Scripture

She begged him to cast out the demon from her daughter.

Observation

Jesus leaves Galilee and goes to the region of Tyre. Although he tries to keep his location secret, word gets out. Right away a gentile woman comes and falls at his feet. She asks Jesus to cast a demon fomr her daughter.

Jesus teases her by saying Jesus teases her by saying, His first mission is to the Jews.

The woman replies that even the dogs eat the crumbs from the children’s plate.

Jesus commends her faith and tells her the the demon has left her daughter.

Application

Jesus’ authority is over all things and is available to all people.

No doubt this woman thought there was a process to go through. Often exorcisms were lengthy procedures and sometimes involved inflicting great pain on the victim. The idea was, that, by making the body uncomfortable, the evil spirit would be forced to leave.

Here, Jesus doesn’t even speak a command. His promise to the woman carries all the authority, of the Creator of all things including evil spirits, and it is sufficient to cause the demon to leave.

I have found from the times of spiritual warfare that I have engaged in, that a simple command, “Go in the name of Jesus” is enough.

The Holy Spirit in us is the presence of God, the authority of God.

Listen

Lord, is there more you need to say to me about this episode?

Keith, this lovely lady and precious daughter were involved in the making of purple dye, which that region was famous for.

They used dogs to find the snails that were the source of the dye, and these dogs were honoured in that town because they were a source of wealth. I talked to her about dogs, knowing that this was not insulting like it would have been in Israel.

The evil spirit had got in because of a gate way opened by idol worship. After that day, they never worshipped a false god again.