TUESDAY 22nd
Matthew 1:18-25
(v21) ‘She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’
I wonder if you are one of those who dreams a lot, I am, I do not mean daydream, but actually dream while asleep. I often do, and I will wake up wondering if something has happened until I come to my senses and realise it was a dream.
Joseph was in a bit of a predicament, Mary who he was betrothed to was pregnant, and it caused him to be concerned because he had not slept with her, Joseph was a man who lived a just life, he lived as it were by ‘the book’ and so he resolved to divorce her, break off the engagement. In those days, the engagement was a commitment to marriage, it was legally binding.
It was while he was in this dilemma and contemplating his choices, that Joseph had a dream, and what a dream, for firstly the angel Gabriel appeared to him, then Gabriel began to speak to him, and what a message, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’
Joseph woke up and you can imagine him thinking to himself, ‘phew, that’s good news, at least Mary hasn’t been unfaithful, at least I can still marry her, she is the girl of my dreams’. But then the penny really drops, as fantastic as the news of her faithfulness was to him, there was the even greater news as to how she was pregnant (by the Holy Spirit) and why she was pregnant, (to bear a son who would be the Saviour of the world). And Joseph took Mary to be his wife and knew her not (they had no sexual relationship) until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.
He was in a dilemma, he had a dream, he was directed by the angel, his heart was full of delight and a baby was delivered, Jesus the Saviour of the world and the direction that this child born would take would eventually lead him to the Cross, where he would die to become the Saviour of the world.
Some of my dreams are okay dreams, but there are times when they are not, when it came to Joseph’s dream it was more than a good dream, it was a real dream, it spoke into his present circumstances and required his obedience to follow through the instruction and enlightenment from the angel.
I don’t see any reason why the Lord cannot speak to us in dreams today, in fact on the day of Pentecost Peter echoing the words of Joel said, ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams’ (Acts 2:17) but there are other ways in which God can speak to us, through his Word, through the preaching of his Word, through the prophetic and even by a still small voice within our hearts, what is required of us is to follow Joseph’s example and to act in obedience, for just as the extraordinary was about to happen for Joseph and Mary, so through us, through you and me as we are obedient to the voice of God the extraordinary can happen today.
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
‘Round yon virgin Mother and Child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight!
Glories stream from heaven afar;
Heavenly hosts sing Al-le-lu-ia!
Christ the Saviour is born!
Christ the Saviour is born!
Silent night, holy night
Son of God, oh, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth
Jesus, Lord at Thy birth