{"id":458,"date":"2025-07-30T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=458&2025"},"modified":"2025-07-28T18:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T00:00:09","slug":"living-with-secrets-matthew-1-18-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/living-with-secrets-matthew-1-18-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Living with Secrets: Matthew 1:18-25"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: Matthew 1:18-25 (NASB)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\" style=\"display: none;\"><p><sup>18<\/sup>\u00a0Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. <sup>19<\/sup>\u00a0And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned <span class=\"tooltiptrigger\">*<\/span><span class=\"tooltip\">Or <em>to divorce her<\/em><\/span>to send her away secretly. <sup>20<\/sup>\u00a0But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, &#8220;Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been <span class=\"tooltiptrigger\">*<\/span><span class=\"tooltip\">Lit <em>begotten<\/em><\/span>conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. <sup>21<\/sup>\u00a0She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.&#8221; <sup>22<\/sup>\u00a0Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: <sup>23<\/sup>\u00a0&#8220;B<span class=\"small-caps\">EHOLD<\/span>, <span class=\"small-caps\">THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH<\/span> <span class=\"small-caps\">CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A<\/span> S<span class=\"small-caps\">ON<\/span>, <span class=\"small-caps\">AND THEY SHALL CALL<\/span> H<span class=\"small-caps\">IS NAME<\/span> I<span class=\"small-caps\">MMANUEL<\/span>,&#8221; which translated means, &#8220;G<span class=\"small-caps\">OD WITH US<\/span>.&#8221; <sup>24<\/sup>\u00a0And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took <em>Mary<\/em> as his wife, <sup>25<\/sup>\u00a0<span class=\"tooltiptrigger\">*<\/span><span class=\"tooltip\">Lit <em>and was not knowing her<\/em><\/span>but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. <\/p><p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=matthew 1:18-25&amp;version=NASB\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">Matthew 1:18-25<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>For this journal entry, we will look a little closer at one of the events in Jesus\u2019 birth, and uncover a truth that I found especially interesting. This truth is hidden in plain sight, but it is easy to miss if you read this story without paying attention.<\/p>\r\n<p>In verse 25 we read, \u201c<strong>but <\/strong>[Joseph]<strong> kept her <\/strong>[Mary]<strong> a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p>While Joseph had planned to send Mary away silently to not publicly disgrace her, an angel in a dream convinced him otherwise. We don\u2019t know if their wedding was the next day, or if it happened at a future date, or if Jesus was conceived weeks or months before. If Mary raced off to be with Elizabeth for three months prior to her wedding, then it would be very possible that Jesus would have clearly appeared to have been conceived outside of marriage. However, if all this happened before or right around the same time with Joseph and Mary traveling to see Elizabeth and Zechariah immediately following their marriage (a.k.a. honeymoon), then it would have looked to outsiders that Jesus was a honeymoon baby.<\/p>\r\n<p>We know from reading Matthew that <strong>Joseph kept Mary as a virgin until after Jesus was born \u2013 but to everyone else looking at the scene, it probably would have looked as though Jesus was Joseph\u2019s son.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>This is significant because often times in our own lives, each family has secrets that they don\u2019t want to share and\/or they don\u2019t feel are either believable or relevant for others to know. Perhaps it is simply a countercultural choice that the couple has made that they don\u2019t want to share for fear it will cause division, or perhaps it is a dark secret that has brought the family shame in the past and they would rather it be erased from their history.<\/p>\r\n<p>At any rate, Joseph and Mary had an incredible and unbelievable family secret, and Joseph accepted the reality that it meant, and chose to raise Jesus as his own Son. <strong>Joseph stepped into the unbelievable, and became the earthly father to the Savior of the world.<\/strong> For us, <strong>we cannot change the past, but we can choose to accept the place we are currently at<\/strong> (including all the craziness present) <strong>and see it as a step towards moving forward into a better future.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--458\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '458');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For this journal entry, we will look a little closer at one of the events in Jesus\u2019 birth, and uncover a truth that I found especially interesting. This truth is hidden in plain sight, but it is easy to miss if you read this story without paying attention. In verse 25 we read, \u201cbut [Joseph] [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Living with Secrets: Matthew 1:18-25 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/living-with-secrets-matthew-1-18-25\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Living with Secrets: Matthew 1:18-25 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For this journal entry, we will look a little closer at one of the events in Jesus\u2019 birth, and uncover a truth that I found especially interesting. 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