{"id":3259,"date":"2018-12-13T16:07:30","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T16:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wpmu.azurewebsites.net\/nlt\/?p=3259"},"modified":"2021-12-08T09:22:11","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T09:22:11","slug":"josephs-quandary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/2018\/12\/13\/josephs-quandary\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph&#8217;s Quandary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>&#8220;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\u00a0quietly.&#8221; Matthew 1:19, NLT<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/09\/lightstock_8079_medium_david-620x413-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3032\" width=\"457\" height=\"304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/09\/lightstock_8079_medium_david-620x413-1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/09\/lightstock_8079_medium_david-620x413-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>We aren\u2019t given many details about Joseph, but we can draw a pretty<br>accurate portrait from what we do know. He was a \u201cgood man\u201d and betrothed to Mary\u2014meaning he was in a covenant almost as unbreakable as marriage and bound by God and his own sense of honor to fulfill it. These covenants could only be broken if the terms had been misrepresented or if one of the parties fell into sin. And from Joseph\u2019s perspective, that\u2019s exactly what had happened. Those around him would have affirmed his right to cancel the wedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/12\/NativitySmall.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3260\" width=\"265\" height=\"353\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/12\/NativitySmall.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/12\/NativitySmall-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 265px) 100vw, 265px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s what Joseph planned to do, though not publicly with his indignation<br>on display. He could have divorced Mary and openly answered the<br>questions that would follow, but he preferred to endure any questions quietly and let the silence cover her. As Mary\u2019s betrothed, Joseph was just as chosen as she was, and his quiet sense of honor may be one of the reasons God chose him. Most men would have a hard time letting God rearrange their expectations for life and marriage and then fading into the background of the story. Joseph took on a responsibility no man before or since has taken on, and we hear very little else about him throughout the Gospels\u2014an early death in Jesus\u2019 late childhood or early adulthood seems a natural conclusion. But we know God trusted him to handle earth\u2019s greatest treasure and allow his wife and her son to get far more attention than he ever would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In Their Steps<\/strong><br>Some of the most vital roles in God\u2019s Kingdom remain in the background of the Kingdom story. Many personalities aren\u2019t equipped for that level of humility. Joseph was. Mary apparently lived long enough to tell Luke some of the things she stored in her heart (Luke 2:51), but Joseph must have treasured the story too. And he submitted himself to it honorably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/12\/DancingintheDesert3-1-e1544716932600-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3262\" width=\"230\" height=\"306\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/12\/DancingintheDesert3-1-e1544716932600-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/12\/DancingintheDesert3-1-e1544716932600-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/12\/DancingintheDesert3-1-e1544716932600-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2018\/12\/DancingintheDesert3-1-e1544716932600.jpg 1512w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 230px) 100vw, 230px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paperturn-view.com\/us\/tyndale-bibles\/dancinginthedesert-nlt?pid=Mjk29123&amp;v=1.16\">Taken from the Dancing in the Desert Devotional Bible<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;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\u00a0quietly.&#8221; Matthew 1:19, NLT We aren\u2019t given many details about Joseph, but we can draw a prettyaccurate portrait from what we do know. He was a \u201cgood man\u201d and betrothed to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,18,21,31,44,45],"tags":[64,80,81,87,89,123,140,157],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5842,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3259\/revisions\/5842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- LIVE: wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com/nlt//wp-json/wp/v2/posts/3259 -->