SERMON VII.

THE WOMAN OF CANAAN.

ST. MATTHEW xv. 21, 22.

"Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and besought Him."

TWICE only in the ministry of our blessed Lord, He is reported by the Evangelists to have gone to any considerable distance from those parts of the Holy Land in which He principally dwelt,the city of Jerusalem, and the neighbourhood of the sea of Galilee.

Each of these two journeys is remarkable. The one was to Cæsarea Philippi', (the city known in more ancient times by the names of Dan, and Laish, or Leshem,) where our Lord, upon St. Peter's great confession, pronounced

1 St. Matt. xvi. 13-20. St. Mark viii. 27.

that remarkable blessing upon him, and confirmed the name of Peter, or Cephas, which He had given to him at his first call. The other was the one which I have chosen for our present consideration.

"Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon." These coasts were, as you know, to the north-west of Palestine. The particular district in which these cities stood, called Cole Syria from its site, formed the lot of the tribe of Asher. For in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Joshua, where the portions of the tribes are distinguished with their cities, it is said that the border of Asher goeth out to 66 Hebron, and Rehob, and Hammon, and Kanah, even unto great Zidon; and then the coast turneth to Ramah, and to the strong city Tyre3." The inhabitants of these parts had been defeated by the children of Israel in their first entrance into the promised land*, but the Asherites had not driven them from their habitations, but mingled themselves with them, and dwelt among them".

2 Τὴν δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ Καρμήλου, κοιλάδα προσαγορευομένην διὰ τὸ καὶ τοιαύτην εἶναι, ̓Ασηρίται φέρονται πᾶσαν τὴν ἐπὶ Σιδῶνος τετραμμένην. Jos. Antig. Β. v. 3 i. e. Palætyrus. Joshua xix. 28, 29.

4 Joshua xi. 1—8.

Judges i. 31, 32.

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This was no doubt sin in the children of Asher, according to those words of David in the one hundred and sixth Psalm, "They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them; but were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works." From this union with the wealthy inhabitants of these regions, the tribe of Asher became rich and powerful, according to the prophecies of Jacob and Moses. "Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties"." "And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be." They very soon also began to detach themselves from the common cause of Israel, and to feel, apparently, more interest in their new neighbours and occupations than in the struggles and dangers of their brethren; for so we understand the reproach of Deborah the prophetess, after the defeat of Jabin, king of Canaan, by the aid of the tribes of Issachar, Naphtali, and Zebulun. "For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart. Why abodest thou among the sheep

6 Ps. cvi. 34, 35. Cf. Judges ii. 2. 7 Gen. xlix. 20.

8 Deut. xxxiii. 24, 25.

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folds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches"," or, as the margin says, his creeks.

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In later times, the name of the tribe of Asher is little heard of in the history. They had, to a great extent, doubtless, mingled themselves up with the heathen inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, and learned their works, so as perhaps on one great occasion to be able to turn their mechanical skill to the honour of the God of their fathers in His temple; and it is not improbable that, when the desolation of Israel came, and the ten tribes were removed for ever from the Holy Land, descendants of their blood were remaining in those cities. But by the time of our Lord's coming upon the earth, ruin and destruction had long since passed, according to the words of the prophet Isaiah', upon those cities, and the ancient wealth and power which they had enjoyed, as well as the traces of Israelitish blood which then might be among them, were matters of distant and ancient memory.

At the end of the great prophecy, however, uttered against Tyre by Isaiah, there had been

Judges v. 15-17.

1 Isaiah xxiii.

words added of a different complexion: a promise of restoration and sacred reconciliation was held out even in the midst of the denunciation of judgment. The words of Isaiah are: "And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre. And her merchandize and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandize shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing2.

A striking and gracious promise! of the fulfilment of which in the kingdom of heaven we are not left without clear indications in Holy Scripture and early Church history. The poor woman mentioned in the text, seems to have won the first fruits of grace, by her urgent and unremitted prayers3. In the Acts of the Apostles, too, we read of St. Paul finding disciples at Tyre, and tarrying seven days among them, when again the place is marked by a scene of prayer.

2 Isaiah xxiii. 17, 18.

3 "Primitias hujus gratiæ obtinuit fœmina illa prudens, Divinam gratiam ac si in Schola Christi Jesu versata esset, emendicare docta, quam Matthæus Cananæam, Marcus SyroPhoeniciam vocat, haud dubie Tyria, a Christo Domino Ipso, dum in confiniis Tyri et Sidonis agebat." Vitringa, Comm. in Is. xxiii.