Week 35 Matthew 1-2
Specific unambiguous directional dreams from the Lord aren’t all that common and not too many people in the NT get them. But Joseph did. He had four:
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…”
An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you…”
An angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel…”
Having been warned in a dream, (Joseph) withdrew to the district of Galilee.
Joseph is famous because of his connection with Jesus. But being part of the Mary-Joseph-Jesus Christmas Story was the only reason for his notoriety. Other than that he was mostly a shadowy and unknown man. No one knows where he came from or what happened to him. Mostly a life of obscurity. Except for those couple of key years where he played the role of saving the endangered life of Jesus while the Lord was still just a defenseless little kid.
But there at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel Joseph had his short & decisive role to play.
Then I guess that for him it was back to regular dreaming.
Note: quotes from Matthew 1:20 2:13 19-20 22 (NIV)