CHAP. 7:24-30
THE MOTHER'S PRAYER
It was a mother who sought the presence of, Jesus on the borders of the land of Israel. As a parent, she was torn with anxiety and distress for the sufferings of her little daughter, who was “grievously vexed” with a demon. “A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Greek, a Syro-phoenician by race. And she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.”
We cannot but observe in the Gospels what respect the Lord paid to parental concern for their families. In dispensing His blessings, He had special regard for the institutions of family life. Among the comparatively few specific cases of the Lord's miracles of healing which are recorded, we find that the Lord hearkened to the prayer of: -
(1) a mother for her daughter (Matt. 15:21-28);
(2) a father for his daughter (Matt. 9:18-26);
(3) a father for his son (Matt. 17:14-18);
(4) a courtier for his son (John 4:46-53);
(5) the mothers for their infants (Luke 18:15, 16);
(6) a centurion for his servant (Luke 7:2-10).
In the home life the influences of natural affection are mightily powerful upon the young for good or for ill. In the same circle the terrible effects of the presence and operation of sin are perhaps more visible than anywhere else. There, too frequently, alas, cases are found where example and counsel are unavailing to deliver from corrupting and destroying evil. But mothers, fathers, masters, the responsible ones of the household, are encouraged by the cases given in the Gospels to make believing appeals for their charges to Jesus who is able to control and heal the evils of the soul, even as He did the diseases of the body.
The woman of Canaan had heard of Jesus; we read that for some while before this date His “fame had spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee” (Mark 1:28), and when the multitudes flocked to Capernaum because “they had heard what great things He did” those about Tire and Sidon were among them (Mark 3:7, 8; Luke 6:17). It was a wealthy queen among the Gentiles who heard of the wisdom of Solomon and came to him with her choice gifts from the ends of the earth that she might see and hear for herself. A greater than Solomon was now lodged in an obscure corner of Galilee, but it was only one of the descendants of Canaan, weighted from the days of Noah with a curse (Gen. 9:25), who came to do homage at His feet and to present her petition. The Psalmist prophesied that when Jehovah's King came to Zion the daughter of Tire would be there with a gift (Psa. 45:12), but this poor woman had nothing to bring to Jesus save the fruit of her body, possessed, alas, by an evil demon. Baffled by the power and subtlety of the wicked spirit, she, in her womanly weakness, and in her mother's love, cried out to Him who had blessed so many of the afflicted daughters of Israel, “Lord, help me” (Matt. 15:25).
(Continued from vol. 11.)