Matthew 1:24 Commentary and Bible Study

When someone awakens from a dream, they may experience great relief that it was only a dream. While they dreamt, it may be that wonderful or even terrible things were done to them, and they were convinced that they were real. It may be that great fears came upon them through imaginary threats. Perhaps also they themselves did certain things in the dream which they knew they should not have done and wished fervently they had not done. But now they are awake it was only a dream, and they can dismiss all this from their minds; they can absolve themselves from responsibility for their actions to a great extent; dreams have no authority over us. But when God spoke in time past the dream came with divine authority that could not be set aside. Joseph knew that God had sent his angel to speak to him and he immediately did as he was instructed. He believed what God had said to him and his trust was fully restored in the integrity of Mary in a way that would not have been possible if she had tried herself to speak to him about this matter. The message that he had received had revealed hidden things to him, things that he could never have discovered for himself, and his heart was at peace about this extraordinary event. God’s word came to the prophets with the same strong assurance so that they were in no doubt that the message they spoke to the world was God’s infallible truth. God does not speak to us in dreams today because his word is complete and it is sufficient for all our needs. His word now takes the place of any personal communication and should come to us with the same assurance of truth as this message to Joseph and as the prophecies which were given to holy men of old.Joseph now took Mary into his home as his wife but refrained from intercourse with Mary until the child was born. It seems that he understood that this was what God desired. This detail, though a private matter, is something that we need to know, and which we can be sure of because it is recorded in Scripture.