RAGS OR ROBES
7
`There shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in Him shall the Gentiles trust (or
"hope")' (Rom. 15:12).
By this time the Gentile believer was likened to a wild olive grafted contrary to nature into the Olive tree of
Israel (Rom. 11:23-25), which is a stage higher than the place that the Syrophenician could hope for during the
earthly ministry of the Son of God.
At Pentecost, and after, the title `Son of David' was linked with David's throne by Peter:
`Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins,
according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ TO SIT ON HIS THRONE' (Acts 2:30).
What has the Church to do with David's throne? Later, Paul speaks of Christ as the seed of David in Romans 1:3,
not with reference to David's throne, but with the Gospel that had been entrusted to him, and in 2 Timothy 2:8 says:
`Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel'.
suggesting that while the Person remained the same, many associations that were related to David's Son according
to Peter's particular Gospel would have to be readjusted. Later on, when the time came for Peter to write his epistles
he turns attention away from David's throne and says of Christ:
`Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject
unto Him' (1 Pet. 3:22).
It may have been that the Saviour's purpose in not answering this woman's request immediately, was to
emphasize the distinction that then obtained between the Jew and the Gentile. She, as a Canaanite woman, had no
claim on Him as `The Son of David'. This is implied in His next statement:
`I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel' (Matt. 15:24).
The limitation of Matthew 10 still held good. The woman however did not withdraw at this rebuff; she
apparently learned the intended lesson, for she dropped the title `Son of David' and came and worshipped Him
saying, `Lord, help me', using the universal title of `Lord' instead of the more restricted title of `Son of David'. To
this second appeal a further obstacle was raised:
`It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs' (Matt. 15:26).
In Mark's record this is preceded by the words:
`Let the children first be filled' (Mark. 7:27).
`First' does not exclude entirely, but recognizes precedence and order. This is still in evidence in Romans 1, where
the Gospel is:
`To the Jew first, and also to the Greek' (Rom. 1:16).
While from the point of view of sin and salvation, the apostle could write `there is no difference', the Jew was still
first, and always would be while in covenant relationship with God until set aside temporarily as they were at Acts
28. The Jew is not `first' today. As we have seen, the same epistle that lays the foundation of justification by faith
without works for all men whether Jew or Gentile, emphasizes that from the DISPENSATIONAL point of view, the Jew
was still first, and uses the illustration of the olive tree in Romans 11 to teach this: Gentile believers were `graft
contrary to nature' into the Olive tree, a union vastly inferior to that which was subsequently to be revealed in
Ephesians 3:6 after Israel had gone into their present state of blindness and the olive tree cut to the roots. Until the
last chapter of the Acts, and influencing the epistles written by Paul during the Acts, namely Galatians, Romans,
1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians and Hebrews, the hope of Israel was the hope of the Church. This we
have already gathered from Romans 15:12,13 and this is implied by the introduction of the Archangel in
1 Thessalonians 4, for the Archangel is Michael (Jude 9) and Michael stands for the people of Israel, and when he
stands up there is a resurrection (Dan. 12:1). The concentration of the Lord on the people of Israel at His first
advent, did NOT mean that God had no concern for the lost world outside, but rather the reverse. According to the
covenant with Abraham, Israel were to be the channel of blessing through which `all families of the earth' should be