Joseph; tribute to Ian Cheruiyot and Rigga

            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.