August 29 Daily Devotional

Matthew 15; Mark 7

North of Galilee there was a small country called Phoenicia. Tyre and Sidon were the chief cities of Phoenicia. The people of this country were Gentiles (heathen) and idol worshippers. But because they lived so close to the land of the Jews many of them became familiar with the Jewish religion and heard about the one true God. At one time, after Jesus had been very busy with teaching and preaching in Galilee, he took the twelve up to Phoenicia. No doubt he wanted to give them some special instruction, or wanted to get some rest after meeting the thousands of people. They went into a house, where they might be undisturbed.

But the fame of Jesus had reached the people of Phoenicia, and they were eager to see him. Now there was a woman who had a daughter, afflicted with a severe sickness. The distressed mother, having heard of Jesus and the help he had given to many sufferers, came and fell down at his feet, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David: my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” He wanted to test the faith of this woman. “Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered, and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.” The Jews called the Gentiles dogs, and no doubt this woman, who was a Greek, knew this; but she was willing to belong to this inferior class, if only she could find help for her suffering child. “And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. And Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman! great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt; go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her home, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.”

And Jesus departed from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and came unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. “And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them: insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.”