DAY 24

DISTINCTIONS?

Exodus 9, 10 & 11 and Matthew 15:21-39

God seems to be making distinctions. At this point in the Old Testament it is between the Egyptians versus the Israelites. In the New Testament today it is between the Israelites versus the Canaanites. Why, and how far will it go?

Exodus 9, 10 & 11 continues the plagues. There are distinctions between the plagues. Distinctions between how they end. Distinctions between whether the Pharaoh responds or not; even a little. The biggest distinction though is between a world that knows God and a world that does not.

The story we are immersed in goes as follows: God created the world and humankind. Humankind disobeyed God and God even tried to start over (think Noah). Yet even the second time humankind not only disobeyed, but we literally forgot about God (think about the Tower of Babel). Yet God did not give up on us his creation, and so he begins again. This time differently with Abram (Abraham)...it will culminate in Jesus, but we are not there yet.

The story of Abraham is a story about God creating a people, a Chosen People, a Covenant People. What are they Chosen for; why are they in Covenant? We often think because God wants to treat them better than the others – nothing could be further from the truth. They are Chosen, they are in Covenant, so that they may reveal God to the world – a world that has forgotten about him.

We are in the middle of a story that is about telling everyone in the world about God! We must keep this concept in front of us as we read both the Old and New Testament – the Bible reveals God to the world through the people whom God chose to speak through – His Covenant People - indeed it will become our story, but that is getting ahead of ourselves.

The fundamental distinctiveness in Pharaoh is his hard heart; a heart that says “I don’t need God.” Which brings us to our New Testament today:

Matthew 15:21-39 “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel…” Jesus seems to be highlighting distinctiveness, but a distinctiveness that is different what I just suggested. Jesus seems to be saying the Chosen People are more important than the rest of the world. It does seem that he is saying this exactly, but he is not. The books of the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters, will unpack and sort this out completely. For now we know that while it is true that Jesus is trying to get the Chosen People to get back to their right role of revealing God to the world, He does not withhold he love from non-Jewish people (the woman at the well as one example).

So why Jesus' comment? What Jesus does do is allow this Canaanite woman to show that she does not have a hard heart! That she is truly seeking God and those who seek God find him (cf. Proverbs 8:17 & Jeremiah 29:13). She, a non-Jew; she, a woman not a man; she, a person with no name; she displays the distinctiveness God is looking for...a heart that seeks Him.

The distinctiveness that God is looking for is that which is demonstrates a heart which seeks Him…plain and simple. Pharaoh, the most powerful person on the face of the earth, is on one end of the spectrum, not only not seeking him, but completely rejecting Him. The Canaanite woman with no name, not only a powerless person, but almost a “non-person” by the standards of Jesus day, seeks and persists to know God. May we have her distinctiveness!