Matthew 15:1-28
Many years after God gave the laws for Israel on Mt. Sinai, leaders of the temple made laws, which they thought more important than God’s laws. Some men saw that the disciples of Jesus did not wash their hands as those laws required, and they asked Jesus why they did not keep those laws. Jesus asked them,
“Why do ye transgress the commandment of God? For God commanded sang, Honor thy father and mother.”
This law was so important that God had said those who kept it should have long life in their land, and those who dishored and spoke evil to father or mother, were guilty to die (Exodus 20:12 and 21:17).
Yet these men, Jesus said, allowed a son to bring a gift to the temple, and he need not honor his father and mother, making God’s law of no use, but teaching their own laws as though from God.
How are we now to treat our parents? (See Ephesians 6:1,2).
Jesus said it was not unwashed hands, but wicked thoughts in the heart that “defiled” (made a person unfit for God). He said all evil things come from, the heart,— had words, lies, thefts, murders, and all, other wrong things. A wrong is first thought, before it is said or done. Water is one of the most common things God has given, and it is right to wash; but Jesus wanted the people to know that water could not wash away bad thoughts in the heart, or make them pure for God.
After this, Jesus went to the coast of the Great Sea, where the cities of Tyre and Sidon were. There was a poor girl who was dreadfully troubled by a wicked spirit. The people of her nation had known God’s power, but would not honor Him. They worshiped all sorts of images, and did the ways of Satan, and evil spirits had power to distress them.
The girl’s mother heard of Jesus, and came to ask Him to free her daughter. She said,
“Have mercy on me, Thou Son of David.”
As a man on earth, Jesus was of the family of King David, and was called “Son of David” to the nation Israel. But this woman’s people had always been against Israel, and denied God, so she could claim no help.
When Jesus answered the woman, He said He had been sent to Israel. When she heard Him speak, she seemed to bieve even more and worshiped Him. She was willing to confess that she deserved no favor, and spoke of herself as like “a dog, which ate the crumbs which fell from the master’s table.” Dog’s were not pets in that land, but ran about half wild, and to be likened to a dog was a term of disgrace.
Jesus was pleased at the woman’s humble words, and at her trust in Him. and told her that her daughter should be made free of the wicked spirit.
Jesus returned to Galilee, and it is not told that tie ever went to that land again. But after He went back to Heaven, the disciples went there, and many people became Christians. Perhaps that woman and her daughter heard that Jesus had died to save those of every nation who would believe Him.
Later the apostle Paul stopped at Tyre, and men, women and children, who loved Jesus, knelt down on the shore to pray (Acts 21:3-5).
ML 06/20/1943