Anyone ever
searched the Scriptures to see if anything marriages and young couples appears,
even courting couples? I have. Well, not technically searched but it came to me
and that’s the most important thing. This post comes at a very important time
in the lives of people I met by mere God incidence. One of them is the great
Ian Cheruiyot and the other is the man Rigga. I wouldn’t boast of the latter
and I having a mutual friendship but that ain’t important for now. They are
both celebrating today their #ringfingerday. It is exciting for me to see such
happening in the wake of the moral decadence taking the world by storm. However
that is really not what I want to dwell on: the focus is one guy named Joseph.
Joseph appears
about three times in the bible in different instances. Firstly as the son of
Jacob second as Mary’s Husband to be and thirdly as the wealthy folk that was a
secret disciple of Jesus. Let it clearly be noted out at the gate that I do not
propose that these are the same person. However I am struck at the
correspondence of the events, tests and strikingly same names. In the first is
a young man probably in his teenage who is faced with the choice is loving God
who had seemingly been deaf to his cries for help and laying with the demented
adulterous wife of potiphar. Then we see Joseph in an amazing courtship
relationship with Mary leading up to marriage. Here he is faced with the challenge
of letting His ego ride when Mary comes to Him pregnant, it is either he shame
her and prove himself a religious and ‘righteous’ man or bear the shame of raising
a baby that’s not his. Later in life Joseph is super rich having acquired
everything he even hews out a tomb for himself, but when Jesus is crucified he
wonders whether He can let the secret out that He is a disciple of Jesus or
that he should keep the secret and probably save himself the ridicule. All these
are spheres of life and we can readily place Ian and Rigga in the second sphere.
I want to attend to the lessons we pick up in the second Joseph’s life?
Joseph was
a God-fearing man; this is evidenced by various things. It is agreed that a
righteous man when squeezed oozes godliness. The test for Joseph came when He
was told of the pregnancy. It is important to put this into context. A man, who
had clearly given himself to loving one wife and evidently pure in all his ways
receives news that his bride-to-be is pregnant.
Or as a friend of mine likes to say Pregoz, what!!! I’m certain this was no
fanciful day for Joseph. He wanted to hammer the nails in hardest that day,
throw away every piece of timber that had the slightest defect, he wanted to
rage and feel justified to do it, but did he?
Matt 1:19-20(NIV)
Because Joseph her husband was a righteous
man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to
divorce her quietly. But after he had considered 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
home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit…”
This
is for lack of a better word weird. The man was desirous to look foolish as a
guy who walked away from an unfaithful girlfriend and not the world to know. This
was his resolve even before the angel of the Lord even spoke. I can imagine the
guy talking to his not-so-nice friend. The conversation looks like it ended a
brawl, “how do you even propose to let it go like that…? Give her a dose of her
own medicine…Get her stoned for dishonoring her family and you… what about your ego?”
Then the angel spoke in a dream, and that was enough to allay
his fears. He stayed with her and contemplated leaving her no more! The not-so-nice
friend exploded at this point! BUT WHY did he do this?
It
says in verse 19 that Joseph was a righteous man. He was a man who did what was
right in the eyes of the Lord. This is a great treasure that saved his marriage
[the one to be]. He was at all times in right standing with God and it was a beautiful
plus even for is emotions and reactions. Instead of blowing up, and wrecking
havoc, he sought the Lord. It is important to note at this point that the dream
did not come out mere coincidence but a heart that sought the Lord for a reply
on the issue. Just to convince you a little more of the heart of Joseph, when
God spoke He always moved, he took his wife and Jesus and ran to Egypt in the middle of the night. Let me tell
you this attitude was only of a person who was friend of God.
Joseph loved Mary; this may not
really be evident but let us interrogate it further.
How
do you react when you receive news of a broken phone, or antique from your annoying
sibling and from your significant other? This is basically the same instance. When
Joseph was told about the pregnancy he was quickly gripped by the love he had
for Mary. Instead of anger he was saddened and had his thoughts wandering over
the matter.
Again
look at the resolve he made in relation to Mary’s ‘incidence’: did not want
to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. This must have a difficult
decision to make, yet it wasn’t so difficult after all. HE LOVED MARY that he
could not bear to see her suffer disgrace of any kind. This is tremendous love.
He would readily take her shame and guilt and be the one to suffer all this for
her sake. Kind of like the exact thing Jesus did for all of us don’t you think?
He
was madly in love with her that he even entertained ideas that flew by in his
dreams. It crazy what love can do to a person; then again it was this device that
the angel used to speak! I am amazed at this every single time I think about
it. Joseph truly loved his bride!
Jesus
calls all of us to love like He did us. It’s beautiful that Jesus grew up with
such a lovely couple. These are the lessons Joseph calls us to the men and the
ladies. But deeper still He calls us to love Him, how marvelous it is if our
love is rooted and built up in Him. We can only genuinely love if we Love Him,
Joseph tells us this plainly.
To
the grooms and the Brides of whom this is your day let this constantly remind
us of where our love ought to be fixed! Have a lovely and blessed Marriage,
Rigga and Ian.
