The first part of Luke 11 is about prayer. After providing the model prayer, Jesus followed with two parables — the friend at midnight and the bread, fish and egg. Between these two parables is the Lord’s admonition to ask, seek and knock. Jesus knew his disciples needed to be taught not only how to pray but also to keep on praying.
Midnight persistence
A visitor has come at midnight and you find yourself out of bread. You seek to borrow some from your neighbor, but he rejects you on the basis of inconvenience. He will finally help, however, if you keep asking and knocking so that your persistence becomes more inconvenient than his sleeping children and barred door.
Relating the man’s reaction to that of our Heavenly Father may at first seem unusual. God does not respond only to brazen asking by someone determined to get what he wants. Even as failing humans, we know enough to resist our children’s repeated requests for things that they want but would not be good for them. As a true father, our Heavenly Father does that all the time, always considering what is best for our eternal welfare. And the sleepy friend, who could only be moved by making him uncomfortable, was hardly like God who never sleeps and is not moved by loud noises from a mere man on earth.
The comparison is in the result of continued prayer. If persistence can bring results from a neighbor, how much more can we expect results from our earnest, continual prayers to our Father in heaven when asked in agreement with His will?
Giving good things
In verse 11, Jesus points out another good reason to pray and keep praying. Looking at the fathers in the audience, he asks them if they would give a stone, serpent or scorpion to a son who sought bread, fish or an egg. “If ye then, being evil (being influenced by selfish human nature), know how to give good gifts unto your children (you are not only willing to provide something but you will exercise discretion in what’s best for your child): how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
The Lord Jesus assures all his disciples that God really does know what’s best for His children and is ready to be more kind and considerate than human parents. Here is a good reason to pray and keep praying.
Yet what does Jesus mean by God giving the Holy Spirit to those who ask? In Matthew 7:11 in a similar context, Jesus used the phrase “good things” instead of “the Holy Spirit.” Furthermore, when we look at an interlinear version, we find there is no “the” in the original, indicating Luke was not referring to the Holy Spirit gifts to work miracles. A wider meaning was intended by Jesus in the “how much more” our Heavenly Father gives. He gives spiritually good things of everlasting value compared to human fathers whose gifts have only temporary worth. An understanding of the Truth is the greatest of all gifts. This is actually something we can give to our children, and as parents, we are commanded to do so.
Unusual comparisons?
We could also wonder at the unusual things Jesus chose to illustrate a contrast in gifts: stone instead of bread, serpent for a fish, a scorpion rather than an egg. The comparisons would not seem strange to Jesus’ audience. Bread baked on stones looked much like the stones they were baked on. Surely fathers would not disappoint their sons, giving the appearance of what was requested, something that would break their teeth if bitten into.
The “serpent” was actually referring to an eel that was frequently caught in nets along with a haul of fish. They were thrown back because they were unclean under the law of Moses. No father would so deceive his son to make him unclean.
When the scorpion rolls up at rest among the stones in Palestine, it resembles eggs that wandering hens lay among the same stones. Again the contrast of good and evil gifts is vivid. “How much more” does our Heavenly Father know how to give nutritious and safe natural and spiritual gifts to His sons and daughters who read His word and ask in prayer.
A third parable
In Luke 18:1-8, another parable is recorded which gives us good reason to keep praying in spite of delay. The intent of the parable is clear from verse 1: “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint.”
The background to this parable is given in the preceding chapter starting with verse 22. He had spoken of the days just ahead when, after experiencing death and resurrection, he would ascend to heaven and not return until an indeterminate period had expired. The years of waiting would be a wearing trial for all his disciples. Continued prayer for his return would be essential to avoid losing hope.
Again the Lord gave an illustration which at first seems inappropriate. There was an unjust judge unfit in every respect. A defenseless widow in his city persisted in her appeal for justice for a long time. Rather than be continually bothered by her, the judge finally complies with her request.
This is the third parable that Jesus gave to encourage his disciples (for almost 2,000 years now) to pray and keep praying. The first focused on importunity, the second on contrast and this third parable focuses on patience in prayer. If an unjust judge will, after a long time, respond to the widow’s shameless persistence, then how much more will a just God do the same? Even though He seems to delay as He “bears long” in His response to the prayers of His people, yet the answer is sure to come. Jesus assures us that God does hear but He bears long because He has His own set time. When it is time to send Jesus Christ back to earth, vengeance, release and relief will be swift for His own elect who patiently cry day and night.
Thankful for encouragement
We are thankful to Jesus for encouraging us to pray with patience and not lose heart when an answer is long in coming. We can see that if we pray we will not faint but, on the other hand, we will faint if we do not pray.
Our prayer will be: Heavenly Father, please give me the strength of faith to trust in thy will for me because I believe that all things are working together for my eternal good. Day by day, I will look at the circumstances of my life and realize this is the way God chose to answer my prayers, because He knows best.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One