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Joseph's sleep
Joseph's dreams to go to Egypt saved Jesus life! He was missing for Herod and his soldiers.
The angel did not say: 'Run away!' or 'Run for your lives!'
The angel said: "Escape to Egypt!"
Do normal things. It starts with getting up.
The angel said: "Get up." To do anything you have to start there.
Then he didn't say: 'Take all your stuff!' No, things are not as important as people.
The angel said: "Take the child and his mother." Yes. He took all those in his family.
They had stuff to take care of. Tools of Joseph's trade. The gifts the magi brought for the baby and his family. But they had taken care of most of those things before..after all they had been constantly travelling for a while. Some of these things were too heavy before. They had kept the basic things and tools handy.
Joseph woke up....he immediately took action. He got up even if it was the middle of the night...woke up at least the mother and left with child and mother right away.
Joseph didn't question at this point at all. It was time to act. He trusted the Lord.
How did Joseph know that the angel of the Lord was the one communicating in dreams?
The angel communicated with Joseph before...an important time was when he was deciding about Mary's place in his life. He knew that there was truth in the dreams he had.
The angel of the Lord brings a greeting and reassures: "Do not be afraid." Don't fret. Be not afraid.
Matthew 1:20
The angel of the Lord is identified because only Joseph could have told others about this name to have this name printed in the Bible. The angel of the Lord explains questions of the one visited.
And Following the instructions always brings peace.
It seems Joseph had a dream whenever he had to make decisions.
He had a dream, when it was time to return to Israel.
This time there was no haste.
"Get up!"
Put people before things. "Take the child and his mother."
Don't run. No.
"Go to the land of Israel."
He did.
Again there was no haste.
When he was nearing the Judean border, he heard of human warnings in his waking state.
"He was AFRAID to to go there."
No angel had come yet to give instructions or to confirm his actions.
So Joseph prayed about the whole matter.
Then he had another dream to decide about living in Galilee instead of Judea with his family.
The angel of the Lord must have said in another dream:
'Get up, take the child and his mother and go to live in Nazareth until further notice!'
It says: "And he went and lived in a town called Nazareth."
So was fulfilled what the angel of the Lord wanted at that particular time. The angel of the Lord had stated this before in the times of the prophets that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene.
Joseph was not the only one with warning dreams.
At least one magi had one too, that he mentioned before leaving to return to his country by another route.
Did Bethehem's men and women also have angel of the Lord dreams? Did they just dismiss them by not listening at all? If they did, they lost precious lives of the innocents that ended up not only "missing".
Do you and people around you have angel of the Lord dreams that warn you?
Remember the angel of the Lord reassures you, is identified and gives explanations to your important questions.
You had better listen and act on anything the angel of the Lord communicates to you!
You had better pray and ask the Lord to reveal what to do when you hear human warnings about other people.
That way "missing people" will only be "missing" to people who look for them with wrong motives.
Lord, thank you that you say to us all, "Get up."
Thank you for showing us the path of peace around obstacles.
Thank you for warning mechanisms in the world.
Sirens, emergency public service announcements, the news...
Angel of the Lord dreams, stories of others in similar circumstances...
Indicator lights, traffic lights, ...
Colour coding, something that stands out of the ordinary in organizations,...
Jesus Christ, we thank you that you have taught us how to pray...the Our Father...the Beatitudes...
Keep us from worrying unnecessarily. Indicate to us what we should do.
Amen.
Crossref: A weak voice
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