IN THE first part of this chapter the Lord showed the evil of man. In the latter part of the chapter we see the display of the goodness and grace of the heart of God.
The Lord leaves behind the scribes and Pharisees with all their reasonings and ritual, and goes to the extreme borders of the land, to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Both these cities had been noted for their hardness of heart and had been especially visited by the judgments of God. A Canaanitish woman comes out of those coasts to meet the Lord and she cries, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.” She was a descendant of the Canaanites, that accursed race, whom the people of Israel were to destroy when they took possession of the land. Her case was a desperate one, but the Lord answers her not a word. What had she to do with the Son of David?
The disciples would have liked to have the Lord grant her request just to get rid of her, “for she crieth after us,” they say. But the Lord answers, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Then she comes up and pleads with Him, saying, “Lord, help me.” The Lord’s answer may seem to have been very hard, but He was really testing her faith. He tells her, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to [Gentile] dogs.” But the woman takes this place too, acknowledging herself to be only a dog. She owns the promises to Israel—“the children"—but her need drives her right to the heart of God Himself. “Truth, Lord,” she says, “yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” How good it is for a soul to be brought to the point where he realizes that he has no claim upon God for anything; that he is a lost sinner, and that apart from the grace of God he has no hope.
But the goodness of God cannot be limited to Israel. This poor woman believes that there is goodness and riches enough in God for even a dog without a title such as she.
“Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” He granted her desire for her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
After this the Lord departs and comes into the land near to the Sea of Galilee. Going up into a mountain He sits down. “And great multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and He healed them: insomuch that the multitude wondered,... and they gloried the God of Israel.”
In the last of the chapter the Lord again feeds the multitude—a great company of four thousand men, bides women and children—with only seven loaves, and a few little fishes. “And He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.” No doubt the seven baskets that are left speak of the moral perfection of the One who satisfies the poor of His people with bread. (Psalm 103:55Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. (Psalm 103:5).)
ML-09/09/1962