Joseph: Rise

A task that required all of his manliness.

God chose one man to bring about salvation, his only Son. He also chose one man to raise up that man of salvation, Joseph, the foster father of Jesus.

What made up this man chosen by God?

Joseph had an assuredness of faith. The angel speaks and he obeys. He doesn’t ask questions— he just believes. And acts! His wife will be called an adulterer, his foster son a bastard. He takes the emotional beating upon himself, never opening up his mouth in retaliation of the false accusations. He will not put his wife to shame nor allow shame to be put on her. He has only the words of the angel in a dream as instruction. This is enough.

The angel comes again at a moment of joy bringing a message of warning and potential despair. “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Rise does not simply mean “get up”. It’s a call to the deeply rooted manliness in every man to protect was has been entruste…