Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 15:24
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
24. I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel ] Jesus came to save all, but His personal ministry was confined, with few exceptions, to the Jews.
The thought of Israel as a flock of sheep lost on the mountains is beautifully drawn out, Ezekiel 34; “My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them,” ( Mat 15:6.) Read the whole chapter.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 24. I am not sent but unto the lost sheep] By the Divine appointment, I am come to preach the Gospel to the Jews only. There are certain preachers who should learn a lesson of important instruction from this part of our Lord’s conduct. As soon as they hear of a lost sheep being found by other ministers, they give all diligence to get that one into their fold: but display little earnestness in seeking in the wilderness for those that are lost. This conduct, perhaps, proceeds from a consciousness of their inability to perform the work of an evangelist; and leads them to sit down in the labours of others, rather than submit to the reproach of presiding over empty chapels. Such persons should either dig or beg immediately, as they are a reproach to the pastoral office; for, not being sent of God, they cannot profit the people.
The wilderness of this world is sufficiently wide and uncultivated. Sinners abound every where; and there is ample room for all truly religious people, who have zeal for God, and love for their perishing follow creatures, to put forth all their strength, employ all their time, and exercise all their talents, in proclaiming the Gospel of God; not only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but to a lost WORLD. Nor can such exertions be unsuccessful. There the pure truth of God is preached, many will be converted. Where that truth is preached, though with a mixture of error, some will be converted, for God will bless his own truth. But where nothing but false doctrine is preached, no soul is converted: for God will never sanction error by a miracle of his mercy.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Our Lord by these words doth not deny but that he was sent as a Redeemer to more, but not as a minister, or as an apostle, as he is called, Heb 3:1. The apostle, Rom 15:8, saith, that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. Our Lords ministry was confined to the Jews; so was the apostles, Mat 10:5. Till some time after our Saviours ascension the gospel was not preached generally to the Gentiles, though some particular persons might and did, both in Christs time and in the time of the apostles, before they did go to the Gentiles, hear, receive and embrace the gospel, as we shall hear this woman did.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. But he answered and said, I amnot sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel(Also seeon Mr 7:26.)
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But he answered, and said,…. To his disciples, who knew how limited their commission was, that they were not to go into the way of the Gentiles, not to preach to them, nor perform miracles among them; and therefore could not reasonably expect that either the woman, or they, on her behalf, should succeed in this matter.
I am not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; as a priest, or as a Saviour and Redeemer, he was sent to make satisfaction and atonement for the sins of all God’s elect, and to obtain eternal redemption and salvation for all of them, whether Jews or Gentiles; but as a prophet, in the discharge of his own personal ministry, he was sent by his Father only to the Jews; he was the “minister of the circumcision”, Ro 15:8 that is, a minister to the circumcised Jews; he was sent only to preach the Gospel to them, and work miracles among them, in proof of his Messiahship; and upon their rejection of him, then his apostles were to be sent among the Gentiles; but he himself was sent only to the Jews, here styled “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”: by “the house of Israel”, is meant the whole body of the Jewish nation, so called from Israel, the name of Jacob their father, from whom they sprung; and by the “lost sheep” of that house, are more especially designed the elect of God among them: for though all the individuals of that house were “lost” persons, considered in Adam, and in themselves, as the rest of mankind, and Christ, in the external ministry of the word, was sent to preach to them all; yet the elect of God are only “sheep”: they are the sheep of Christ, of his pasture, and of his hand, whom he has the particular care and charge of; and who, in their natural state, are lost and straying, and could never find their way, or recover themselves from their lost state in Adam, and by their own transgressions; but he came to seek, and to save them, and to these his ministry was powerful and efficacious.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I was not sent ( ). Second aorist passive indicative of . Jesus takes a new turn with this woman in Phoenicia. He makes a test case of her request. In a way she represented the problem of the Gentile world. He calls the Jews “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” in spite of the conduct of the Pharisees.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
24. I am not sent. He informs the Apostles that his reason for refusing the woman of Canaan arises out of his desire to devote himself entirely to the Jews to whom alone he was appointed to be a minister of the grace of God. He argues from the call and the command of the Father, that he must not yield any assistance to strangers; not that the power of Christ was always confined within so narrow limits, but because present circumstances rendered it necessary that he should begin with the Jews, and at that time devote himself to them in a peculiar manner. For as I have said in expounding Mat 10:5 , the middle wall of partition (Eph 2:14) was not thrown down till after Christ’s resurrection that he might proclaim peace to the nations which were aliens from the kingdom of God: and therefore he prohibited the Apostles, at that time, from scattering anywhere but in Judea the first seed of doctrine. Justly therefore, does he affirm that, on this occasion, he was sent to the Jews only, till the Gentiles also followed in the proper order.
To the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He bestows the designation of sheep of the house of Israel not on the elect only, but on all who were descended from the holy fathers; for the Lord had included all in the covenant, and was promised indiscriminately to all as a Redeemer, as he also revealed and offered himself to all without exception. It is worthy of observation, that he declares himself to have been sent to LOST sheep, as he assures us in another passage that he came to save that which was lost, (Mat 18:11.) Now as we enjoy this favor, at the present day, in common with the Jews, we learn what our condition is till he appear as our Savior.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(24) I am not sent (better, I was not sent) but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.This, then, was what had restrained Him. Those wandering sheep, without a shepherd, were the appointed objects of His care. Were He to go beyond that limit in a single case, it might be followed by a thousand, and then, becoming, as it were, before the time, the Apostle of the Gentiles, He would cease to draw to Himself the hearts of Israel as their Redeemer. We call to mind the case of the centurions servant (Mat. 8:10), and wonder that that was not decisive as a precedent in the supplicants favour. The two cases stood, however, on a very different footing. The centurion who had built a synagogue was practically, if not formally, a proselyte of the gate. As the elders of the synagogue pleaded for him as worthy, the work of healing wrought for him would not alienate them or their followers. The woman belonged, on the contrary, to the most scorned and hated of all heathen races, to the Canaan on which the primeval curse was held to rest (Gen. 9:25), and had as yet done nothing to show that she was in any sense a convert to the faith of Israel.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. He answered To the disciples. The fact that our Lord gives this reason to the disciples shows that he is assigning the true cause of his actions. It is not, as some think, to draw out the woman’s faith, that he declines to hear her prayer; but because his immediate mission is not to Gentile, but to Jew. Sent All his actions are under the control of Him from whom he has received his commission; and the tenor of that commission limits him to Israel. Lost sheep Such is the character of which the whole house of Israel consists. They are all lost sheep, and to them is he sent.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he answered and said, “I was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” ’
Jesus then turned in response to His disciples’ requests and gave the reason for His lack of response. He declared, “I was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Compare for these words the commentary on Mat 10:6). But what did He mean by this, and why did He say it at this moment? It in fact points to His dilemma.
If He does what this woman asks He will be opening the way to many Gentiles who will then feel that they too can bring their sick ones to be healed by the Jewish prophet. Thus He will begin to be seen as a healer, and not as a Jewish Prophet. And credit for the healings will then be given to their own gods, a complete contradiction to His mission.
The consequences could then be that the ministry to those who are aware of their ‘lostness’ in Israel, the healing of whom is the purpose for which He was sent, will be hindered. In their eyes His ministry will be tarnished.
Thus He feels that what this woman is asking is outside His mission, and it was something that required deep thought. It had been one thing to heal Gentiles who were in deep sympathy with Judaism while He was among the Jews in Galilee, where the full credit would go to the God of Israel, it would be quite another to do it in a Gentile environment when the credit could go anywhere, and false ideas and beliefs could be fostered. And to Him truth is central. At present His ministry is to those of the house of Israel who are like sheep without a shepherd, and He knows that that ministry is not yet complete, and must not be hindered. He had to walk step by step with His Father. He was not here as a Wisdom teacher. He was here as a Prophet, yes, and more than a Prophet. This is a salutary reminder to us that Jesus did not in His earthly life have precognition of everything and instantly know what to do (compare the temptations). As He lived out His life He was rather dependent on what His Father revealed to Him and on the Scriptures. Furthermore He was conscious that He had come to this place for peace and quiet, not in order to arouse the neighbourhood. He did not want the floodgates to open. It was not yet time.
There may also be the thought here that He cannot grant her request when by doing so He may be allowing her to go back to give thanks to her pagan gods. What part has she in the son of David and in the God of Israel?
‘I was — sent.’ Notice the indication of His consciousness of His mission. He is One Who has been sent on a particular mission. It was a phrase intended to raise questions in the mind of those who heard it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 15:24. I am not sent but, &c. See the note on ch. Mat 10:5. “Though I am come to save all the nations of the world,my ministry must be confined to the Israelites.” Thus at first Jesus seemed to refuse both the woman’s request, and the disciples’ intercession in her behalf: our Lord’s answer was well adapted to their own prejudices. And as they entertained high notions of the Jewish prerogative, they were so well satisfied with the reply, that we hear them no more pleading for this unhappy Gentile.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 15:24 . Those words are addressed to the disciples (comp. note on Mat 10:6 ); the answer to the woman comes afterwards in Mat 15:26 .
It is usually supposed that what Jesus had in view was merely to put her confidence in Him to the test (Ebrard, Baur, Schenkel, Weiss); whilst Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, Luther, Glckler, assert that His aim was to furnish her with an opportunity for displaying her faith . But the moral sense protests against this apparent cruelty of playing the part of a dissembler with the very intention of tormenting; it rather prefers to recognise in our Lord’s demeanour a sincere disposition to repel , which, however, is subsequently conquered by the woman’s unshaken trust (Chrysostom: ). Ewald appropriately observes how, on this occasion, Jesus shows His greatness in a twofold way: first, in prudently and resolutely confining Himself to the sphere of His own country; and then in no less thoughtfully overstepping this limit whenever a higher reason rendered it proper to do so, and as if to foreshadow what was going to take place a little farther on in the future.
It was not intended that Christ should come to the Gentiles in the days of His flesh, but that He should do so at a subsequent period (Mat 28:19 ), in the person of the Spirit acting through the medium of apostolic preaching (Joh 10:16 ; Eph 2:17 ). But the difficulty of reconciling this with Mat 8:5 , Mat 11:12 , on which Hilgenfeld lays some stress, as being in favour of our present narrative, is somewhat lessened by the fact that, according to Luk 7:2 ff., the centurion was living in the heart of the people, and might be said to be already pretty much identified with Judaism; whereas we have a complete stranger in the case of the woman, before whom Jesus sees Himself called upon, in consequence of their request, Mat 15:23 , strictly to point out to His disciples that His mission, so far as its fundamental object was concerned, was to be confined exclusively to Israel. Volkmar, indeed, makes out that the words were never spoken at all; that their teaching is of a questionable nature; and that the whole thing is an imitation of the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (1Ki 17 ); while Scholten, p. 213, regards it merely as a symbolical representation of the relation of the Gentile world to the kingdom of God, and which had come to be treated as a fact .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Ver. 24. But unto the lost sheep, &c. ] He was properly the apostle of the circumcision,Rom 15:8Rom 15:8 ; Heb 3:1 , till the wall of partition was broken down by his resurrection. Then the veil rent, and it was open tide. Then he became a light to lighten the Gentiles, as well as he was the glory of his people Israel.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24. ] See ch. Mat 10:5 . Such was the purpose of our Lord’s personal ministry; yet even this was occasionally broken by such incidents as this. The ‘fountain sealed’ sometimes broke its banks, in token of the rich flood of grace which should follow. See Rom 15:8 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 15:24 . : Jesus is compelled to explain Himself, and His explanation is bon fide , and to be taken in earnest as meaning that He considered it His duty to restrict His ministry to Israel, to be a shepherd exclusively to the lost sheep of Israel ( . ., cf. Mat 9:36 ), as He was wont to call them with affectionate pity. There was probably a mixture of feelings in Christ’s mind at this time; an aversion to recommence just then a healing ministry at all a craving for rest and retirement; a disinclination to be drawn into a ministry among a heathen people, which would mar the unity of His career as a prophet of God to Israel (the drama of His life to serve its purpose must respect the limits of time and place); a secret inclination to do this woman a kindness if it could in any way be made exceptional; and last but not least, a feeling that her request was really not isolated but representative = the Gentile world in her inviting Him, a fugitive from His own land, to come over and help them, an omen of the transference of the kingdom from Jewish to Pagan soil.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
24.] See ch. Mat 10:5. Such was the purpose of our Lords personal ministry; yet even this was occasionally broken by such incidents as this. The fountain sealed sometimes broke its banks, in token of the rich flood of grace which should follow. See Rom 15:8.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 15:24. , I am sent) Our Lord referred everything to His Mission.-, sheep) Israel is the Lords flock (see Psalms 95), Jesus the Shepherd.- , the house of Israel) This appeared to restrict His grace.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
lost sheep For Another Point of View: See Topic 301191 (Greek – ). (See Scofield “Joh 3:16”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
I am not: Mat 9:36, Mat 10:5, Mat 10:6, Isa 53:6, Jer 50:6, Jer 50:7, Eze 34:5, Eze 34:6, Eze 34:16, Eze 34:23, Luk 15:4-6, Act 3:25, Act 3:26, Act 13:46, Rom 15:8
Reciprocal: Num 27:17 – as sheep Deu 22:1 – Thou shalt Jdg 6:37 – only Psa 119:176 – gone astray Isa 49:5 – to bring Eze 3:4 – General Zec 11:4 – Feed Mat 18:11 – General Luk 17:18 – save Luk 19:10 – General Joh 1:11 – came
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5:24
Instead of directly doing as the disciples requested, Jesus merely gave the woman to understand that she was not in the class to which he was sent. See the comments at chapter 10:6 for the meaning of lost sheep.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 15:24. I was not sent, etc. His personal mission was only to the Jews, as their previous mission had been (chap. Mat 10:5-6). The exceptions all pointed to the future spiritual significance of the phrase: house of Israel. This answer might suggest to the disciples: Is not such a one really a daughter of the spiritual Israel, though a woman of Canaan. It was not a refusal, but a postponement, to educate her faith and -train the disciples for their world-wide mission.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe, when our Saviour doth answer, he gives not one word of comfort, but rather a repulse. Christ has often-times love in his heart to his people, when they can read none in his countenance, nor gather it from his discourse.
Observe, the answer itself, Christ says not, I am to sent unto the lost sheep of the house of Adam, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Jews are compared unto sheep, the Gentiles unto dogs. Christ insinuates, that though they were a lost sheep of Adam, yet not being one of the lost sheep of Israel, he could do nothing for her. It was a common saying among the Jews, “That the nations of the world were likened to dogs, whereas they were God’s sons and daughters.”
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Verse 24
Of the house of Israel; the Jews. Our Savior’s ministry was confined almost entirely to the Jews. This restriction of the gospel to them, made for reasons not revealed, was not removed until the time of our Savior’s ascension, when the disciples were commanded to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the {g} house of Israel.
(g) Of the people of Israel, who were divided into tribes, but all those tribes came from one family.