Matthew 1:18-25 - The promised King is born to be our Saviour

If you missed the first thread on the first part of Matthew, you can catch it here.

Here's what I read today:

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

This is also a really interesting passage for a number of reasons following on from the genealogy we saw yesterday. Here's a few brief thoughts I got out of it:

God's promised King will be like no other:
Yesterday we saw that there were 4 major points in the timeline to Jesus. Abraham, David, when the people of Judah were sent into the Babylonian captivity and Jesus.

We saw that Jesus was going to be the King that fulfils the promise given to David of an everlasting Kingdom. If you were around then you might have thought that David's kingdom didn't last so long. The glory days of Solomon, the high point of Israel's history were ruined by his sin in 2 Samuel 11. We then saw after generations of sinful kings God's people were carted away into exile in a foreign land.

So what is going to stop that being different this time?
The major difference is that Jesus is going to deal with the root problem of sin ruining our relationship with God. In verse 21 we see that Jesus is given this name because He will save His people from their sins.

God's promised King will be with them after a long silence:
God's people have not had a major prophet for centuries. God's people have lived in silence without a word from God, without any hope of the covenant promises finding their fulfilment. We see that after a long silence God dwells with His people in His Son. This is why Matthew quotes the passage from Isaiah 7:14. God will dwell with us. Part of the reason why God can dwell with us is because He is going to deal with the root problem of our sin separating us from Him.

God's word provides certainty in confusing circumstances:
I think the story of Joseph also provides us a lot of encouragement. The problem that he has is essentially that he thinks that Mary has had a child because she has cheated on him before they are married. However, twice in our passage it tells us that this child is "from the Holy Spirit". This child as we saw last week is the fulfilment of the Scriptures and God is faithful in keeping to His word. Joseph naturally doubts and the angel comes to him to explain God's purpose in the midst of confusion. "She will bear a Son and you shall call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins" (1:21). We see the difference that makes in Joseph. He took her as his wife instead of divorcing her, and he trusts God's word in respect to the child of the promise (1:24-25).

Although we are not in as confusing a situation as Joseph, we are in a confusing situation at the moment. It should be an encouragement to us that we can hear God speak in His Word, we can be confident of God's presence with us and we have a faithful Saviour to encourage us back to Him when we sin.

A few thoughts for prayer:
Thank you for giving us confidence in your Son in confusing circumstances.
Thank you that you sent your Son Jesus not just to be a King but to be our saviour, to rescue us from the root problem of our sinfulness which cuts us off from you.
Thank you that you came down to dwell with us.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please share what you found encouraging, what I may have got amiss and so on.