, that he allowed himself to receive from the virgin and child to whom he dedicated his life anything that he himself was lacking.
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