Today's Reading: Matthew 15: 21-28
**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link: Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf.
Please click this link to read Matthew 15: 21-28
Bible Study
This is a very strange passage because it looks like that Jesus refused to help the woman because she was from the wrong race. What was really happening?
The fact is that Jesus main job wasn't a travelling doctor to heal every sick person he met. His main task was to God's people, Israel, that they knew their God was now at last fulfilling his promises - the coming of the Messiah. The Kingdom they longed for hundreds of years had arrived.
What the woman was doing is like the movie "Back to the Future", the future was happening now. Why? You need to know that the disciples, and perhaps Jesus himself, were not yet ready for the Cross. The early church fought for some years of the acceptance of Gentiles on equal terms with Jews, and Paul won this battle many years later. This woman was perhaps moving forward 20 years ahead!
The other interesting point is that the woman got over with the inferiority complex as a second class gentile.
N.T. Wright says:
The woman says, the dogs can't simply share the children's food. This is remarkable enough, that she accepts the designation 'dog', which was a regular way of dismissing the Gentiles as inferior. But she insists on her point. If Israel is indeed the promise-bearing people, then Israel's Messiah will ultimately bring blessing to the whole world. The dogs will share the scraps that fall from the children's table.
If you were that woman, would you accept someone's help as the man and his race treated you as second class? Would your inferiority complex influence your judgment and stir up your pride that you do not want to accept his help?
Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"
Spiritual Journal
What I heard from Jesus today is: Don't let inferiority controls your life!
Jesus reminds me today of a new understanding on our inferiority complex. Generally speaking this woman would never accept Jesus' help because Jesus not only told her to get lost because he was not sent to help her as a gentile but addressed her as 'dog"!
I think if someone used that attitude and term to you, you should have long gone or you might want to kill that person!
Have you noticed the past so many chapters teaching us that those who got healing from Jesus all have one common gift: FAITH.
That's why Jesus could not do anything except healing a few in his home town. They did not have faith in Jesus and did not trust him.
Jesus words were right to the heart of that woman helping her to remove her inferiority before he could exercise his healing power.
How serious could our inferiority complex obstructing you to receive help from someone that you think he or she looks down upon you but in fact it is not?Don't judge other people easily because you might miss a chance to get help!
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to remove our inferiority so that we are able to trust those people you prepare to help us. Please do not allow us to miss any chance of help from you because of our inferiority complex. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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