Matthew 15:21 Yeshua left that place and went off to the region of Tzor and Tzidon. 22 A woman from Kena‘an who was living there came to him, pleading, “Sir, have pity on me. Son of David! My daughter is cruelly held under the power of demons!” 23 But Yeshua did not say a word to her. Then his talmidim came to him and urged him, “Send her away, because she is following us and keeps pestering us with her crying.” 24 He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Isra’el.” 25 But she came, fell at his feet and said, “Sir, help me!” 26 He answered, “It is not right to take the children’s food and toss it to their pet dogs.” 27 She said, “That is true, sir, but even the dogs eat the leftovers that fall from their master’s table.” 28 Then Yeshua answered her, “Lady, you are a person of great trust. Let your desire be granted.” And her daughter was healed at that very moment.
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Mark 7:24 Next, Yeshua left that district and went off to the vicinity of Tzor and Tzidon. There he found a house to stay in and wanted to remain unrecognized, but keeping hidden proved impossible. 25 Instead, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit in her came to him and fell down at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, by birth a Syro-phoenician, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. 27 He said, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s food and toss it to their pet dogs.” 28 She answered him, “That is true, sir; but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s leftovers.” 29 Then he said to her, “For such an answer you may go on home; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went back home and found the child lying on the couch, the demon gone.
This is both awkward and weird.
Is Yeshua a cold and heartless healer that only wants to do things for those people He likes? Of course not. What on earth is happening here?
We’re going to have to open this up to make sense of it all and we’ll start with some higher level details.
“Send her away, because she is following us and keeps pestering us with her crying.”
This woman was pestering. She kept on and kept on. Whining and crying to the point it was annoying. Why did Yeshua let her keep following?
If He had the ability to heal remotely like we’ve seen in the past, why all the song and dance? Why didn’t He just “have compassion” and deliver the little girl right then and there? It would have sent this woman off and the disciples wouldn't have been annoyed themselves. For some reason, she was allowed to keep on.
“Of course she kept following! Based on what we’ve seen so far this woman needs to have trust before Yeshua does anything for her, right? So the longer she walks the more her trust will grow.”
Maybe.
But doesn’t Yeshua know what people are thinking? He knew what the Pharisees were thinking when the paralyzed man was lowered through the roof, so doesn’t it make sense He knew what she was thinking here also? Wouldn't He be able to discern her trust and just heal her daughter?
And yet the annoyance was allowed to go on. Must be for a reason. And the reason is that there is something here that we need to know. We’ve seen remote healing in the past so the healing portion of this story is adding nothing new. It seems the other details matter more.
Before we get there though, let’s consider another side question: How does a little girl get demon possessed?
Do children suffer due to the decisions of their parents? I think we all have very clear examples we’ve seen that say this is likely 100% true. But demon possession? Is that possible? And if so, is it the parents’ fault?
This is a tough one.
What could open the door into a child’s life that allows a demon access? I’d argue that varying forms of abuse could open up access, as could sacrificing the child to idols:
Psalm 106:34 They failed to destroy the peoples,
as Adonai had ordered them to do,
35 but mingled with the nations
and learned to follow their ways.
36 They went on to serve their idols,
which became a snare for them.
37 They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.
38 Yes, they shed innocent blood,
the blood of their own sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to Kena‘an’s false gods,
polluting the land with blood.
Of course, some kids are just plain abused and neglected. We’re not going to push deeply into that vein because we can all deduce the outcome without much spirituality.
Most parents go to great lengths to protect their children from abuse but it sneaks in sometimes. Usually from places you would never expect. And they would never sacrifice their children, right?
Despite our diligence, there are avenues in here that could open doors we never knew were opened. So we can assume any child can have instances of exposure at some point in their 18-20 years under your care.
So where’s the evidence?
We need to keep in mind that demon possession is not always like it is portrayed in movies and books. It’s not always a crazy person acting out (although that is just as possible -- we’ve all seen children that fit this profile). We saw before that a man was mute due to a demon and there was no evidence that he acted crazy. He just couldn't talk.
There becomes a casual relationship with the demonic that seems to settle in. We talk these days about how children are becoming far more grown up much sooner than in times past. We blame things on movies, tv, and the internet, and that isn’t really wrong. But is it really those things or is it the parents? I get it, parents can’t police their children 100% of the time. But we do want to look at the openings we create due to our not knowing. We’re talking about just giving our kids over to those things so we can go to our place of worship: work, play, phone, etc.
There is an alignment with the demonic due to our paganistic beliefs. Oh, you don’t have any? Congratulations, you are in a very tiny minority. For everyone else, Paul gives us a warning:
1 Corinthians 10:14 Therefore, my dear friends, run from idolatry! 15 I speak to you as sensible people; judge for yourselves what I am saying. 16 The “cup of blessing” over which we make the b’rakhah — isn’t it a sharing in the bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah? The bread we break, isn’t it a sharing in the body of the Messiah? 17 Because there is one loaf of bread, we who are many constitute one body, since we all partake of the one loaf of bread. 18 Look at physical Isra’el: don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 So, what am I saying? That food sacrificed to idols has any significance in itself? or that an idol has significance in itself? 20 No, what I am saying is that the things which pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice not to God but to demons; and I don’t want you to become sharers of the demons! 21 You can’t drink both a cup of the Lord and a cup of demons, you can’t partake in both a meal of the Lord and a meal of demons. 22 Or are we trying to make the Lord jealous? We aren’t stronger than he is, are we?
I don’t know if children get infected specifically due to the parent’s sin but maybe that’s possible. It seems more like parental beliefs, goals, ideas, etc, that tend to create unseen trouble.
Proverbs 20:11 The character of even a child is known by how he acts, by whether his deeds are pure and right.
Whatever the entry point, this little girl has a demonic presence in her life and her mom is wanting her set free. A mom that likely knows nothing of the Torah. But she has some knowledge that has convinced her that this Man can help.
Circling back to the details, what is it we needed to know from this story?
Why tell us where this woman was from?
It seems the key to this story is in the location. They are in Tyre and Sidon which are cities up in Syro-Phoenicia, a coastal region in the north.
This is the region from which Jezebel came.
1 Kings 16:31 But then, as if it had been a trifling thing for him to commit the sins of Yarov‘am the son of N’vat, he took as his wife Izevel (Jezebel) the daughter of Etba‘al king of the Tzidonim (Sidon), and went and served Ba‘al and worshipped him.
So, Yeshua and His disciples are on vacation in Jezebel’s home country and a woman with a demon possessed daughter with no knowledge of Torah or connection to the Jews recognizes Him? That’s odd. They’ve migrated away from the Sea of Galilee area so you’d think they could lay low for a few days. But even there they recognize Him. This Guy can’t catch a break!
To recap, we have a woman from Syro-phoenicia with a daughter that is demonically possessed and she’s using dog analogies. Where else have we seen something that follows this theme?
Yeah, Jezebel.
The brief recounting of the story is that her husband, Ahab, wanted a piece of land from a man named Naboth. Naboth refused to sell so Jezebel hired some guys to lie about him at a banquet and he was subsequently killed. Elijah then tells Ahab:
1 Kings 21:19 “In the very place where dogs licked up the blood of Navot, dogs will lick up your blood — yours!”
Then follows with:
1 Kings 21:23 “The dogs will eat Izevel (Jezebel) by the wall around Yizre‘el. 24 If someone from the line of Ach’av (Ahab) dies in the city, the dogs will eat him; if he dies in the countryside, the vultures will eat him.”
We see here that the line of Ahab will be eaten by dogs. Jezebel was married into that line so her offspring would suffer the same fate, obviously.
Both husband and wife, mom and dad, will have their bodies eaten up by dogs. More than that, life is in the blood and we see that their life is thrown out for dogs to lick up. Imagine that. Blood is life and your life is being licked up -- by dogs. But only things unworthy of a separated people are given to dogs:
Exodus 22:31 “You are to be my specially separated people. Therefore you are not to eat any flesh torn by wild animals in the countryside; rather, throw it out for the dogs.”
Jehu could easily be likened to a wild animal and Jezebel’s flesh was to be thrown out to the dogs. It is not fit for consumption by separated people.
It seems this woman knew she was not part of the separated people. But even the dogs get to eat and this woman knew that. How?
We assume all these people that come up to Yeshua are Biblical scholars of some kind and know all of the nuances of the Torah. This woman may not have known the Torah but it is likely the case that she knew the history of the land. I’d guess the spicy stories of the leaders of the past were common knowledge and their lives were probably somewhat anecdotal.
Who are these separated people?
It’s funny that Yeshua tells this woman that He came for the lost sheep of the House of Israel. What an odd comment to make. But is it?
On the one hand, yes. Weren’t these people scattered throughout the earth into other nations? And didn’t Yeshua spend pretty much His entire ministry in the Land? Was He only trying to find those few that came back after their time in captivity? Or is this a more broad statement talking about what He aims to do restoring divorced Israel back into the covenant? The answers here are beyond the scope of what we’re considering today but bringing attention to this point is necessary.
On the other had, maybe it wasn’t really strange at all.
Who belongs to the House of Israel and why are they lost?
Ahab was king over the Northern Kingdom which was ultimately taken away to Assyria and then scattered throughout the earth. The Northern Kingdom was called Israel (Southern Kingdom was Judah) and these lost sheep are the ones that are scattered.
Ahab was not a good leader. In fact, he wasn’t even a good person. He took a kingdom that was built on rebellion and elevated it to a new level.
“Ahab's reign was deeply unpopular among Yahwists and was considered to be worse than the previous kings of Israel. Whilst the previous kings followed a ‘heretical’ interpretation of Yahwism, known as the ‘sins of Jeroboam, Ahab institutionalized Baalism, which was completely divorced from Yahwism. He was likewise criticized for his oppressive policies, both domestically and internationally.” - Wikipedia
Ahab’s reign was a huge turning point in the line of Israel. Not only was it poor judgment to adopt ba’al worship, but he had no right to even occupy the throne. The kingship was given to David’s line, and Judah did a pretty good job keeping with that lineage.
Ahab was not in the line of David. His reign materialized through varying coups and backbiting so it would be hard to assume this line of kings really wanted things better for God’s people. They started their rebellion because they didn’t appreciate how they were being treated and thought they could do a better job on their own.
Yep, a good ol’ fashioned church split. Well, nation split. And those never work out as advertised. Leaders struggle holding onto power and the people always suffer as a reult. Always.
In the split, Jeroboam became king of the Northern Kingdom and was from the tribe of Ephraim -- and therefore not of the line of David. So right out of the gate, the Davidic line is broken on the Northern side. Illegitimate. Move on down to Ahab, with his crazy wife’s religious demands, and you have a nation that was supposed to be priests to all other nations in the earth that is definitely not that.
Getting back to the point, this land they are walking smells of the root of much demonic oppression. And Yeshua is there looking for those that are lost. He uses all of the language necessary to communicate His disdain for Abba’s people getting thrown to the dogs through a weak man and manipulating woman. A people group pushed to the point of being scattered and lost after a stint in captivity.
See, thrown to the dogs.
We’ve all made mistakes and sometimes those close to us suffer as a result. We have a choice -- and it isn’t often we make the best one.
Our ancestral line may have some rebellious deviations and we are living with the fruit of lost identity and scattered families. What is normal to us is not normal to Abba. We are marked as separated people and we are to no longer eat Jezebel’s flesh. We are to eat Yeshua’s flesh instead.
The rebellion in your line has likely opened the door for demonic strongholds in your life and the lives of your offspring. And there is a cost if you don’t repent:
Revelation 2:20 But I have this against you: you continue to tolerate that Izevel (Jezebel) woman, the one who claims to be a prophet, but is teaching and deceiving my servants to commit sexual sin and eat food that has been sacrificed to idols. 21 I gave her time to turn from her sin, but she doesn’t want to repent of her immorality. 22 So I am throwing her into a sickbed; and those who commit adultery with her I am throwing into great trouble, unless they turn from the sins connected with what she does; 23 and I will strike her children dead! Then all the Messianic communities will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and that I will give to each of you what your deeds deserve.
Yeshua came for those that are set apart. He came for the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
The food served at Jezebel’s table is unfit for the holy people of God. That food belong to the dogs. Yeshua’s food, however, does not belong to the dogs. This is the evidence we needed to show that healing is not just so you can remain in your previous life. Healing is being offered to those that abandon their previous life and welcome the Kingdom in.
This woman got the message but she shows she’s willing to sit under the table and collect the scraps that fall. She will gladly accept a lower position in the Kingdom if Yeshua would just open the door and let her in. To this woman, her daughter’s life was worth it.
One last point to make is that if it were up to the disciples, this woman would have been cast away. Not for any other reason than they were annoyed with her. We see this woman was eager to get her daughter healed and wanted to abandon her lineage to have a chance at eating from the scraps of what the disciples drop from the table. Their own personal feelings and judgments would have easily let this young girl remain in bondage.
Amazing how long reaching our own demand for comfort truly is, huh? We’re ok letting people suffer forever because we don’t want to be inconvenienced for a moment.
How many people have you annoyed because you needed healing and were willing to abandon everything to get it? Note: this is different than just being annoying.