This post is Day 3 in a series of studies about “Mary’s of the Bible”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

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Mary’s of the Bible – Day 3

We suppose that Mary was not the sort of young woman who was sleeping around. If she had been raped, she would surely have shared the shock of that with her family, as well as with Joseph. In the following verse we read of the dream that brought Joseph peace.

Matthew 1:18-19

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

The Thought

What a shock this event must have been to Mary’s family. And Joseph’s too. But these two “soon to be” parents were blessed with good dreams and visions from Holy Spirit to reassure and encourage them. Their friends and families had not seen those dreams. We can imagine that there was much critical judging of characters going on among neighbours, friends and family.

Jospeh himself was in a quandary about what to do. We suppose Mary was not the sort of young woman who was sleeping around. If she had been raped, she would surely have shared the shock of that with her family, as well as with Joseph. In the following verse we read of the dream that brought Joseph peace. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him… (Matthew 1:20).

The Bible tells us that they went on to have a “normal” family life with other children who are named further on in the gospels. We will look at some of those verses later in this study.

Action

Today, pray for the Lord to renew your mind if you have believed anything about Jesus that is not Biblical.

Pray for those you care for who don’t understand the full truth of The Bible.

Pray also for any you know who were born outside of a “normal” relationship, or for women who were pressurised to have abortions because of an unwanted pregnancy.

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