Matthew 7:9 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Matthew 7:9

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Here is a child asking an earthly father for some urgent need and which only the father can supply. It would be shocking if a human father refused such an innocent and natural request. How could he be so cruel that he gave something harmful to his child in answer to a simple request for something good? The father is the supplier of the child’s needs and he knows it. His child is dependent on him and cannot provide for itself. The illustration makes us think about the character of the God we are coming to. Everyone who asks because they lack, or seeks because they are lost, or knocks because they are standing outside, understands their helpless position. They ask to be given by a person, they seek hoping to find or be found by a person, and they knock hoping that the door will be opened by a person, so the attitude of that person towards them is all important. This is not about seeking an inanimate object. In each of these cases, the person involved knows what is happening. The only question is how willing are they to respond. The one asking cannot exert any pressure; they cannot make threats or offer a payment. If there is going to be a response, it will be because the one they ask is concerned for them. But if that person is their father, what a difference it makes! A father is already inclined to help his child even before the child asks. But what is important is what is going on in the mind of the child. This is what the illustration is intended to teach. The child needs to ask, to seek, to knock with confidence that there will be a response. He therefore thinks about his father’s love for him and he counts on this in his approach to his father. He knows how his father thinks and he tells himself that he could never do anything cruel to him. How good it is that God has left enough natural kindness, even in this fallen world, for us to have object lessons of human goodness before us! Perhaps the quest is more difficult than usual for some reason. The child faces a discouragement in their asking, when there seems to be no visible response and his pleas have not yet been answered. He has to go on asking without having seen any visible change. His thoughts will revolve around his father’s character. How could his father refuse to answer him? How could he behave in a way that is out of character? He must come back to this truth again and again to overcome any thought of giving up. He is sustained in his asking by confidence in his father’s good will towards him.

Application

This is the nub of the lesson Christ is teaching. We must take hold of the character of God in order to plead with him as we should. We must be determined not to give up until he answers us. Christ calls God our Father in heaven, and we are entitled to count on all the tender feelings of the perfect Father towards his child. Without this revelation of God’s Fatherly kindness, we would never know if we had we had gone too far, or whether we were entitled to view God in this way. These are easy feelings to work on because he is already inclined to be gracious. The repenting sinner does not need to produce these feelings in the heart of God; they are already there. That is what Scripture means when it tells us so often that God is gracious, merciful, that he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for us. All three of these approaches – asking, seeking, and knocking – teach us something about how to pray. If there is a delay in God’s answer, it is to teach us to be more earnest in prayer. If the seeker knows that God is kindly disposed towards him, he will appeal to him in the hope that his humble requests cannot be ignored forever. At the same time, the Spirit of God strengthens us and urges us forward with renewed impressions of our great need and our Father’s great love.

The child comes confident that the father is on his side, has his good at heart, and will not respond with cruel tricks. How can there be hope if he is addressing a cruel man who cares nothing about him? To give a stone when bread was asked for would be to mock the need of the child. To give a scorpion instead of a fish would be the act of an enemy who was indifferent to any harm. Can our thoughts of God sink so low that we suspect that he would treat us in this callous way? Yes they can, but Christ words buoy up the sinking prayer and breathe new life into it.

If we ask, God will bless us and will do so with far greater readiness than any earthly parent. When we first come to God, we are asking for spiritual life to be given us. I cannot work these things up for myself, and I am in desperate need of them. This is an assurance that God hears and answers prayer. Notice the son evidently knows to ask the right thing. The child is hungry and asks reasonably. If we are unconverted, we must ask first for his forgiveness.

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Matthew 7:9 Commentary and Bible Study