2023

Mathew 15:21-28   (Also in Mark 7:24-30)

 (21) Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. (22) And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. (23) But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. (24) But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (25) Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. (26) But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. (27) And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. (28) Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

 Here's another example of the different ways Jesus treats circumstances when they are brought to them. The one thing we have learned so far in learning about Jesus’ miracles is there is no set pattern, ritual, motions, or anything that gets a miracle to be performed. I have heard that "if I just pray enough God will answer”, "If I keep reading these verses, then my problem will go away” etc.  Praying a reading should always be on the forefront, but they are not what actually manifests God’s power. It is how we tap into it to understand, to bring our relationship more closely and intimate with God. But if that was the case, we would see Jesus do those things every time before performing a miracle.

  Notice the choice of words the woman uses with Jesus, she asks to have mercy on herself. She could have easily approached Him and said have mercy on my daughter. Before she could even ask for deliverance for her daughter, she needed to be humbled in the eyes of the Lord. Even though she already knows Jesus can do great things, she needs to be right with the Lord herself. We can assume she was making a scene with he disciples wanting to get rid of her. Plus, not being a Jew, the disciples were dismissing her to not be a bother with them.

 Jesus is now going to say some things, though worded a little different in Mark, they both have the same conveyance. Jesus says he is not sent but to the lost sheep of Israel. That would be the gentiles, for Jews are God’s chosen and they themselves are rejecting Jesus and who he is. The gentiles are the lost sheep.  She then does a simple request. " Help me”  before we go further I want to back up a little. When she first approached Jesus, she called Him Lord, the Son of David. Remember a few weeks ago Jesus told the disciples how to pray. The first things was to recognize God and who He is. That is exactly what this woman did. Back to where we were, be fore she asks for help, the Bible says she worshipped Him.

 Ok so this next text gets a little indifferent on how you view things. "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs” Back in that time non-Jewish (Gentiles) were considered lower class (dogs) and were often referred to that way. In other words, what the Jews deemed for them was not for her. We can almost say that what Jesus says is very discriminatory, but we have to understand, He talks in a fashion that "THEY’ understand. But note, she did not take offense to that. She simply replied, "Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.” She understood exactly what Jesus was stating. But because of her humility and acceptance of her circumstances, and yet she still approached Jesus on behalf of her Daughter, Jesus told her that "GREAT IS HER FAITH be it unto thee, even as though wilt.

It was her faith, her great faith that made her daughter whole. We are not talking about great in the sense of big, large quantities, but faith with zero doubt. Jesus is the redemption of all things, but we have a part to play in it. We have to have GREAT FAITH.

We may find ourselves not worthy of God, goodness. Maybe we are in a point of our lives where we feel like we need to be treated like dogs. God’s mercy and love is for all of us, no matter what state we are in. (Romans 3:23)

Here so me good reading for you.

1 Peter 5:6   Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time

Hebrews 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Proverbs 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he shall direct thy paths.

Psalm 123:3  Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us: For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.