Crumbs or a Feast?

By George Feldman

Those who have been initiated in right division (2 Tim. 2:15) will immediately recognize the lesson presented in the above picture. But others may need a hint as to the meaning of it all. When a Gentile woman came to the Lord in the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon and asked that a demon be cast out of her daughter, she was reminded that it was not proper to take the food intended for the children and cast it out to the dogs. 

Read Matt. 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30.

This incident happened in the days when salvation was of the Jews. Israel were not only first, but then they were the only ones that were blessed with dispensational blessings. It was not till Acts 10 that Gentiles as such were partakers of Israel's blessings. And it is not till this point in Acts that a Gentile was ever grated into the commonwealth of Israel and so enter into the kingdom blessings. Then, and only then could the Gentile sit at Israel's table and partake of the promise made to Abraham. But there was still a wall of partition and the Jew was still first. Read Romans 11.

But when the salvation of God was sent to the Gentiles (Acts 28:28), then the Gentile had blessings of his own. And Paul, the Jew, was the one to point out this fact. However, do not get the idea from the picture that this is Paul pointing to the blessings of the Gentiles and still partaking of the Jewish blessings. When the dispensation of the mystery was revealed through the bond-servant Paul, he was first to partake of the blessings. That hope was his hope.

Today there are many who think the church of the mystery began at Pentecost. But if the church began at Pentecost, then we Gentiles are still under the table picking up crumbs. And if it began, as some say, at Acts 10 or 13, then we Gentiles are sitting at Israel's table sharing in their blessings and the hope of the kingdom, not of the church. Where do you sit? Eph. 2:6.

(Reprinted from T-F-T Vol. 16 No. 1, July, l963)