What did JESUS mean in Matthew when he told his disciples to avoid Gentiles?
Matthew 10:5
ESV - 5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans.
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Asked November 13 2019
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Kelley Chapman
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Tim Maas
It was to and through the nation of Israel (as descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) that God sent the Messiah. Even though Jesus came to redeem all humanity through His suffering, death, and resurrection, His primary focus with respect to imparting that "good news", as well as performing miraculous acts, during the brief time of His personal presence on earth was thus to Israel, rather than to the Samaritans or to the Gentiles. (Jesus Himself said this, such as when speaking to the Syrophoenician woman who came asking Him to heal her daughter (Matthew 15:26; Mark 7:27).) It was with this same focus in mind that Jesus gave the instructions cited in the question to the apostles. (However, Jesus also mercifully performed acts of healing on, or at the request of, non-Israelites, as well, such as with the Syrophoenician woman's daughter in response to the woman's faith, the demoniac in the land of the Gerasenes (Matthew 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:40-56), and the Roman centurion's servant (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10; John 4:46-53).)
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