Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Last chapter we saw that Matthew had used passages and narratives from different places in relating the story of Jesus’s birth. This methods are called ‘Remez’ and ‘Drash’ by rabbis. Remez means ‘hint’ and drash means ‘compare’. The processes were both used by Matthew. First he found narratives that were linked by the idea of going into and coming out of Egypt. Then he overlaid them like transparencies so they made a single prophetic picture of Christ. Then he told us the details of how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies.

Modern theologians will tell you that Matthew could do that but that we can’t. The Apostles want us to imitate them.

2Ti 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

Three women at the well

There are three narratives of a woman at a well. This is practicing Remez. The first one tells of Rebekah (Ge 24), the second of Rachel (Ge 29) and the third is that of the woman at Sychar (John 4). It is enough that there is a woman at each well in order to link these narratives together, but there is more. It just so happens that all the wells are the same well.

Each narrative is individually a prophetic picture of Christ. The well represents the grave or tomb of Christ. It is a picture of the water (Word) in the ground. In the story of Rebekah, the well is open and the water is carried on her shoulder. I’ll cheat a bit by giving you metaphoric meanings that you can verify later:

Rebekah

The thigh represents the will. One places his hand on the thigh of another when promising to do his will. Walking represents living. So the thigh represents the will or purpose of one’s life. The shoulder is similar within the scope of works. The hands represent one’s works. The shoulder is the intention or purpose of one’s works. The will is the spiritual aspect of life, and the intention of works is the fleshly aspect of life. This duality is what Paul refers to when he says that he doesn’t do what he wants to do.

Rom 7: 15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

Rebekah was carrying water (Word) on her shoulder indicating that she had the Word and was willing to share it. It was her intention in her works to honor God. Prior to the cross, the Word was available to all men, but only a few chose to trust in the name of Christ:

John 1: 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Rachel

Rachel was waiting for the well (tomb) to be opened. There were three flocks of sheep waiting for water. Do you remember that the children of Abraham are described three ways: As dust [1], as sand [2], and as stars [2]?

Rachel had no water (Word), and the children of Abraham were waiting for the resurrection of Christ. This is the same desolation that is pictured other places. Christ, God incarnate, had been made to be sin [3], and his Father forsook him on the cross. Where is God on earth? How much more desolate could the earth become?

The stone was rolled away by Jacob who is the type of Christ, just as Christ rolled away the stone of his own tomb.

The woman at Sychar

There is no mention of the stone covering on the well. Now the tomb is open, as a picture of the empty tomb. The woman had come to draw water as a picture of her desire for the Word of God. Jesus proclaims that he is the living water (Word). Notice his position. The Water (Word) is outside the well (tomb).

John 4: 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

Put them together

As we overlay the narratives we will see a clearer prophetic picture of Christ.

In Remez all three wells are one well, and all three women are one woman. In fact, all three sons are one son. It is the same story told three times from three perspectives.

The first was a picture of Christ before the cross. The second is a picture of the cross (grave) and the third a picture of him in resurrection.

The first picture tells us that the Father chose the bride for the son; the second, that the son wooed the bride with a kiss, and also that he worked for her. The third tells us that the Holy Spirit gathered the bride. Ok. I need to backup to explain how the Holy Spirit is indicated in the third.

When there are three things, we will find that they are related to the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost. We can pencil in that the third story is a story about the Holy Ghost, but we should confirm it since ‘every word is established by two or three witnesses”. The word ‘Sychar’ means ‘intoxicated’ and we remember that at Pentecost when the church was filled with the Holy Spirit, people thought they were drunk (Acts 2:1-13).

The bride is Rebekah, Rachel and the woman with all the town people of Sychar.

Consider the word play of Paul:

1Co 3:6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

I – Yahweh, the ‘I am’, the Father.

Apollos has Hebrew puns of ‘wonderous’, ‘marvelous’, ‘weigh’. Jesus was the marvelous wonder who was weighed in the balance for our sin. He is the Son who did the work of ‘watering’, of pouring himself out [4].

God – ‘God is Spirit’ [5]. It is the Spirit who gathered the bride of Sychar and gave the increase.

God has chosen us:

Ac 22:14 And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.

He has wooed, or called us:

1Jo 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.

Ro 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

He has gathered us:

Mt 13:47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:

Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Re 14:19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

When the three narratives of the woman at the well are combined into one picture, we see a more complete picture of Christ and how he obtained his bride. Each person if the Godhead was involved. The Father chose her, the son wooed, called and worked for her, and the Holy Spirit gathered her.

We will find other verses that say the Son chose her, and that he desired to gather her. These are not contradictions, but confirmation that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are one God.

Matthew has taught us to do Remez and Drash; to associate Bible narratives by shared words and ideas, and then to interpret them as a single prophetic picture of Christ.

Footnotes

[1] Ge 13:16 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.

[2] Ge 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

[3] 2Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

[4] Ps 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

[5] Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.