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Christ’s Object Lessons
give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he
will rise and give him as many as he needeth.”
Here Christ represents the petitioner as asking that he may give
again. He must obtain the bread, else he cannot supply the necessities
of a weary, belated wayfarer. Though his neighbor is unwilling to be
troubled, he will not desist his pleading; his friend must be relieved;
and at last his importunity is rewarded, his wants are supplied.
In like manner the disciples were to seek blessings from God. In
the feeding of the multitude and in the sermon on the bread from
heaven, Christ had opened to them their work as His representatives.
They were to give the bread of life to the people. He who had appointed
their work, saw how often their faith would be tried. Often they would
be thrown into unexpected positions, and would realize their human
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insufficiency. Souls that were hungering for the bread of life would
come to them, and they would feel themselves to be destitute and
helpless. They must receive spiritual food, or they would have nothing
to impart. But they were not to turn one soul away unfed. Christ
directs them to the source of supply. The man whose friend came to
him for entertainment, even at the unseasonable hour of midnight, did
not turn him away. He had nothing to set before him, but he went to
one who had food and pressed his request until the neighbor supplied
his need. And would not God, who had sent His servants to feed the
hungry, supply their need for His own work?
But the selfish neighbor in the parable does not represent the char-
acter of God. The lesson is drawn, not by comparison, but by contrast.
A selfish man will grant an urgent request, in order to rid himself of
one who disturbs his rest. But God delights to give. He is full of
compassion, and He longs to grant the requests of those who come
unto Him in faith. He gives to us that we may minister to others and
thus become like Himself.
Christ declares, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall
find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened.”
The Saviour continues: “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that
is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a
fish give him a serpent? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him
a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto