Hearing God's Voice & Enduring Divine Silence in the Story of Joseph

When God Speaks In Amazing Ways

Chapters 1 and 2 of Matthew cover the events of the Nativity. Joseph is a main character in Matthew's narrative. He's a good, godly man, seeking to do right by Mary in a difficult situation. Mary, the woman Joseph is betrothed to but has never been with, is pregnant, and it's unclear who the father is. What is a good man to do? The Bible says "he resolves to divorce her quietly," doing a good job of straddling justice and mercy in a difficult circumstance.

But what seems right and good to his own reasoning isn't actually God's plan for their family, and God makes that clear by speaking to Him in miraculous ways.

In Matthew 1:20, we see an angel visit Joseph in a dream, speaking direction from God to keep Mary as his wife (God speaks through dreams, God speaks through angelic visitations!). Then again in Matthew 2:13-15, Joseph receives another dream that saves his family's life, warning them to flee to Egypt and then to return to Israel. Then throughout these two narratives we also get reminders from Matthew that God had foretold these things in the Scriptures (God speaks through His word in Scripture!), which were written by prophets (God speaks directly to people!).

Joseph was a man who knew God's voice in Scripture and strived to live a righteous life according to what he knew. But he was also open to the voice of God in daily life. He listened to his dreams for spiritual significance. He stepped out in faith according to what he heard, doing potentially really scary things out of that faith. And God rewarded him in that. Jesus' life was protected and prophesy fulfilled because Joseph followed the leading of God.

Sometimes hearing God's voice looks like this: glorious.

Seeing angels. Getting prophetic dreams. Escaping danger. We can be thankful for when God is clear with us, and marvel that He chooses to reveal Himself in glorious ways. We can ask for more of this, we can practice listening to our dreams and weighing them for spiritual significance, and we can trust that God can direct our paths when we need to make important decisions.

When God Chooses Not To Speak

There is one more point to be made here about Joseph and hearing God's voice, and this one is taken instead from the Nativity story of Luke's gospel:

God does not always choose to speak, and sometimes He works in the background through hard circumstances that we don't in the moment understand.

In Luke, Joseph's character gets much less air time. But we see him come up in Luke 2:4-7, as he takes Mary to Bethlehem for the census. While they were there, Mary goes into labor, but they can't find a place to stay other than a stable. Jesus is ingloriously, and yet gloriously, laid in a manger. And it seems from the narrative like during this whole episode, God does not speak at all.

A census brought them to Bethlehem, not God's voice.

Knocking on doors and getting rejected brought them to the stable.

As a new mom myself, I can only imagine the despair, stress, maybe even terror that Mary felt, knowing that she would have to undergo this painful experience without familial support, in a town not her home, and in a dirty stable.

I'm sure they were both praying for answers and open doors, but those did not come.

No angel came to unlock the door to a clean, well-stocked hospital suite.

No prophetic stranger came to alleviate their burdens and accompany them through labor.

No dream assured them that Plan A was a manger.

They were alone.

And yet, they were not alone. God was with them. God knew where they were. God was "speaking," communicating with and leading them through circumstances even if His voice wasn't clearly heard. He ordered their steps. He brought them safely through the delivery. And God speaks to us, today, through their story.

Today, we celebrate the king laid in a manger, and what was a moment of silence, pain and confusion for Joseph and Mary is now one of our most treasured symbols of God's love for us. That manger holds so much weight and significance: the King who humbled Himself to identify with our pain and suffering. The gospel would not be the same without the manger.

Even in His silence, God speaks. 

If you, like me, are in a season where it feels like God isn't speaking, and you're left on your own in a hard situation, take heart from the story of Joseph. 

God is here. God is with you. When He speaks, He speaks intentionally, to guide you on the right path and fulfill His plans for your life. He is able to show you things that cannot be discerned just by our own human understanding. Listen for Him. Trust Him. Follow Him. 

When He doesn't speak, He chooses silence intentionally, and the glory He is infusing into your moments of pain will be sung about one day when we all gather together in heaven and get to see the full picture of the story God is writing with your life. He doesn't waste a moment of your pain, and He is always with you.

 As we approach Christmas in the coming week, let's tune our hearts in trust to the God who speaks, and the God who writes beautiful stories out of even the most challenging situations.

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.