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The Desire of Ages
come to Him for help are rich or poor. She determined not to lose her
only hope.
Christ knew this woman’s situation. He knew that she was longing
to see Him, and He placed Himself in her path. By ministering to her
sorrow, He could give a living representation of the lesson He designed
to teach. For this He had brought His disciples into this region. He
desired them to see the ignorance existing in cities and villages close
to the land of Israel. The people who had been given every opportunity
to understand the truth were without a knowledge of the needs of those
around them. No effort was made to help souls in darkness. The
partition wall which Jewish pride had erected, shut even the disciples
from sympathy with the heathen world. But these barriers were to be
broken down.
Christ did not immediately reply to the woman’s request. He
received this representative of a despised race as the Jews would have
done. In this He designed that His disciples should be impressed with
the cold and heartless manner in which the Jews would treat such a
case, as evinced by His reception of the woman, and the compassionate
manner in which He would have them deal with such distress, as
manifested by His subsequent granting of her petition.
But although Jesus did not reply, the woman did not lose faith.
As He passed on, as if not hearing her, she followed Him, continuing
her supplications. Annoyed by her importunities, the disciples asked
Jesus to send her away. They saw that their Master treated her with
indifference, and they therefore supposed that the prejudice of the
Jews against the Canaanites was pleasing to Him. But it was a pitying
Saviour to whom the woman made her plea, and in answer to the
request of the disciples, Jesus said, “I am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.” Although this answer appeared to be in
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accordance with the prejudice of the Jews, it was an implied rebuke to
the disciples, which they afterward understood as reminding them of
what He had often told them,—that He came to the world to save all
who would accept Him.
The woman urged her case with increased earnestness, bowing
at Christ’s feet, and crying, “Lord, help me.” Jesus, still apparently
rejecting her entreaties, according to the unfeeling prejudice of the
Jews, answered, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast
it to dogs.” This was virtually asserting that it was not just to lavish