Transcription

Connor
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris
You know, the intro said, we’re talking about the Bible and fun and practical ways.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah. So try to make it fun today. Yeah.

Chris
Well, we’re talking about Jesus sends a demon out of a girl. Oh, that’s fun, that’s fun.

Jeff
Well, it was for her.

Chris
Yeah. Yes, you’re right about that.

Jeff
Good fun.

Chris
Afterwards.

Jeff
Yes. There you go.

Chris
Anything. Anything was fun about that with.

Jeff
Her, right? No, that would be. Yeah. Pretty amazing.

Chris
But, hey, I guess he’s Jeff. I’m Chris, we’re the Bible guys. And we’re going to start out talking about well, actually our segment says.

Jeff
Guess the.

Chris
Word. Guess the word. So just like taboo you’re going to give me clues.

Jeff
That’s correct.

Chris
And so traditionally if you’re watching as opposed to listening, we’re going to display on the screen the words that you’re not allowed to say yes.

Jeff
And you’re going. So I have a whole I have five words I’m not allowed to say. Yeah. While I’m trying to get you to say the key word.

Chris
And so the audience is racing me. All right.

Jeff
Give it to me. You take the fruit. Put it in a press. Yep. And it’s. And then juice. Oh, you’re getting there. It’s the kind that is very popular in Michigan about this time of year.

Chris
Uh, cider.

Jeff
There you go. Yes. That was a hard one.

Chris
What couldn’t you.

Jeff
Say? I could not say. Apple fall orchard drink or hot. Wow. That was a hard one.

Chris
That is hard to get the cider.

Jeff
Okay. This one is is more relevant for you than for me. Because you’ve seen all of them. Movies. Everything? Yes. And specifically thriller action movies, specifically family types that come from a very distinct brand. Disney movies. There you go. Yes. And then this one would be from the Middle East.

Chris
Middle East. Aladdin. There you go.

Jeff
Okay, I wasn’t allowed to say cartoon thief, Genie, Disney or lamp. Oh, I could have said magic carpet.

Chris
I would have said Robin Williams. Robin Williams gives you three wishes.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then you would have said Genie.

Chris
Oh, yeah, I guess. Yeah yeah.

Jeff
Yeah. Okay, here we go.

Chris
The movie in which.

Jeff
Okay, you were just talking about. You were just talking about the Minnesota Vikings yesterday. Yes. In our podcast. And so this is an event that happens in Super Bowl in those kind of games where there’s a halftime it’s a significant turnover fumble. There you go. Interception. There you go. Fumble okay. Clumsy drop football catch in hands. Wow I wasn’t allowed to say okay okay. This one here is uh um okay. Uh. Once it starts, your body has a hard time stopping it. Sometimes they say stand on your head. Sometimes they say.

Chris
You pass out.

Jeff
Don’t breathe. No no no no no. This is a thing. Your body. It just does it over and over and over. And it’s funny when other people are doing it. Sneezing. Oh. Almost coughing. Oh. Almost farting. Burping. Okay, it’s along those lines. It’s these involuntary moments. But this is the one. Little kids do it a lot. Yawning nope. Chris does that one a lot.

Chris
What are we what are we saying here?

Jeff
Sometimes they’ll say plug your nose. Oh, hiccups. Hiccups. There you go. There you go. Gulp. Eat, drink, breathe and air. I wasn’t allowed to say gotcha. Okay, here’s the last one. Um, supposed to be happy. Yes, but it’s also in a lot of horror movies.

Chris
What? Say that again.

Jeff
It’s. It’s a character that’s supposed to be happy. Okay, but is in horror movies, too. What? Some people are terrified of them clowns.

Jeff
There you go. Okay.

Chris
I was like, what are you saying?

Jeff
Yeah, yeah. Circus makeup, birthday party, funny and costume. So I had to come at it from a different angle. I couldn’t do it.

Chris
Ironically, my family and I just watched the cartoon version of Aladdin yesterday. Oh, did you really? Yeah. Just for fun. See?

Jeff
There you go. Well, then, I’m glad. I’m glad that came up. Thank you. Desiree. Yeah. That’s amazing.

Chris
Yeah, that’s that’s that’s difficult. More difficult for you, I think. What’s that? It’s just me sort of guessing. Guessing something for you. You’re having to.

Jeff
I have to be.

Chris
Work hard to not say things.

Jeff
To say those words. So I just want to point out, since we started doing these because we’ve done, like 4 or 5 of these, there’s never been a time that we’ve accidentally said the wrong word.

Chris
So what you’re saying is we’re good. We are.

Jeff
Amazing.

Chris
Yeah, we are amazing. We’re pretty I.

Jeff
Agree, pretty incredible. I think we should get extra points. Maybe she’ll give us an extra 1000 points today.

Chris
Yes. Do you think.

Chris
I’m so happy if we get an extra 1000 points.

Jeff
It makes your day well made, Chris happy this week.

Chris
Yeah. I’m walking around thinking.

Jeff
Woo man, I.

Jeff
Got an extra 1000.

Chris
Points. I got a lot of points. Hey everyone. If you’re listening on one of the audio platforms like Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or Spreaker, would you do us a favor? Would you take just a moment and follow us? Because I’m worth following and Jeff is along with me, so you know, you can follow him, I guess too, by proxy, but or just share it, you know, because people need to be introduced to the Bible guy and his companion named Jeff.

Jeff
Yes. All right. Matthew. Chapter 15. Hey, we we we do say this sometimes. If you’re listening. We take our faith very seriously. We just don’t take ourselves too seriously. Right. And that seems to make kind of a nice balance in life.

Chris
Yeah, I think so.

Jeff
Some people are a little too uptight and some people are too silly. There’s got to be a balance there. But we do take our faith seriously. So here we go. Matthew chapter 15, verse 21, it says, Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Gentile woman who lived there came to him pleading, have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely. But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. And then his disciples urged him to send her away. Tell her to go away, they said. She’s bothering us with all her begging. Then Jesus said to the woman, I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep, the people of Israel. But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, Lord, help me. Jesus responded, it isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs. She replied, that’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their master’s table. Dear woman, Jesus said to her, your faith is great. Your request is granted. And her daughter was instantly healed. Then Jesus left. In Mark chapter seven it says the same. It says, Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn’t keep it a secret. Right away, a woman who’d heard about him came and fell at his feet. Her little girl was possessed by an evil spirit, and she begged him to cast out the demon from her daughter, since she was a Gentile born in Syrian Phoenicia. Jesus told her, first, I should feed the children. Jeff
My own family, the Jews. It isn’t right to take food from the children, throw it to the dogs. She replied, that’s true, Lord. But even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps from the children’s plates. Good answer, he said. Now go home, for the demons left your daughter. And when she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone.

Jeff
Mm. What?

Chris
I don’t know why, but I was, I was both those versions made me cry. Yeah. I was just trying to think of a woman pleading for her daughter. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Like, how far would you go? Yeah. Right. And. And I’m still a little unclear as to why Jesus would put them in the category of, you know, like, lesser than, not lesser than, but seemingly lesser than, because he’s like, you know, hey, we’re taking food from kids mouths and throwing it to the dogs is sort of like him saying, I can’t stop what I’m doing here to go there. Um, and so there’s a there’s a thing that in my mind. So, so here’s, here’s what it says in Matthew and the footnote here in the Life Application Bible. It says dogs was a term that Jews commonly applied to Gentiles. Right. Because the Jews considered these pagan people no more likely than dogs to receive God’s blessing, Jesus was not degrading the woman by using this term. He was reflecting the Jews attitude. So as if to contrast with his own, this woman did not argue. Instead of Jesus choice of words, she agreed to be considered as a dog as long as she could receive God’s blessing for her daughter. Ironically, many Jews would lose God’s blessing and salvation because they rejected Jesus and Jesus and many Gentiles would find salvation because they recognized and accepted him. Yeah, so I can see that. I can see that because, you know, again, it’s hard sometimes in the 21st century to read something and say, how does this how is this received through the lens of our culture? You know how they always, you know, like when you see movies, you look back and say, well, that didn’t age well. Chris
Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And some things don’t feel like they age well and, and when, when cultures change like this and they’re using conversations that have nothing to do with our lens, but it’s just strictly their lens. If there’s a clear distinction between her and and what’s happening and here with this book is saying is it’s offering that the term dogs was was a was very common. It was it was remember Jesus came to the Jews and in the Old Testament the Jews were the chosen people. Yeah, right. And so Gentiles were referred to as what? Lawless. Right. They were referred to as pagans. They referred to in this case, dogs. Yeah.

Jeff
So this didn’t surprise her. This is exactly the kind of thing. Now let’s flip it the other way. The typically the Gentiles would not come to a Jewish rabbi for any reason either. Right? So it’s not like it was just the Jews being racist towards Gentiles. The Gentiles also despised the Jews. Right? So it was kind of chicken or the egg kind of thing. Why why were these things this way? So the highlight in both of these passages is that she is not a Jew, that Jesus has left Galilee for a while, about 30 miles tire is about 30 miles from Capernaum. So that’s a long way when you’re walking. Yeah, that’s like two days walk, right? Or more. So he’s trying to get away. He didn’t want anybody to know where he was. He’s trying to take a vacation. That’s what he’s doing. He’s just overwhelmed by people. And it says that he he was he had hoped. Where does it say? Um. It’s in the mark passage. It says that he oh, in the first verse, he didn’t want anyone to know which house he was staying in, but he couldn’t keep it a secret. Right. So he’s trying to go on vacation. He’s trying to get away. He’s trying not to be the guy. Right. But this somehow this syro-phoenician woman, this woman that was born in Syria of a Phoenician family. So she’s kind of mixed. Anyways, they would not have had respect towards a Jewish rabbi. They would have despised these guys. So it went both ways. And so the term that the Jews used, as a matter of fact, in some times there weren’t any other words for Gentiles other than words like dog. Right. That’s how they would, would speak. Jeff
And so in that instance, Jesus is not saying to her, you are a dog. Jesus is differentiating between, why would you come to me? Right. Why don’t you go to your own doctors? Why? Why would you come to. You know that my people think that you people are dogs. Why would you come to me? And she was willing to accept that whole thing. She’s not even shocked by it. She’s not offended by it. She just leans in because what she had realized is, even though she wasn’t a Jew, and even though he was the Jewish Messiah, she knew he was the only answer to her problem. So when he challenges her and then she goes, hey, listen, you know, even the dogs are allowed to eat the scraps. She she embraces his analogy. Right. And man alive. I just want to highlight. There’s a pushback against the phrase sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Yeah, okay. Yes, words will hurt you. Certainly they can. But dude, let’s toughen up a little bit. This woman was not offended by his words. She leaned in, knowing he was the answer. Right? That was it. She embraced what you and I would be offended by. And she says, you know what? I’m not going to be offended by it. The words don’t matter. What matters is my daughter is demon possessed. What really matters is bigger than any word being shared between the two of us. My people don’t like him and his people, and his people don’t like me and my people. But I believe in him. And she called him Lord, right?

Chris
And Son of David, too. Yeah.

Jeff
And then she goes back again and repeats to him that he’s the Lord. And I think that what Jesus is challenging is, is this just a social thing? Because remember, he’s been frustrated several times. We’ve we’ve seen this in the last couple of weeks. He’s frustrated with people who are just using him to do magic, right? He’s frustrated with people who are just using.

Chris
And he’s called them out.

Jeff
Yes, he’s. And so what’s the deal, lady? You don’t even believe what we believe. Why are you coming to me and she’s like, because you’re the Lord and you only want to solve my save my daughter. And then what does he do? He doesn’t even leave the house. He has so much power over demons that he doesn’t even have to be in their presence to cast them out, right?

Jeff
Right? Right.

Chris
Yeah. And who knows how far they are, right? So, so so Phoenicia is like like like a county, right? Like Macomb County, you know, there’s there’s there’s Samaria, there’s Judea, there’s Phoenicia, and it’s and it’s in the it’s sort of in the upper. What’s that? North.

Jeff
North northwest, north.

Chris
West.

Chris
Along the coast. Right?

Jeff
Yeah. So it’d be Phoenicia, spread from Israel up through Lebanon and into Syria, that whole stretch right along the Mediterranean.

Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff
So, so so he’s between Tyre and Sidon is what it says is where he’s at. So these are the two big cities.

Chris
So he’s he’s miles away.

Jeff
Oh yeah. Yeah yeah yeah.

Chris
Yeah. So which is, which is pretty incredible. And also so imagine this. Imagine if you’re in Jesus’s presence and he says go, your daughter will be healed. And imagine thinking like she doesn’t say, but wait, don’t you have to come and lay hands on her? Don’t you have to come into my house? So so I wonder if she left in disbelief. But my guess is she left in belief, thinking he spoke. That’s it, he said it’s going to be true. And so I trust it, you know. And so which, by the way, is pretty incredible because that’s a sermon in and of itself. You know, if God says it, you know, we can trust it. So a lot of times we hear God’s promises and they don’t seem likely. They don’t seem believable. Circumstances pile against it. And but we know what is true. And we have to just simply say, okay, God, if you say it, I believe it. Yeah.

Jeff
I think there’s another thing, too. Sometimes it’s very evident that what both Mark and Matthew are trying to tell us is that this is a foreigner who does not come from the same culture, does not believe the same things, is not even looking for the Jewish Messiah. Right. So the test here is not the words being exchanged. We in our culture are so offended by words. But that is not the test here. The test is do you really see me as Lord or not? That’s the test, right? Right. And so if that’s it, I think it’s important for us when we read scripture, to not guess that we have a superior sense of morality than Jesus did.

Chris
Right? Right.

Jeff
Yeah. The thing that would offend us is not the thing that was offensive in that culture at that time. Right. And so sometimes when we read scripture, sometimes when we think of how God does things, we set our morality above God’s morality. And I think there’s a tremendous amount of danger in that. If she wasn’t offended, we shouldn’t be offended for her.

Chris
Right, right. Yeah. That’s right.

Chris
That’s exactly right. Right.

Jeff
So there’s a lot to be said there. But I think the beautiful thing is. The. I started laughing when I was reading. The disciples are like, send her away. She just won’t leave us alone. They also want a break. And there’s something to be said about that. You’ve been in ministry. Our job is to serve people. And let’s be honest, after a while people become exhausting. Sure. And there are times you just want.

Chris
To get away, especially.

Chris
Certain.

Jeff
People. I’m not making eye contact, but.

Jeff
I’m not going to say their name. But I’ll give you their initials.

Chris
No, I wasn’t implying.

Chris
I wasn’t implying you. I was just saying, like, we all, we all know what category of people.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
And so, you know, it can be exhausting. And so Jesus needed some time away. And that’s another principle I think we can just blow by here. Yeah. And that is it’s okay to take time. It’s okay to disconnect and go, you know, rest and restore yourself. And so sometimes he go up in the mountains and pray her out in the desert to pray. This time he leaves and goes to the beach. Yeah. He goes to Tyre and Sidon. Right on the right on the ocean. Right. And that’s where he’s at. And he’s just wanting to take a break and the disciples to just send her away. Yeah. You know, she’s not even one of us. Just just send her away. But her persistence caught Jesus’s attention and he decided to engage. At first he ignores her.

Chris
Right?

Jeff
Right. Right now. I’m sorry. I’m not signing autographs right now.

Jeff
Right? This is what he’s doing.

Jeff
He’s ignoring her. And then finally, her persistence catches his attention. And this is a theme Jesus talks about quite a bit, where he says, keep on asking, keep on seeking, right? Be that woman who keeps knocking on the door. And it’s just it’s precious to me because it says when she goes home, her daughter was lying quietly in bed in the demon was gone. She got what she needed because of her persistence.

Chris
That’s awesome. Well, that’s a good place to end. And we’ll see you next time on The Bible Guys.