“Even the Dogs Eat the Crumbs…” | Matthew 15:21–28

Show Notes

Episode 760: 
In this episode, we jump into a discussion centered around a passage from Matthew 15, where Jesus interacts with a Gentile woman seeking help for her demon-possessed daughter. We explore the cultural context of this scripture, discussing how Jesus' initial response reflects the Jewish perspective of the time and the significance of faith. We delve into the idea that Jesus was not rejecting the woman but rather testing her faith, which ultimately leads to her daughter's healing.

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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good morning and good morning. We talked the whole night through. Good morning, good moan, and to you and you and you. Happy Friday, Happy Friday. Do you know what movie that's from? By the way, No? Really, no, really, wow, see I just assumed you did, but Jeff So used to me saying this, it's Singing in the Rain. Okay, God, have you ever seen it? I did, and I did not like the movie? What no, why, I'm not Apparently it's not for my decade, because this isn't like five in the fifties, sixties. I think it's forties, forties. Yea. I had to watch it like in middle school, high school, and I remember thinking this is at the time, it felt like hell having to watch that. What. Oh did you guys watch it together as a group of yeah yeah students, yeah yeah, oh that reason? Why? Yeah? Exactly? It was okay, all right, go over, very well. What year did Singing in the Rain release? Singing in the Rain was released on April eleventh, nineteen fifty two. Oh it is fifties. Where do you go. Yeah, well took a wild shot in the dark there on that one. Oh wow, good job. Yeah, yeah, I definitely you have to. Probably you watch it in the worst environment poss. I high school around high school boys or whatever. Yeah, high school girl. Yeah. No, it was not received. Well I'll yeah say that. Well, I mean think about it. I mean, almost any movie that you see in that environment, unless it's a fantastic movie, it's not gonna be a good, great movie. No. Yeah, but I had a feeling that had you been exposed to it in your home and your dad would have said, hey, son. You gotta watch it. You gotta watch this. I really like it. You got to watch it with him. You'll probably like it more. Do you like It's a wonderful life? Oh? Every year? Yeah, So that's that's a movie where yeah, that's another one where some people have watched it, like in school, they had like in a weird environment they first saw, like the movie so bad. I'm like, oh, man, I love that movie because babies, because the first time you see it was great. Yeah, well that's a great movie also, right yeah. Uh Merry Christmas Emporium. Yeah. Anyway, Okay, so today Kyle, uh there is a different kind of segment. This is, uh, the Praise Report with a twist. Have we ever done this? Not that I've heard, I've not heard this the Praise Report with a twist. That's very interesting. Each of you will share something you're grateful for, but you must describe it like it's a dramatic movie trailer. Example, and she she gives us an example in a world where laundry never ends, one woman finds a sock that matches. Dude can relate to that? Yeah, yeah, And I can't do that voice, but you know that famous. World because in a world, in a world. Right, so so can I can? I? What is this? What is? What has happened? Happened? What just happened? Okay, there you are. So here's what I did. Guys, I'm cheating a little bit because what I did was I went to chat GPT and asked it to write in a trailer from something I was thankful for. So let me explain to you what I'm thankful for. First, I am thankful. My way is gonna kill me when I say this. I am thankful that my wife, without me asking made pasta Oh nice, Because I've been married for thirty three years and I grew up. You know, obviously, my family's Italian, my half of my family's Italian and my mom's half, and she was an Italian cook, that was her profession, and so we always had Italian food, always, always, always, always, always. There was never a day we didn't have something with noodles and sauce in the fridge. Not a day because what always had leftovers. And so all that to say, then all of a sudden, I marry Liz, who doesn't necessarily care for pasta, and so I just sort of got used to not having it. And so I would say, very very very I'm gonna give three varies, very very very rarely do we ever have pasta in the house, not because she's unwilling, probably just because I don't make a big deal about it. And we do go out to eat a lot, and I order pasta often. So I'm thinking to myself, hey, man, it's okay. I don't want to make her make pasta if she doesn't necessarily love it, right, so it's not a big deal. But the other day she made it for me just out of the blue, Wow, and I was thrilled. So I actually I'm gonna. Put together the trailer. Yeah, I'm gonna here, so here it is ready. I'm gonna try to read this dramatically. This is what chat Chipet said. In a world where pasta was only a dream, one man waited thirty three years. Three years. He sat through meatloaf, He endured chicken, He even survived tuna casserole, but still no pasta. Until one day, when Hope had almost boiled away. She made it not because he baked, not because he pleaded, but because she chose this fall. Love is aldente. It's a thirty three year journey served with sauce. Oh that's good pasta, the miracle meal coming soon to a plate near you. Oh my gosh, that's great. I want to see that film. Yeah, right, it sounds great. I love that that. I mean, that's a legit trailer. Yes, I love that, right about something incredibly silly? Oh yeah, hit trailer. Well, I did the same thing I wanted to. I wanted to go to chat shebt and I basically one of the things I'm so thankful for, similar to you do you got the wife one for me. I am so thankful for my wife this summer because any parents will understand this, the driving your kids around all summer and trying to just keep them busy. My kids have cheer schedules and social all that stuff, and my wife has done the bull like eighty percent of all the driving around. And whenever I am responsible for the driving around, I'm very thankful for her and that. So here we go. That's the way night. You're thankful for your wife driving the kids and the kids around all yeah, all of the place. So it sounds like I threw my way from the bus by saying she never makes me pasta, and you are praising your wife for all good things. Yeah. Sure, that's exactly what it is, all right. Here we go. Here we go in a world where kids need rides everywhere at once, one woman rises to the channel. I like it. I like it. The music swells, the card door slam shut. She conquers cheer practices, summer chaos, and endless drop offs. She's more than a wife, She's more than a mom. She's the driving legend. Nice. So your trailer's a little shorter, yeah, shortery little shorter. Yeah, yours is good? Though, Dy, that was really good. I like hey, I like it. The driving legend yeah, and Mima's what it was, the miracle meal. Yes, yes, the miracle You said that to Lizzy, just say like, hey, I wrote this trailer. Well it doesn't matter because she'll she'll hear it, I know. But what if you send it to her ahead of time? Oh yeah, but then it's gonna sound like I'm begging for pasta. Well, you know, what's rewarded is repeated, that's sure in that statement before whatever's rewarded is repeated. Yes, that is true, you know. And but hey, I just want to go on record and say this because you praised your wife really well, so I'm going and. I and I know, I don't think you were dissing. I just say this, like Italian food, but you go to restaurants. But allow me to praise her too. Yeah. She is a fin phenomenal cook. Yeah, phenomenal. Yeah, right, which is why I always struggled with my weight over the years. Okay, it's like I gotta keep eating this, dude. She is an incredible and uh yeah, so there you go. Yeah, same with mine. Actually, last night, sorry we're bragging out. Hey, this is good, this is good. We're bregging our wives. Last night, sheet we had this idea. This is And I know you're a big theme guy when comes to your family. You really try to be intentional with your kids, especially when they're growing up. So I told christ Andals that we should do these like theme nights where we pick a theme and we just go all in on the music we play and the speakers around the house. We picked the food, we maybe pick a movie or show or whatever. Games. And so she texted our family at like five PM, She's like, who's ready for for? What? Is she a Mexican night tonight? And so we got home and she had this Mexican food ready. We put on Mexican U. It was actually really fun. It was really sweet. We're trying to watch Natural Lebre they couldn't find it. Did you speak Spanish? Uhh yeah. We just just in like greed like as much as we could. Yes, But it was phenomenal. I was like, this is a great It was basically we basically made homemage Pole. It was incredible. That's awesome. Yeah, good for you start doing that. Very cool. Well, hey, what a fun segments, Kyle, And thanks Desiree for that innovative praise report with a twist. Good and Brownie points for our wife. So that's good. And you know what else is something that has a twist. What has a twist is that Jesus talked about the dogs eating crumbs, and that was sort of out of nowhere. That is a twist. It was a twist of this conversation. It's a twist. Let's twist it to the scripture. All right, hey, twist away, Kyle, all. Right, Matthew. Fifteen Jesus sends a demon out of a girl. So chapter fifteen, verse twenty one through twenty eight it says this. Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of tyr and Sedan. A gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading have mercy on me, o, Lord son of David, for my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely. But Jesus I gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away, to go away. They said, she is bothering us with all her begging. That Jesus said to the woman, I was sent only to help God's lost sheep, the people of Israel. But she came and worshiped him, pleading again Lord to help me. Jesus responded, it isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs. She replied, that's true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their master's table. Dear woman, Jesus said to her, your faith is great, your request is granted, and her daughter was instantly healed. So yeah, seven verses. Yeah, and and and so keep in mind that this was a gentile woman. Right. So it went to the region of tyr Inside and a gentile woman who lived there came there pleading, and Jesus is basically saying, I was only come to help God's lost sheep, the people of Israel. He was sent to the Jews as a you know, the promise was given to the to God's people, the sacrifice of Jesus a salvation. Jesus announced after his crucifixion that salvation was for everybody. Right. But there is something to be said here about the fact that, you know, there's such an unbelievable division between you know, we don't often think about it because we live post you know, a New Testament. Right, so we say, oh, Jewish people, and then non Jewish or gentiles. And you know, we know Romans, and Romans says there's no difference between you or Greek or gentile or anybody else, right or Greek or Jew, you know whatever. And so it actually says right here as it talks about I just saw this note here vers Number twenty four. Right here, we have to admire the patience and the persistence of this gentile mother. Lord help me was her second plea, and this time she avoided any Messianic titles. She came as a sinner needing help, and she offered no argument to his reply. Jesus did not call her a dog, by the way the Pharisees would have addressed a gentile. The Greek word here means a little pet dog and does not refer to the filthy curs that ran into the streets up for garbage. The children, of course, refers to the people of Israel. So, you know, it's so interesting how Jesus had come to fulfill the scriptures, and in the Old Testament, the Jewish people were the ones who revered the God of Israel, and so like, you know, think about, like remember when we were going through that series, all the way through the Old Testament. And you remember how it was such a struggle for the people of Israel to believe. And you know, here's God wanting, i mean just almost begging through his prophets. He's begging them to, you know, just worship him and he'll make them a great nation. And because they struggled so much, again and again and again they struggled, and then eventually they were divided for years, years and years and years and years. They were divided centuries because they could simply not obey God and have their faith, you know, just align with the things that God said. So but for a while there in the Old Testament, remember King David, he would actually go and he would destroy other pagan nations. These were nations that defied the God of Israel. They worshiped other gods. Even though that they were told about the God of Israel, they were told about the one and true, one true King, they refused. And so eventually the enemies of Israel were wiped out. And that was sort of God's quest, which is pretty wild, right think about that. But it was always the Jewish people against those who did not recognize the One true God. And so and so Jesus comes as a fulfillment of what some people say three hundred and fifty plus some people say over four hundred prophecies, and those were prophecies given about a Jewish man to the Jewish people, and so and so and so. I have a tendency when I read this to think, Wait a minute, why wouldn't Jesus show his love to anybody who wasn't Jewish? And why in the world would he ignore a woman who had a legitimate request just because she's a gentile. Have you ever thought that, no, I'm you're someone? When he right away, when he says he doesn't give her a word, doesn't give a reply, Well, yeah. Doesn't it. See here's what I'm saying. I still allowed to say this. Doesn't it seem like he's ignoring her just because she's not a gentile or just because she's not a Jew. When I read it, my interpretation was I think I thought he wanted to see what the disciples would do when he ignored her, like he wasn't quick to respond. But he says her legitimately, I was sent only to help God's lost sheep, the people of Israel. You know I'm not I'm not acknowledging your request, I'm ignoring you. Here's the reason why he says it. Yeah, I was only to help God's people visually young. Yeah, I guess. And for me, again, I was wondering if it had to do with the fact that he was waiting to see because his disciples were the quickest to almost say like, hey, get out of the way, we have work to do, which is also just kind of funny. Yeah, but not only does he announce his intent right there, but then he goes even further and said it isn't right. It isn't right to take food from the children and talking about Israel and throw them to the dogs, and he's talking about the gentiles. So Jesus is clearly not And by the way, I think you're right in that Jesus always intentionally waits for his disciples to react, so he could have been doing that also, so that could be also true. But clearly he's talking about his intent, and so I just I have to rationalize and logically piece together twenty twenty five values. Right in twenty twenty five, we would react to that and say that's not fair, And how could Jesus, you know, not love anybody who's not Jewish, and that's not right and that's weird. And why would he announce that, why would he call her a dog? Yeah, and we already covered that part of it. Yeah, it's actually interesting. I'm not actually gonna go because I honestly that was not a part I was taken from that. But that's a really good point. But let me just read this little section here. It says Jesus' words do not contradict the truth that God's message is for all people. After all, when Jesus said these words, he was in Gentile territory and a mission to gentile people. He administered to gentiles on many other occasions. Also, he was simply telling the woman that Jews were to have the first opportunity to accept him as the Messiah, because God wanted them to present the message of salvation to the rest of the world. Jesus was not rejecting the gentile woman. He may have wanted test her faith or may or he may have wanted to use the situation as another opportunity to teach then the whole dog thing. So dogs was a term that Jews commonly applied to gentiles because the Jews considered these pagan people no more likely than dogs to receive God's blessing. So he was not degrading the women by using this term. He was deflecting. He was reflecting the Jews attitude it. So it's to contra trust it with his own. So anyways, yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, yeah. So and by the way, that note in your Bible is exactly where I was going. So it is an interesting thing to address the feelings of a twenty twenty five kind of reaction and then to realize that you sort of have to rationalize and understand if you go back and if you look at every promise given to God's people, that is exactly the answer. The answer is is that God never intended to hold back miracles or truth or salvation from anybody. It's just the timing of Jesus was incredibly intentional, right, So Jesus think about it. Jesus was so incredibly intentional about who knew he was the Messiah, who wasn't, who should be quiet, and who should speak right and so, and he's saying that, hey, at this time, the Jews have to have the first opportunity to experience the miracles to come to the conclusion that I'm the Messiah, because salvation is for the world, but given through the Jews. He says that it actually says that in the Bible salvation it comes from the Jews. It comes from the Jews, and so God's chosen people in the Old Testament. Every promise has to be fulfilled. Everything has to go the way that that God aligned it and designed it. And this is just a part of God's major plan, right, the thirty thousand foot view from the beginning until where we find ourselves now. Right. So that's the reason why. And so God's intention is that salvation has to come, you know, through this way to get to to get to there, right, And so's that's really the explanation there. The onely things that stood up to me is when he says, your woman, your faith is great. Even that right there for Jesus to say that your faith is great. Remember hearing somebody talk about this one time. They said, there's only a few examples throughout scripture where Jesus was amazed where it says that Jesus was amazed at somebody, and it usually has to do with faith, and oftentimes it's and. By the way, the other one is from a gentile from a Roman. Yeah, well so it's lack of faith or actual faith. It's how you can amaze Jesus. And it's just because I look at that, I'm like, man, I want to be that type of person that when when God looks at me, when God looks at us, that he says, man, like, if Jesus were speaking to me, like Kyle has faith, he has great faith. I think sometimes I think you and I are very similar. Sometimes it's easy to be skeptical, so I might not be that person that would go and say, hey, Jesus, can you heal my doll? Like I don't know. I want to believe i'd be that person, you know, but it's hard because there's always those those things. And this woman here was like unrelenting. She says, gonna know, I'm gonna go talk to this guy. I heard he can heal people. I'm gonna go talk to him. Yeah, Hey, so excuse me, I'm gonna go ahead and tell a quick story because he says, hey, your faith is great, your request is granted. And Jeff and I mentioned this a few weeks back, but basically, you know, Jesus often talked about great faith versus no faith, little faith, and people are attempted to think that that's quantity of faith. But Jesus only referred to quality of faith, right, because he says, you have to have the faith of a mustard seed and then and you can do great things and move mountains. And so when he says where is your faith, he's not talking about, you know, the quantity of faith. He's saying, where is your true faith? You know where where is where is the faith? That's great? Right? And so in other words, you don't have to have a whole lot more fail if you only had more faith galbt heeliaeah no, no, no, no, no, you just had to have a small uh uh true faith? Right? Uh? Where is your faith? How little is your faith? He's saying, where how come you have so little of actual faith? Right? And so uh so as so as he's referring to quality of faith, So we have to have a perspective on how great is our God, not how great is our faith. So anyway, the point is this is that two weeks ago, I'm going to tell the story about somebody praying for me. Right, So I am actually on stage on this stage, very very very stage, and I'm and I'm speaking to four services, and I started to have, uh with with what the doctors call an aura before a migraine. Anybody who's a migraine knows they see like lights and spots and things like that. And I've never even had it before. It really was scary, but it actually started coming on on my peripheral and it actually everything got blurry, and then there was these spots. I'm like, what is that about? And for about ninety minutes they got greater, greater, greater, greater, greater, and it got to the point to where I tried everything. I tried closing my eyes, I tried eating, hydrating, resting, taking outvill I was doing all these kinds of things. But I was due on stage just in between services, in between sir, and then I was due on stage for the next service, and I was minutes away, and it got so bad to where like forty to fifty percent of my entire vision and my left eye was gone, and it was all blurry and it was strobing like a strobe light. It was strobing like this. And I'm telling you, I was so scared. And I've heard other people describe these kinds of things it's different for everybody. But I'm thinking, oh, here comes a migraine. And I've had migraines before that it paralyzed me, but I've never had this aura. And my daughter struggles with these things and so she's told me about it. So anyway, and so I walk over to Wesley and I say, Wesley, you need to be on the side of the stage with a microphone with my message and you need to like which is what I told you right the other day. And I said, and I said, you need to be ready in case, in case I go down, Yeah, wow, right, And because I don't know what's going to happen. And then I told my stage hand, who is a volunteer who's related to one of our guys on staff, and he's just a volunteer guy who works as an assistant, you know, backstage, and I said, can you have a stool ready in case I need a stool, I'll just call for it. And he said, yeah, absolutely sure. So I'm ready to go on stage. And then he just walks over to me and he just puts his hand on me and he says, God, we pray for complete healing Jesus in the name of Jesus, we pray for complete healing. So I bowed my head because He's praying for me, and then all of a sudden, I opened my eyes and it's gone. So it was constantly in my vision to where it was small, and it got so big that no matter what I did, it was there for ninety minutes straight. Wow, he prayed for me. I closed my eyes for ten seconds. I opened up and it was gone, and I said, it's gone, and he goes and he goes, Oh, Praise God. And I said, no, you don't understand it's gone. I mean it's completely gone. And I was like, Wow, that was an app healing. And the funny thing is I always have a belief that God can if he wants to heal me, but I don't necessarily live with an expectation that my eyes is gonna be gone. So there's a difference between belief and expectation, right. So I have my number one spiritual gift is faith. So I believe that I have faith that God can, but the belief that God will in that very moment, it's because sometimes he doesn't, right, And so why would I ever believe that that was going to happen? Even though I know it can. So so it's like, so there's this fine line. Fine and so anyway, so I opened up. But Dave Wilson said to me, he goes, hey, goes, because that's just proof that it really wasn't your faith that healed. You know, he said it was it was his faith. The faith of the guy who prayed. Now he's saying, hey, I'm gonna pray and I'm praying for complete healing. That's right. It's like it's like, remember when they lowered the man through the roof to Jesus. Or this, it's it says, your request is granted, and her daughter was instantly healed. That's right. Yeah, that's that's right. So the daughter was healed based on the faith of the woman. Yeah right, and so and so he and but when they lowered the man through the roof, it's actually it says, the faith of your friends has made you hold right. And so it's it's an interesting thing, how uh uh. You know again, it's not it's not it's not that I needed more faith. It's it's it's the quality of our faith, not the quantity of our faith. And so anyway, that was an unbelievable thing for me. And I know that some people who in my old world and the denomination that I came from, would be like, oh, that sounds pretty that sounds pretty charismatic to me, you know, to where you know they put God in a box, right, to which I would just say, listen, uh, here's what I know for a fact. What I know for a fact is is that for ninety minutes, no matter what I did, that thing would not go away. And then this guy with great faith says to me, in the name of Jesus, we played pray for complete healing, and I hope my eyes and it was gone. There is absolutely no way that anybody could ever convince me that wasn't a healing in that moment, right, And not many people would rebuke that. No, But I love that. That's great And it's a reminder though, especially in our world, when people a lot of times think, oh, that's somebody else can pray that prayer. Somebody else can, that's not for me. I don't I don't, you know. I think this is a really good reminder's reminder from me too. And by the way, that guy wasn't a pastor. That's your point. Yeah, right, like any it's for anybody. That's right. Yeah, and so and so. Yeah. I think that the interesting thing about this scripture is that she is a gentile woman with great faith. He's marveled and he's amazed by the faith of this woman even though she's not a Jewish person, and that her faith actually saves her daughter. Yeah, wild, yes, yeah, which is incredible. Softer you know, after all, we just have to understand that that faith, believing in God and who he is. We don't need a lot of it. We just need to have true faith and who God is to see great things no matter who you are. That's good. That's good. That's a great place to end. So thank you for joining us this week, Happy Friday, and hopefully we'll see you Monday on the Bible guys, mhm