If you would prefer to listen to this post as a podcast, CLICK HERE.
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A preface to this post:
Dear family, friends and faithful readers of this blog,
This week is my 321st weekly blog post—not a huge number for many, but for me it has been a sharing of my heart with you. Those of you who have followed the blog for more than a year know that it is my annual practice to post a weekly stories for the season of Advent about the incarnational birth of Jesus. My hope is that the stories have become a part of your Advent tradition as you remember and celebrate the Good News of the advent of our Lord and Savior.
This year, i am repeating four of the weekly Advent posts from 2019 for two reasons. First, i have made changes to the posts, and have a higher quality audio recording of the posts in the event you would like to listen to them on audio—feel free to click the link above to do so.
The second reason is that i will be bringing my season of posting to an end as of the end of December. As many of you know, i have been diagnosed with metastatic (stage 4) lung cancer and am now being placed on home hospice care. Thus, it has become more difficult for me to produce these post. I hope and pray you receive these as my gift and expression of love to you.
The remaining five posts are as follows:
November 27th: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Joseph’s Story)
December 4th: Away in a Manger (Achim’s Story)
December 11th: Silent Night (Moshe’s Story)
December 18th: We Three Kings (Balthazar’s Story)
December 25th: A Christmas Celebration (My Story)
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I am a carpenter named Joseph. My father, Jacob, was a carpenter, as was his father, Matthan. As a matter of fact, my ancestors have been carpenters as far back as anyone can remember. Well, maybe not as far back as anyone remembers. My ancestor David was actually a shepherd – until he became the King of Israel. And his son Solomon is considered by many to have been the wisest king our people ever had.
Thirteen of my ancestors, who were the successive descendants of Solomon, followed him in ruling over our nation as kings of Judah. Most of those did evil in the eyes of the Lord – so I share my family connection to them with great reluctance. But there is no denying that royal blood courses through my veins.
We are God’s chosen people living in the land that He promised our patriarch, Abraham, about two thousand years ago. He brought us into this land through the leadership of Moses and Joshua fourteen hundred years ago. But though we dwell in the land God gave us, we have been living here as conquered captives for over five hundred years. Our people have been subjected to foreign rule – first the Babylonians, then the Persians, the Greeks, the Seleucids, and now the Romans.
When you stop to think about it, we have been captives in our own land longer than we were foreigners and slaves in Egypt. We have long grown weary under the rule of our pagan oppressors who have little to no regard for our Lord God Jehovah. We pray for deliverance from our oppression much like our ancestors prayed for their deliverance from Egyptian bondage.
Through the prophets, our God promised to send His Messiah to deliver us. Each generation for hundreds of years has hoped and believed He would come in their lifetime. But four hundred years have passed since the last great prophet, Malachi – and all we have heard from heaven is silence! Our hearts are heavy and our hope has grown dim, but we live our lives trusting our God for His promise.
Since King David grew up in and around the town of Bethlehem, it is considered to be my ancestral home. Some of my relatives still live there. But over the centuries, much of my family has scattered to other parts of Judea and Galilee. My great-great-grandfather, Eliud, led his family to settle in the city of Cana. The town had been destroyed by the Assyrians many years before, but Eliud and others came to rebuild the town. His carpentry skills were put to great use as the town rose from its ashes. And the following generations assisted in continuing that effort. My younger brother, Clopas, and I made a steady living there with our carpentry skills.
But work began to slow down in Cana, and I heard there was more opportunity in nearby Nazareth. My brother, Clopas, was reluctant to make the move, so I encouraged him to remain in Cana while my wife, Rebekah, and I relocated.
Soon after arriving in Nazareth, I met a carpenter named Eli. He needed a co-laborer and I needed steady work – so we agreed that Jehovah God had brought us together. Eli, and his wife, Abigail, soon became good friends with Rebekah and me.
I remember the day Abigail gave birth to a baby girl they named Mary. She was the apple of Eli’s eye and he doted on her from the day she was born. Eli would occasionally bring her to work with him when she was a little girl. I watched her grow from a tiny infant into a tender young woman. She had a soft and gentle nature. She honored her parents in all that she did and exhibited a great love and reverence for our God. She was a hard worker and demonstrated a quick wit.
Abigail died when Mary was nine, but I will never forget the tenderness she showed her father as he walked through his grief – despite the fact that she was walking through her own.
Then, not long afterward, my Rebekah died. She had developed a high fever that the rabbi and midwives were unable to cure. Eli and Mary were a great comfort to me during my time of grief.
Rebekah and I were married for twenty years. We had not been married long before we realized Rebekah could not have children. It caused us great sadness throughout our marriage – but we knew it was the will of God. Still, I regretted not having a son to mentor. A few years after Rebekah’s death, I started wondering, and praying, if God would give me an opportunity to marry again and give me a son. But I never expected how God would answer that prayer!
Eli and I watched as Mary continued to mature into a radiant young woman. She caught the attention of many young men in our town. So, no one was more surprised than I when Eli approached me about marrying his daughter. Since I am only slightly younger than Eli, I am old enough to be Mary’s father. Though such an age difference is not uncommon in marriages of our day, it still was not a match I had considered. However, I admit the possibility was captivating. I told Eli that I would pray about his offer.
Over the next several days I made a rather lengthy mental list of the reasons why I was not the right man for Mary. But I could not think of one single reason why she would be unsuitable for me. As I prayed, I sensed God was leading me to go back to Eli.
“I would be honored and humbled to take your daughter Mary as my wife," I told Eli. “I would care for her. I would provide for her. And I would love her with my whole heart. But before I can give you an answer, I must know that this is what Mary wants, as well. I will not enter into a marriage arrangement that she does not want. So, you need to discuss the matter with her and let me know what she says.”
Truth be told, I thought it would be the last time he and I ever spoke of it. I was certain Mary had her heart set on a different match. I was shocked when he returned a week later to tell me Mary was also in favor of the match. She desired to become my wife! It was all I could do to keep from shouting with glee – and thanking God for His goodness! Of all men, I was the most envied when three weeks later we announced our betrothal. We set a date for the wedding feast to be held one year from the day of our betrothal.
I continued to be the happiest – and most blessed – of men as I awaited the consummation of our marriage. Soon after our announcement, Mary unexpectedly traveled to Hebron to visit her cousin for three months. When she returned, she came to Eli and me with startling news. She told us she was pregnant! But she assured us she was still a virgin. She told us that she had become pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
“An angel by the name of Gabriel appeared to me,” she said. “He told me that God has decided to bless me! He said I would become pregnant and have a son. He will be very great, and He will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord God will give Him the throne of David. And He will reign over Israel forever. His kingdom will never end.(1)
“I asked the angel how this could be possible,” she continued, “and he told me that the Holy Spirit would come upon me, and the power of the Most High God would overshadow me.”
Mary then turned her attention to me. “Joseph, I have not broken our vows. This is an act of our Most High God. I do not fully understand what is happening – but I know I must trust Him. And I need to know that you trust me. Do you trust that all I have told you is true?”
My heart was broken! I hadn’t really heard everything she said after she told me she was pregnant. She said something about the Holy Spirit coming upon her. But all I could think about was this young woman, whom I thought was without guile, had somehow sullied herself and broken our contract. I thought about the shame and disgrace to come for her and my friend, Eli – and the hushed conversations that would happen behind my back.
Without saying a word, Eli got up from his seat and walked out of his home. I did the same. My heart was full, and at that moment I could not speak. As I made my way back home, I kept going over what she had said. I had gone from being the happiest of men to feeling like a broken one.
But as much as I hurt, my love for her did not diminish in any way. I decided the right thing to do was quietly break our betrothal so as not to disgrace her publicly. Eli could then send her away to stay with a distant relative.
My sleep that night was fitful. But in the midst of it, an angel of the Lord appeared to me in a dream. In it he said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. All of this has happened to fulfill the Lord’s message through His prophet:
Look! The virgin will conceive a child.
She will give birth to a son, and He will be called Immanuel
(meaning God is with us).”(2)
When I awoke the next morning, I ran to Eli’s home. Both Eli and Mary wept as I told them what the angel had said. “Mary, I trust that all you have told me is the truth,” I said. “I trust you and I trust God. How favored you are above all women! And how favored am I to become your husband and a father to this One who is in your womb!”
I was delighted to learn that God had led Eli to the same realization. Though we rejoiced in the news, we also knew what people in our town would say. Mary, most of all, would be ridiculed and falsely accused of improper behavior. We trusted that God would give her – and all of us – the strength we needed to endure. Mary came home with me that day to be my wife, but she remained a virgin until after the baby was born.
We were right! Most of our neighbors kept their distance from us, with the exception of a young neighbor girl named Salome. She was a constant source of encouragement and companionship for Mary. But most of those we told about the angel’s visits looked at us with suspicion. Others looked at us – particularly Mary – with disdain. I hated that for her. God by His grace had chosen her to be His vessel. She was to be honored, not despised. But life was never going to be the same. There would always be whispered inuendoes.
For centuries our people had awaited the arrival of the promised Messiah. I had always hoped He would come during my lifetime and that I might get a glimpse of Him. But in my wildest dreams I never thought my wife would give birth to Him. I had prayed for a son – and God by His grace had chosen me to be the earthly father of His Son.
All I could think about was how inadequate I was to be His father and Mary’s husband. But I knew the same God who could enable a virgin to give birth to His Son would empower a lowly carpenter to be the father and husband He needed me to be. By His grace, I would trust and follow Him!
A few months later, we received word that the Roman ruler, Caesar Augustus, had decreed that a census be taken throughout our land. We were all to return to our ancestral homes to be registered. I made preparations for Mary and me to make the three-day journey to Bethlehem.
The baby would soon be born. This was not a good time for a trip. But we didn’t have a choice. Once again, I admired Mary’s bravery – not only for making such a trip during this stage of her pregnancy, but also because of the stares and whispers she would endure.
Eli had planned to travel with us since he, too, was of the line of David. But two days before we were to leave, he came down with a fever. The rabbi and midwife had seen this fever before. They treated him with an elixir made from herbs and bark. They assured Mary and me that he would recover, but he did not have the strength to travel to Bethlehem. We would go on without him and one of the midwives would look in on him in our absence.
I planned for us to stay at the home of my cousin Achim in Bethlehem. I hoped he would welcome us with open arms. Shortly before our departure, I received word from my brother Clopas that he, his wife, and their young son would be joining us for the journey. We were grateful that we would have their companionship as we traveled. They would, however, be lodging with his wife’s sister when they arrived in Bethlehem.
So, we set off on our journey to our ancestral home – the town of David. Little did I know where all the journey would lead …
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More about Joseph
Joseph was an unlikely choice to be the earthly father of Jesus. There was nothing about him on the surface that would have prompted any of us to consider him worthy. And yet, no other man in history has been charged with the tremendous responsibility he was given.
He wasn’t randomly chosen by God. He wasn’t chosen simply because he and Mary were engaged to be married. He was, most definitely, not an after-thought or a footnote. He and Mary were betrothed because God had chosen them both and ordered their steps accordingly … from before the beginning of time.
God had been at work in Joseph’s life long before he ever knew the events that would unfold in his life. God carefully molded and shaped Joseph into the man to whom He could give this special assignment.
This story is taken from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke with further historical and fictional details added to develop the story where Scripture remains silent. However, nothing has been added that takes away from the biblical narrative.
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This story is excerpted from Little Did We Know, a collection of twenty-five short stories for the Advent season. The book is available through Amazon in standard print, large print, and for your Kindle or Kindle app. It is also available as an audiobook. Click HERE for more information on how you can obtain your copy.
You can listen to the audiobook version of this story as narrated by Kyle Bullock by tuning into this week’s episode of my podcast by CLICKING HERE
(1) Luke 1:30-33 (NLT)
(2) Matthew 1:20-23 (NLT)
Copyright © 2024 Kenneth A. Winter All rights reserved.
Photo by Carlos E. Santa Maria on Lightstock
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O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (Lyrics video) performed by Chris Tomlin