His reply to the disciples' request reveals the reason of this strange

silence, `I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel'.

These words, to weak faith, would have sounded as the death -knell of hope.

The woman, however, penetrated the reply, and learned its lesson.  As Son of

David He could do nothing for her; she must therefore drop that title and

approach Him simply as Lord; she had no such rights in Him as Son of David as

Israel had.  `Then came she and worshipped Him saying, Lord, help me'.  This

request draws from the Lord a personal answer, but what will He say?  Will He

grant her request?  `He answered and said, It is not meet to take the

children's bread, and to cast it to kunarion (little dogs)'.  At first sight

this answer seems as forbidding as the former one.  Israel were the lost

sheep, what had He, their Shepherd, to do with dogs?  Israel were the

children of the house; surely it was not right to take the children's bread,

and cast it to dogs?

The faith of this woman enabled her to believe that what He spoke to

her was absolute truth, and she seized upon the word He had used for dogs.

As the reader will know, the dog is a term of reproach throughout the East,

and is a symbol of all that is depraved, forsaken, and cast out, e.g.

`without are dogs'.  The Lord in His reply said `little dogs', or, as we say,

puppies.  The rule regarding the dog has an exception in the case of the

little puppy; children in the East, like children in the West, like to pet

and fondle the little puppies, and for a short time they are allowed inside

the house.  `Truth, Lord,' replied the woman, `yet the puppies eat of the

crumbs which fall from their masters' table'.  She knew that the

exclusiveness of the Lord's ministry to Israel was not for any mean or narrow

reason; a saved Israel will be saved not for their own sake, but that all the

families of the earth may be blessed in them.

The twofold aspect of this phase of God's dealings is emphasized in

Romans 15:8,9, `Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the

circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the

fathers' -- this is an exclusive ministry to Israel with reference to

promises made in the past -- `and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His

mercy' -- this follows as the designed sequence.  So it was that the woman

sought the crumbs.  She gave Israel their rightful place; they were the

Masters (the very same word twice rendered `Lord').  She was but a little

dog; they sat at the table and she could only expect the crumbs.  As soon as

this was recognized, blessing came.  How vital to this woman's case was a

correct appreciation of dispensational truth!  How many today are perplexed

because the Lord answers not a word, simply because they are asking amiss!

The miracle clearly shows us what was the relationship between Israel and the

nations at the time of the Lord's earthly ministry.  In Romans 11, the figure

changes to that of wild olive branches grafted into the true olive.  In

Ephesians 2 it further changes to the creation of one new man.  Which shall

we believe, the Scriptures rightly divided or those who speak against

`dispensational' truth?

The second miracle has also a dispensational character.  Here is a

symbol of Israel as a nation, the fig tree.  The fig, the vine, and the olive

represent Israel in various capacities:

`And when He saw one single fig tree by the way, He came to it, and

found nothing thereon, but Leaves Only, and said unto it, Let no fruit

grow on thee henceforth for ever, and immediately the fig tree was

withered' (Matt. 21:19).