Matthew 1:18-25

 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband to be, was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her privately. When he had contemplated this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” This all happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: “Look! The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call him Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord told him. He took his wife, but did not have marital relations with her until she gave birth to a son, whom he named Jesus.”

— ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭1‬:‭18‬-‭25‬‬

Obviously, we hear every Christmas how betrothal is more binding than modern engagements. Breaking this off was essentially divorce. They were married minus the wedding ceremony. The Greek only has “being a righteous man,” and some have it as “although he was righteous” (as in he should have put her away publicly and made a divorce obvious) but it makes much more sense that it’s “because he was righteous” (See Means and Causal Participles; caring for a divorcee privately would care for a needy woman at this point. This is righteous and fits Joseph’s profile and Matthew’s theme of what righteousness is throughout the book.) Joseph could not follow through with the custom consequences of divorce as severe punishments, even stoning. 

All of these dreams in the birth narrative of Jesus, with angels coming to Zechariah, Mary, Joseph…had to be scary and so confusing. But they all moved forward in faith to some degree. Not fully but at some level.

Isaiah 7 (esp v. 14) is one of several quotes Matthew has in his birth narrative. None of them are a simple one-to-one prophecy/fulfillment. They all have a fulfillment in their original context, but when Jesus came, He was a better and more compete fulfillment. 

I see there being a young woman having a child during the reign of King Ahaz, showing him that God was with Israel during the attacks of the northern kings (Syria and Israel). A child born 800 years later would not show him anything. Grammar and historical context support this.

But when Jesus comes, Matthew looks back and says, “Wow, an actual virgin did conceive, and her son not only represents God’s presence but is God with us in the flesh.” And we see this elevated pattern of fulfillment throughout Matthew and the NT. 

Btw, Matthew uses the story of Jesus’ birth to retell Israel’s history, which shows how Matthew uses some of these passages. Jesus goes down to Egypt, passes through water, goes into a wilderness, climbs a mountain, and gives instruction on the law.

The encouraging thing of this passage is that whether we are a king fighting two powerful enemies, or a couple ostracized for simply following God’s leading, the world can be a harsh place. Chaotic and dark. But God has never abandoned it, brushed His hands clean of it, and said good riddance. In the darkness, He is still near. Immanuel. This is the closest, most tangible evidence of God’s existence in the person of Jesus. And He came to redeem. He drew near in the midst of our mess. And that’s what Christmas is all about.