Must Love Dogs
One of the things I love about the Bible is that it not only stands up to careful, repeated study, it generously rewards such pursuits. Recently, a passage in Michael Reeve’s book, Rejoicing in Christ, drew my attention to a few details I hadn’t noticed about Caleb, a man who features prominently in Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land. The more I thought about it, the more I was reminded of another person in the Bible, a woman who lived many years later, whose name we don’t know, and who’s probably most famous for being called a dog. By Jesus. (It might have made everyone uncomfortable at the time, too.)
In this post, I want to share what I learned about Caleb, how some aspects of his life parallel the account of the Syrophoenician woman, and what these stories show us about God when we consider them side-by-side.
As the recently liberated Israelites make their way toward the Promised Land, we are introduced to a soldier spy named Caleb. He’s one of the twelve representatives chosen for an exploratory mission to the land of Canaan. When the spies return, only two come back with faith that God will give the land to Israel: Caleb and the nation’s future leader, Joshua.
In fact, the reports brought back by the other ten spies are so negative that in one day, the entire Israelite community goes off the deep end. By nightfall, they manage to convince themselves that God has turned against them, and they’d be better off returning to their former slave masters than depending on Him.
Caleb and Joshua try to encourage them, saying, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us.” (Hold onto that line about bread. It’s going to come up again later.)
God hears the people grumbling and decrees that none of them, except Joshua and Caleb, will get to live in the Promised Land. Then, for the first time, we hear Caleb described by a phrase that will be repeated throughout Scripture when his name is mentioned. God says, “Because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.” (Numbers 14:24)
Caleb’s name is a compound of two Hebrew words, one that means heart and one that means whole. It also sounds very similar to the Hebrew word for dog. Why is this significant? Because Caleb was not a full-fledged Israelite. He was born a Gentile.
He’s identified as the son of Jephunneh and a member of the tribe of Judah in Numbers 13:6, and then in Numbers 32:12, we read that he was also a Kenizzite. The Kenizzites are only mentioned one other time, in Genesis 15:19, as one of the tribes who occupied the land God promised to Abraham’s descendants. So, we’re not sure exactly how Caleb’s family got connected with Israel, but at some point, they put their faith in Yahweh and were incorporated into the tribe of Judah.
Throughout Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua, Caleb is repeatedly called “wholehearted.” The authors of those books emphasize that while he was not fully Israelite in his genealogy, he was fully Israelite in his heart. He was fully devoted to the God of Israel, and God promised him an inheritance in the Promised Land.
Joshua goes on to lead Israel into the land Canaan, and when it’s time to divide the land among the tribes, Caleb reminds Joshua of God’s promise. Joshua gives him the land he asks for (a really nice spot called Hebron, where Sarah was buried and where David will first be recognized as the King of Israel). And then, at 85 years old, still wholehearted and full of vigor, Caleb takes it. Together, Joshua and Caleb, Jew and Gentile, enter the Promised Land as co-inheritors of God’s promises.
The point of giving you all this background information is not only to review Old Testament genealogies and geography, although that’s a lot of fun. I think some of these details shed light on a fascinating story about Jesus, recorded for us by Matthew and Mark.
Here’s the set-up: Jesus and his disciples had traveled into the region of Tyre and Sidon. Although these cities were Roman provinces in Jesus’ day, Tyre and Sidon were part of the original inheritance promised to Abraham’s descendants, situated along the northwestern coast of the Promised Land.
By the time Jesus got there, they were prosperous ports, populated mostly by Gentiles. Mark and Luke both mention that people from Tyre and Sidon came to hear Jesus preach (Mark 3:8, Luke 6:17), and Mark and Matthew also include this story about a time when Jesus went to them.
Both gospel writers indicate that Jesus’ main reason for traveling to Tyre and Sidon was to find some respite. He had purposely withdrawn from the crowds, but even when Jesus is resting, he’s kind of inviting. He’s always drawing people.
One of those people was a Syrophoenician (or Canaanite) woman, who heard he was in town and tracked him down. She was convinced he could heal her daughter, who was being harassed by a demon. Mark tells us what happened next:
“Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.’ But she answered him, ‘Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.’ And he said to her, ‘For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.’ And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.” (Mark 7:26-30)
I’m not sure what the disciples thought about this conversation, but Jesus’ words sound a bit shocking to me. However, when we read this account with the story of Caleb in the background, a few parallels emerge that might illuminate what’s happening here.
First, it’s worth noting that in Hebrew, Jesus and Joshua share the same name. (Jesus is the English translation of the Greek version of the Hebrew name, Yeshua.) So in this story, we have another Joshua who has traveled into Gentile territory and doesn’t want to be seen. Hmmm…kind of like a spy?
We also have a Gentile in this story, who, like Caleb, has heard about the God of Israel and put her faith in him. Matthew says that when she found him, she started crying out, “Lord! Son of David!” Though a Gentile, she uses language and titles that indicate some knowledge of Israel’s God and Israel’s Scriptures. Matthew and Mark tell us a little about her ancestry — she’s a Syrophoenician — and this woman reveals that she also knows something about Jesus’ lineage, too.
Caleb was convinced that God would drive out the tribes who inhabited the land He had promised them, and similarly, this woman believes Jesus can drive out the demon who has inhabited her daughter. Both of these Gentile believers are convinced that God is powerful enough to defeat their enemies, reliable enough to keep his word, and generous enough to bless them.
Jesus does not initially respond to such faith the way I would expect him to. He rebuffs her and says it isn’t right to take what belongs to the children and give it to the dogs.
Amazingly, the woman is not put off by his response.
Another bit of Hebrew might help us here, too. The Hebrew word for “dog” and the Hebrew name “Caleb” share the same root, keleb, and sound very similar when spoken. We don’t know what language this conversation took place in, but I think it’s possible a bit of wordplay is happening here. If Jesus and the woman were conversing in Hebrew, it might have sounded like this:
“It’s not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the Calebs.”
“Yes, Lord, and yet even the Calebs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
If that’s the case, then it starts to sound less like Jesus was excluding this woman based on her ethnicity and more like he was leading her into the kind of faith response God has always been delighted to find among Gentiles. Much of the Old Testament focuses on God’s relationship with the Israelites, but Caleb’s story is not an anomaly. Ruth and Rahab, who lived during the same time period as Caleb, among many others, were not born into the promises God made to Abraham. Yet, when they recognized Israel’s God, they came under his blessing. The benefits of belonging to him were extended to them and their descendants.
Caleb believed the enemies of God would be like bread for God’s people, that they would devour their enemies, rather than be devoured by them. And God rewarded Caleb’s faith with a crumb from the table. He and his descendants were given a piece of the Promised Land, an inheritance along with the rest of Israel.
The Syrophoenician woman asked for something similar. When she found the Greater Joshua, the one who parallels and supersedes his namesake, she believed his authority extended beyond the borders of Israel and that his generosity might, too. She asked Jesus to give a portion of Israel’s inheritance to her offspring, and she received it.
This is speculation on my part, but I think it’s possible that Jesus was drawing out the faith of another wholehearted Gentile by reframing her request in light of an Old Testament story. Whatever is happening in this conversation, the woman gets what she wants, and so does Jesus. He finds faith, which always pleases him, and her daughter is healed immediately.
Jesus was sent to the lost sheep of Israel, but the benefits of what he accomplished spread far beyond the descendants of Jacob. He knew that a time was coming when he would reap a great harvest among the Gentiles. More than once, he crossed the boundaries of Jewish regions and tasted the reward that was coming to him.
And now that all his enemies have been defeated, the Joshuas and the Calebs, the Jews and the Gentiles, the children and the dogs are invited to share in his reward. Everyone who comes into the master’s house, or wanders under his table, is well fed.
