1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

Although Matthew just listed forty-two people only one of them is worth writing a twenty-eight chapter book about. A betrothal in Jesus’ day was was like an engagement today with twice the commitment. To be betrothed was so serious that to separate you had to get a divorce (Deu 24:1) which explains why Joseph is called Mary’s “husband” before they are even married (Mat 1:19). Before they “came together,” that is, before they consummated their union in marriage and lovemaking, Mary was found to be pregnant.

Had the angel not told Mary ahead of time that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26-38) she would have been in severe worry over what was going on with her body. One day she feels this kicking inside. What was that? I’m having strange movements inside my body. My organs are moving! But unlike Joseph, she was prepared for this.

Why didn’t God let Jesus be the biological son of Joseph and Mary? First, this was necessary for Jesus to be truly God. Had Jesus been the product of Mary and Joseph he could not have been God, and Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah being “Mighty God” would never have come to pass (Isa 9:6).

Second, this was necessary for the sacrifice for the sins of the world to be worthy. David was a great king but his life was peppered with flaws. Abraham was an incredible pillar of faith but he too was set back by sins. As typified by the spotless lambs sacrificed on the Day of Atonement, only a spotless sacrifice would be worthy to pay for the sins of the world, and only God can live a sinless life.

It is important to understand that Jesus is not God the Son inside a human body. Jesus is as fully man as He is God, both in spirit and body. Nor is He one man with two natures, but has one nature as both God and man, 100% God and 100% man.

Third, had Jesus been the child of a human father, he would have inherited the sin nature passed on from Adam (Rom 5:12). But because His father was God, he received no sin nature, for sin is not passed from the mother.

1:19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

Joseph’s pain and sorrow can only be truly understood those who know what it’s like to be cheated on. He could have easily taken revenge by getting Mary convicted before the priests and banned from the temple. According to the Mosaic law, she deserved to be stoned (Deu 22:23-24). But unlike many Pharisees, Joseph was not a proud man of legalistic inclination but a man who understood that unless God covered his own sin, he had no chance for redemption himself, thus, the mercy he was shown he showed to others. Solomon and Peter tell us that love covers a multitude of sins (Prov 10:12; 1 Pet 4:8). The very son Joseph would raise would be the Son whose death would cover Joseph’s sins and make him a child of God. How ironic. The man who raised God’s child would some day become God’s adopted child!

So Joseph decided to put Mary away secretly, just as the Mosaic law allowed him to (Deu 24:1). This could work only so long for it’s hard to hide a nine-month-along tummy.

1:20-21 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Just as God’s angel prepared Mary for this marvelous conception now he protected Joseph from an action based on a false assumption. Joseph’s intentions were understandable, for he had every reason to conclude that Mary had slept with another man while she was engaged to Joseph.

The angel calls Joseph, “Joseph, son of David,” a direct indication to Joseph that he stood in the line of David, the same line through whom the Messiah was to be born. The kingship theme of Matthew oozes off the page! Matthew’s intentional pointing out that David was “David the king” (Mat 1:6), the breakdown of Jesus’ genealogy into three sets of fourteen generations to show the inception, rise, and fall of the kingdom (Mat 1:17), and now the mention of Joseph as a son of David (Mat 1:20) unveil Matthew’s intention to convince his reader that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised king from the Old Testament!

The third person of the trinity produced the sperm which fertilized Mary’s egg and conceived the Son of God in the flesh. The wonder of God becoming man yet still remaining fully God is a mystery of incomprehensible marvel!

Just as Gabriel told Zacharias what to name his child (Luke 1:13), so Joseph was instructed what to name Mary’s son. Mary too was commanded by God’s angel to name her son “Jesus” (Luke 1:31). Why the name “Jesus”? The play on words can only be seen in the Greek.

“Jesus” is the Greek form of the Hebrew “Joshua” which means, “Yahweh saves.” In effect, the angel tells Joseph, “Call Him ‘Yahweh saves’ because He is going to save His people from their sins.” Just as by God’s strength Joshua saved Israel from her enemies and brought her into the Promised Land, so Jesus would do this for Israel for all eternity.

It is good to be saved from sickness, physical harm, financial bankruptcy, or relational fallout. But no message is more precious to the sinner’s ears than to be saved from the source of all his suffering: sin. This salvation is not a generality, as if God through Jesus would throw a blanket over the big sin problem. The angel says that Jesus will save His people “from their sins.” For every jealous thought, hideous crime, or self-seeking motive, Jesus would die and pay the penalty in full. This salvation is uniquely personal. A military general may save his nation from invasion, a doctor may save his patient from a disease, but Jesus saves His people from every one of their individual sins.

“His people” refers to the Jews. This does not mean that God had no plan for the Gentiles. But as Paul so eloquently explains in Ephesians 3, salvation to the Gentiles remained a mystery to be revealed until Paul’s day. Christ hinted at salvation for the Gentiles several times during His ministry, but it was fully revealed through Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. Matthew’s account was not written for the Gentiles but the Jews, so his emphasis on the nation of Israel makes sense.

1:22-23 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

Matthew points out the first direct fulfillment of prophecy in his gospel: Jesus’ birth fulfilling Isaiah’s prediction. The significance of this New Testament miracle usually overshadows the Old Testament background behind Isaiah’s prediction. For a fuller treatment on this topic see “Did a Virgin Birth Happen in Isaiah’s Day?” or “Commentary on Isaiah 7:1-16”.

In short, Isaiah stood before the evil King Ahaz of Judah when he made this promise. Rezin, king of Aram (Syria) and Pekah, king of Israel, were marching against Judah at this very moment because Ahaz refused to join their planned three-man league against Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria. Instead of trusting God for protection, King Ahaz decided to pay off Tiglath-Pileser in hopes that Tiglath-Pileser would ward of the kings of Israel and Aram.

In response, Isaiah prophesies that a young woman (almah can mean a literal “virgin” or just “young maiden” in the Hebrew) will give birth to a child and will name him “Immanuel” which means “God with us.” Every time Ahaz saw that child it was a silent rebuke that even though God promised to be with Ahaz, Ahaz refused to believe and trusted Tiglath-Pileser’s protection instead. There was nothing miraculous about the Immanuel child in Isaiah 7 just as there was nothing miraculous about the birth of Isaiah’s two other sons, Shear-jashub and Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Is 7:3; 8:3) who were also signs to the nation of Judah. Not all of God’s signs that accompanied direct revelation were miraculous in nature.

However, the birth of this child by a young maiden was a foreshadow of a future birth that would be the ultimate reminder that God is with us: Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. We should not read the New Testament context of Matthew 2:23 back into Isaiah 7 and ignore the historical background of Isaiah 7. Instead, let Isaiah 7 stand in its own context but see that this sign from God spoken through the prophet Isaiah was a marvelous event pre-figuring the ultimate incarnation where God Himself would pitch his tent among humanity (John 1:14).¹

The child in Isaiah’s day was a sign that God is with us. But the child in Matthew’s day was God with us.
1:24-25 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son; and he called His name Jesus.

Joseph’s obedience to God shows tremendous faith in His Word. Instead of questioning God’s promise like Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, did (Luke 1:18-20), or doubting His Word like Thomas did (John 20:25-29), or outright rejecting it like king Ahaz did (Isa 7:9-14), Joseph took Mary to be his wife and demonstrated tremendous self control by keeping her a virgin until she gave birth to her son, and named Him Jesus, just as God instructed.

No birth ever did or will occur that is more historically important than the birth of Jesus Christ. No man has influenced lives and nations like Jesus did. Had He never been born  it’s impossible to picture what the world would be like today. Theologically speaking, if God never planned the incarnation, death, and resurrection of His Son, the universe would have suffered immediate destruction by God’s righteous wrath the moment Adam and Even rebelled. But because God planned a Savior to pay the penalty in full, He could withhold His wrath from humanity and the universe and offer many repentance and forgiveness (2 Cor 5:19-20; Col 1:19-22; Acts 17:30-31).

Endnotes

1. Matthew quotes from the Greek LXX in verse 23, using the word parthenos, the Greek word for “virgin.” Although Isaiah’s focus was not on the “virgin” idea, Matthew’s was, for this miracle testified to the fact that Jesus was truly the Son of God.