Ask, and it shall be given you

Showing hospitality was such a key part of society in the time of our Lord that His illustration about travellers arriving after midnight would have been most familiar to His hearers. People often travelled at night, in the cool of the darkness. Regardless of what time they arrived, there was a huge onus on the part of hosts to provide the best they could for their guests. Seeing as there were no 24-hour supermarkets in those days, the host who opened up his home to hungry travellers after midnight only to find an empty bread bin would have been most embarrassed. This is where friends came in handy, and no doubt many of our Lord’s hearers that day had been called upon late at night to lend urgent food to neighbours. The custom was to provide it, without question. In Christ’s illustration, however, the friend whose help was sought seemed reluctant to provide it, fearing that his children in bed in the same room as him would be disturbed. However, when faced with the likelihood of prolonged and persistent knocking and pleading from his neighbour, he decided to get up and provide the requested bread supplies. Friendship was being tested; so was neighbourliness.

Our Lord proceeded to use this illustration to describe the believer’s attitude in prayer. He is not likening God to a reluctant neighbour; God is not like that. However, He is likening the believer to the persistent host, who will have an answer to his request no matter how long he has to ask. So, says our Lord, when you pray, don’t give up easily. Those who come to God on the basis of an existing relationship (here, a friend asks a friend) can persist in his request knowing that God will give what is right, in due course. If your neighbour will give you what you ask on the basis of friendship, albeit reluctantly, how much more willing will your Father be, with a much closer degree of spiritual relationship! So, says our Lord, do not give in easily but, with increasing degrees of effort, ask, seek, and knock. God will, in due course and in His time, give what is right for us. If asked for something edible, He will not give something inedible; if asked for something wholesome He will not give something dangerous. He is, after all, a caring Father.