14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

sign—a miraculous token to assure thee that God will fulfil His promise of saving Jerusalem (Is 37:30). “Signs,” facts then present or near at hand as pledges for the more distant future, are frequent in Isaiah.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home of God is among mortals.

He will dwell with them as their God;

they will be his peoples,

and God himself will be with them;

The Birth of Jesus the Messiah

(Lk 2:1–7)

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.” 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

The process of engagement and marriage was quite different in Jesus’ time than it is today. Parents arranged marriages for their children. In the bride’s early teen years, a formal betrothal occurred a year to a year and a half before the marriage ceremony itself. This betrothal involved a contract with payment of a bride price, and thus it constituted a binding legal procedure. This contract could only be broken by a legal reversal, which was considered a divorce. This betrothal was a pre-marriage marriage

The death of one of the partners caused the other to be labeled a widow or widower. Sexual infidelity was considered adultery and subject to the legal penalties of adultery in that society. At the end of the betrothal period, a wedding ceremony and feast took place, after which the couple began to live together as husband and wife

During the betrothal, Mary … was found to be with child (1:18). Joseph’s response makes it clear that he was not the father of the child

The question Joseph faced was whether to proceed with a public trial to determine whether Mary had been seduced, raped, or had prostituted herself (Deut. 22:13–25). This would establish Joseph’s innocence in the pregnancy and force Mary’s parents to repay the bridal price. Unfortunately such a procedure would have subjected her to public disgrace. Joseph’s only other choice would be to seek a private divorce.

In verse 19, Matthew describes Joseph as a righteous man. The most natural meaning of this term is that he was a law-abiding person. Even a private divorce would have required two witnesses. His conflict was with how much public disgrace he would force Mary to suffer. It is likely that Matthew’s use of the word righteous to describe Joseph also reflected this concern for Mary’s well-being.

Though Matthew had named the Holy Spirit as the agent of conception in verse 18, this fact was not revealed to Joseph until verse 20. Joseph’s thinking about divorce was interrupted by the appearance of an angel of the Lord. Both the Hebrew and Greek words for angel had the basic meaning of messenger. The function of the angel was to deliver a message from God to Joseph.