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This woman could not have any claim on the Lord Jesus as an Israelite, but she was
willing to take the place of a dog and get what crumbs she could! Her great faith greatly
impressed the Lord. He answered her:
"Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted. And her daughter was healed
from that very hour" (15: 28, N.I.V.).
What a contrast this was to the tiny faith of the disciples! Those who were near to
Him had the small faith, while the poor pagan outsider had the great faith!
There is an important lesson underlying the Lord's words which we must not miss.
We have seen that the earthly kingdom which John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus
preached was none other than the great Messianic Kingdom of the O.T. which had been
explained by the prophets.
In that kingdom purpose of God Israel had premier place as a channel of blessing to
all nations, and this was enshrined in the divine promise made to Abraham and his
posterity (Gen. 12: 1-3) and confirmed in Deut. 15: 6; 26: 18, 19; 28: 1, 13 and
Psa. 147: 19, 20. When we come to the N.T. this is still stressed, and the Lord's
earthly ministry is primarily concerned with Israel (Matt. 15: 24; Rom. 9: 3-5; 15: 8)
but not wholly, for the Gentile world was finally in view. God's kingdom is not limited
to the Jewish nation, but will finally be world-wide (Rev. 11: 15).
With this in view we can understand why the Lord limited His own ministry and that
of the Twelve to the people of Israel. As the channel of blessing and the recipients of
knowledge of the kingdom, they come first in importance. It is interesting that in Mark's
account of the healing of the Syro-Phoenician's daughter, he gives words of the Lord
which Matthew does not include. Christ said "Let the children first be filled . . . . ."
(Mark 7: 27) and the children were undoubtedly Israel. Israel's place in the kingdom
plan of God as it relates to the earth is that of being first.
To ignore this and substitute the idea that Christ came to bring in and establish the
church, the Body of Christ, is unscriptural and completely misleading. This is one of the
popular ideas which are often propagated but it is destructive of correct understanding of
the great plan of the ages which is centred in Christ. The revelation of the heavenly
aspect of the kingdom of God awaits the later ministry of the Apostle Paul.
For the moment Israel must have all the divine attention to prepare her for her great
role of introducing the kingdom teaching to all the nations. Meanwhile, the Gentile must
be willing to take the lowly place and be content with the crumbs of blessing until this is
accomplished. Those who wish to introduce the church at this point can have little
conception of the exceeding riches of grace and glory that are revealed later on in the
prison ministry of the Apostle Paul, who was the minister, by divine appointment, of the
Body of Christ (Col. 1: 23-28). All this cannot be compared to crumbs!