“Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6).

Without faith, hope, and trust, there is no promise for the future. You may have witnessed the faith of someone in your life that absolutely has moved you and made you ponder about your own faith?

The Bible is full of amazing examples of faith. One of them is the Canaanite woman from that vicinity, who is another perfect example of someone with a beautiful faith. She knew with confidence that only Jesus could help her, came and knelt before Jesus crying out, “Lord, help me!” she said. “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. [Matthew 15:25-28 | NIV]

What did Jesus mean “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” concerning the woman’s request?

In that era “Dog” was a term the Jews commonly applied to Gentiles [non-Jewish nation] because the Jews considered these pagan people no more likely than dogs to receive God‘s blessing.

When Jesus said these words, he was in Gentile territory on a mission to Gentile people.

The Commentary says, Jesus was not degrading the woman by using the term “dog”, he was reflecting the Jews’ attitude so as to contrast it with his own. The woman did not argue instead, using Jesus’ choice of words, she agreed to be considered a dog as long as she could receive God’s blessing for her daughter. Ironically, many Jews would lose God’s blessing and salvation because they rejected Jesus, and many Gentiles would find salvation because they recognized and accepted him.

Jesus was simply telling the woman that Jews were to have the first opportunity to accept him as the Messiah because God wanted them to present the message of salvation to the rest of the world. Jesus was not rejecting the Canaanite woman. He may have wanted to test her faith, or he may have wanted to use the situation as another opportunity to teach that faith is available to all people.

We must let the beauty of our faith be the evidence of God’s message to all people. Moreover, let us kneel down before the Lord with the assurance that the test of our faith produces perseverance and healing.  

James 1:3 “Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”