Chap. 7:24-30
“And from thence he arose, and went away into the borders of Tire and Sidon. And he entered into a house, and would have no man know it: and he could not be hid. But straightway a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Greek, a Syro-phoenician by race. And she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. And he said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. But she answered and saith unto him, Yea, Lord; even the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. And he saith unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And she went away unto her house, and found the child laid upon the bed, and the devil gone out” (7:24-30, R.V.).
The time was now approaching when the Servant of the Lord would complete His ministry of grace in Galilee, and would go up to Jerusalem to deliver His final testimony to the “daughter of Zion.” And we find from the Gospel records that in the later journeyings of Jesus in Galilee, there were some notable occasions when the grace and truth of which He was “full” overflowed to those of Gentile blood. These examples, amongst which that of the Syro-phoenician woman is not the least striking, were foreshadowings of the (then) coming time of unrestricted grace when it would be proclaimed to all men that the Lord of all is rich unto all that call upon Him (Romans 10:1010For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:10)).
At Capernaum the Pharisees in their religious pride stumbled at the saying of the Lord (Matthew 15:1212Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? (Matthew 15:12)) that the heart of man is the true seat of his spiritual defilement, sin spreading outwards from this inward source like a leprous disease. These Jewish teachers refused to believe in Jesus and in His word, condemning their tradition as it did: hence they were “confounded,” and missed receiving that purification of heart which comes alike to Jews and Gentiles who believe (Acts 15:99And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. (Acts 15:9)).
But it was made clear in the days of the Lord that if they of the favored nation stumbled at the Stumbling-stone through unbelief, heathen strangers, humbly Confessing the extremity of their needs, would stretch out arms of entreaty and faith to the mercy of Jehovah that was then visiting the people of His covenant. And in His zeal to help the needy He showed that no plaint for pity should be addressed in vain to the just and lowly King of Israel, not even the voice of a Canaanite. In accordance with this purpose we here read that “from thence he arose, and went away into the borders of Tire and Sidon.”
TIRE AND SIDON
The geographical limits of our Lord's ministry were much circumscribed in comparison with those assigned by Him to His followers at His departure. His own service was confined to the “cities of Israel,” that of the apostles in His absence was extended to the ends of the earth. When Paul and Barnabas were preaching the word of God to the Jews in Antioch, and the audience refused their testimony, the apostle said to them, “Seeing ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:4646Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. (Acts 13:46)). But though our Lord's words and deeds were rejected in Capernaum and elsewhere in Galilee and Judea, the Lord did not Himself preach the gospel of the kingdom to Gentiles, nor did He enter Gentile territory. He, however, on this occasion approached the borders of His own country. The branches of the fruitful bough ran over the wall of partition (Gen. 49:2222Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: (Genesis 49:22)), though the millennial day was, in fact, far distant, when the leaves of the tree of life would be for the healing of the nations everywhere (Revelation 22:33And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: (Revelation 22:3)). Nevertheless, those of Tire and Sidon, who even then cared to seek help and healing from God's Minister of grace, would not be denied, as the record of the Evangelist proves.
Tire and Sidon, or Zidon, were cities of great antiquity, the latter being the elder; for Zidon, the first-born of Canaan, founded the city, and called it by his own name (Gen. 10:15, 1915And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth, (Genesis 10:15)
19And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha. (Genesis 10:19)). Hence, in Matthew the woman of Tire and Sidon is called a Canaanitess (15:22). In the time of Joshua, it had grown to be a place of considerable size and importance, and was known as “great Zidon” (Joshua 11:8; 19:288And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephoth-maim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining. (Joshua 11:8)
28And Hebron, and Rehob, and Hammon, and Kanah, even unto great Zidon; (Joshua 19:28)). Zidon was included in the inheritance apportioned to the tribe of Asher (Joshua 19:24-3124And the fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families. 25And their border was Helkath, and Hali, and Beten, and Achshaph, 26And Alammelech, and Amad, and Misheal; and reacheth to Carmel westward, and to Shihor-libnath; 27And turneth toward the sunrising to Beth-dagon, and reacheth to Zebulun, and to the valley of Jiphthah-el toward the north side of Beth-emek, and Neiel, and goeth out to Cabul on the left hand, 28And Hebron, and Rehob, and Hammon, and Kanah, even unto great Zidon; 29And then the coast turneth to Ramah, and to the strong city Tyre; and the coast turneth to Hosah; and the outgoings thereof are at the sea from the coast to Achzib: 30Ummah also, and Aphek, and Rehob: twenty and two cities with their villages. 31This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families, these cities with their villages. (Joshua 19:24‑31)), but the Asherites failed to take full possession of their inheritance. They did not drive out the inhabitants of Zidon, but dwelt among the Canaanites (Judg. 31, 32).
Tire, twenty miles distant, though the younger city, excelled its neighbor in commercial prosperity and influence, and its worldly grandeur is described in vivid terms by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 27), and Hiram its king was a useful ally of David and Solomon, and provided workmen and materials for the building of the royal palace and the temple at Jerusalem.
But Tire broke away from the “brotherly covenant,” and incurred the divine displeasure (Amos 1:99Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant: (Amos 1:9)). Because of their sinful pride God's judgments came upon these two cities, according to the prophecies of Isaiah (23) and Ezekiel (26-29), by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and subsequently by Alexander the Great of Greece. This punishment came to pass in the words of another prophet: “Tire did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire” (Zechariah 9:3, 43And Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. 4Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire. (Zechariah 9:3‑4)).
Their wickedness was so great that they are classed by our Lord with Sodom as monumental examples of the world's iniquity and departure from God (Matthew 11:22, 2322But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. 23And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. (Matthew 11:22‑23)). And yet the Lord also declared that if the mighty works done by Him in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been done in Tire and Sidon they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes, even as Nineveh did at the preaching of Jonah.
THE HOUSE OF MERCY
“And he entered into a house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.” At the dedication of the magnificent temple on Mount Zion, Solomon, contrasting its significance with the infinite and essential glories of Jehovah, exclaimed, “Will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee: how much less this house that I have builded” (2 Kings 8:2727And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son in law of the house of Ahab. (2 Kings 8:27)). Neither could the house on the borders of Tire and Sidon contain nor confine the glory of Jehovah's Servant. “He could not be hid,” though in His humility and the lowliness of His heart, He retired from the populous districts bordering the Sea of Galilee, where He was unwanted, and sought some privacy in a house (as Mark alone tells us) near the land of the Gentile.
This voluntary seclusion illustrates to us the amazing perfection of this Servant of God who accepted so meekly the rebuffs to His service. Though arising directly from the men of Israel, the hand of His God was seen by Him to be above all. He bowed to them therefore, as to the will of Him that sent Him. Finding Jerusalem and Galilee leagued against Him, He sought a secret place away from the face of His enemies, where He might spread out the disappointment of His heart of love before the face of His Father. There was a further display of the same spirit later, when the crucifixion became still more imminent, and we read that as the Lord and His disciples “passed through Galilee, he would have no man know it” (Mark 9:30, 3230And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it. (Mark 9:30)
32But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him. (Mark 9:32)).
This self-abnegation was of great moral beauty. The act of self-effacement, but most of all the spirit of the act, was rare and choice among men. It was not yet the effulgence of the glorified Son of man shining upon the willing and unwilling, like the lightning from the east unto the west, nevertheless, the glow of this heavenly gem in its earthly setting “could not be hid.” It was not yet the appointed time when all flesh should see the glory of Jehovah, but one here and another there, like this Canaanite, discerned and owned in Jesus the Hope of Israel, and the Blesser also of all men.
Lingering still, for a moment, over this phase of moral glory, it will appear to us to be a special feature of Mark's Gospel to record occasions when our Lord withdrew Himself from men because of their opposition and persecution, and when the very act of retiring before the power of His enemies was accompanied by further witness to His glory from needy suppliants who pursued Him unto His solitude. Thus, when Jesus withdrew from the synagogue of Capernaum to the sea, great multitudes followed Him 6-8). When he crossed the Sea of Galilee to the wilds of Gadara, a man with an unclean spirit met Him for healing and conversion (5:1, 2). When the Lord with His apostles went apart into the desert place after the execution of John the Baptist, great multitudes followed Him (6:30-33). And in this instance, when Jesus retired to a house after encountering the willful obduracy and blindness of the guides of Israel, as well as the ignorance of His own disciples, the Syro-phoenician stranger sought Him out, and by her earnest solicitations obtained mercy and found grace to help in time of need.
This unnamed house on the borders of Israel became by reason of the Illustrious Presence tarrying there, a tenement of heavenly mercy — a Bethsaida indeed. The house itself, honored as it was, has passed into oblivion, but the fame of its Heavenly Visitant abides. To this house the woman of Canaan came, lifting up her hands in dim but true faith, not to the temple on Mount Zion where no Shekinah then dwelled, but to the Word of God made flesh and tabernacling among men. In the millennium the house of God “shall be called of all nations the house of prayer.” And in these requests made by Gentile strangers direct to Jesus we have individual instances of Jehovah's comprehensive reply to the petitions of Solomon at the dedication of the temple, when he besought the LORD, saying: “Concerning a stranger that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake (for they shall hear of thy great name and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched-out arm), when he shall come and pray towards this house; hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for” (1 Kings 10:44And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built, (1 Kings 10:4).1-43). When this “stranger” woman “heard of Him” she, who was forbidden to enter the temple at Jerusalem, came to Jesus as to the true Temple of God upon the earth, and He answered her according to all that she sought of Him.
W. J. H.
(Continued from page 330)
(To be continued)