17 Jun 2014

Matthew 1:18-25

Posted by joncooper

Matthew 1:18: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.”

Matthew focuses on Joseph’s part of the story, whereas Luke focus on Mary’s part. Together we get both perspectives.

Matthew 1:20: “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”

I don’t know what Mary told Joseph, but he obviously believed that she had been sleeping around; hence his decision to divorce her. (Although they weren’t married, the engagements they had in those days were quite strict, and one essentially had to get divorced in order to get out of the relationship.) However, God intervened and sent an angel to explain to Joseph what was going on. God actually used angels quite a bit throughout the life of Christ; they seem to crop up fairly often. It’s interesting to note that at this point in history, instead of speaking through prophets (as was usually done in the Old Testament), He spoke through angels and visions instead.

Matthew 1:23: “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”

People have argued about whether the word “virgin” in Isaiah actually meant virgin or just meant young woman. However, there can be no doubt that the word here, in Greek, really does mean virgin and cannot possibly mean anything else. The Virgin Birth is critical to the gospel, because that is how Christ was able to be born without sin. It is a vital doctrine. You cannot discard it without discarding the entire gospel as well. If Christ was not born of a virgin then He was born in sin, and if He was born in sin then His death could not save anyone. His death could only pay the ransom for our sins if He had no sins of His own – and that requires the virgin birth.

Matthew 1:24: “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:”

Joseph did exactly as God told him to do, even though he surely knew what people would think and say. He really was a just man. It took a lot of guts to do this, but he did it.

Matthew 1:25: “And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.”

Notice that the passage says that Jospeh knew her not until Jesus was born. That clearly implies that he did consummate his marriage with her after Jesus was born. We know this is the case because later verses speak of other brothers of Jesus, such as James. Catholics may try to argue that Mary stayed a virgin all her life and never had any other children, but the Bible does not support that idea at all.

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