Stress Test Devotional May 4
May 04, 2024
MATTHEW 1:18-20 | 18 Now the birth of Jesus the
Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do 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, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
God’s intention to enter the human story preceded Jesus’ birth. The genealogy connecting Him to the story of God’s work with the Israelites occupies the first seventeen verses of Matthew’s first chapter. The call of Abraham, the saving of Isaac, the Egyptian sojourn and rescue, the Davidic monarchy, the Babylonian captivity—it all led to Joseph. God’s great purposes and historical work hung on one confused and disappointed man, from a small Galilean town, a carpenter.
How has God worked in your genealogy?
Have there been dramatic turning points in your family
history?
Why was Joseph so shocked about Mary?
