Title: The Real Master of Dreams, Joseph
The real master of dreams, Joseph
“Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Judea, he was afraid to go there. As he was instructed in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee and came to a town called Nazareth. so that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets, that he shall be called a Nazarene” (Matthew 2:21-23).
Often, Jacob's favorite son, Joseph, is portrayed as a dreamer, but the price of real dreams is different. Coincidentally, they have the same name, and it seems that they even went down to Egypt to avoid danger. This is Joseph, the physical father of Jesus.
First, when he heard that his fianc e, Mary, was pregnant, he wanted to quit quietly, but an angel who appeared in a dream revealed that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit to save his people from sin. When Herod was about to kill the baby Jesus, who had come as king, he was told in a dream to flee to Egypt. And after Herod the Great died, he had a dream to return to Israel.
In the text, when he heard that Archelaus, who became king after Herod, was more cruel, he was afraid. Joseph of Genesis had only two dreams that God had given him, but Joseph of Matthew had four times that dream. A true representative of the dreamer.
Also, instead of the apocalyptic symbolism of the first Joseph's dream, we receive very specific instructions. On all four occasions, an angel appeared and told them God's detailed plans in the common language. There was no need to think about what the dream meant. All I had to do was follow the instructions.
How does the text explain the reason for receiving such specific instructions? It is said, “To fulfill the word spoken by the prophet.” It means that history will proceed as God had already foretold through the prophets a long time ago. It was not just about protecting and guiding an individual.
It means that he wants to rescue the baby boy Jesus from Satan's demons and turn him into a young rabbi. He will soon save the poor man who is drowning in the swamp of sin, Satan, and death. It was the eternal redemption plan that was implemented only once in history and was sufficient. Not for Joseph's personal safety, but by the blood of your only begotten Son you will sanctify us all in sin. There shouldn't have been an inch of error. A vague revelation, such as an apocalyptic dream, could easily be misunderstood by Joseph.
And unlike the first Joseph's dream that would come true decades later, it was imminent, so we had to teach him exactly. It was not an order to reveal with an ambiguous symbol. When Mary became pregnant for the first time, she fully realized that the baby was the one who would save the people from their sins. The next three dreams were also meant to protect the Savior from the imminent danger that could take his life.
There are quite a few dream stories in the Bible, but all of them needed interpretation, whereas his four dreams did not need to be. All the angels appeared there. It means that God had a special reason to do that to him alone. He had him directly listen to specific instructions, and he made sure to follow them. As the Bible says, Joseph actually did what he dreamed of, and all of them are historical facts.
In other words, these four dreams were intended to serve as the most convincing evidence of the virgin birth of Jesus in future generations. Of course, the only witnesses to the fact that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit are Mary and Joseph. No one but these two can prove it.
But what if there was only Mary's confession in the Bible? Was she the only one praised as a person of faith? no. It would have produced the exact opposite result. No one could believe it, so it might have become a joke. Even now, Hossagna and anti-Christians claim that they gave birth to illegitimate children without fathers, but it would only lead to support for such claims.
The decisive witness of the virgin birth is Joseph rather than Mary. Only how he testifies will determine his veracity. If Joseph had violated the Jewish custom of the time and gave birth to a premarital pregnancy within the time of the betrothal, or if Mary had committed any infidelity, he would not have dared to say anything out of shame.
Also, as a Jew who thoroughly believes and practices the Ten Commandments not to take the name of God in vain, it is never easy to create a story that an angel had a dream. You can never say that you have been instructed by God in a very specific way four times that has never happened. Furthermore, what is the content of the first dream? If it's not true, isn't it a story about premarital infidelity, which of course requires you to be stoned to death as a law? You can never make up God's name until you sell it.
No matter how noble he was, and even if he had received an angelic vision in a dream, he would not have fully believed the story of his fiancee, Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit. But what would happen if you dreamed of fleeing to Egypt to escape the dangers of Herod, dreaming of returning to Israel after Herod the Great died, and dreaming that Nazareth is safer than Jerusalem? The truth of the virgin birth dream was guaranteed by God three times. In your name. Now, for Joseph, he was able to testify to that fact openly to anyone.
Moreover, while living together as a married couple, she must have come to realize that Mara is a virtuous and faithful person who is absolutely not someone to lie. You must have been often surprised by the extraordinaryness the baby Jesus showed as he grew up. There would have been less and less room for doubting the truth of the dream. No, in reality, the dream has come true, so all doubts must have completely disappeared.
When the Gospels were written, that is, when the authors were collecting facts about Jesus, it was already after the Lord's resurrection and ascension into heaven. The salvation of Jesus was imprinted as an eternal truth to the believers of his day, and the many miracles of the Lord were imprinted on the people of his time as historical truth. Above all, contemporaries will immediately notice if the acts of Jacob and Jesus were recorded falsely. In other words, God made him have a specific dream four times, taking into account all the absurd resistance and criticism of contemporaries and later humans for the virgin birth.
No, those who rejected Jesus to the end were out of your interest anyway. He is not a God who is weak enough to have to speak to the world. This is to make believers fully aware of how solid the basis of their faith is and that all of your history is filled with amazing and mysterious grace. Only by knowing more about Him can our faith be strengthened together. In short, it means that we can overcome any hardships only with the spiritual discernment that can measure everything with Him as the center, not with the willful determination or belief of the believer.
8/22/2011