Read Matthew 1:24-25
It’s not always easy to obey, is it? Sometimes your parents ask you to do something that you really don’t want to do. Or your teacher asks you to do something you don’t want to do, or your boss at work. Doing the right thing and the best thing is not always easy.
Joseph understood. He did the right thing. Joseph obeyed what God said to him through the angel. He believed what God said. Joseph continued to honor his wife by taking her home to be his wife. And just as God said, she had a son. Joseph named him Jesus. He trusted that God’s promise would come true through his son, so he gave him the name the angel told him.
Joseph’s obedience was difficult but it was also simple. God had commanded him through the angel to take Mary home as his wife and he did. God doesn’t give commands through angels today. But he does give commands through his Word. The reason it is called God’s Word is that the Bible is how God speaks to us today.
Joseph’s example for us is an example of obedience. It’s an example for us that we need to spend time in God’s Word listening to God to learn what he has to teach us and obey what he is teaching us. Our obedience is to God and to the people he has placed in our lives that he calls us to obey, whether it is a parent, an employer, a boss, or an officer of the law. Obedience glorifies God and allows God to carry out his plan in the world and in our lives, just as he did with Joseph and Mary.
I Commend Joy! 