“Are you ready to go hunting?” 

That’s all it took to get me up out of bed. I loved going squirrel hunting with Dad. The fact that it was still dark did not bother me at all. I jumped out of bed, put on my warmest clothes, and put a cap on my head. 

Dad made me comb my hair one morning before I plopped that cap on top. I learned that lesson well. 

One morning, a school day, I was having a hard time waking up. Mom kept calling me to breakfast and I kept dozing. Dad stepped into the room and asked, “Do you want to go squirrel hunting?” Up I jumped before realizing the trick he had played. 

Each of us has a trigger that, once pulled, moves us into immediate action. For a young mother, it is a certain cry distinguished from all other cries that rouses her from slumber. For a preacher, it’s that telephone call in the middle of the night when someone is near death. 

Joseph receives a couple of late-night calls in this chapter. The Wise Men had come and gone. Herod “was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him,” (verse 3). He was going to snuff out his newborn rival. 

Joseph was given specific, direct orders. He immediately complied. He heard God’s instructions and did what he was told. 

Sometime later, an angel appeared to him in a dream again saying, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, because those who intended to kill the child are dead,” (verses 19 and 20).  

You know enough about Joseph now to predict what happened next. “So he got up, took the child and his mother, and entered the land of Israel,” (verse 21). 

Joseph heard God’s instructions and obeyed them immediately. This is the secret of life. This is the secret of success. When you know what God expects, do it. This is true on special, nay spectacular, situations like Joseph, Mary, and Jesus experienced. This is true also in the hum-drum routines of daily life.

Here is your pathway for a successful day and an impactful life: Figure out what God wants and do it immediately. What honors him and serves others? What builds up others? What brings peace to your heart and overflows into the lives of others? 

Joseph is one of the best teachers of these truths in the Bible. Even though we never read a word he spoke, his example is like a megaphone. Listen and learn. Hear and obey.

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