Your fiancé is pregnant, and you are not the father. One can only imagine the painful emotions one feels upon hearing that news. But this pregnancy was different. It took an angel and a vision to explain the unexplainable!

Matthew 1:24
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Today, an engagement is ended when the ring is returned, but for Mary and Joseph, the premarital pledge was binding and could only be broken by a legal divorce. Having discovered that Mary was pregnant, Joseph “resolved to divorce her quietly.” That’s when an angel appeared to convince him otherwise. She had not been unfaithful, the angel explained. Her child was “from the Holy Spirit.” The son would be named Jesus, which means “Yahweh saves.” Jesus would “save his people from their sins.”

The virgin birth is an essential doctrine of our faith. Jesus was fully-man, fully-God. As a man, he lost none of his deity. As God, he lost none of his humanness. He had to be God to become the sinless sacrifice. He had to be man to die in our place. Two thousand years later, I write those truths so matter-of-factly, but Joseph had to accept it all by faith.

Certainly, God did not choose just any woman to be the mother of his Son. Nor did he choose any man to be Jesus’ earthly father and mentor. Joseph was “a righteous man” and a man of great faith. By faith, he accepted God’s word spoken through the angel and took Mary home as his wife. Imagine the ridicule. Imagine the sneers. Imagine the judgment. Imagine the faith of Joseph! God prepared his servant. He still does.

Father, may we learn from the obedience of Joseph. We don’t have an angel delivering your message, but we have your Word. May we obey it with the radical faith of Joseph. In Jesus’ name. Amen.