Cast your mind back to a time before Advent and imagine this scenario. You are engaged to be married, and the long–awaited wedding day is fast approaching. You love each other and have avoided intimate relations waiting for the precious moment of being declared spouses. Suddenly you receive unexpected news. Your fiancée is pregnant. How would you react to that?
Well, that’s what happened to Joseph, Mary’s fiancé, according to Matthew 1:18–25. It does not take much to put ourselves in his sandals and imagine his devastation, never mind his sense of betrayal and hurt. And that’s before we consider that being pledged to be married was, at that time, somewhat more serious than it is today.
Usually, the commitment period was a year, and it couldn’t just be cancelled at any time. In a sense, the fiancés were already considered spouses.
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