Chapter 7 - Syro-Phoenician Woman
The passage regarding the Syro-Phoenician woman (see Matthew 15:21-28) is vitally important She was a Gentile, a Syro-Phoenician woman, who was also outside of the covenant. She said to Jesus, “Listen, my daughter is severely demon-possessed.” The Bible says that when she came and said that, Jesus did not say a word to her. Then, she came again, and with persistence she was determined to stay there. Look at Matthew 15:23: But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and urged Him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she cries out after us.’ But He answered and said, ‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’” (emphasis added). Now, do not miss that statement, for within it is the reason why He is not responding to her.
It is not that He did not want to help her, but rather that He had been sent on a mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. For this same reason, when He sent out His disciples in Matthew 10:5, He told them to not go into any way of the Gentiles. “Do not go into the city of the Samaritans – only go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, because that is the area of authority I have been given in My earthly ministry.”
He did not respond to her because she was not approaching Him on the basis of covenant; she did not have a covenant! But Jesus’ God is a covenant God! If you are trying to get life in abundance, deliverance, godliness, and so on, from God without His covenant, He cannot respond. To put it another way: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that we if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). This mean if we do not ask according to His will, He does not hear us. And, if I ask anything according to His will, it means I am asking according to the covenant because the covenant is the will. You could start calling the New Testament, the New Agreement, because we do not often use the words covenant or testament in everyday English.
So, there is an Old Agreement and a New Agreement, and you must deal with God based on your agreement. This woman was Syro-Phoenician, outside of covenant, and did not have an agreement at all. “Then she came and worshipped Him, saying, ‘Lord, help me!’ But He answered and said, ‘It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dongs’” (Matthew 15:25-26). Again, this was a covenant matter. He said, “What you are asking for belongs to the children. Healing belongs to the children.” The children of whom? The children of Abraham. He was the one whom the covenant was made with. So, He said, “I cannot, right now, take the bread from the children and give it to the dongs. It is the children’s bread.” In other words, “The covenant is what gives you a right to the bread.” She said in verse 27: “’Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered and said to her, ‘O woman, great is your faith!’” (emphasis added).
It has been preached that the reason she received her request is because of her persistence, but persistence alone will not get you anything. Just because you are persistent does not mean you are going to receive! Again, you have evidence for that – you have been praying, fasting, rolling on the floor, crying, knocking, and seeking. Let me give it to you this way – just because you have a big sledgehammer does not mean you are going to chop down a tree. You are persistent, but you do not have the right instrument. There is no edge on what you are using.
Even if you hit a tree in the same place over and over with a sledgehammer, you will not be yelling “timber” for several years! This is what a lot of Christians do: They hit in the same place, but not with the right instrument – there’s no edge on what they are hitting with. It was not this woman’s persistence that caused her to receive her request. Understand that Jesus denied her on the basis that she was not in the covenant. He said, “Listen, I was sent only the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” which basically says, “This is only for the covenant people.”
