Matthew tells the story through the eyes of an ordinary man, whose name means “He will add.”
All of God’s people are ordinary people
who have been made extraordinary by the purpose he has given them.
Oswald Chambers
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18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born.
His mother, Mary, was engaged [betrothed] 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 [betrothed],
was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly,
so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
In Jesus’ time, the Engagement, often arranged by parents, might happen when the couple were children. The Betrothal made the previous engagement officially binding, and the couple were considered husband and wife. A betrothal could only be broken by divorce. The Marriage took place after the wedding and after the year of betrothal.
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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.
The unnamed angel appears in a dream
and addresses Joseph by both name and legal lineage.
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21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.”
Jesus’ name in Hebrew is Yehoshua or Yeshua
(Yeh-HO-shoo-ah/Yeh-SHOO-ah) and means “the Lord is salvation.”
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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,
which means ‘God is with us.’” [Isaiah 7:14]
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.
Matthew 1:18-25 NLT
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“God uses ordinary Christians to change lives –
one conversation at a time,
one meal at a time,
one act of mercy at a time.”
Tony Merida