19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. 20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. – Matthew 1: 19-20

As far as we know, God, Gabriel, Mary, Elisabeth and even embryo John the Baptist know about how Mary is to give birth to the Son of God. However, Joseph is still out of the loop. He is engaged to Mary and for all intents and purposes is her husband. They have not formally been married. They certainly had not consummated their marriage. So, how surprised, shocked (and some other adjectives which we dare not utter) was he when he found out that his fiancé was pregnant?

Then, after this, the most unbearable part of the whole ordeal was that when she was asked: “Who is the father?” She answered: “The Holy Ghost.” If Joseph had been like most men, that would have been when holy hell broke loose! However, that is not what happened.

1. Joseph’s first response was to dump her with dignity. He wasn’t buying that Holy Ghost stuff. Nor was he going to marry a woman who had been unfaithful to him before they had even exchanged their vows. He had every right to publicly humiliate her and even have her stoned. However, the Bible tells us that he was a just man and because he still loved her, he decided to “put her away privily.”

2. Joseph was not hasty. “…he thought on these things.” Consider what Joseph might have done or could have done, if he had hastily acted on what he was feeling, without thinking first. He didn’t commit domestic violence. He thought on these things. He didn’t do the first thing that came to his mind. He thought on these things. He didn’t completely dismiss the possibility of what Mary said. He thought on these things. Had Joseph not have been the kind of person who thought before he acted, he could have easily done away with Mary and her baby and thereby thwarted the plan of salvation.

3. Joseph was a dreamer. We are not quite sure if it was the angel Gabriel who had come to Mary, but while he slept, the angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream. The angel told Joseph that Mary’s story was true and that she would bring forth a son which he would call Jesus. As we shall see later, Joseph was accustomed to be led by God in his dreams. This shows that not only did he think about these things, he knew that before he made any major decision, he had to sleep on it.

The miracles of the coming of Christ are countless. Great among them is not only that Mary consented and conceived, but that Joseph cooperated. That is miraculous!