But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
It is not right to take what belongs to favored children at a well-supplied table and throw it to outsiders, with the bread picturing the blessings and truth given to Israel and the dogs picturing Gentile strangers regarded as having no share in them. Jesus spoke in the language of that common Jewish prejudice and for a time acted out its cold exclusiveness in order to expose it and rebuke it by contrast. Beneath the apparent refusal was pitying compassion, for He delayed only to test and manifest her confidence and persistence and did not mean a final rejection of a suffering suppliant. She admitted she had no claim yet trusted His power, willing to receive even a crumb, and her great faith endured the test and obtained the healing of her demon-afflicted daughter. By this mercy to one of a despised people He taught His disciples to turn from exclusiveness and showed that His mercy and the gospel were not bounded by nationality but were already reaching beyond Israel to the nations.
Historical Setting and Encounter
After conflict with the Pharisees over the hollowness of their piety and the unscripturalness of their teachings, Jesus withdrew from Capernaum and from the vicinity of Jerusalem across Galilee to the hill country on the borders of Phenicia overlooking Tyre and Sidon and the Mediterranean. He hoped there to find the retirement He had failed to secure at Bethsaida, and in keeping with His character not to strive nor cry nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets, not to proclaim His own merits or enter into controversy or strife, He entered into a house and would have no man know it. His work at that time was to prepare His disciples for their mission, because the time had not yet come to bear the glad tidings of the gospel across the sea to the centers of the world's great empire. Yet His wise gracious words and deeds of mercy revealed a power far above the power of priests and rulers, and His Godlike character made Him the observed of all observers, so that He could not be hid.
The saying about children's bread belongs to His encounter there with a foreign woman of the old Canaanite people of Phenicia, a Syrophoenician of a despised heathen idolatrous race unfavored with the light of God's word, who came as a mother pleading for her daughter grievously vexed with a devil and afflicted by a demon. She knew the Jews had no dealings with Canaanites and refused even to speak to them. Having sought help from heathen gods without relief and having heard of the prophet who healed all manner of diseases and performed miracles of mercy whether those who came were rich or poor, hope sprang up in her heart. With resolute purpose not to lose her only hope and with perfect faith in His power to do what she asked, she determined to bring her affliction to Jesus until He must heal her child.
Jesus went to the borders of Tyre and Sidon and to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon after leaving the vicinity of Jerusalem for the purpose of meeting this afflicted woman. Healing her daughter was the only miracle He performed on that journey. It was an intentional act of mercy toward one of a despised people, breaking down barriers and left as an example for the disciples to follow after He would no longer be with them. There He heeded the mother's urgent appeal for aid and healed her daughter, showing Himself as the great Medical Missionary whose whole life was a representation of God.
Meaning of Bread and Dogs
The children's bread is the blessings, truth, and gospel brought to God's favored people Israel, the children who daily enjoyed special advantages and promises as at a father's abundantly supplied table. It marks the distinction then made between the Jews, who had received the gospel, and others outside that favor. The dogs are strangers and aliens from Israel, the Canaanite and Gentile outsiders regarded as heathen idolaters, despised and hated by the Jews, excluded from those advantages and treated as having no claim or share in them. The old Canaanite people of Phenicia belonged to that despised heathen class, and the Syrophoenician woman belonged to it. The saying that it is not right to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs voices the unfeeling prejudice commonly held by Jews that the blessings given to God's favored people should not be lavished on outsiders. It expresses the Jewish view that they as God's children were entitled to His promises and love while other peoples were outsiders with no share in them.
Christ spoke in apparent agreement with that exclusive sentiment and for a time acted out the feelings that controlled many following Him and the cold way the Pharisees taught people to act toward heathen. He treated her request as Jews would have treated a member of a despised race, and seemed to act toward her as the Pharisees taught the people to act toward heathen. He did this in order to show the disciples that cold and heartless treatment and to teach them a needed lesson, rebuking that prejudice by contrast with the compassionate way He would have them act rather than imitate Jewish prejudice. Beneath the apparent refusal lay a divine compassion and pitying tenderness He could not hide, with His heart touched by her woe and grief. That compassion could be seen and seized by earnest faith, even while He delayed and seemed to neglect her plea.
Testing Faith Not Rejection
The hard saying was a test of the woman's confidence, faith, sincerity, and persistence, to see whether she would yield at once to divine influence with implicit trust in His power to grant what she asked. It probed whether that trust could stand apart from national and religious prejudice and pride, as one from an unfortunate and despised race unfavored with the light of God's word unconditionally acknowledged Him as Redeemer able to do all she asked. By treating her for a time as Jews treated members of a despised race, the cold reception examined her humility and endurance rather than leaving her discouraged by apparent rejection. She continued to ask for mercy, trusting His benevolence and power even with no claim to His favor.
His heart was touched with divine compassion and pitying tenderness at her woe and grief over her suffering child, and He longed to give immediate assurance that her prayer was heard. He knew her heart, the sorrow pressing her soul, and her persistent determination not to be driven away until her request was granted. Yet He delayed, and for a short time seemed to neglect her plea and to act toward her as the Pharisees taught the people to act toward the heathen. That delay allowed her faith and persistence to become manifest, so that her ready answer could be commended and the precious boon granted.
His purpose through the whole encounter remained to meet her need and relieve her suffering, and the words were part of an act of mercy and not a final rejection. Humble, suffering suppliants are dealt with tenderly and compassionately, and no frown sends them away. The mother was not finally driven off but was attended to, and the child was healed, showing compassion to both mother and child.
Lesson for Disciples and Nations
By mercy to a woman of a despised people, the encounter turned the disciples away from Jewish exclusiveness and self-sufficiency that kept them from helping those in spiritual darkness, teaching them not to imitate Jewish prejudice but to answer distress with compassion. The cold reception first shown to her exposed that heartless treatment, and the healing that relieved her suffering became the example they were to follow. The pride that regarded Israel as children entitled to promises and love, and other peoples as outsiders with no share in them, was wrong.
That mercy showed that Christ's compassion and the gospel are not restricted by Jewish custom or nationality. The disciples were thereby prepared for work beyond their own nation, for an unrestricted mission to the Gentiles. The distinction between Jews who had received the gospel and Gentiles treated as outsiders must not limit ministry, for people of every nation who long for help and truth are to receive it.
Her conversion was direct work outside acknowledged Israel, already reaching beyond Israel to the Gentiles. It helped lead the Jews out of exclusiveness and prepared the way for sustained preaching among Gentile communities and their reception into God's church. The lesson gained still greater force when Christ's death broke down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles. The healing taught that those regarded as unworthy of salvation could hunger for truth, and that salvation is for all mankind.
Israel had been blessed in order to bless other nations, so religious privilege is a duty to serve others rather than ground for pride. The woman's confiding trust, free from national and religious prejudice and pride, refreshed Christ and yielded at once to divine influence with implicit faith in His ability to grant favor. That faith, and the glad reception by heathen people, stands against the contemptuous unbelief, murmuring, complaining and bitterness that met Him in Galilee where most of His works had been done, even while the distinction between children and outsiders remained strong in the disciples.
Woman's Faith and Healing
She admitted she had no claim on favor, yet she trusted His benevolence and power to help her suffering child. When told it was not right to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs, she was willing to be regarded as a dog if she might have a dog's privilege. She begged only for the crumbs that fall from the Master's table, believing that even a crumb from His bounty could help her.
She yielded at once to divine influence with implicit trust in His ability to grant her favor. No national or religious prejudice or pride shaped her course. Unconditionally and immediately she acknowledged Him as Redeemer, able to do all that she asked of Him.
Her ready answer and endurance under the test satisfied Jesus and refreshed Him. He commended her great faith, holding it up against the lack of such faith in Israel. He then granted the precious boon she asked and healed her demon-afflicted daughter, and so finished His lesson to the disciples. Her faith and persistence, allowed for a time to become manifest under apparent neglect, were thus answered in full.
The encounter shows His sympathy for a mother's distress and His purpose to relieve an anxious heart. It reveals His love for suffering people in answering an earnest, humble plea. He did not finally drive the humble, persevering mother away with a frown, but attended to her need and gave comfort and help in grief and need to both mother and child.
Practical Applications for Believers
The encounter is kept on record to teach what happens when need is pressed upon the Hearer of prayer with persevering faith. Though the plea for a suffering child seemed for a time to be neglected and the answer delayed, the delay allowed faith and persistence to become manifest, and then the request was commended and granted. No soul who asks Christ for help in faith will be left to perish, but even the weakest and most struggling soul may live and find in God hope and sufficiency. The same account shows that Jesus went to relieve an anxious mother's heart, that He sympathizes with mothers in their troubles and distress, and that He hears their earnest prayers for their children.
Those who came from other nations to be healed or to plead for relatives and friends represented the great human family who did not know God or the truth yet felt a soul-longing for something they did not have. All who came listened to instruction, and as they heard the word of truth they were deeply impressed. By speaking words of hope to those weary, unsatisfied souls and by healing the infirmities of those who came, Christ set an example of speaking and acting for humanity at large to be practiced from one end of the world to another. In this He is revealed as the great Medical Missionary whose whole life represented God.
The truth belonging to God's children is their bread, and it must not be taken and given to dogs. To go into the churches to proclaim the third angel's message is wrong when entrance can be gained only by taming that message down, for such watered-down proclaiming takes the children's bread and gives it to dogs. So one who weakens the third angel's message to gain entry into the churches, as Brother Baker did, takes the spiritual bread meant for God's people, for His starving sheep, and gives what belongs to them to those likened to dogs.
It is not right to take what belongs to favored children at a well-supplied table and throw it to outsiders, with the bread picturing the blessings and truth given to Israel and the dogs picturing Gentile strangers regarded as having no share in them. Jesus spoke in the language of that common Jewish prejudice and for a time acted out its cold exclusiveness in order to expose it and rebuke it by contrast. Beneath the apparent refusal was pitying compassion, for He delayed only to test and manifest her confidence and persistence and did not mean a final rejection of a suffering suppliant. She admitted she had no claim yet trusted His power, willing to receive even a crumb, and her great faith endured the test and obtained the healing of her demon-afflicted daughter. By this mercy to one of a despised people He taught His disciples to turn from exclusiveness and showed that His mercy and the gospel were not bounded by nationality but were already reaching beyond Israel to the nations.
Historical Setting and Encounter
After conflict with the Pharisees over the hollowness of their piety and the unscripturalness of their teachings, Jesus withdrew from Capernaum and from the vicinity of Jerusalem across Galilee to the hill country on the borders of Phenicia overlooking Tyre and Sidon and the Mediterranean. He hoped there to find the retirement He had failed to secure at Bethsaida, and in keeping with His character not to strive nor cry nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets, not to proclaim His own merits or enter into controversy or strife, He entered into a house and would have no man know it. His work at that time was to prepare His disciples for their mission, because the time had not yet come to bear the glad tidings of the gospel across the sea to the centers of the world's great empire. Yet His wise gracious words and deeds of mercy revealed a power far above the power of priests and rulers, and His Godlike character made Him the observed of all observers, so that He could not be hid.
The saying about children's bread belongs to His encounter there with a foreign woman of the old Canaanite people of Phenicia, a Syrophoenician of a despised heathen idolatrous race unfavored with the light of God's word, who came as a mother pleading for her daughter grievously vexed with a devil and afflicted by a demon. She knew the Jews had no dealings with Canaanites and refused even to speak to them. Having sought help from heathen gods without relief and having heard of the prophet who healed all manner of diseases and performed miracles of mercy whether those who came were rich or poor, hope sprang up in her heart. With resolute purpose not to lose her only hope and with perfect faith in His power to do what she asked, she determined to bring her affliction to Jesus until He must heal her child.
Jesus went to the borders of Tyre and Sidon and to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon after leaving the vicinity of Jerusalem for the purpose of meeting this afflicted woman. Healing her daughter was the only miracle He performed on that journey. It was an intentional act of mercy toward one of a despised people, breaking down barriers and left as an example for the disciples to follow after He would no longer be with them. There He heeded the mother's urgent appeal for aid and healed her daughter, showing Himself as the great Medical Missionary whose whole life was a representation of God.
Meaning of Bread and Dogs
The children's bread is the blessings, truth, and gospel brought to God's favored people Israel, the children who daily enjoyed special advantages and promises as at a father's abundantly supplied table. It marks the distinction then made between the Jews, who had received the gospel, and others outside that favor. The dogs are strangers and aliens from Israel, the Canaanite and Gentile outsiders regarded as heathen idolaters, despised and hated by the Jews, excluded from those advantages and treated as having no claim or share in them. The old Canaanite people of Phenicia belonged to that despised heathen class, and the Syrophoenician woman belonged to it. The saying that it is not right to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs voices the unfeeling prejudice commonly held by Jews that the blessings given to God's favored people should not be lavished on outsiders. It expresses the Jewish view that they as God's children were entitled to His promises and love while other peoples were outsiders with no share in them.
Christ spoke in apparent agreement with that exclusive sentiment and for a time acted out the feelings that controlled many following Him and the cold way the Pharisees taught people to act toward heathen. He treated her request as Jews would have treated a member of a despised race, and seemed to act toward her as the Pharisees taught the people to act toward heathen. He did this in order to show the disciples that cold and heartless treatment and to teach them a needed lesson, rebuking that prejudice by contrast with the compassionate way He would have them act rather than imitate Jewish prejudice. Beneath the apparent refusal lay a divine compassion and pitying tenderness He could not hide, with His heart touched by her woe and grief. That compassion could be seen and seized by earnest faith, even while He delayed and seemed to neglect her plea.
Testing Faith Not Rejection
The hard saying was a test of the woman's confidence, faith, sincerity, and persistence, to see whether she would yield at once to divine influence with implicit trust in His power to grant what she asked. It probed whether that trust could stand apart from national and religious prejudice and pride, as one from an unfortunate and despised race unfavored with the light of God's word unconditionally acknowledged Him as Redeemer able to do all she asked. By treating her for a time as Jews treated members of a despised race, the cold reception examined her humility and endurance rather than leaving her discouraged by apparent rejection. She continued to ask for mercy, trusting His benevolence and power even with no claim to His favor.
His heart was touched with divine compassion and pitying tenderness at her woe and grief over her suffering child, and He longed to give immediate assurance that her prayer was heard. He knew her heart, the sorrow pressing her soul, and her persistent determination not to be driven away until her request was granted. Yet He delayed, and for a short time seemed to neglect her plea and to act toward her as the Pharisees taught the people to act toward the heathen. That delay allowed her faith and persistence to become manifest, so that her ready answer could be commended and the precious boon granted.
His purpose through the whole encounter remained to meet her need and relieve her suffering, and the words were part of an act of mercy and not a final rejection. Humble, suffering suppliants are dealt with tenderly and compassionately, and no frown sends them away. The mother was not finally driven off but was attended to, and the child was healed, showing compassion to both mother and child.
Lesson for Disciples and Nations
By mercy to a woman of a despised people, the encounter turned the disciples away from Jewish exclusiveness and self-sufficiency that kept them from helping those in spiritual darkness, teaching them not to imitate Jewish prejudice but to answer distress with compassion. The cold reception first shown to her exposed that heartless treatment, and the healing that relieved her suffering became the example they were to follow. The pride that regarded Israel as children entitled to promises and love, and other peoples as outsiders with no share in them, was wrong.
That mercy showed that Christ's compassion and the gospel are not restricted by Jewish custom or nationality. The disciples were thereby prepared for work beyond their own nation, for an unrestricted mission to the Gentiles. The distinction between Jews who had received the gospel and Gentiles treated as outsiders must not limit ministry, for people of every nation who long for help and truth are to receive it.
Her conversion was direct work outside acknowledged Israel, already reaching beyond Israel to the Gentiles. It helped lead the Jews out of exclusiveness and prepared the way for sustained preaching among Gentile communities and their reception into God's church. The lesson gained still greater force when Christ's death broke down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles. The healing taught that those regarded as unworthy of salvation could hunger for truth, and that salvation is for all mankind.
Israel had been blessed in order to bless other nations, so religious privilege is a duty to serve others rather than ground for pride. The woman's confiding trust, free from national and religious prejudice and pride, refreshed Christ and yielded at once to divine influence with implicit faith in His ability to grant favor. That faith, and the glad reception by heathen people, stands against the contemptuous unbelief, murmuring, complaining and bitterness that met Him in Galilee where most of His works had been done, even while the distinction between children and outsiders remained strong in the disciples.
Woman's Faith and Healing
She admitted she had no claim on favor, yet she trusted His benevolence and power to help her suffering child. When told it was not right to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs, she was willing to be regarded as a dog if she might have a dog's privilege. She begged only for the crumbs that fall from the Master's table, believing that even a crumb from His bounty could help her.
She yielded at once to divine influence with implicit trust in His ability to grant her favor. No national or religious prejudice or pride shaped her course. Unconditionally and immediately she acknowledged Him as Redeemer, able to do all that she asked of Him.
Her ready answer and endurance under the test satisfied Jesus and refreshed Him. He commended her great faith, holding it up against the lack of such faith in Israel. He then granted the precious boon she asked and healed her demon-afflicted daughter, and so finished His lesson to the disciples. Her faith and persistence, allowed for a time to become manifest under apparent neglect, were thus answered in full.
The encounter shows His sympathy for a mother's distress and His purpose to relieve an anxious heart. It reveals His love for suffering people in answering an earnest, humble plea. He did not finally drive the humble, persevering mother away with a frown, but attended to her need and gave comfort and help in grief and need to both mother and child.
Practical Applications for Believers
The encounter is kept on record to teach what happens when need is pressed upon the Hearer of prayer with persevering faith. Though the plea for a suffering child seemed for a time to be neglected and the answer delayed, the delay allowed faith and persistence to become manifest, and then the request was commended and granted. No soul who asks Christ for help in faith will be left to perish, but even the weakest and most struggling soul may live and find in God hope and sufficiency. The same account shows that Jesus went to relieve an anxious mother's heart, that He sympathizes with mothers in their troubles and distress, and that He hears their earnest prayers for their children.
Those who came from other nations to be healed or to plead for relatives and friends represented the great human family who did not know God or the truth yet felt a soul-longing for something they did not have. All who came listened to instruction, and as they heard the word of truth they were deeply impressed. By speaking words of hope to those weary, unsatisfied souls and by healing the infirmities of those who came, Christ set an example of speaking and acting for humanity at large to be practiced from one end of the world to another. In this He is revealed as the great Medical Missionary whose whole life represented God.
The truth belonging to God's children is their bread, and it must not be taken and given to dogs. To go into the churches to proclaim the third angel's message is wrong when entrance can be gained only by taming that message down, for such watered-down proclaiming takes the children's bread and gives it to dogs. So one who weakens the third angel's message to gain entry into the churches, as Brother Baker did, takes the spiritual bread meant for God's people, for His starving sheep, and gives what belongs to them to those likened to dogs.