ST Matthew: 1-8

This chapter in the Bible starts off by giving the reader a lineage of the people that came before Joseph and it also showed the reader how Joseph was a descendant of Abraham. Very early on in this chapter the communication of God to Joseph through dreams is introduced. The first dream Joseph has begins with God telling him not to leave Mary and to instead stay with her and be the father of Jesus Christ who was put into Mary by the Holy Ghost. After this first dream from God there were 4 other instances where dreams were mentioned. Dreams were used in this narrative as a vessel for the will of the lord to come to fruition. God wanted Joseph to go to Egypt to keep Jesus safe so he told Joseph in a dream. He then wanted Joseph to go back to their home because those that were chasing him were dead and he told Joseph this through a dream. Unlike early parts of the bible where God speaks directly to his subjects, he uses dreams instead to have his subjects carry out his will. This might be because through the generations after Abraham the connection between God and man has been weakened so direct conversation is not possible for him.