“ … no one to raise her up”
(Amos 5:2c, NKJV)
In the following few teachings we want to specifically look at Jesus’ attitude, understanding and handling of women. One could very easily devote a full-length study to Jesus’ interaction with women as it does, to a great extent, illuminate the heartbeat of the gospel.
There are many examples of how Jesus reacted to the needs of women, but we will, for the moment, concentrate specifically on a number of women who, prototypically, hold a very important position which represents the restoration of the woman in a typological manner. We specifically refer to it as restoration, as one of the most forceful facets of Jesus’ greater calling is to break down the wall of separation (Eph 2:14), to heal the wound of which Jer 14:17 states – “Let my eyes flow with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow.”
(It is clear from the Old-Testament imagery that Israel is at times equated with a young woman, but in itself it is particularly meaningful that Israel is specifically presented as a woman. Aside from the obvious symbolic link to Israel the pointer to women should also be read as including the collective. Compare for instance Lam 2:13 – “How shall I console you? To what shall I liken you, o daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare with you, that I may comfort you, o virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is spread wide as the sea, who can heal you?” And indeed also Amos 5:2 – “The virgin of Israel has fallen; she will rise no more. She lies forsaken on her land; there is no one to raise her up.”)
There is no one to raise her up. Jesus had a specific mission. He was obviously the most prominent figure in facilitating the shift from the Old to the New Covenant. He, “the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared” (John 1:18). “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 5:20). He clearly understood what God’s original intention with the law had been, and his ministry was in every way geared towards terminating all the accepted Rabbinical interpretations of the law, and all the lies about women.
The first prototypical woman we will look at is the unknown women whom we came to know in John 8:3-11. The Pharisees and the experts on the Torah had caught her in the act of adultery and wanted to stone her, according to Moses’ law (Lev 20:10). But Jesus bent over and wrote in the sand. When they kept on asking him, “He raised himself up and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.'” In the original text the word used is anakupto, which combines the words reversal and to bow the head. In effect Jesus is, through his body language here, iconically overturning the woman’s submissive and judged position!
- Sela: What would be the meaning of Jesus writing in the sand? (John 8:6 & 8)?
- Read: Gen 46-48
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: Gen 48:22 (tip: John 4:5).
