Matthew 15:24
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", (Romans 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.
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