ANSWER: The passage under consideration is Matthew, chapter ten. Here we find what is called “The Limited Commission.” The disciples were told to go only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (vs.6). Jesus said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Though His personal ministry was to be only to the Jews, He, as God, evidently purposed from eternity that the Gentiles should (at a time which He would determine) become fellow heirs with the Jews (Ephesians 3:1-11). That the Gentiles would be called by His name only after the tabernacle of David was rebuilt (the church on Pentecost) was prophesied in Amos 9:11-14. We read about its fulfillment in Acts 15:15-17. Though we haven’t been told the reasons why the gospel should first go to the Jews, it seems quite appropriate that God should cause such to happen, since they were chosen from the beginning as those people through whom the promised Messiah was to come.