2016/05/02

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Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Reading for the Day: Mathew 1-3

So I finally did some daily reading today while on my lunch break, and i got to say it was EXTREMELY refreshing. The way the word of God washes over all situations and discomforts in life is amazing and if you have never experienced it I recommend that you open your hearts and your minds and give it a shot!

I read 3 chapters in Mathew today, I realized that I have never read through all of the 4 gospels (Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John) so I decided to start back at the beginning of them (again...).

Mathew 1:

Mathew 1 is a chapter I feel many would just skip through...I know this....because I have. It is so easy to gloss over this chapter because the majority of it goes through Jesus's genealogy. If your anything like me you read the first few names...stop...ask yourself "Did i pronounce that right?"...and then skip to the bottom.

The person I want to focus on in this chapter is Joseph. Let us assume he as been with Mary for sometime now, I get this from the verse:

19 And her [promised] husband Joseph, being a 
just and upright man and not willing to expose 
her publicly and to shame and disgrace her, 
decided to repudiate and dismiss (divorce) 
her quietly and secretly.

This verse tells us that Joseph and Mary were somewhat familiar with each other before she became pregnant with our savior Jesus. To me that is what makes this more powerful. Joseph having been promised to Mary as her husband discovered one day that she was pregnant. The things Joseph could have done would have ruined Mary's life, but he didn't. Even while trying to leave her he wanted to do it quietly so that none would know, he was trying to protect her. This man who thought his soon to be wife was cheating on him was still more concerned for her then getting "right" that he was doing things with the utmost care.

This speaks volumes to me because how many men today would take the opportunity to shame, disgrace, and hang the dirty laundry out for all to see when their wife-to-be or wife would do something wrong? To often we see men who instead of protecting and leading their families, look to create distractions from their own wrongdoings.

As men we are called to lead and guide those in our households to a closer relationship with Jesus. We do this by example. Any "man" can memorize bible verses and recite them to their family when they do wrong, but how many men will take those verses and then apply them to their lives. Follow me to chapter 2.

Mathew 2:

I'm going to focus on Joseph again in this chapter. Here we have the King Herod constantly trying to kill Jesus the Messiah, though always unsuccessful.

We see examples of the 3 wise men coming to Jesus and delivering gifts, afterwards running away from Herod as to protect Jesus. So then where does Joseph come in? 2 times in this chapter we see examples where God spoke to Joseph and gave him specific instructions on what to do to protect his family. He had to listen to God.

13 Now after they had gone, behold, an angel of the 
Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Get up! 
[Tenderly] take unto you the young Child and His mother 
and flee to Egypt; and remain there till I tell you [otherwise], 
for Herod intends to search for the Child in order to destroy him.

I like this because it shows the trust Joseph had in the Lord. The verse does not say the Lord told Joseph what was happening or why he had to do what He was saying. The Lord spoke, Joseph obeyed, it was that easy. Joseph knew that the Lord knew best and in order to protect his family he trusted in what He said. 

I feel so many times these days we are so focused on seeing everything that we miss what is important. At any time if Joseph focused on what was not being said by the Lord he would have missed the importance of what was said.

I was going to go into chapter 3 but I may have to save that for another day, as I am out of time.