AND THEY SHALL CALL HIM ‘EMMANUEL’
18Now the birth
of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
When his mother
Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to
be with child from the Holy Spirit.
19And her
husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to
divorce her quietly.
20But as he
considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
dream, saying,
“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. 21She will bear a son, and you shall
call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22All this took
place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23“Behold,
the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name
Immanuel”
MATTHEW
1:18-23
COMMENTARY
We don’t know
how old Mary was when the angel Gabriel announced her the conception of Lord
JESUS; but she must have been anything between 12 to 15 at the time, the usual
time for virgins to be given in marriage.
We also don’t know
exactly how old Joseph was, but he must have been a self-sustaining adult, much
older than Mary, and capable to keep a family and travel alone, as he did later
in the census, and three years later by scaping to Egypt (Matthew 2:13).
There is nothing
in the Scripture to suggest that there was anything special in these two people
before the conception, but by inference we know they were chosen before birth
for this purpose (Luke 1:15), filled with the Holy Spirit from before their
birth and therefore holy, both of them. And so, they were engaged for marriage
(betrothed).
Suddenly, Mary must
have told Joseph that she had become pregnant by divine power.
Joseph did not
believe her, so he decided to divorce her quietly, hiding her supposed guilt so
that she could not be stoned to death for adultery. If someone else had known
this before Joseph, it would not have matter for him to leave her in secret
otherwise. But apparently nobody else did, so Joseph out of mercy, decided to just
divorcer her under any excuse or change of heart, making himself looking bad,
but saving Mary’s life.
(Deuteronomy
22:22; Matthew 1:19).
ALSO, it must be
noticed here, that being the betrothal customary from 9 months to 12 months at
the time, to prove the virginity of the bride before their physical union; it
is assumed then that Joseph was probably a widower, since he took Mary while
she was pregnant, as soon as he was told by the angel she had conceived by the
HOLY SPIRIT, which was only allowed in cases when one of the partners was a divorcee
or a widow/er (1).
With this decision
taken, Joseph went to sleep, but by God’s mercy, he was told by an angel that Mary
had said the truth; and that the child in her womb was conceived by the power
of HASHEM, and that he should not worry, Mary was a virgin still and had never been
unfaithful to him. Joseph was told also that they should name the newborn child,
ישוע (YESHUA), or in Greek form here, JESUS, which means “YAH
SAVES” a short form of ‘YAHWEH SAVES”, making clear that through Him, GOD
ALMIGHTY will be saving humanity of their sins.
Thus, the faithfulness
of these two servants of God became manifested, and the words of prophet Isaiah
7:14, were fulfilled as a Messianic prophecy that day.
Omar Flores.
(1) Betrothal, Jewish Encyclopedia, 2022.
Comments
Post a Comment