“Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.” (Matthew 1:19)
In the Old Testament era, drawing a line between fulfilling the law of God and secret (joyous) desire to inflict punishment upon offenders was a difficult task. In fact, like in the case of those who wanted to stone a woman to death for adultery, no one except God Himself, is in a position to explain the driving motives behind the actions of those executioners. The fact of a death sentence that might soon be pronounced against Mary will explain the seriousness of the situation that confronted Joseph. He became disturbed and confused about the discovery of his wife’s unusual pregnancy and was thinking about how best to handle the situation. But the big question that crawled to the surface here is how would Joseph cover up Mary’s presumed adultery in an attempt to spare her life without incurring the wrath of God for conniving with evil?
We do not know how many sleepless nights Joseph waded through on this matter but we know it spanned through the moment of his discovery and the night in which God’s messenger caught up with him. We may also imagine how he would have thought of confiding in some trusted friends or sought some counsel from the leaders of the Synagogue and figure out the type of counsel he would have received. Above all, we may also imagine the level and capacity of Christian maturity that was required on the part of Joseph to handle this serious and extremely delicate matter.
Now a few questions will assist us to grasp the weight of the whole matter. How long would it have taken Joseph to put up a report, invite the pressmen and the faultfinding Pharisees of their days to expose his wife to those who would execute instant judgement upon her in line with prevailing tradition? To what extent was Joseph’s life and personal integrity or testimony on the line here? Or to put it in another way, what eventually would have happened if this matter got leaked out to the amebos, I mean, the busybodies of their days and Joseph was dragged along with Mary to the open as an accomplice in this “crime”? Can we really imagine what would happen if Joseph had mismanaged this problem and decided to be ‘righteous’ to the core on this occasion?
Had Joseph decided so, Mary would have been made a public example. She would have been dragged to the execution ground and stoned to death by those who saw themselves as champions and defenders of the law. In the process, it would never have crossed the minds of those people even for a moment that they were frustrating the eternal counsel of the same God they thought they were defending. The same process would have eliminated the only hope of redemption for human race as arranged and packaged in the pregnancy of Mary.
But thank God for people like Joseph who would not rush into rash decision and action until he had heard from heaven. It is not surprising that he did exactly the bidding of angel as soon as the day broke. The promptness with which he obeyed and carried out the instruction of the angel was suggestive of how patiently and eagerly he had craved for God’s directive on the issue of the moment with a ready and steady heart.
The story in this passage offers us an excellent example of how to handle delicate issues. First, it teaches a lesson on how the righteousness of the law and its blind application may work to negate to purpose of the One who gave it. Second, it informs us that the law was made for man and for the benefit of man and not for his destruction. In other word, the law came into the world because of man and man could not have been made solely for the purpose of obeying the law. This is what prompted Paul to inform that “the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient” (1 Timothy 1:9)
Joseph example is worthy of emulation and it calls for deep understanding of God and of His intention that forms the essence and fulcrum of the law together with the punishments contained in their contravention. God will do nothing either to destroy His own work or frustrate His own plan. But most of the time, those who have done the greatest damage to His course are those who think that they are working for Him or fighting His holy cause.