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Christmas
Angels
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An Angel Visits Joseph about
the Virgin Mary
Bible Says an Angel Told Joseph in a Dream that He
Should Marry the Virgin Mary
by Whitney Hopler
The Christmas story story
in the Bible includes several different angelic visits, including one from
an angel who spoke to Joseph
through a dream about God's plan that he serve as the father of
Jesus Christ on Earth.
Joseph was engaged to marry a
girl named Mary, who was expecting a baby in a very unusual way -- as a virgin –
because the Holy Spirit had caused her to conceive Jesus Christ.
Mary's
pregnancy troubled Joseph so much that he considered ending their engagement
(which in his society required a divorce process to cancel an official pledge
of marriage).
But
God sent an angel to let Joseph what was going on. After hearing the angel's
message, Joseph decided to be faithful to God's plan, despite the public
humiliation he would have to face from people who thought that he and Mary had
conceived the child together before their wedding.
The Bible records in Matthew 1:18-21: "This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother
Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she
was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
“Because Joseph her husband was faithful
to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in
mind to divorce her quietly.
“But after he had considered this, an
angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do
not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is 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.'"
God
knows what people are thinking before their thoughts ever become words or
actions, and this passage shows God sending an angel to speak to Joseph after
Joseph simply had divorce "in mind" and "considered" it.
The name "Jesus" that the angel tells Joseph to give the baby
means "God is salvation."
While
some people think that the angel who came to Joseph in a dream could have been
Gabriel (the archangel who had visited Mary in a vision earlier to
inform her that she would serve as Jesus Christ's mother on Earth), the Bible
doesn't mention the angel's name.
The Bible passage continues in Mark 1:22-23: "All this took place to fulfill what
the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will conceive and give birth
to a son, and they will call him Immanuel' (which means ‘God with us’)."
The
verse that Mark 1:23 refers to is Isaiah 7:14 of the Torah.
The angel wanted to make it
clear to Joseph, a devout Jewish man, that an important prophecy from long
ago was being fulfilled through this baby's birth.
God knew that Joseph, who
loved him and wanted to do what was right, would be motivated to take on the
challenge of raising the baby once he knew that the child's birth was
fulfilling a prophecy.
The
last part of this passage, in Mark 1:23-24, shows how Joseph reacted to the
angel's message to him:
"When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had
commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their
marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus."
Joseph
took care to do everything that the angel had instructed him to do, as well as
to honor the purity of what God was accomplishing through Mary.
His integrity shows his love
for, and faithfulness to, God -- even in the midst of challenging
circumstances.
Rather than worry about
what he wanted to do or what other people thought about him, Joseph chose to
trust God and focus on what God's messenger, the angel, had told him was best.
As a result, he ultimately
experienced many blessings.
Whitney Hopler
· Professional
writer and editor since 1994, in print and online
· Communications
director for the Center for Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason
University
Experience
Whitney
Hopler is a former writer for ThoughtCo. She has served as the religion editor
for a secular newspaper chain in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, as
well as an editor at Crosswalk.com and
The Salvation Army’s national magazines. Hopler has written for a variety of
national publications. She is the communications director for the Center for the Advancement of
Well-Being at George Mason University.
Education
Hopler
graduated with honors from George Mason University, where she studied
comparative religion. She has a certification as a professional technical
communicator from the Society for Technical Communications.
Publications
· "Dream
Factory," a novel with spiritual themes
ThoughtCo
and Dotdash
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