Verse 21 says, “And Jesus went from there and departed into the districts of Tyre and Sidon.” The unbelief of the Galileans caused the Lord Jesus not to do many works of power among them (13:58), and the rejection of Herod caused Him to depart to the desert (14:13). In 15:1 the religionists came down from Jerusalem to spy on the Lord Jesus and to find fault with Him. The further opposition of the rejecting religionists caused the heavenly King to depart farther from them, even into the districts of Tyre and Sidon, Gentile country. The Galilean rejection caused the Lord not to do many works of power among them. Herod’s rejection caused Him to depart from the civilized cities to the desert. Now the opposition by the religionists caused the Lord to go even farther away, to the Gentile world.
Verse 22 says, “And behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those regions and cried out, saying, Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is badly demon-possessed!” Due to the rejection of the religious Jews, the opportunity to contact the heavenly King came to the Gentiles, even to a weak Gentile woman. The Canaanite woman addressed the Lord Jesus as the Lord, the Son of David. The title Lord implies Christ’s divinity, and the title, Son of David, His humanity. As a Gentile woman, it was proper for her to address Christ as the Lord. However, she had no right to call Him Son of David; only the children of Israel were privileged to do so.
The disciples were troubled by the crying out of the Canaanite woman, and they asked the Lord to send her away. This indicates that once again they were instructing the Lord, telling Him to do something. This also was the principle of the law. The disciples seemed to be saying, “Lord, she is crying out and troubling us. Can’t you do something, Lord? Please send her away.” At this point the Lord said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v. 24). If you read the Gospels carefully, you will see that the Lord Jesus never took a word from His disciples. When they made a proposal, the Lord always refused to consider it. But whenever the disciples did not want to do a particular thing, the Lord would tell them to do it. Likewise, when we want to do something, the Lord says no. But when we do not want to do anything, the Lord says go. The purpose of this is to train us not to live and act according to the self or our natural concept. Peter could have said to the Lord, “Lord, if You have come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, what are You doing here in Tyre and Sidon? Why have You come here?” But if Peter had said this to the Lord, the Lord still would have had a way to subdue him. No one can defeat the Lord Jesus. The disciples lost the case, and their mouths were shut.
Although the Lord was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, at the time of 15:21-28 He was in a Gentile region. This afforded the Gentiles an opportunity to participate in His grace. This bears dispensational significance, showing that Christ came to the Jews first, but due to their unbelief, His salvation turned to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46; Rom. 11:11).
In verse 25 the Gentile woman rightly called Jesus the Lord and worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” This second time she called Christ only Lord, not the Son of David, because she realized that she was not a child of Israel, but a heathen.
In verse 26 the Lord answered the Canaanite woman: “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” The heavenly King’s ministry in all His visits created opportunities for Him to reveal Himself further. In the situations created in chapters nine and twelve, He had opportunities to reveal Himself as the Physician, the Bridegroom, the new cloth, the new wine, the Shepherd, the real David, the greater temple, the Lord of the harvest, the greater Jonah, and the greater Solomon. Here another opportunity was created for Him to reveal Himself as the children’s bread. The Canaanite woman considered Him the Lord, a divine Person, and the Son of David, a royal descendant, great and high to reign. But He unveiled Himself to her as small pieces of bread, good for food. This implies that, as the heavenly King, He rules over His people by feeding them with Himself as bread. We can be the proper people in His kingdom only by being nourished with Him as our food. To eat Christ as our supply is the way to be the kingdom people in the reality of the kingdom.
The Lord said that the children’s bread should not be thrown to the dogs. This indicates that in the eyes of the Lord all the heathen are dogs, which are unclean in the eyes of God (Lev. 11:26).
Do you not believe that when the Lord Jesus was speaking to His disciples regarding this Canaanite woman He already had the intention to feed her? Certainly the Lord foreknew that He had to feed this woman. Why then did He not do it immediately? Although the woman came and cried to Him, He remained silent at first, saying nothing. It almost appeared as if He were dumb. His dumbness caused the disciples to implore Him to do something for her and to send her away. The reason the Lord Jesus did not do something right away was that He wanted to take this opportunity to teach His disciples. When the disciples came to Him, He said that He had come only for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. When the woman came to Him, He indicated to her that He had come as bread for the children and that it was not lawful to cast the children’s bread to the dogs.