Joseph is the very first person to present the child as the Saviour sent by God. He is the very first person to proclaim the gift of God’s grace to Israel in the birth of this child.1 He gets to proclaim that salvation has finally come to the house of David! Joseph wasn’t anyone special, at least not before God chose him to be the father of Jesus. “He was just a carpenter, a blue-collar guy who loved a girl.”2 But he was also righteous: he obeyed God’s will as best as he understood it. His small obedience made salvation possible. God used him to accomplish the single greatest feat in the history of this world: he sent his Son on a rescue mission.
25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.