Matthew 1:16; 2:22
But after he considered this (divorcing Mary), an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit."
Joseph was a good man, who wanted to do the right thing. But when he found out about Mary's pregnancy, he knew it wasn't his, and he was afraid. It took the angel to convince him to go ahead and marry Mary anyway. Joseph didn't give in to his fear, he obeyed.
But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee.
Here Joseph was afraid again, but he didn't need to go against his fear this time. He obeyed the angel again and went back home to were he and Mary first met and got engaged.
Fear is not a good thing. Fear can make us do things that we would never consider otherwise, things we will regret later. Whenever we feel fear about something, we could ask ourselves, "Why am I afraid? What am I afraid of?" That will bring us to realize that either our fear is unreasonable, and we need not fear; or that it is legitimate, and what we are to do about the situation. So we need never give in to our fear, we can use our intelligence God gave us to reason out the best, most righteous course to take. Like Joseph did, in obeying instead of giving in to fear. He was a righteous man, the Dad God picked out to raise His Son.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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