Matthew 1:20 20But when he had considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to him saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”
Joseph had to make a decision and he was leaning towards sending Mary away quietly so as not to shame her or him. This seems like the better solution, but on a higher level, doing this would invalidate the genealogy Matthew had just listed. It would isolate Mary and create potential problems for the baby. God had a different plan and so sent an angel to Joseph in a dream at night. We all have dreams. Sometimes these are vivid and even life changing. Joseph’s dream was no ordinary one from deep sleep but more likely a vision that took place at night time. He was probably not asleep but woken up by this vision.
The first words of the angel deal with the immediate situation. As the Old Testament indicates on several occasions, an angel represents God and comes with God’s authority, presence, and power. Joseph’s natural response to such an appearance would be fear and awe. But the angel’s words of do not be afraid had a deeper meaning indicated in the infinitive to take. Joseph’s fear came from what to do with Mary. Joseph could move forward with his plan to marry Mary because that was God’s intention for him.
The other fear Joseph had was what to do with the child who was not his own. The unasked and unanswered question was, whose child was this? This question must have been at the top of Joseph’s mind, so the angel answers it: the child was conceived through the Holy Spirit. This was a divine miracle never seen before. This was a merging of the human and divine in the conception of a child. The angel’s directions are clear and resolve Joseph’s dilemma.
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