*EXCELLENT LIFE KEYS* 🔑🗝️
Mon/10th/Oct/2022
*Francis Reign* (Ap & Coach)
_"Raising excellent agents of change and transformation, well equipped with Truth and Wisdom."_
*UNDERSTANDING THE ACTS AND WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST (173)*
_And Jesus answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table"_ (Matthew 15:26-27). The Canaanite woman who approached Jesus seeking healing for her daughter proved herself loud and persistent. Here she shows she is also wise and spiritually humble. That Christ would initially deny such a request is new in Matthew's gospel and reveals that Jesus' mission has been focused only on the people of Israel. Jesus said something to the woman that sounded harsh, at least to modern English readers.
According to Jesus, for Him to heal her daughter would be as inappropriate as taking food from a child to give it to a pet dog. Rather than being offended, the woman seems to clearly grasp the analogy. The children are God's chosen people Israel. The bread is Jesus' ability to heal and cast out demons. The dogs are the Gentiles. That "food" has a primary purpose, and a primary recipient - there's an obligation to use it correctly. And yet, she is not deterred. Her response doesn't, at all, challenge Jesus' position. Rather, she echoes a sentiment Christ used earlier. Then He had condemned Israel's lack of belief by referring to this very same Gentile territory (Mat 11:20-24). She quickly answers the Lord that even dogs can eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
This analogy raises a question of the master's compassion - and does so without denying the truth of what Jesus is saying. Would any dog owner refuse to allow the dogs to eat crumbs from the floor? Christ sees great faith in her response. She acknowledges that He is the master and suggests that He can serve whomever He chooses with the crumbs of His time and power in this moment outside of Israel. That which the "children" have either ignored or rejected is all she is asking for. This reflection, it seems, was the purpose of Jesus' initial delay. God wants to see your reasoning in matters of truth, not senseless arguments.
*EXCELLENCE KEY* 🗝️
_Faith honorably and wisely reasons with God. Not to win arguments, but to establish truth and reality._
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*Excellence is within you. Bring it out >>*
#1560 ELK.
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