In Dreams

Hey Everyone,

I have decided to study out the book of Matthew, as it is the only gospel that I have not studied out before.  I noticed this as I began the study, interesting things happen to Joseph in Matthew.  An angel appears to him in a dream on four different occasions and instructs Joseph to do something.  He always does what the angel says to to do.  This is commendable.

Let's take a look at what he is asked to do.  In Matthew 1:18-24, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him that he should go ahead and marry his pregnant fiance Mary, who has been impregnated by God's Holy Spirit.  To be honest, taken at face value, that is a pretty crazy dream.  Dreams can be crazy sometimes, but we simply recognize that they are dreams and quickly forget about them.  I mean last night, I had a dream in which President Obama asked me to be his running mate in the upcoming election.  I recognized when I awoke that it was simply a dream.  I didn't call the White House to see if the offer was genuine.  As for Joseph, it would be a lot easier to believe that Mary had been unfaithful than it would be to believe that the Spirit of God had indeed fathered a child with his betrothed.  But Joseph listened to the angel and did as the angel told him.

Later, in Matthew 2:13, an angel appears to him again and tells him to move to Egypt.  Joseph obeys. Even later, in Matthew 2:19, an angel appears to Joseph and tells him to move again, this time out of Egypt and back to Israel.  But when Joseph realizes that the new king, Archelaus, was really no better than his father, Herod, Joseph was afraid to move to Judea, so an angel appeared to Joseph a fourth time and told him to move to Galilee.  so Joseph moved to the town of Nazareth in Galilee.

So the angel appears to Joseph and Joseph obeys, once on whom to marry and twice on where to live.  To his credit, Joseph seems to always be open to the will of God on these very important matters in his life.  Today, I don't know that God sends angels to us in our dreams, but He still has a will for us, things that He wants us to do.  The first question would be, "OK, how do we know what God's will for us is?"  I don't know that there is an easy way to answer that, but I do know that Romans 12:2 says "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." If we are spiritual in our thinking rather than worldly, we can know what God's will for us is.  The second question would then be, "When we know God's will, do we do it?"  Joseph obeyed the will of God and became an important part of the greatest story ever told.