In our daily meditations, we reflect on the supernatural acts of Jesus during His time on earth. Today, we focus on the casting out of a demon from a woman's daughter:
21Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession." 23Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." 24He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." 25The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. 26He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." 27"Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." 28Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour (Matthew 15:21-28).
The disciples complained about the Canaanite woman’s unceasing cries, saying to the Lord, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us" (v. 23). They showed no desire to help her, prompting her to approach Jesus. Though it may seem strange, the Lord remained silent, choosing to observe the depth of her faith. The woman sought help for her demonized daughter; neither of them belonged to the house of Israel. Jesus informed her that His primary mission was to the Jewish people first. When prayers go unanswered, persistence is wise. Even when the Lord did not respond, she did not give up but moved closer—Jesus was her only hope. “The woman came and knelt before him” (v. 25). She would not leave without her daughter's deliverance. She refused to be put off.
She must have been even more discouraged when Jesus told her that it was "not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs" (v. 26). I believe there was a twinkle in His eye and a loving smile on His face when He made that statement because she responded with great faith. Undoubtedly, this kind of persevering faith was exactly what He was looking for. Faith honors and pleases God more than anything else (Hebrews 11:6). Christ was delighted by her faithful response when she said that even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the table. As a result of her faith, the Lord restored her daughter at that very instant. I wonder how often we fail to receive what we want from Christ because we don't persist in going beyond the apparent barriers to what we need from God.
To what was Jesus referring when He talked about the “children’s bread "? (v. 26). Bread is a word in Scripture that describes the staple food of the day. "Give us this day our daily bread" is what we pray in the Lord's Prayer. If Jesus had been teaching this prayer to Asian people, He might have said, “Give us this day our daily rice.” How do we interpret what Jesus said to the woman? He is suggesting that the supernatural works of power, deliverance, and healing are the staple bread of the children of God. She wasn't a child of God because she was not born an Israelite; however, since the cross, any Gentile (non-Jew) can become a child of God through faith in the New Covenant sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The woman didn’t qualify for the blessings of the children’s bread, meaning the essential food of being in a covenant relationship with the King of Heaven.
If you are a child of God through faith in Christ, you qualify for the children's bread! You are part of God's covenant. The manifestation of the Spirit's work is available to every blood-bought child of God. If this woman, who is outside the family of faith, can appeal to the King of Kings for God's miraculous power on behalf of her daughter, how much more should a child of God ask and receive? The issue does not lie with God. Demons shudder in fear whenever a child of God begins to pray and asks God to move supernaturally. When you pray, all hell breaks loose to try to hinder your prayer life, but we must persist in prayer as the woman in the story did. Power and authority over demons are our rights as children of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Keith Thomas
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To study more about our authority in Christ, you might like to read study 7, Jesus’ Authority over Demons, in the Gospel of Luke on the All Studies box on the Home Page.
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