The Children’s Bread - Our Rights In Prayer

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 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 15:21-28 NIV

Often times many of us feel a little like the Canaanite woman; we are unsure of what right we have to ask anything of God. Are we the ‘dog under the table’ or are we the children who have rights to the bread being served at our Father’s table?

The passage in Matthew 15, concerning the Canaanite woman, can be hard to understand if we’re not aware of the importance of God’s covenant in our relationship with Him. Jesus compares the deliverance of a child with ‘children’s bread’; implying that if she was a child of the household, deliverance for her would be a basic necessity and a right due her. However, she was not a child of the household. Being a Canaanite, her nation had rejected a covenant with the one true God. She had no legal, or covenantal, standing before God. 

On the other hand, we can look at other situations in the Gospels, when God moved on behalf of people, simply because they were ‘Children Of Abraham’. 

In one example Luke (13:10-16) records the account of a woman whom ‘satan had held in bondage’ for eighteen years. She was severely crippled, afflicted by an evil spirit which had caused her to be doubled over, totally unable to straighten. Upon seeing her, Jesus called her over and laid hands on her saying, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness”, and being able to immediately stand up straight, she began to give glory to God. Her healing took place on a Sabbath day, which offended some of the religious Jews. Jesus responded that she was a ‘daughter of Abraham’, by implication saying she had the right to be healed- especially on a Sabbath!

Why did the woman, who was 'a daughter of Abraham’, have covenant rights that the Canaanite woman didn’t have? 

In Genesis 12 we read where God made a covenant with Abraham, a covenant which was then applicable to all of Abrahams children. The Jewish woman was under this covenant. The Canaanite woman was not under this covenant.

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1-3 NIV

The full terms and conditions of this covenant were explained in detail later in the Old Testament. An example of some of them can be found in Deuteronomy 28. "You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.” And in Exodus 23:25, the Bible says, “Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you.”

It was based on this covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, that Jesus was willing and able to minister healing to the woman who had been crippled for eighteen years but was constrained in ministering to the Canaanite woman. (Interestingly, the Canaanite woman and also the Centurian, Luke 7:1-10), were ultimately able to receive from Jesus by ‘great faith’. Their faith allowed them to access the rights and privileges that were awarded children of the covenant.)

This leads us to the question; “What right do we have to ask anything of God?” 

In the Old Testament, ‘Children of Abraham’ were those who were related to Abraham by birth. They accessed God’s covenant by believing the promise of God and acting on it. On the other hand, if they didn’t believe it and didn’t act on it they were cursed (see Deuteronomy 28). 

Under the New Testament, all Christians are brought into a new and better covenant with God (Hebrew 8:6). It’s a new and better covenant because all the blessings of the Old Covenant apply along with some extra blessings, such as the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. It’s also a better Covenant because the curses for disobedience have been borne by Jesus himself. Satan no longer has any right to place curses on us, because Jesus took the curse of the Law!

Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. 8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”9 So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” 11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Galatians 3:7-14 NIV

So, what right do we have to pray for God’s blessings? We have every right of a child of God. In fact, we have the same rights as Jesus himself! We are in covenant with God, through our saving faith in Jesus Christ. Our rights of provision, comfort, strength and healing are blood-bought privileges, bought and paid for by Jesus himself!