“But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.”
Matthew 15:26
I’ll never have a dog in the house!
You’ve heard many people make decrees like this before. For all of their living, with all of their experience, they are certain that they will NEVER allow certain things into their life. Seems like something I’ve said before, too.
“NEVER buy a new car”
“NEVER start drinking coffee”
“NEVER ride a roller coaster”
“NEVER have a dog in the house”
To these things, half of us said, “Yes!” But the other half looked at that list and asked, “Wait, you’ve never…?”
The reason most have ‘never’ tried these things is because they perceive no worth in doing so. Why would I add something to my life, if I thought that my life was already perfect? What is the benefit of starting something new, when I am accustomed to how I do things now?
Solomon said, “Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.” (Proverb 14:4) While most of us think of adding a job, learning a skill, or volunteering at our church as just another mess; Solomon said that without the mess, you’ll never see the increase. He also wisely said, “In all labour there is profit.” (Proverb 14:23) You will reap the fruit of your action, or of your inaction.
The idea is not to try something new just because it is new. The devil will sell you to all kinds of sin that way. But my thought today is that sometimes we are presented with something good that we have not done, or perhaps something acceptable to replace what is good, or moreover, we are faced with a perfect duty that bests all we’ve ever done.
Will we answer, as Jesus, “It is not meet?” Will we never have a dog in this house?
Jesus had definitively said, “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”(Matthew 15:24) NO DOGS ALLOWED. There wasn’t a value in having Gentiles around. And who could possibly change God’s Mind when once It was made up?
But the Canaanite woman in simple faith did not deny the trouble she was. She didn’t argue the little benefit she would bring. Instead, she expounded the veracity of what Jesus said to her: “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” (Matthew 15:27) And when He heard that, you can almost hear Him in a resigned sigh say, “OK, fine! We’ll let the dog in the house… but just this one time!“
Fast forward to an epoch in our near future. The Jewish King of Kings rides victoriously through the valley of Megiddo along the hills of Bashan. He is surrounded by saints, by seraphim, by his sheep. But alongside His dignified hunting party, see the loping, grinning pack of terriers and hounds. David the prophet saw it: and he called them the Lord’s dogs. (Don’t take my word for it. Read Psalm 68:22-24)
Maybe the Lord would ask you to pick up a poor family for church this Sunday. Perhaps He will lay it on your heart to call or write someone to encourage them. Or He may urge you to show your cranky neighbor the love of Calvary. It doesn’t hardly seem worth the trouble… but it is.
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