"An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:20-21 NIV).
I don't suppose it is unusual for engaged young men to have dreams before their weddings. But, Joseph's dreams were different. There are three times in Joseph's life that it is reported that angels appeared to him in dreams. All were in direct regard to his son Jesus and fulfilling prophecy.
He was pledged to marry Mary, a virgin carrying a child of the Holy Spirit. Joseph was a righteous man of integrity and he didn't want to publicly disgrace her. He respected her and considered quietly divorcing her. But the angel changed all that. In the midst of a dream the angel appeared and told Joseph it was okay to marry the blessed Mary. Joseph was part of fulfilling a prophecy of Jesus, born to the line of King David, the Savior of the world. So he did the right thing. He obeyed God and married Mary.
Later, when Jesus was a young child, another angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him to take Mary and the child into Egypt to escape King Herod's plot to murder the holy child. They fulfilled another prophecy. After Herod died, another angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to take Mary and the child into Israel, settling in Nazareth; fulfilling yet another prophecy that had been spoken.
Though Joseph was not the human father of Jesus he lived and followed the Jewish law as any father would. He saw that Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day and that Jesus was presented to God as the firstborn son, at the age of one month. God used Joseph to bring the Savior into the world and raise him up as the special man he was to become.
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