Printable Handout

1. What would Joseph have assumed by finding Mary pregnant?

2. What does Joseph plan to do? How could this differ from what he was able to do?

3. What is significant about Joseph being the one to name Jesus?

4. When someone is given a name like this it usually has a meaning, what is the meaning of Jesus’ name?

5. What do we see here as Jesus’ mission on earth?

6. How does Matthew connect this to Isaiah 7:14?

7. In what ways do we have to balance law and compassion in our own lives and in our communities?

Welcome to session 2! In this section you’ll have your people read through Matthew 1:18-25 and Isaiah 7:1-16 as a parallel to Matthew’s OT reference here. You should read these passages yourself and the teaching guide as well for some extra insight into the passage to help you answer any questions that might pop up.

As with previous sessions, start with some fellowship. This portion needs to be highly unique to your group. You can include some kind of meal or refreshment here. You can also include some singing if you have people that are musically talented. You can also do an ice breaker (see the Hybrid Discipleship site for ice breakers). 

The main thing you want to happen here is getting them to talk and making everyone comfortable with each other. Don’t forget that one of the major goals of a group like this is breeding intimacy in the church. You want them to take the time to build friendships here and talk about life. This process doesn’t need to be overly complicated or structured either. It can be as simple as going around in a circle and asking how everyone’s week as been, encouraging them to give more than just a “good” or “alright.” 

After this you may want to give an overview of the passages if you see fit, but it is entirely optional. If you are good at teaching then you might be more inclined to do so and I would encourage it, but those not inclined towards teaching, feel no pressure to give an overview of the passage/info from the teacher’s guide. 

Your next step, as always, is to read scripture. Read through Matthew 1:18-25 and Isaiah 7:1-16. Then begin your discussion.

Discussion Questions

1. What would Joseph have assumed by finding Mary pregnant?

   • Joseph would have assumed that Mary got pregnant by another man. Essentially it would have been (and still is) natural to assume that she’s cheating on him because he hasn’t slept with her and yet she’s pregnant.

2. What does Joseph plan to do? How could this differ from what he was able to do?

   • He plans to divorce her

   • According to Old Testament Law the price of infidelity would have been stoning, but by Joseph’s day it would have been more appropriate to just divorce her

   • This divorce would have properly been a very public trial, but Joseph plans to do it quietly, likely with only two witnesses

3. What is significant about Joseph being the one to name Jesus?

   • For the day and time, naming the child would mean claiming them as your own, much like in our modern day how the father signs the birth certificate

4. When someone is given a name like this it usually has a meaning, what is the meaning of Jesus’ name?

   • Jesus’ name essentially means “God saves”

5. What do we see here as Jesus’ mission on earth?

   • Jesus’ mission was and is to save us from our sins

6. How does Matthew connect this to Isaiah 7:14?

   • This virgin birth in Isaiah is a type of what is to come in Jesus. A virgin birth was the sign to Ahaz that he would be delivered from his enemies, Jesus’ virgin birth is a sign to even us now of Jesus delivering us from humanity’s true enemies: sin and death.

7. In what ways do we have to balance law and compassion in our own lives and in our communities?

Introduction

In this section of Matthew we get a small glimpse into the birth narrative, and the first of four Old Testament references concerning Jesus’ early childhood. Unlike the modern day where we are concerned with one’s childhood, mostly because of psychology, in the ancient world one’s childhood wasn’t seen as terribly important. This is why we ultimately know little of Christ’s childhood overall. We learn about the miraculous birth and a few odd details, most of which point towards particular prophecies, but very little time is spent in the gospels on Jesus’ upbringing. In fact only two gospels even record Jesus’ virginal birth, and of those two only Luke goes in detail. 

This is to say that you should moderate your expectations of what is to come over the next few sessions. In Matthew we will just breeze through Jesus’ birth, by breeze through it I mean that it’s essentially off screen. We get the prelude to it here, then 2:1 Jesus is already born in Bethlehem without any fanfare unlike Luke’s account. Luke paints Jesus’ birth as the coming of a divine king, truly the incarnation of God. Luke does very well to portray the glory and majesty of it all. Matthew, on the other hand, is far more concerned with connecting everything to the Old Testament. Thus the next few sessions will be focused in on an Old Testament passage to pair with Matthew’s account. 

For the sake of this part of the guide, I will give an in-depth view of Matthew’s account and just hit a general overview of the Old Testament Scripture because I want to keep focused on Matthew here. I have included that your people should read the Old Testament passage as well, this is primarily to help solidify that the bible is truly interconnected (and the connections are a piece of this guide as well.

Matthew 1:18-25

Unlike Luke’s narrative, and really how most of us today think of the Christmas story, Matthew doesn’t spend any time focusing on Mary. We don’t get a scene of Mary meeting an angel and being told that she will give birth to the Son of God. Instead Matthew’s account focuses on Joseph’s role in Jesus’ birth. 

The scene is this: Joseph, the descendant of David, is engaged to this girl named Mary. He found out that Mary was with a child and assumed what most of us would, that Mary had been sleeping around and got pregnant. Then in verse 19 we get some ideas that might prove a bit confusing for those unfamiliar with ancient Jewish custom. 

First is this: even though Joseph and Mary are only engaged, Joseph is called her Husband and is thinking of divorcing Mary even though they haven’t been properly married yet. In ancient Jewish customs the idea of betrothal or engagement was far more serious than it is for us today. In their day and time, a woman would usually be engaged at 12 (Turner, 40), a fact that might be a bit awkward for us modern readers. Additionally the engagement period would usually last about a year (France, 82), likely the place that Mary and Joseph were in when this happened. Mary would have been under Joseph as his wife even though they hadn’t fully completed the marriage yet. (Turner, 40)

Joseph naturally would have thought that Mary had been unfaithful to him, what else could we expect of him? If you were engaged and the girl had turned up pregnant despite you never having been with her in that way, you’d have the same assumption. It wouldn’t matter what Mary says, even if she tells the truth it would just sound to Joseph like her trying to come up with ridiculous excuses for infidelity. Despite this, we see Joseph’s good nature. He was a “righteous man” (Mt 1:19 NASB), in other words he was a man who followed Jewish religious law (France, 82). The law had a clear consequence for Mary here, a public stoning for infidelity (Deut 22:13–21) (France, 82), but by this period it has become more customary to seek a divorce instead (Deut 24:1). Thus Joseph is planning to divorce Mary.

In this divorce do we see Joseph’s character. He could easily drag this out into a public trial, but he doesn’t. He instead decides to “send her away secretly” (Mt. 1:19), which is most likely just a rather quiet divorce with at most two witnesses (France, 82). Much like we see in Jesus throughout Matthew’s account, Joseph appears here to be a man dedicated to honoring God through the law, but at the same time balances that righteousness with compassion, even for those who have done him wrong (Turner, 40).

Joseph then gets visited by an angel in his dream, telling him what we already know: that Mary is not pregnant from another man, but from the Holy Spirit and that his child is to be named Jesus and this child will save His people from their sins. Don’t miss here that Joseph is the one being asked to name the child. To name a child, even if it isn’t yours, is to publicly and formally recognize the child as your own (France, 83). Jesus inherits Joseph’s Davidic lineage because Joseph is the one to name him and formally declare Jesus as his child.

Jesus’ very name is also very poignant. Jesus is the Greekified version of the Hebrew name Joshua (Turner, 41). The very sound of the Hebrew name would be similar to the verb meaning “he will save” and the etymology of the name would turn up a meaning of “Yahweh is salvation”, or “O save, Yahweh.” (France, 83) Jesus’ very name is related to his mission, which we also see here: that he will save his people from their sins. 

Now it often gets peddled around, and rightly so, in our churches that the Jews were expecting some kind of national liberator, that Jesus was supposed to come make Israel an independent nation once again (France, 83). Yet Matthew makes it clear from the start here that Jesus’ mission isn’t to grant freedom in a political sense, but to give us freedom in a much truer and spiritual sense. The great enemy of God’s people that Jesus is embattled against is not Rome, but death itself.

Matthew then relates this to Isaiah 7:14, which has generated quite a bit of controversy over the years. There are three main schools of thought here, my sources (and indeed my own thinking) prefer the last of the three. 

School of Thought 1: Prediction

The prediction camp’s ideas follow as such: Isaiah was not suggesting the sign of a virgin to Ahaz for the current situation but was more or less exclusively talking about Christ (Turner, 43). While there are ensuing passages in Isaiah that do directly speak of Christ (like Isaiah 9:6-7) but this is not one of them. This view neglects the context of the verse. Isaiah here is giving Ahaz a sign that the two kings troubling him: that of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and Aram, are not long for this world (they would eventually be destroyed by Assyria in Isaiah’s day). This Immanuel is not supposed to grow old before these kings are destroyed, putting this out by 700 years instead of in Isaiah’s day where they did see the fall of these nations is a bit of a stretch.

School of Thought 2: Multiple Fulfillment

Those of this line of thinking believe that Isaiah meant a fulfillment in his own time, but with essentially divine hindsight was also unintentionally foretelling the future (Turner, 43). This is better than the prediction school of thought because it maintains the context of the passage itself while also maintaining a messianic nature to this particular verse. The flaw is that it creates an unnecessary and unwarranted separation between Isaiah’s prediction and God’s intentions.

School of Thought 3: Typological

This line of thinking suggests that this virginal birth was a type of what was to be fulfilled in Christ (Turner, 43). I far prefer this view because it is more in line with what we see elsewhere in scripture. In this particular instance a virgin will give birth to a son which will mean that God is with His people in a more metaphorical sense, in other words God won’t abandon Judah to her enemies. This is a type of what is to come, fulfilled in Christ. A virgin, Mary, gives birth to a child which will mean God is with His people in a literal sense, Jesus is God incarnate.

Another example of this would be Moses. He was a type of what was to come. Moses came and delivered the people of God from an oppressor and delivered unto them the Old Covenant. Jesus comes and delivers His people from the oppressors that are Sin and Death, and delivers unto us the New Covenant. 

Yet again we see this typology at work with David. David was a man after God’s own heart, one of Israel’s few truly good kings. He was a just ruler who fully established God’s kingdom. Jesus is a righteous king, far more righteous than David who ended up as an adulterer and murderer, who fully establishes God’s Kingdom in a way David never could have, and He will return to establish it even more properly.

I could go on and on with this typology with people like Adam, Abraham, and just about any major name throughout the Old Testament. Types of messiahs is not unheard of when comparing new and old testament, and thus fits quite nicely into this passage.

Conclusion

Overall this passage may be a bit short, but it definitely has some depth and a bit of controversy. As you prepare to lead the session this week, make sure to focus in on Joseph's positive character, and that of Christ’s mission that we will see unfold throughout Matthew. 

Bibliography

France, R. T. Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985.

Turner, David, and Darrell L. Bock. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 11: Matthew and Mark. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2005.