© 17 Colin Melbourne
Deliverance for the captives
Q: Why did Jesus call the mother of the demon possessed girl “a dog”? It seems quite arrogant and rude.
A: In Matthew 15:21-28 we read of Jesus appearing to cold-shoulder the desperate Canaanite mother with a demon possessed daughter.
To understand the significance of this episode we must keep in mind that Christ’s initial ministry was to the Jews.
She was a foreigner, not a Jew, and so the disciples viewed her as a pest, an irritation, who ought to have known better than to “bother the Jewish Man of God”.
Regardless, the alien mother shouted out to Jesus:
Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
It’s a perfect plea;
- Respectful, recognizing His status as Messiah
- Humble, begging for mercy
- And unselfishly interceding for another.
But Christ did not respond to the distraught Mum with a demonized daughter.
She wouldn’t be denied
She continued to hassle the disciples so much they said to Jesus;
Send her away; for she crieth after us.
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Was Jesus being hard-hearted?
Not in the slightest, He knew all about this foreigner, and the plan Father had for not only delivering the possessed child, but ensuring her Mum is endorsed in the Greatest Book of all Time.
Christ was making a point for us, and also eliciting faith in the woman.
She was determined to see Jesus and speak with Him face to face.
Is that what you want too?
The “Heavies” were protecting the celebrity Preacher; you can imagine her discounting snooty-looks from “His bouncers” as she brushed them aside, and pressed through to His Presence.
Falling at His feet, under the glowering stares of “His Likely Lads”, once more, the Bible says she worshipped Him, and called on Christ for help.
Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
Her attitude thrills our hearts.
She didn’t let anything stop her getting what she wanted.
She’d had enough of demons ruining her daughter’s life, and was believing for a miracle from God.
Demons are awful things, evil spirits causing all sorts of trauma in children today; fits, convulsions, compulsions, eating disorders, rebellion, perversions, violence, self-mutilation, murder, and suicide.
Psychologists give the conditions they cause clinical names like epilepsy, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia, psychosis, bulimia, anorexia nervosa, gender disorientation, PTSD, etc.:
The Bible calls them demons
Medics focus on symptoms and treat those: God gets at the root of the matter: Demons, and casts them out by His Word.
At His feet, next came the trickiest moment.
Would pride foil her quest?
Christ chose to draw her faith out even more by likening her to a dog begging for the children’s food.
It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
Chasing the Dragon: Is the term in Chinese junkie slang for smoking heroin or opium. Read how God taught a demure English woman to chase demons out of the oppressed.
Here we have a Jew calling a Canaanite woman a dog.
More than that, implying a dog owned by Jews.
That was fighting-talk then, as it is in Palestine today.
So much for political correctness!
There’s only one Evangelistic Manual teaching that witnessing technique: The Holy Bible.
Now we see the wisdom of Christ’s apparently pejorative remark.
She humbly gave the wise, witty, and faith-filled reply;
Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.
In return, God in the Flesh commended her great faith, and with a word, delivered the daughter from her demons.
O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.
The “dog” received her crumb from God just as she believed she would, and went home happy.
One crumb from the Master is sufficient to drive out every demon from the possessed, and set the oppressed completely free.
If you are an outsider; a dog, a sinner, unsaved, you can do like this woman did, and receive a morsel from the Master of the Universe: The LORD Jesus Christ.
But when you are born of God; a Christian, a child of the LORD Jesus Christ, He has more than crumbs for you.
He has loaves of Living Bread, fresh every day to bless, and feed you with Heaven’s Best.
His children do not have to beg Him for their food.
Deliverance and healing are the children’s bread
Miracle healings are not an exceptional treat, they come with the staple diet of a child of God.
Become God’s child, believe in the Living Christ, and He will feed you the Bread of Heaven as your new-birthright.
Demonic oppression and bondage will cease, disease and infirmity will end, you will be at peace with God, and know perfect liberty in your spirit, mind, and body.
God’s word in Jn. 1:12-13 KJV promises you;
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Receive Christ as your Lord and Saviour now and press in for your portion, and, Jn. 8:33 KJV;
… ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
© 11 Colin Melbourne
Be Healed, Stay Healthy, and Heal the Sick