This is the Behold! of the angel who appears to Joseph. This is that 'behold.'This 'behold' is about to ask Joseph to re-define his entire world; to turn everything upside down and inside out. This is not some casual change (a new smartphone) or even a mind-bending change (consider what it would be like if today, out of the blue, the government announced that we would all now drive on the left instead of the right!). This is bigger than that.
This is about meaning and purpose and things eternal. This angel is asking Joseph to shift everything that he has been taught, and I would imagine, held dear at some level, and set it aside for a new path and a new way of acting.
"Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife." Joseph thought he was going out on a limb by considering quietly divorcing Mary so to save her from public ridicule. The rules he had ordered his life by did not really support even this merciful solution.
Now the angel was telling him to set all this aside and trust in God by taking Mary as his wife, even when the child she was carrying was not his own. He was to take this child into his family and include him in his family's lineage.
Angels bring messages, but not always messages we want to receive. Watch for Behold! part 2
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