Matthew 15:26

‘And he answered and said, “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” '

So He turns to the woman and says, “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” The picture is vivid. The family is sitting at their meal with the family dogs lying underneath. Would it be right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs? We cannot doubt that He Himself has in mind here the bread with which He had fed the five thousand and more at their ‘family' meal, and its deeper significance as offering life to Israel. But the woman will recognise more that He is talking of the spiritual food which He offers to the Jews (compare Isaiah 55:2). It is the equivalent of ‘salvation is of the Jews' (John 4:22). Nor, however, can we doubt that His demeanour encouraged her to reply. She would see hope from the smile on His face and the compassion in His eyes.

We must not see ‘dogs' as demeaning, except in so far as they indicated the difference between those who thought rightly, in contrast with the heedless (compare the idea of the son of man and the wild beasts in Daniel 7). The point Jesus is making is of non-relationship. The dogs are not part of the family. And the woman recognises it for what it is. He is telling her that they have no relationship to the master of the house, and therefore have no right to food from the table. (It is in fact doubtful as to how far Gentiles were generally seen as ‘dogs' at this time, and how far the idea grew up later, but compare Matthew 7:6).