Matthew 1:25

Highlight: Matthew 1:25 NIVBut he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Explain: Joseph and Mary could not avoid physical closeness; often newly married couples lived together in a small room on top of the home of the groom’s parents. Most people in antiquity supposed that a man and woman together alone for even a short time (less than an hour) would give way to sexual temptation. This would be all the more the case with those who were young; young men were considered particularly prone to passion. On average Jewish men married when about 18 to 20, with their brides in their mid-teens (sometimes even as young as 12 to 14). Yet Joseph and Mary abstained from intercourse before Jesus’ birth. On the first night of a wedding feast, intercourse would normally rupture the bride’s hymen, and the bloody sheet could be displayed as proof that she had entered marriage as a virgin. By making love on the first night of their wedding, Joseph and Mary could have proved that she had a virgin conception. Yet God’s plan was not merely a virgin conception, but a virgin birth (v. 23). Joseph and Mary chose God’s honor above their own.

Apply: Are my plans set out to honor God or are they set out to honor myself and potentially even to clear my name?

Response: God, enable me to have the wisdom on when to execute my plans that would enable me to honor you. To put you first in all things in my life bringing you honor. To put the honoring of you before the honoring of self.

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