In His Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus says, “Don’t give anything holy to the dogs or throw your pearls to the pigs, or they will trample them under their feet and then turn and tear you to pieces. (Matt 7:6)” It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. It isn’t right to turn God’s Word into a commodity to be marketed and sold to the world, as if you can make it more appealing. Those who hate God’s Word won’t appreciate it just because you spice it up and make it more exciting. Nor will they embrace His holy truth because you make it easier for them to swallow. Only those who are humbled and broken in their hearts over their sins will appreciate what God’s Word has to offer. Only those who thirst for His righteousness and mercy will find the Word of His Cross refreshing.

One way in which the dogs and pigs of the world trample down on God’s Word is when they accuse God of being unjust. They ask, “why would God destroy all the people of the earth in a flood? Why would he destroy all the Canaanites?” The answer is simple. They were evil. They were filled with violence. God told Israel why He was wiping out the Canaanites. He said that they committed every abomination, even burning their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their false gods (Deut 12:31). God also warned the people of Israel not to think that God was giving them this land because of they were so righteous. No, God was driving out the Canaanites because they were wicked (Deut 9:5). God destroyed almost all of mankind because they were wicked. They were dogs and pigs, trampling on His Holy Word, refusing to repent after many years of warning. Noah was building the ark and preaching repentance for a hundred years before God finally sent the flood. God gave the Canaanites four hundred years from the time of Abraham until He finally sent Joshua to conquer the land. God was patient, not wanting anyone to be condemned but that they would turn from their sin and live before Him in faith.

Those who accuse God of evil for wiping out godless nations will never be convinced by us softening God’s judgment. And we will not be convinced unless we see that we deserve the same sentence. Right before Jesus says not to give what is holy to the dogs, He tells you to take the plank out of your own eye before you point out the speck in your brother’s eye. Don’t think that you don’t also deserve God’s judgment. Otherwise, you will be blind to what God’s Word offers you.

When we consider how evil the Canaanites were, this should warn us against the same kind of idol worship. When the Canaanites worshipped statues made with hands, they were in fact worshipping demons. This is obvious by the fact that they burned their children in fire. After all, demons hate children, because God told the devil that his head would be crushed by the Child descended from the Woman (Gen 3:15). There is no coincidence that Satanists are pro-abortion. Any woman who struggles over the temptation to terminate her pregnancy is struggling with an attack of a demon. She needs to know this.

We also should beware not to follow the other demons of our age. Resist mind-altering drugs. They are sorcery, which the devil uses to deceive you and turn your heart away from God. They make you self-absorbed and dishonest, unable to listen to God’s Word, treating it as a joke like stoners and drunkards at a trashy party. We are not any stronger to resist these things than they are on own. When we think we already know enough, then we begin to look at God’s Word as old news, irrelevant, or a joke. This causes us to imagine that we know better than God. This make us no better than the Canaanites, becoming dogs and pigs trampling on what is holy. Only when we see our continual need for God’s word of mercy do we begin to see how dark the ways of the devil truly are.

Not all the Canaanites were destroyed by God. When He sent Joshua into Canaan to wipe out the people of the land, some of the Canaanites escaped and settled in Tyre and Sidon on the coast of the Mediterranean. There they continued to worship their false demon gods. From that region of Tyre and Sidon, the infamously wicked queen Jezebel brought the worship of Baal into Israel by her marriage to Ahab. Their daughter Athaliah tried to wipe out David’s family from which God promised to send the Savior. But God didn’t allow these wicked Canaanites to have their way. He preserved the line of David. He kept His promise that the Messiah would come to crush the devil’s head. And when the Messiah finally came, born of the family line of David, the devil and his demons went nuts. First, they tried to get the baby Jesus killed through the wicked plots of king Herod. Then they started possessing people all over the land, furious that the Son of God had come in the flesh to bring salvation. These demons didn’t want anyone to listen to Jesus. They wanted to turn everyone into a dog and a pig, trampling the words of Christ under their feet.

This again was why Jesus warned His disciples not to throw what is holy to the dogs. Our Lord didn’t waste His time arguing with the devil and his demons. He simply rebuked them, telling them to be quiet, ordering them to go away. Then one day Jesus and His disciples were passing through that demonic region of Tyre and Sidon, and a Canaanite woman came to Him. She cried out to Him. “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David,” she said, “A demon is severely tormenting my daughter.”

Here is no ordinary Canaanite! She knows who Jesus is. Unlike Jezebel and Athaliah who tried to kill the house of David, this woman trusted in the promised Son of David. She didn’t burn her daughter in the fire like her demonic ancestors. She loved her daughter. She knew her daughter needed help, and she knew that Jesus, the Lord, the Son of David was the only one who could help her. She wasn’t like the wicked Canaanites who went before her. Instead, she was like righteous Rahab who protected the spies from Israel, asking them to have mercy on her and her house when the LORD destroyed Jericho. She was like the widow who trusted God’s Word spoken by Elijah that her flour wouldn’t run out and her oil wouldn’t run dry. She was a Christian, a believer, a faithful child of Abraham by faith.

And yet, Jesus initially ignored her cry. How can He do this? He seems to be proving the point of the dogs and swine who say that God is unjust and unmerciful. Here this woman calls out to Him for mercy, confessing Him to be the promised King, the Son of David. And He acts as if He didn’t hear her. His disciples tell Him to send her away, perhaps wanting Him to give her what she wants just so she will leave them alone. Then Jesus responds to them, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

But the woman doesn’t give up. She comes to Jesus, bows down to Him, and worships Him. She says, “Lord, help me!” He can’t pretend to ignore her anymore. Surely, he must say something to her. He does answer her, but He says what sounds even more cruel. “It isn’t good,” He said, “to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” These words bring to mind what He had said in His Sermon on Mount. Don’t give what is holy to the dogs. Anyone who heard His sermon might recognize what He was doing. But perhaps this Canaanite woman also heard His Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps she was there listening to Him, or someone else told her what Jesus had said. Because even this harsh word from her Lord didn’t stop her.

You see, immediately after Jesus said not to give what is holy to the dogs, He continued His Sermon on the Mount by saying the following:
Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. Anyone who continues to ask receives; anyone who keeps searching finds; and anyone who continues to knock, the door will be opened for him. (Matt 7:7-8)

The woman doesn’t stop asking. She doesn’t stop seeking mercy and pity from her Lord. She doesn’t stop knocking. She keeps at it, waiting for Him to open the door to her. This is what faith does. No human power, whether Israelite, Canaanite, or any noble gene pool, is capable of this. Only faith, created by the Holy Spirit, can keep asking and seeking and knocking the way this woman did. Only faith can pray like this.

This teaches us that prayer is the greatest skill God gives to Christians. It’s truly amazing. She’s focused on her Lord. She repeats her petition. But this is no vain repetition, thinking that she will be heard for her many words. No, she is exact in her requests. She says, “Lord.” She says, “Son of David.” She says, “Have mercy on me.” She repeats and repeats and repeats, hanging onto every word Jesus says. Her prayer is like a net pulling in whatever words her Lord has to say to her until she finally catches Him in His words. “You’re right, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

This is the great skill of prayer. It’s a litany resting on God’s Word, repeatedly asking, seeking, and knocking, clinging to the Lord’s promise. She holds onto Jesus’ words for what they are. I’m a dog? Good! If that’s the position you are giving me, then I’ll take it! It’s better than sitting at the highest spot at Jezebel’s table, who ended up getting eaten by dogs. No, I’ll take the status you give me, Lord! Because even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from your table. And if I have only a crumb of your mercy, then I have everything. She caught Jesus in His words, because faith clings to the words of Jesus. Yet you are not the dogs and swine of the world, but children of the King, the very Son of David and David’s Lord and Savior.

In this life, Jesus tests your faith to prove what your faith is in and to strengthen you and as a witness for others. Your faith is in His cries from the cross, which seemed at the time as if they went unheard. But He kept on speaking and praying to His Father, obeying and trusting that He would answer. By this, He destroyed the power of the devil by taking away the sin of the world. When the Lord declared that this woman’s faith was great, He was declaring His great victory over Satan and his demons. Therefore, when He puts you through trials, when He makes you ask, seek, and knock, then remember this. He is simply teaching you to look to His cross and passion by faith. There He remembers His mercy and He will give you faith for what you need for now and eternal life in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas