It has struck me that we focus a lot on Yeshua and Miriam at Christmas but forget to look at Yosef as an example. Yet he is in many ways much more involved than either Yeshua or Miriam. Yeshua is just born, and Miriam is basically just giving birth to him. Yosef on the other hand is faced with what might be the hardest task a Jewish man at that time could face.

Let's look at the text:

Matthew 1:18-19 "Now the birth of Yeshua Christ took place in this way. When his mother Miriam had been betrothed to Yosef, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Yosef, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly."

How kind and considerate, what a righteousness he displays! For all Yosef knew, Miriam had been playing around with another man and betrayed him and the promised marriage. We now have the knowledge that The Holy Spirit is the "culprit". Yosef didn't know. By any reading of the Law, he would be in his right to divorce Miriam, publicly denounce her and turn her over to the authorities as an adulteress. At which point she would be stoned, unless she could produce evidence that she had been raped "in the field". But Yosef does none of this. He resolves to divorce her quitely. To spare her the shame of public exposure and ultimately her life. He must have loved her. He also must have understood the Core of the Law Leviticus 19:18. Yosef's ordeal isn't over:

Matthew 1:20-23 "But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Yosef, son of David, do not fear to take Miriam as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us)."

His faith and understanding of Scriptures is further put to the test: He has a dream in which he is required to believe a completely mindblowing idea. The idea that HIS wife is about to give birth to a fullfillment of prophecy.

Put yourself in Yosef's shoes for a moment. Just imagine that YOU are Yosef – what would you think, do, feel? What would you do?
Personally I am glad I am not Yosef, because put in the same position I would have freaked. Yosef doesn't freak, he accepts.

Matthew 1:24-25 "When Yosef woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Yeshua."

This is fantastic story! The thing is that it isn't over. Yosef accepts responsibility for a boy who isn't his, as if the child was his:

Luke 1:21-24 "And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."

Jewish Law requires the FATHER to make sure that his sons are circumcized, and if it is the first-born, he also has to redeem him through the offering of Pidjon Ha-Ben "redemption of the son". Yosef does all this, that's how we know that he assumed responsibility for the up-bringing and well-being of Yeshua. From Scriptures we also know that Yosef was well educated in matters of Torah, because when Yeshua appears before the Priests and Scribes at what was his BarMitsvah, he impresses the Teachers deeply with his knowledge of Torah.

It is quite unfair that Yosef is not focused on more in the Church and in the lives of Christians, as an example of a Father for other Fathers to emulate. His kindness, his righteousness, his adherence to the Law, his love for his wife and his child. His efforts to educate his son in matters of Scriptures. I am not Catholic, but if I were, I would make Saint Yosef's Feast Day a day of all Fathers and if I was the Pope, I would make Yosef the Patron of all Fathers.

Merry Christmas,
Henry