ESOCS Devotional 24 January 2025 – Lost Sheep!
MEMORY VERSE: “But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew 15:24
TEXT: MATTHEW 15:31-END
So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.
32 Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.”
33 Then His disciples said to Him, “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?”
34 Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”
And they said, “Seven, and a few little fish.”
35 So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 36 And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. 37 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. 38 Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.
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Jesus was in the area of Tyre and Sidon, a coastal region in extreme north western Galilee (Matt.15:21) when a Canaanite woman came to Him with a request to heal her demon-possessed daughter. For a while, Jesus did not respond to the woman’s entreaties, and she followed Him and continued to beg for mercy. Finally, the disciples, feeling that the woman was a nuisance, asked Jesus to send her away. Then Jesus said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 15:24).
In Jeremiah 50:6, God calls Israel His people and “lost sheep.” The Messiah, spoken of throughout the Old Testament, was seen as the One who would gather these “lost sheep” (Ezek. 34:23-24; Micah 5:4-5). When Jesus presented Himself as a shepherd to Israel, He was claiming to be the fulfilment of Messianic prophecy (Mk. 6:34; 14:27; Joh. 10:11-16; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4; Rev. 7:17).
Jesus’ words to the Canaanite woman also show an awareness of Israel’s place in God’s plan of salvation. God revealed through Moses that the children of Israel were “a holy people to the LORD . . . chosen . . . a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth” (Deut.7:6). It was through the Jews that God issued His Law, preserved His Word, and sent His Son. This is why, elsewhere, Jesus tells a Samaritan that “salvation is of the Jews” (Joh. 4:22). In Matthew 15, when the Jewish Messiah says that He was sent to “the house of Israel,” He is simply connecting His presence with God’s purpose in Old Testament history. Christ was “born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5).
Every ministry must have priorities, and Christ’s ministry was no exception. When Jesus sent His disciples to preach the good news of the Kingdom, He expressly told them, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:5-6). Jesus did not forbid their preaching to all Gentiles; He did, however, narrow their focus to the areas, which should be most receptive—those who knew the Law and were expecting the Messiah. Paul, in his missionary journeys, followed the same priority of preaching to the Jews first (Rom. 1:16).
Finally, Jesus’ words to the Canaanite woman served as a test of her faith. She came to Jesus believing that He was the “Lord,” the “Son of David,” and the giver of mercy (Matt. 15:22). His delayed answer and seemingly exclusionary statement brought from her a further, passionate, public expression of her faith in His unlimited power (Matt. 15:27).
CHALLENGES
- You are the redeemed of the Lord. What have you done with that free gift of salvation?
PRAYER POINT
- Lord Jesus, cause me to always meet mine expectations in my daily work with you. Amen.
FURTHER READING: Isaiah 33:1-end; 34:1-end; Matthew 16:1-12
ESOCS Devotional 24 January 2025
