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This story is the simplest of dramas, having two persons and a chorus.

I. THE FIRST PERSON IS THE HEATHEN WOMAN, AND HERE WE NOTE:

(1)  Her trouble;

(2)  Her faith, which is neither a superstitious credulity, nor a hesitating experiment;

(3)  Her reward.

II. THE OTHER PERSON IS THE LORD JESUS. Looking on Him as the model of human duty, and the expression of the Divine nature, we find in this story things amazing and perplexing. What are we to learn from them?

1. The perplexities in the life of Christ are like the perplexities in the government of God.

2. This incident exhibits Christ gazing inexorable, for a time, on human suffering.

3. His apparent unkindness is only apparent.

4. His blessing is already given, while yet the supplicant is unaware of it.

(Leonard W. Bacon)

I. THAT IT IS HIGHLY GRATIFYING TO MEET WITH DEVOUT PERSONS WHERE WE EXPECT NOT TO FIND THEM. She was a heathen, not a Jew.

II. THAT AFFLICTIONS, BOTH PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC, ARE POWERFUL INCENTIVES TO PRAYER.

III. THAT IN OUR EXERCISES OF DEVOTION WE OUGHT TO PRAY FOR OTHERS AS; WELL AS FOR OURSELVES.

IV. THAT SINCERE SUPPLICANTS MAY MEET WITH GREAT DISCOURAGEMENTS IN PRAYER. Delays are not denials. We are apt to value highly that which costs us effort

V. THAT SINCERE SUPPLICANTS ARE ALWAYS PERSEVERING.

VI. THAT THE PRAYER OF FAITH MUST ULTIMATELY PREVAIL.

(R. Newton.)

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KJV: Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.

WEB: Jesus went out from there, and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon.