An Angel Comes to Joseph
¹⁸ This was how Jesus, God’s Anointed One, was born.
His mother, Mary, had promised Joseph to be his wife, but while she was still a virgin she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Her fiancé, Joseph, was a righteous man full of integrity and he didn’t want to disgrace her, but when he learned of her pregnancy he secretly planned to break the engagement. ²⁰ While he was still debating with himself about what to do, he fell asleep and had a supernatural dream. An angel from the Lord appeared to him in clear light and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, don’t hesitate to take Mary into your home as your wife, because the power of the Holy Spirit has conceived a child in her womb. ²¹ She will give birth to a son and you are to name him ‘Savior,’ for he is destined to give his life to save his people from their sins.”
²² This happened so that what the Lord spoke through his prophet would come true:
²³ Listen! A virgin will be pregnant,

she will give birth to a Son,
and he will be known as “Emmanuel,”
which means in Hebrew,
“God became one of us.”
²⁴ When Joseph awoke from his dream, he did all that the angel of the Lord instructed him to do. He took Mary to be his wife, ²⁵ but they refrained from having sex until she gave birth to her son, whom they named “Jesus.” Matthew 1:18-25