Matthew 1:23-25 says,...

Today's verses are Matthew 1:23-25 which read,

23 - "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name, Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us."
24 - And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 
25 - but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

I am always amazed at all the obedience of the Christmas story.  Many times in the Bible we see someone going or doing contrary to God and then see the consequences of it.  The story of Christmas is full of just the opposite.  We see so much obedience not only at the moment but prior to the event with their lives.

This passage highlights the obedience of Joseph.  Earlier in verse 19 Joseph is described as "...her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her,..."  Joseph was a man who was "righteous" before this event.  This event didn't present itself and then he decided to become "righteous."  Joseph was righteous prior to the coming of the angel's announcements.

A deeper look at that word "righteous" reveals a "seeing" or "understanding" of something that causes you to make a change in your "custom" or "actions" to "observe divine laws."  Joseph spent time with God and God's word and patterned his life after it that was played out in obeying it as his custom.

Remember, this was all before the announcement of the angel Gabriel.  Joseph didn't have to "rise to the occasion" because he was already following God.  I think this is the lesson this morning.  We need to be already "righteous" instead of waiting for some "big God event" to rise to that standard.  God calls us to be righteous now, with our everyday lives, so that when a "big" event comes up that we will step into it and through it continuing in the righteous ways of God and the Scripture.  And our righteous is not our own, but because God sent Christ Jesus into the world to save sinners in which we are one to be saved.

So another way to say, "Obedience in the little things leads to obedience in the big things" and maybe we could flip it around.  "Disobedience in the little things does not prepare us for obedience in the big things."  And then maybe we come to the conclusion that "all little things are really big things when it comes to the obedience of God."

Pastor Adam
A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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