Prayer Taught and Encouraged.

  7 and he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee? [The man within does not use the word "friend." His answer is blunt and discouraging. In the house of a laboring man, the family all sleep in one room. The pallets, or thin mattresses, are spread upon the divan, or raised platform, which passes around the room next to the wall. Where there was no divan they were spread upon the floor. For a father to rise and grope about in the dark that he might unbolt the door and find the required bread was indeed no slight trouble. He would be apt to step upon, or otherwise disturb, the sleeping children.]

  8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will arise and give him as many as he needeth. [Friendship should have prompted the man to to get rid of a noisy beggar, to be rid of whom all the bread in the house would be willingly sacrificed if necessary. If a selfish man can be thus won by importunity, much more can a generous God, whose reluctance is never without reason, and whose ever-present desire is to bless. Idle repetition of prayers is forbidden; but persistence and importunity are encouraged. See Isaiah 42:6 ; Genesis 18:23-33 ; Matthew 15:27 Matthew 15:28 .]

  9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

  10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

  11 And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a stone? or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent?

  12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?

  13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

[The substance of this passage is recorded by Matthew as a portion of the Sermon on the Mount.tfg.cgi?section=T#">Section is peculiar to Luke, and in verse 13 Matthew has "good things" where Luke has "Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit is the best of all gifts, being as necessary to the soul as food to the body. The scorpion is an insect somewhat similar to a small lobster. It is two or three inches long, and has a sting at the end of its tail which is about as severe as that of a wasp. The old commentators tell us that the white scorpion, when rolled up, closely resembled an egg.]

  10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

  11 And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a stone? or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent?

  12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?

  13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?