Voice of Direction

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

VOICE OF DIRECTION

Matt 1:22-25

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"-which means, "God with us." 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

NIV

This angel that appeared to Joseph in a dream may not have been a dream in the sense of dreams that we have. This was God intervening in the life of Joseph, not just some wild dream in the mind of a man during his rem sleep cycle. Once again, we must know this was happening exactly the time, place, to whom the Lord had determined before the creation of time. Isaiah the prophet said these words to none other than to the house of David and both Joseph and Mary were from the house of David. It is interesting that even before this happened that somehow Mary was betrothed to Joseph. We do not know how that was arranged, and if they even knew each other before the betrothal which was done, most likely, by their parents. It does appear that both Joseph and Mary lived in the town of Nazareth and after their marriage, before Mary was ready to give birth, through the workings of men, this census decreed by Rome, Joseph and Mary needed to make their way to Bethlehem because they were from the house of David and Bethlehem was the city of David. Matthew does not give us the account of the time and place of the birth of Jesus but does tell us it was in Bethlehem as it was determined by God, and we will see this slightly later as Matthew continues with this narrative. But for now, we should see something that is relevant in our lives. Both Joseph and Mary were from the family of David and were in the right place at the right time and traveled to the right place at the right time and were did exactly what the Lord had instructed them to do. Our lives are not by happenstance either. We are in the exact moment in time and in the exact place on this earth that God determined. We did not just happen to be, for we know that we were wonderfully made, knit together in our mother’s womb, our frame was not hidden from Him. It could not be more appropriate that King David wrote those words as he was inspired by God in one of his psalms. There is no doubt that we are exactly where God wanted us to be and during the exact time that He wanted us to be there. On a personal note, I am absolutely confident that God directed us to our first home and to the exact location at the exact time because homes were being built right then at the place. We are also absolutely confident of His moving us from there to where we are right now, in the home we are in at the moment we should be here, for in both cases, we heard the voice of God telling us exactly what and where and when this was to be. We are right where we are supposed to be at this exact moment in time, and we intend to remain until we hear otherwise. We cannot be the masters of our own lives, as Paul said so well, “In Him, we live and move and have our being”, therefore He is the master of our lives. He steers the course of our lives, and directs our path, as He is the light unto our path, shining the way for us to travel. If we think for one moment that we get to decide where we live and move, we are walking in the dark, outside the light of the Lord. This is not about what we want, this is about what God wants for us and in us. As Joseph was obedient to the voice of that angel, let us wait on the Lord for His voice of direction.