Raising the Righteous Standard of Fathering for the Glory of God XVIII Joseph the Earthly Father of Jesus

"Man is born as an original and dies as a copy." Blaise Pascal ( French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Catholic philosopher).

Well it has been a while (Nov. 28th, 2024 to be exact) since we’ve sought to continue to discover what God has revealed about the high call of fathering, not to mention how to righteously recover from not being fathered as God meant for us to be fathered. (For most of us there is a lot more to recover from than we are aware of). Thankfully the Holy Spirit is faithful to reveal these things to us when we look to Him for that revelation.

As we jump into the New Testament I would like for us to meditate for a bit on Joseph – the earthly father of sorts of Jesus the Messiah. Not a lot of material on his fathering. But I believe we would be amiss to skip over what is there.

Just as Joseph had obeyed God when He spoke to him about how to treat Mary after discovering she was pregnant, so did Joseph obey God when in another dream He told him to take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt. “Now when they (the Magi) had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; For Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt.” Matthew 2:13,14  Not only that, but the time came for them to leave Egypt and return to Israel. God yet again directed him through a dream and Joseph yet again obeyed, “But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.” So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.”  I’m sure Joseph’s natural inclination was to return to Judea. But the Scripture says “…when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, He was afraid to go there.” Matthew 2:22  What was he to do?  Well God faithfully directed his steps and again Joseph obeyed His directive, “…Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called Nazareth…”  Matthew 2:22,23

Joseph to his credit knew he was just a steward of this child, who like all children ultimately belong to God, not to we parents.

Joseph was not mentioned as being with Mary and Jesus when the Magi came to worship Him (see Matthew 2:1-12). But he was with them when the shepherds came in response to the angels’ proclamation to them while out shepherding their sheep. Luke picks up the story in Luke 2:16, “So they (the shepherds) came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Luke 2:16-19  Mary was more spiritually responsive than her husband in this situation. Joseph didn’t deny any of what the shepherds described from their encounter with the angels, but there is a significant difference between “wondering” and “treasuring”.

Can I just say at this point that for fathers to effectively father their children they need as much divine intel as they can get about how God has wired their children!  God knows everything that can be known about your child. He is glad to share what He knows with those who look to Him for what they can’t have otherwise.

Mary seemed to know that more than Joseph. Granted it takes a significant measure of childlike faith to have someone tell you your little baby is going to be both the long awaited and prophesied Savior, and the Lord of lords and King of kings (see Luke 2:11), which is basically what the angels told the shepherds, and then they to Mary and Joseph. But if Mary can treasure these things so can and should have Joseph.  A wise young father will be all eyes and ears when God chooses to reveal something about his child. And if he realizes his wife is treasuring something that he is only wondering at, he should repent and join her in the treasuring.

To Joseph’s credit, he and Mary were very careful to give their baby boy the name given by the angel (vs. 21). They also were very careful to present Him to the Lord at the temple in Jerusalem as their firstborn according to the law of God (vs. 22-24).

While there in the temple an old godly man named Simeon walked up to them, took Jesus into his arms and began to pray out loud. At the end of his prayer he spoke of Jesus’s divine calling as Israel’s Savior (vs. 25-32).  This time both Joseph and Mary responded in amazement to Simeon’s prophetic declaration (vs. 33).

Luke goes on to tell us that “When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.” (vs. 39). While raising their family in Nazareth Joseph and Mary were very careful to observe (among other things) the yearly Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem (vs. 41). Kudos to them both for seeing the need to faithfully observe spiritual practices and traditions that God has ordained.

I’m sure you are familiar with the story of Jesus being left somehow in Jerusalem by His parents when He was 12 years old. When they finally found Him in the temple after three long days of searching they both “…were astonished” (vs. 48), but it was His mother who called Him on what they (or at least she) perceived as rebellious, disobedient or disrespectful behavior towards His parents. Neither of His parents understood His response to them (see vs. 49,50), and vs. 51 makes clear Jesus was in subjection to them when He was in the temple and continued to live in subjection to them, though He had a higher subjection to His Father and the Holy Spirit.

While neither Joseph or Mary understood Jesus’s response, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” - vs. 51 makes clear Mary “…treasured all these things in her heart.” Joseph to his credit did not punish Jesus for basically being left by His parents in Jerusalem. But Joseph did not treasure all these things Jesus said and did in his heart like his wife Mary did.

I guess the next best thing to a father/husband treasuring such things in his heart is being married to a mother/wife who does, and then reaping from her spiritual sowing. But the ideal is that we husbands/fathers would be more spiritually sensitive and alert and not so focused on our work. It is very likely that by 12 years old Jesus was already a significant help to Joseph with the family carpentry business. That might have been foremost in Joseph’s mind, knowing how we men/fathers are wired, and knowing that Jesus would have been an excellent apprentice, and thus much missed.

While it is true that wives/mothers are often more spiritually sensitive and responsive than husbands/fathers are, it doesn’t have to be that way and was never meant to be that way. When boys have been raised in a home for 18 plus years wherein their father was “successful” in his career or focused mostly on his work, but lagged spiritually, they will not easily break out of that pattern. This pattern is often generations in the making. But one of the wonderful things about our Savior is He came to break these kinds of sin patterns (Luke 4:18) as we fathers learn to identify them, hate them (Luke 14:26) and kill them (Romans 8:13).

BTW – if you want to read or watch my Christmas Eve meditation on Joseph (more as a husband than a father and covering different ground than this article) you can read or see it here: https://www.kingdomstreams.net/post/joseph-jesus-s-earthly-father https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oDKBnQN-1E

Heavenly Father - for any father with children still in the home reading this today, please help him know how much you long to set him free from all that keeps him from being the spiritually sensitive and responsive father You have called him to be. Teach him to hate the things You hate and that You have commanded him to hate, and Father teach him how to kill all sin, not merely manage it or bandaid it, for Your glory and for the well being of his children in Jesus’s name, Amen.