(Audio)
His disciples came and asked him,
"Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."
To the Canaanite woman the disciples must have seemed like the veritable giants that the people of Israel found in the promised land. It would have been easy for her to do what they did and give in to fear and discouragement.
So they spread discouraging reports among the children of Israel
about the land they had scouted
In the face of giants we are all too likely to give discouraging reports. Unless someone intervenes, discouraging reports quickly become self-fulfilling prophecies. We believe them more and more and are therefore less and less able to proceed into the land where we are called by God.
We should be more like Caleb who believes that the land can be taken, the enemies defeated, because after all, God had called them to do so.
"We ought to go up and seize the land, for we can certainly do so."
The faith of the Canaanite woman was even greater than that of Caleb. The LORD himself discouraged her. But she saw in him a compassion that belied his words. It should make us wonder just how many times we have heard an apparent 'No' from the LORD which was meant to become a yes if we persisted. The LORD was testing her. If she allowed herself the humility to be a little puppy before Jesus, rather than some deserving sheep of the house of Israel, he in turn had plenty of crumbs to spare. He never said no in a strict sense. But she never would have reached the 'Yes' if she hadn't pushed onward past all the giants in her way.
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
"O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish."
And her daughter was healed from that hour.
What giants are stopping are progress today? What negative reports are we believing, or worse, telling? How can we be more like Caleb and more like the Canaanite woman ready to persist until they obtain their desires?
Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
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