A Fruitful Bough by a Well

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
Joseph is a well-known type of Christ, but it is not every reader of the Bible who delights to trace out the application and fulfillment of the type.
Take, for example, John 4:66Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. (John 4:6). Why is it mentioned, "Now Jacob's well was there"? Surely to arrest our attention in some special way; and in Genesis 49:2222Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: (Genesis 49:22) we discover the secret. "Joseph," we read, "is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall." In this wearied Man, therefore, who sat by the well of Sychar, we see the true Joseph; and even while we gaze upon Him, we behold His branches running over the wall of Judaism and reaching, with their goodly fruit, this poor woman of Samaria. And if not actually, yet morally (for this characterizes this gospel), the archers had sorely grieved Him, and shot at Him, and hated Him; but His bow abode in strength (Gen. 49:23, 2423The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: 24But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) (Genesis 49:23‑24)), as is shown by the deliverance He wrought that day for this poor captive of Satan.