Trust in the Lord and Lean Not to Thine Own Understanding

TRUST IN THE LORD AND LEAN NOT TO

THINE OWN UNDERSTANDING

Mount Hope UMC

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Matthew 1:18-25 New Living Translation (NLT)

The Birth of Jesus the Messiah

¹⁸ This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement^[a] quietly.

²⁰ As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus,^[b] for he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
    She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,^[c]
    which means ‘God is with us.’”

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

            Our text in Matthew this morning tells us the story of the birth of Jesus and it starts in the first paragraph with Joseph discovering that the girl he is engaged to is pregnant and he knows it is not his child.  As any man who is trying to save face, he finds himself in an embarrassing situation and, not wanting to cause a big stink and lose face with this family and friends, Joseph decides to quietly end the engagement.  But see, here’s the thing that I always ask…What did Joseph know and when did he know it?  How did Joseph find out Mary was pregnant and when did he find out?  Was it before or after her visit to her relative Elizabeth?  In my way of thinking (and I, perhaps, think differently than most), her family either told him or he found out when her “baby bump” was too big to ignore.  Either way, he wanted to save his reputation, and to some extent hers.  At least that is what the Bible says he wanted to do.

            Again, in my way of thinking, if he quietly walked away from the engagement, this would not have in any way protected Mary.  Her reputation would have been ruined and she would have faced the scorn of her family and the townspeople where she lived.  She would have been like the Samaritan woman.  And Joseph would have been the laughingstock of the town.

            See, in those days, when a man was betrothed to a virgin, that was a most excellent wife.  One he could boast about and be proud to be with.  And when he was ready to claim his bride, he brought his entire family and friends to the bride’s house to take her back to his father’s house where they would live in an attached dwelling he would have built and prepared for her arrival.  Then the family and friends would have a big celebration and when the newly married couple went to the marriage bed, a contingent from the groom’s family would come and check the bedsheets to confirm that the bride was, in fact, a virgin. They would take the bedsheet and show it to the other family and friends.

            Joseph would have been embarrassed in front of all his family and friends because he had been tricked into marrying a girl who was damaged goods.  So, while he wanted to avoid any notoriety for himself or Mary, quietly divorcing her in the long run would have been more embarrassing.  Then there is the premise that Joseph may not have wanted someone that he may have felt had been unfaithful even before the marriage had taken place.  If he went ahead with the marriage, he would always be wondering who his wife might play around with while he’s not around.  The last conclusion that we could draw is that perhaps Joseph felt that Mary really favored someone other than him, so his righteous ego was bruised.

         But God intervenes before Joseph could ruin his divine plan that he had set in motion from the time Adam and Eve sinned.  He told them in Genesis 3:15 (NLT), “ And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.  He will strike^[a] your head, and you will strike his heel.”  This is the first instance in the Bible of the promise of a Savior.  The conqueror from the seed of the woman, who should crush the serpent’s head is Christ; the woman at enmity with the serpent is Mary.  See, God had a back-up plan from the beginning of time, just in case something went wrong.

 

            Just like there was a back-up plan regarding Adam and Eve, there is one for us, too.  He knows our weaknesses, but he also knows our struggles and he knows our potential and our purpose.  He just nudges us in the right direction from time-to-time if we are open to receive his instruction.

 

            Joseph was open.  As we read, while Joseph was pondering his situation and the options he might choose from God sent an angel in a dream to tell him not to take any of the actions he had been thinking about – Precious memories, how they linger, how they ever flood my soul; in the stillness of the midnight precious, sacred scenes unfold.  How many of you know that it is in the midnight hour, when you are resting and asleep that you are most vulnerable for spiritual attack?  Yes.  That’s why the angel waited until Joseph was asleep and appeared in a dream.  Have you ever had religious dreams?  The angel addresses Joseph as the son of David.  See this is why God sent the angel in a dream to set Joseph up as the earthly father of Jesus.  Jesus had to come through the lineage God had established from the beginning of time.  He had to come from the root of Jesse and David.  He couldn’t come from Mary’s lineage, it had to be Joseph’s.  Oh, this is some good stuff folk.  I don’t know if you’re getting this, but this is some good stuff.  God worked that thing out, didn’t he?

 

The angel tells Joseph not to divorce Mary because the child she is carrying is from the Holy Ghost and it will be a son who he will name Jesus, and he is the long awaited Savior they have been looking for.  If Joseph divorced Mary, Jesus would not be able to trace his lineage back to the promise made to Adam and Eve after they had sinned.  And He is a man that cannot lie and he will do just what he said he would do.  Can I get an Amen?

 

            Now, you may be asking yourself about this part because the Comforter, the Holy Spirit didn’t come and indwell in us until Jesus was resurrected.  Jesus promised in John 16:7 (AMP), “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him (the Holy Spirit) to you [to be in close fellowship with you]. “

 

But my Bible tells me that the Holy Spirit existed in heaven with God and Jesus before the world was made.  But did the Jews know about the Comforter?  Well, in Genesis 1:1-2, the Word says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”  That affirms for me that the Old Testament prophets and others knew of the Holy Spirit.

            The angel tells Joseph what to name the child who was to be a son.  The angel further tells Joseph that he is to be called Jesus in fulfillment of the Scripture that says a virgin will conceive a child and give birth to a son and his name shall be Immanuel which means “God is with us.”  The name Jesus is derived from the Hebrew name Yeshua which is based on the Semitic root word meaning “to deliver or rescue”.  The angel is announcing that the deliverer is to born to save his people, the Jews and that Mary is the incubator through which he will come and that Joseph must raise the child as his own because he is the fulfillment of the promise God made to the Jews.

            Joseph trusted God.  He didn’t understand it.  He couldn’t comprehend it and he didn’t know why God wanted him to be the covering for this child who was to be his deliverer and same him from his sins and the sin of the world.

            Joseph didn’t lean to his own understanding.  Although he didn’t know how all this was going to work out, he put his faith in God and married Mary and when her time had come and she delivered a son, Joseph named him Jesus.  It is Jewish custom to name a child after a deceased relative.  Joseph had a lot of explaining to do with his family - and probably Mary’s too, for naming the child Jesus – Yeshua.

            How many of us can honestly attest that we trust God with all our hearts and we don’t lean to our own understanding but in all our ways we acknowledge him and allow him to direct our paths?  Can we trust God even when we don’t understand why?  Do we trust him enough to suffer scorn and questions from our family and friends for taking actions that don’t align with their way of living – an decision that might result in being disowned or exiled?

            Have you ever experienced being compelled to do something that was totally against your normal way of acting or being?  Have you ever felt that your spirit was being drawn to certain people and you just couldn’t understand what it was about those folk that drew you to them, but after establishing relationship with them it was as if you were so close in  your attitudes and mannerisms you could finish each other’s sentences or that you could reach others’ thoughts?  Do you trust God when you’re down to nothing and don’t know where your next anything is coming from and then all of a sudden a blessing comes your way that you didn’t anticipate?  Did you go through a devastating experience and in your grief, receive comfort in the storm?  Did you trust God and his Holy Spirit to comfort you when it seemed as if everything you ever believed in or worked for was being destroyed?  Can you trust God to do just what he says?  Do you read his assurances and promises in The Word of God?

            It is when we fully trust God in the good times and the bad times that we lean not to our own understanding.  There are times when we think we’re going to approach a situation a certain way and when we confront the situation head on, we actually do something totally different than how we played it out in our minds?

            God has a plan for each of us and that plan depends on us blindly following his direction.  Do we recognize God’s voice?  Do we really allow him to guide us in all our ways?  Or only when we’re too scared or in too deep and we realize we have lost control over the situation and we call out to God in desperation to save us from the hole we dug ourselves?

            This is the season of preparation.  God prepared Joseph for the role he would play in the arrival of the Savior.  As we are preparing our homes, waiting for family to arrive, wrapping gifts for our loved ones, preparing food, are we preparing to have a deeper relationship with our deliverer, our Savior?  The one who rescued us from the pit of hell and made us co-heirs with him in heaven?

            This is the time of year our attention is on trimming the tree, wrapping the gifts, preparing the food, traveling to and from.  I invite you to trust in the Lord and lean not to your own understanding.  In all your ways, in all seasons, acknowledge him and he will direct your path and I can’t promise that your path will not have some disappointments from time-to-time, but I can promise you that if you do, you will always prosper in all you do.  Merry Christmas!