Title: Yeshua, the name of Immanuel
Yeshua, the name of Emmanuel
December 4, 2010 Tel Aviv Joppa Church
Text: Matthew 1:18-25
Last week, we talked about Jesus being conceived by the Holy Spirit through Mary. Today is the Gospel of Matthew, and the text testifies to Joseph's obedience. In the Gospel of Luke last week, we saw that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came through Mary, who gave a beautiful obedience that surpassed our own understanding, logic, common sense, and experience. Likewise, his fianc e, Joseph, gives such beautiful obedience. In verse 18 it says, 'Before Mary was betrothed to Joseph, and before they lived together, it was found that Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit'. It takes about one year. Then, when they sleep together, a formal marriage is established. So, to say that Mary was betrothed to Joseph and before they lived together means that it happened during the post-betrothal period, the period before formal marriage.
How does Joseph react when he finds out about this? According to the custom at the time, if they were engaged, they were recognized as the wife and husband of the betrothed, although not yet officially married. This is the reason why it is said at the beginning of verse 19, ‘Joseph his husband’. Although they had not yet entered into a formal marital relationship and completed their marriage, the engagement itself had the legal effect of husband and wife.
Therefore, having a child other than her fianc e did not end in breaking the marriage, but was a crime of betrayal of fidelity to her husband, so she had to be stoned to death according to the law. This was the standard standard at the time, and it was legal according to the words of the Old Testament.
But Joseph did not do that. Verse 19 says:
“His husband, Joseph, was a righteous man, and when he thought about this, he wanted to cut off her secretly… ”
He found out that his fianc e, Maria, was pregnant, but did not reveal it. In other words, they tried to break up the marriage for other reasons while keeping it a secret. What we need to pay attention to here is this part of the expression ‘Joseph was a righteous man’.
The word righteous is zadik in Hebrew.