• Thoughts on Today’s Verse…

It is recorded in the New Testament, “And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, you son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and sought him, saying, Send her away; for she cries after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said to her, O woman, great is your faith: be it to you even as you will. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour” (Mat 15:22-28).

The faith of the canaanite woman was great. The Lord Jesus called her a dog, but she could still say that “yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” The canaanite woman received the Lord’s grace and praise because of her true faith. Then why did the Lord praise the faith of the canaanite woman? I read some words in a spiritual book, “Why did the Lord Jesus praise the faith of this person? It was not because she was willing to be a dog, nor was it because she was willing to eat bread crumbs. This is all secondary. What was it that the Lord Jesus praised her for? It was that she didn’t care whether the Lord Jesus saw her as a dog, as a person, or as the devil Satan. She didn’t care what He saw her as. The most important point was that she regarded the Lord Jesus as God, and that she affirmed the Lord Jesus to be the Lord, and to be God. This is a truth and a fact that is eternally unchanging. The Lord Jesus was God, was the Lord, was the One affirmed as such in her heart, and that was enough. Irrespective of whether the Lord Jesus saved her or didn’t save her, whether He saw her as someone to eat with together at table, or as a disciple, or a follower, or whether He saw her as a lapdog or guard dog, it was all fine, she didn’t care. In any case, it was enough for her to acknowledge that the Lord Jesus was the Lord of her heart; this was her greatest faith.”

From this passage of words, we can see that the canaanite woman affirmed the Lord to be God in her heart, so she didn’t care what the Lord Jesus saw her as, what was the Lord’s attitude, or in what way the Lord treated her. She was possessed of the sense of a creature when she asked the Lord for help: no matter how God did, God’s position and identity wouldn’t change in her heart. Her faith was precious, and this was most praised by God.

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