SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/27/2022 8:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“Persistent”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
15:23-24
Message of the verses: “23 But He did not
answer her a word. And His disciples came to Him and kept asking Him,
saying, "Send her away, for she is shouting out after us." 24 But He
answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel."
We are looking at “Great Faith” and talking about
what it consists of, and the third quality of great faith is it is persistent
as seen in verses 23-24. I have
mentioned that I teach a rather small Sunday school class at the church that I
go to, and one of the problems with a small class is that when some of them
leave for vacation at the same time then the class is even smaller. My thoughts are that because our class will
be very small this up-coming Sunday, and because I am teaching at this time in
the 11th chapter of Hebrews that I will use what I am learning from
this section in Matthew 15 as it is all about faith too and then when we convene
in a couple of weeks most of the people will return and then I can
continue on the 11th chapter
of Hebrews talking about Able who has a message from the dead.
This
truth about great faith is that it never gives up and as we continue to look at
this Canaanite women I think that we will all have great respect for her as she
certainly does not give up in her quest to have Jesus heal her daughter of
demon possession, and I think also she is not giving up in desiring salvation
for herself and then later for her daughter.
MacArthur
writes “Jesus therefore tested the faith of this woman by setting up a series
of barriers. Some people have to
struggle against strong doubts before they come to fully trust Christ for
salvation. Others have to struggle
against the objections and arguments of friends and family. Still others struggle to believe because they
have heard the gospel clearly presented or because they see inconsistencies in
the lives of Christians they know. This
woman, however, had barriers placed in her way by the Savior Himself.” Now we know that Jesus is perfect, for He is
God, therefore He can do nothing wrong, something to remember as we go through
this section of Scripture found in Matthew 15:21-28.
But He did not answer her a word. Jesus is silence as seen in verse 23, as
sometimes the hardest response to accept is no response at all, and that is
what this woman received from Jesus as He did not answer her a word. It seems that the disciples were getting
tired of the screaming from this woman and so they said to Jesus "Send her
away, for she is shouting out after us."
Now they have seen many, many miracles from Jesus and it seems that they
just want Him to heal this woman’s daughter in order for her to stop screaming,
after all they were on a little get-away for some rest and learning from
Jesus.
Jesus
did nothing unloving and nothing without a divine purpose that much we know,
and this certainly is no exception.
Jesus had put up with enough of superficiality and shallowness, of the
pretended faith of those who selfishly got what they wanted from Him, and then
they left. I can think of the ten lepers
that He healed and only one, a Samaritan came back to thank Him. The barriers that Jesus was putting up were
not to chase her away but to draw her closer to Him. Jesus also used this occasion to show the
disciples the value of persistent faith and to help them distinguish between
the genuine and the superficial. I can
think of a time when they used this with a man who said he was a believer, but
then all he wanted was to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit for his own
profit. Jesus would erect barriers that
only genuine, persistent faith could handle, and this woman certainly was
handling it in a wonderful way as we will continue to see. Now in Matthew 19:16-22 we see another case
that Jesus placed barriers before a young man to test his faith. This is the story of the rich young ruler and
it seems that he did not pass the test like this woman did.
Now
we come to verse 24, and some see this verse as a problem, but it really is not
a problem: "I was sent only to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel."
Jesus was saying this to His disciples, but within hearing of the
woman. The hardness of heart suggested
by His silence now seemed to be confirmed by His words. It is unclear of what His disciples though of
this comment by Jesus. His disciples
must have wondered why Jesus healed the servant of the Roman centurion and why
He offered water to the woman at the well as all of these certainly were not of
the house of Israel. This we know that
His primary ministry was still to the children of the covenant. This was not the time when the ministry would
go to the Gentiles and that would not happen until the middle part of the book
of acts. Whenever this did happen we
will see that Peter will have some issues with it and Paul would have to have
some words to him about his attitude with Gentile believers as seen in the book
of Galatians.
MacArthur
concludes “Whatever effect Jesus’ response had on the disciples, it must have
been a painful blow to the woman. Most
people would have indignantly said, ‘So much for your God of love, your message
of compassion, and your narrow bigoted religion. I want nothing to do with a God or religion
like that.’ But this woman had no
resentment or bitterness, only an abiding love for her afflicted little girl
and a determination to have her freed from her demonic torture. She also knew that the gods her people
worshiped did not care. She knew Jesus
was the only hope and that she had nowhere else to turn. She said in effect what Peter had said not
long before: ‘Lord to whom shall we go?”
(John 6:68).
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can learn from this woman not to give up on
spiritual things that I desire, and to believe that though there may be barriers
that Jesus will help me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord even when testing comes from
Him that I don’t always understand.
7/27/2022 9:03 AM
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