One of the most important things in the confession here is
that when they say that their fathers broke the commandments and rules they
don’t leave open the question of whether those rules are just, they also
confess regarding the commandments, “if a person does them, he shall live by
them.” The Law is life-giving, not life-sapping. That goes all the way back to the Garden
doesn’t it? If they had kept the one law they had, honored the one prohibition
given to them, they would have had life not death. The second important thing
they do is affirm that He is righteous in all that has come upon His people,
they deserved it, for “you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.” Because
we acted wickedly we need mercy and we should praise to the highest heaven that
our God is not only just and righteous but also merciful. Here is what that praise might sound like, “…our
God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and
steadfast love…” Who He is should elicit
our praise and then we can worship Him for what He has done, beginning in
sending His Son as our savior.
Can you imagine how uncomfortable this incident would be for
the disciples? This Canaanite woman
comes, crying out, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is
severely oppressed by a demon”, and what does Jesus do? “… he did not answer
her a word.” He ignored her entirely.
The disciples concluded that Jesus didn’t care and begged Him to do
something because she was crying out after them. It would have been beyond
awkward and inexplicable to them to see Jesus blithely ignoring her cries. His response to their entreaty was even
colder to her plight, “I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel.” She kneels before Him and pleads for her
daughter, an embarrassing scene to say the least, and yet Jesus rebuffs her by
referring to her and her kind as “dogs.”
She will not take no for an answer, she is willing to suffer any
indignity for the sake of her daughter and for this Jesus responds compassionately
and lovingly. He is teaching here,
teaching on faith and perseverance but also teaching the disciples about
attitudes towards those outsiders, that they are capable of extraordinary
faith. Coming on the heels of the
encounter with the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus is exposing the religious
leaders and, also perhaps, the disciples themselves.
Babylon is destroyed and all mourn her destruction. There are various reasons for the mourning,
commercial or some pleasure-seeking that is now denied. The city has been the center for all trade
and now there is no place to make money and then spend it on pleasure. The city exemplifies our materialist culture
quite well, a culture that has always existed within mankind, fed by the desire
to have more of the stuff of earth. When
we lose the ability to feed the beast for some reason or other we grieve and
mourn just as these do. I have been
there and lost that and I know that when you have had much it hurts when you no
longer have it or the ability to get it back.
Our pain is often a result of wrongly ordered desire. Seek first the kingdom of God is the answer
to that pain.
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