Forgotten Dreams In the Nativity

 

"It Wasn't His Child"

By Sawyer Brown

 

He was her man, she was his wife

And late one winter night

He knelt by her

As she gave birth

But it wasn't his child,

It wasn't his child

Yet still he took him as his own

And as he watched him grow

It brought him joy

But it wasn't his child

It wasn't his child

But like a father he was strong and kind

And I believe he did his best

It wasn't easy for him

But he did all could

His son was different from the rest

It wasn't his child

It wasn't his child

And when the boy became a man

He took his father's hand

And soon the world

Would all know why

It wasn't his child

It wasn't his child

But like a father he was strong and kind

And I believe he did his best

It wasn't easy for him

But he did all could

He grew up with his hands in wood

And he died with his hands in wood

He was God's child,

He was God's child

He was her man

She was his wife

And late one night

He knelt by her

As she gave birth

But it wasn't his child

It was God's child

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the season of every year when both the believing and unbelieving worlds halt to celebrate an event known as "Christ-Mass" for reasons of religion, tradition and sometimes just to have a party or to meet their yearly sales goals.

Everyone knows the story of the Nativity (from the Latin "Natalis" for "Birth").

Or perhaps I should say they know the folklore about the day which is full of Historical and Biblical Inaccuracies just like the music video posted below.  I ask you dear reader to suspend objections to Christ-Mass History and Traditions for just a moment to look at a forgotten aspect of the Nativity that we can absolutely find in Scripture. It is a part of the story that both the Churchmen and Academics have long overlooked.

Have you ever noticed how many lives were saved in the Nativity Story by The Creator speaking to almost everyone involved in this story through Dreams?

The first life to be saved was that of Mary herself.

Mary (Miriam) was a high school aged girl in a small Middle Eastern town

that was also very very religious at the dawn of the the 1st Century.

Picture a small Southern Bible Belt town in the 1950's (but courts ran by the Taliban) and being an unwed teenage mother who has been arranged to marry her high school sweetheart once they graduate. The girl comes from a long line of preachers as even her cousin has married has married a preacher named Zach set to be on giving the prayer at the  National Day of Prayer at the White House. The boy she has been engaged to is named Joe and he works as a general contractor (the family business in a town where family reputation keeps you in business). There is no public assistance for those who are shunned by the community so without his business the family would literally starve wife and children and all. Yet she is pregnant and the whole town knows.

Joe's lineage includes a former President, a fact which the family is very proud of despite their current poverty. In fact, everyone in the town is descended from the same President named David Melech. So we have a family of preachers and a family of statesmen arranged to be joined by the marriage of two teenagers in a very public engagement that the everyone witnessed in the town square. Then the girl, Mary, is suddenly pregnant and that baby doesn't belong to Joe. She claims to be visited by an angel in the middle of the night and that the baby will be the one to "Make America Great Again" (just not in the way either the Conservatives or the Liberals anticipated).

Joe is of course really upset so he is getting ready to wake up the next morning and Google an attorney's number to end the whole marriage quietly. This would let Mary be quietly sent off to live with her cousin up North until the whole thing blew over. Mary would be condemned to a life of single motherhood and be forever separated from her family and friends and home and not qualified for food stamps or daycare. She would also be in a desperate level of poverty but at least she would be safe from the town gossips down at the Church. She would also be shielded from prosecution for breach of contract and from a lengthy public trial. The appointment with the attorney has been booked online so Joe lays his troubled head down to rest, and they Joseph has a dream:

"Now the birth of Yeshua the Messiah happened this way.

When His mother Miriam was engaged to Joseph but before they came together,

she was found to be pregnant through the Ruach ha-Kodesh.

And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, made up his mind to dismiss her secretly.

But while he considered these things, behold, an angel of

Adonai appeared to him in a dream, saying,

“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Miriam as your wife,

for the Child conceived in her is from the Ruach ha-Kodesh.

She will give birth to a son; and you shall call His name Yeshua,

for He will save His people from their sins.

”Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by

Adonai through the prophet, saying,

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son,

and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which means “God with us.”

When Joseph woke up from his sleep, he did as the angel of

Adonai commanded him and took Miriam as his wife.

But he did not know her intimately until she had given birth to a Son.

And he called His name Yeshua."

Gospel Of Matthew Chapter 1 Verse 18 to 24

Tree of Life Version

Mary's (Miriam's) life is saved in the physical way because the hyper-religious Taliban like Judges and Prosecutors running the town can't touch her legally. The life of her heart  is also saved because she will be covered by Joe and not be an unwed mother or an adulteress. All because of a Dream given by God to her husband on her behalf.

Joe's life just became far more difficult for the rest of his life however. He has lost the support of his family and community and the profits from the family business. As John E. Thomas of Streams Ministries points out, Joseph is now known as the "guy who just couldn't wait." It is now Joseph who has publicly shamed every person of influence n his life. When Joseph saved Mary's life he also took on her very public shunning by both their families and by the community. I believe that somehow, some way, he knew that Mary's Heavenly Father would provide if Joe chose to be a man of valor and stand up as her wall and her shield against both cameras and guns and sharp tongues.

Why did Joseph choose this difficult path? Yes we know that he was a Tzaddik (Righteous Man), but he was still going to Divorce her quietly the night before.

Joseph chose to take on this woman and a baby that wasn't his for the rest of his life because of a dream. Joseph knew in his Spirit that this dream wasn't from expired falafel for dinner, this dream was from The Creator asking him to be a Wall and a Shield.

"Just A Girl"

By Brandon Heath

 

(Video of the Christ-Mass Folklore)

I wonder if you've heard the story

Of little fame and lesser glory

The night the keeper of the inn

The little town of Bethlehem

Encountered Joseph and his Mary

About to birth the Savior of the world

His wife said go and see who's knocking

He ran down to the gate unlocked it

The moment he heard Mary's cry

He couldn't look them in the eye

Denied them and went back to bed

When his wife asked who was there

He said I don't know

Just a girl

Just a couple gypsies begging at the door

Told them we don't have room for anymore

And closed the door

It was just a girl

He tried to sleep and wasn't able

He snuck out to the dirty stable

The two had found for covering

And later in her suffering

The keeper knelt outside the barn

And in the light of that great star

He prayed what have I done

He's just a babe

Just minutes old there trembling in the hay

I could have found a room for them to stay

I'm so ashamed

He's just a babe

There was no robe

There was no crown

The shepherds stood

On royal ground

The keeper wept

For what he'd done

He turned away

God's own Son

Just a King

Just a million angels crowding in to see

Jesus there among humanity

Just a babe

Just minutes old there trembling in the hay

Staring at his mother in the face

She's just a girl

Just a girl

Does she even know that she just changed the world

Does she even know that He will save the world

Does Mary know that He will save the world

She's just a girl

Just a girl

Just a girl

 

 

What about Mary though? Abortion was actually common in many parts of the Ancient World. The Egyptians had discovered a plant that could either prevent or eliminate pregnancy and they harvested that plant into extinction. The Spartans (cousins of the Jews according to the Books of Maccabees) would simply leave any child unfit to be an Olympic Athlete to die out in the elements. The Phoenicians on the northern border of Israel put their unwanted infants into a fire and in the southwest corner of Jerusalem the Jews  had turned the former grounds of Planned Parenthood Headquarters into a giant trash heap and mass grave called "Gehenna" (we would translate it as "Hell"). So they most definitely had unplanned pregnancy. 

Christianity had not come about yet there were no orphanages or public hospitals or soup kitchens as there were all invented by the Church throughout the Ages. The Temple in Jerusalem was also no longer overseeing the distribution of care for orphans and fatherless and aliens and widows through the "Local Levites"  as it had been before.

 

Why did Mary not simply "end her pregnancy" as many of today's mothers and grandmothers would instruct her to do? Why was her cousin Elizabeth mentoring her as instructed in the Letter to Timothy before the Letter to Timothy was written?

 

Because Mary had a dream from God and that dream has already come true! Her cousin Liz (married to the famous preacher Zach) was ready for the nursing home when she became pregnant with a boy named John. If we look at the preaching rotation of Zach and his other pastors in that denomination, this boy John was born on Passover and was 6 months older than Mary's soon to be baby boy.  This would mean that Mary's baby boy was born near New Year (the Feast of Trumpets also called Rosh HaShanah which is in September) and was conceived near the Feast of Dedication (also called Hannukah). Hanukah is on the 25th day of the 12th Hebrew month, called Kislev in the mid-winter.

 

The Creator has been weaving the dreams and the outcome of the dreams together for Mary and Joseph to both believe that God can come to them in a dream. 

"Then in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by Adonai into a town in the Galilee named Natzeret and to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David.

The virgin’s name was Miriam. And coming to her, the angel said, “Shalom, favored one! Adonai is with you." But at the message, she was perplexed and kept wondering what kind of greeting this might be. The angel spoke to her, “Do not be afraid, Miriam, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you shall call His name Yeshua. He will be great and will be called Ben-Elyon. Adonai Elohim will give Him the throne of David, His father.

He shall reign over the house of Jacob for all eternity, and His kingdom will be without end.”

Miriam said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am not intimate with a man?” And responding, the angel said to her, “The Ruach ha-Kodesh will come upon you, and the power of Elyon will overshadow you. Therefore, the Holy One being born will be called Ben-Elohim. Behold, even your relative Elizabeth has conceived a son in her old age; and the one who was called barren is six months pregnant. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

So Miriam said, “Behold, the servant of Adonai. Let it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel left her."

insert flight to Egypt and Magi----------------------

In the Ancient world nothing could be worse than separation from your Tribe and your Community. Most often it was a literal death sentence to be left into the land of those with a different faith and different language and culture.  It was to say the least, extremely difficult. Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Turkey however had the largest Jewish populations of anywhere else in the world outside Judea so Joseph likely found some community where he and Mary landed. In a time without telephone or internet or even Facebook and Telegram, Joseph got the news of Herod's death. He also got a message saying that it was time for him to come home despite death threats on his family by the local government. So he surrendered his family's  Refugee Status/Political Asylum Status and returned to his home country with his wife and his toddler.

"But when Herod died, behold, an angel of Adonai appears in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and go to the land of Israel, for those seeking the Child’s life are dead.”

So he got up, took the Child and His mother, and went to the land of Israel. But hearing that Archelaus was king of Judea in place of his father Herod, he became afraid to go there. Then after being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the region of the Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Natzeret, to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets, that Yeshua shall be called a Natzrati."

Gospel of Matthew Chapter 2 Verses 19 to 23

Tree Of Life Version