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Iyar 27

The Syro-Phoenician Woman

“Woman, great is your faith, let it be done to you as YOU asked.  So from that time on her daughter was healed.” (Mat 15:28 Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, George Howard, 1995, emphasis mine)

There is little known of this woman, also referred to as a woman of Canaan, apart from the few verses found in Matthew 15:21-28, and Mark 7:24-30.  We know that she was a Gentile, and had a daughter that was tormented by a demon.  We are told through these verses that she knew, and recognized, exactly who Yeshua was: The Messiah, the living Torah, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the only one that could help her daughter.

When this mother approached Messiah Yeshua, her desperation was great.  All pride was gone; all she was after was total deliverance and healing for the child of her womb.  This was not about any selfish desire; this was a concern for another, for her child.  Yeshua, at first, did not even respond.  His disciples prompted Him, and speaking only to them (while ignoring the distraught mother), He replied that He had been sent to the lost sheep of Israel, not to the Gentiles, not to one such as her (see Eze 34:11-13).  Humbling herself even further, this mother fell at the Master’s feet in worship (verse 25).

Please notice that nowhere in these verses does it mention that this desperate mother reached out and touched Messiah Yeshua.  To have done so – a pagan and idol worshipper touching the person of a Pharisee and Rabbi – would have, during the time of our Master, incurred the death penalty.  She apparently knew of this penalty; nonetheless, as a mother, she was willing to risk her life, that her daughter would be set free.

Yeshua went so far as to call her “a dog”, which was a derogatory term often applied to temple prostitutes (Mat 15:26).  Persevering in her request, she asked for the crumbs and table scraps that “dogs” often eat (verse 27).  Because of this mother’s bulldog tenacity, her daughter was healed and delivered from all of the demonic activity. 

Much has been taught from this story on perseverance in prayer, and that is as it should be.  However, I would like us to bear witness to the self-less love that this mother had for her child, even to the point of risking her own life.  Very possibly, she had already tried everything to see her daughter healed, only to find disappointment and failure.  This Messiah Yeshua was probably her last chance, her last hope.  How this one mother knew that Yeshua was the Messiah, and that He would be where He was, when He was, the Scriptures do not say – we can call it a “Divine Appointment”.  Be that as it may, the story of her love for her daughter, and her persistence in prayer, is forever recorded for us.

“Would a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Though they forget, I never forget you.” (Isa 49:15 ISR)

“יהוה appeared to me from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I shall draw you with kindness.”  (Jer 31:3 ISR)

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