Now in Matthew 15, most of us know the account of the Canaanite woman. And we almost have to take all of it; otherwise it just doesn’t make sense. So let’s start at verse 21. And this is taking place during His earthly ministry.
Matthew 15:21-26 "Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts (or the borders, or city limits) of Tyre & Sidon. (Roman cities up there on the Mediterranean Sea coast.) 22. And, behold, a woman of Canaan (a Gentile, she was not a member of the tribes of Israel) came out of the same coasts, (in other words, the cities of Tyre & Sidon) and cried to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, you son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 23. But he (the Lord Jesus) answered her (how much?) not a word. (He never even responded that he had even heard her.) And his disciples (The Twelve) came and besought him saying, Send her away; for she cries after us. 24. But he answered and said, (in her hearing) I am not sent (now underline that word sent) but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 25. Then came she and worshiped him, saying Lord, help me. (And again he gave the answer, which tells us so clearly that he was under the old covenant responsibility. He could not betray the promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.) 26. But he answered and said, It is not meet (it’s not right or fit) to take the children’s (the Hebrews bread) bread, and to cast it to dogs."(the term used for the gentiles by the Hebrews.) Now goodness sakes, we trust we’ve all been in Church and Sunday School long enough. Who were the children that Jesus is referring to? The Hebrews or Israel, the Jewish people! They were God’s covenant people, the children! And who were the dogs? The Gentiles! Those not counted worthy of God's attention as they were only sinners, outsiders. And so the picture was God’s table of material blessings.
What does the Psalms 23 say? What does David say about the Lord’s table? It was set before him. Now that wasn’t a table of meat and potatoes and vegetables or any of the other Jewish kosher foods. What was he referring to? The (soon coming spiritual blessings, which they had turned a deft ear to) material blessings that Israel was positioned to partake of. That was part of their being in the covenant promises. They feasted at the Lord’s table. Now we can see the Lord brings that all the way up out of Psalms 23 into his earthly ministry and He said, "It’s not right for Me to take the things from the Lord’s table that is for Israel and give it to you Gentiles." He couldn’t do that! Because he was under the covenant promises and the requirements of the Law and the Prophets. He was there to bring to a close over 100 prophecies about Himself as these were the "last of days or the end of days".
But this is one of those exceptions in His earthly ministry, that He condescended to a Gentile and He finally gives in and He says:
Matthew 15:28 "Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith: be it unto you even as you will. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour." Now the only other Gentile that this happened to, was the Roman Centurion on behalf of his son. Jesus had nothing to do with the Gentile. He couldn’t because He was under those covenant promises and He was sent by God the Father to fulfill those promises. Now another companion verse, of course, is in Matthew chapter 10 and again this is the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry.
Matthew 10:1a "And when he had called to him his twelve disciples,…" And then it names them. Now come all the way down to verse 5.
Matthew 10:5-6 "These twelve Jesus sent forth, (that’s why they’re called apostles) and commanded them, saying, Go not (see how plain this is. We’d say it in our English vernacular, do not go) into the way of the Gentiles, and (do not go) into any city of the Samaritans enter you not. 6. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Now good heavens, that’s plain English. There’s no gobbledygook here. There’s no way of twisting this to make it mean something else. It says what it means and it means what it says. Jesus said, "do not go to a Gentile. Do not go to a Samaritan. These promises are given only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel because of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And as we read the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the rest, they never write to the Gentile world. They write to the Nation of Israel. And so everything was directed according to these covenant promises.
Now let’s go all the way to Acts chapter 3 and Peter is now preaching shortly after the day of Pentecost. Chapter 2 is the day of Pentecost but now we're going to take a look into chapter 3, which is just a very short time later. Let’s drop in at verses 22 and 23, and now remember, what’s Peter’s purpose of preaching this message? To convince his Hebrew listeners, shortly after Christ’s earthly ministry, that the one they crucified was the promised Christ, their Messiah, the prophet like unto Moses. He was the promised Messiah, but God raised Him from the dead and so we haven’t stopped God’s program. It’s all been made ready now. The work of redemption has been accomplished and He’s alive and He can yet fulfill all the Old Testament promises remaining. Plain as day isn’t it? Now look at what Peter says.
Acts 3:22-23 "For Moses (see how he goes back to the Old Testament) truly said to the fathers, (now who were the fathers? The tribal leaders of Israel, the Twelve Tribes) A prophet (an apostle) shall the Lord your God raise up unto you (not the whole world yet, to the Hebrews) of your brethren, (in other words, he was born of the Jewish family of Joseph and Mary) like unto me (now Moses was speaking of himself as a Hebrew, raised up out of one of the twelve tribes of Jacob); him shall you hear (Peter said, quoting it from Moses) in all things whatsoever he (that is, the Messiah, the sent prophet) shall say to you. 23. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, (that Jesus of Nazareth) shall be destroyed (or removed from the scene) from among the people."(Deuteronomy 18:15-19) Now what’s he saying? The Hebrews were under a tremendous responsibility to believe that this carpenter’s son, once he proved it with signs and wonders and miracles, was the promised Messiah. And if they couldn’t believe it they would be removed from Israel, and of course, we know that’s what happened. And when they cried for His crucifixion and they said let His blood be upon us, they didn’t know what they were saying. And for 2000 years the Hebrew people have been suffering immeasurably. We were reading a book again the other night just detailing the suffering of the Hebrew people for the last 2000 years. It is beyond human comprehension. Of course the holocaust was the epitome of all that. Which by the way forced them to return to their home lands as laid out in scripture.
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