NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part II (con’t)

Now let’s read this warning sent out by the prophet Isaiah: “So you should look for the Lord before it is too late. You should call to Him now, while He is near.”¹ Isaiah was not saying that God is never available, He is always present. But when faced with difficulties, trials, and temptations, call on Him before you get caught up in them, not after you’ve fallen into them and begin to sink. Jeremiah spoke of the same urgency, “This message is from the Lord. ‘I have good plans for you. I don’t plan to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future. When that takes place you will call My name. You will come to me and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will search for Me, and when you search for me with all your heart, you will find Me. I will let you find Me.’”² Is this not what Jesus is saying here in verse 7?

But we must not overlook that God’s promise is contingent upon seeking Him with all our heart. In those circumstances, pretending and insincerity have no place in helping us move forward toward our destiny. The Psalmist puts it this way, “The wicked are too proud to ask God for help. He does not fit into their plans.”³ But He is the author and architect of our plans. That’s why we need to know what His plans for us are. That’s why King David confessed, “My heart told me to come to You, Lord, so I am coming to ask for Your help.”⁴

Sometimes believers become so self-reliant and sure of themselves that they are reluctant to ask their fellow believers or God for help. That’s why the Psalmist said, “Be proud that it’s Him you call on. You followers of the Lord, be happy! Depend on the Lord for strength. Always go to Him for help.”⁵ This is why Solomon shares the sentiment of Divine Wisdom, “I love those who love me, and those who look for me will find me.”⁶ But it’s not enough to love it, we must seek after it. That’s why the prophet Amos told Israel, “The Lord says this to the nation of Israel: ‘Come looking for Me and live.’”⁷ No wonder Asaph penned these words of encouragement to God’s people, “I will give the best wheat to My people. I will give them the purest honey, until they are satisfied.”⁸ But asking and seeking is still not enough, once the resource is found, it must be appropriated and used. Jesus employed the idea of “knocking” in order for the door you asked about and sought so fervently to be opened.

No doubt our Lord encouraged this because of what Solomon quoted Wisdom as saying: “I love those who love me; and those who seek me will find me.”⁹ And using the term “knocking” in connection with prayer, was also part of Jewish tradition. In Jewish tradition we read a teacher who uses names to teach this precept which was found in Mordecai, the hero we read about in the book of Esther: “..ben Jair means, the son who enlightened [he’ir] Israel with his prayer. Ben Shimei means, the son whose prayer God listened to [shama]. Ben Kish indicates that he knocked [hikkish] at the gates of mercy and they were opened to him.”¹⁰ So in this we can clearly see Jesus’ “ask, seek, and find.”

Verses 9-11: “Do any of you have a son? If he asked for bread, would you give him a stone? Or if he asked for a fish, would you give him a snake? Of course not! You people are so carnal, but you still know how to give good things to your children. So surely your heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask Him.”

Our Lord’s reference here to the carnality of mankind was not only indicative of their being human rather than divine, but also to their nature: attitude, thinking, impulses and desires. The Jews viewed people with such mindsets as being more animal than human. We see this in how a certain class of people were viewed in the Old Testament, where it says: “The Lord saw that the people on the earth were very evil. He saw that they thought only about evil things all the time”.¹¹ A Jewish rendering of this reads: “And the LORD saw that the evil of the human creature was great on the earth and that every scheme of his heart’s devising was only perpetually evil.”¹² One Jewish commentator paraphrases this Scripture to read: “When HaShem¹³ saw that the wickedness of man on earth had become so widespread that all the urgings of his heart were concentrated on devising means to be wicked all day long.” He then comments: “Normally, even wicked people do entertain some worthwhile thoughts on occasion and plan to carry them out, even if they may get sidetracked. The Torah testifies that the people of the generation of the deluge did not even entertain worthwhile thoughts at all…The people of the deluge never even entertained the thought of acting righteously.”¹⁴

By this time Jesus was aware that maybe His followers were not comprehending or assimilating everything He was saying. These teachings are very elementary, but people fail to perceive their meaning when complicated interpretations are superimposed on them. This does not advocate the elimination of exegesis, but merely pointing out that Christ’s Gospel should be understood by all. All parables and similes contain spiritual implications, but they can be lost when we focus too sharply on how does a loaf relate to a stone; or a fish to a snake; or grapes to figs. So our Lord decides to give an illustration to make His point clearer and more identifiable.

The first question that comes to many people’s mind is: “What does a rock have to do with bread, and what does a snake have to do with fish?” Some scholars suggest that flat stones sometimes do resemble the flat bread made during Jesus’ time, and an eel looks very much like a snake, even though it is a fish. Others point to the devil’s temptation of Jesus in the desert by challenging him to make bread out of the stones laying around. These explanations all point out the concept of deception. A Greek playwright used to compare a benefit bestowed by a harsh man in an offensive manner to a gritty loaf of bread, which a hungry man is obliged to receive, but which is painful to eat.¹⁵

Even the earliest believer, Job, was told by his friend Eliphaz, “People cannot really be pure. They cannot be more right than God! God does not even trust His angels. He does not even think heaven is all that pure. People are even worse. They are disgusting and dirty. They drink up evil like water.”¹⁶ Jesus did not want His disciples being accused of propagating make-believe stories just to compete with already existing teachings and beliefs. Such would be the case if they presented His gospel as nothing more than competition for the world’s philosophy. So His followers should make sure they had the real bread and genuine fish to offer the unbeliever. In Christianity, this is how Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25^th. It was substituted as a Christian holiday for an already existing pagan festival.

By Jeremiah’s time, the prophet confessed, “Nothing can hide its evil as well as the human mind. It can be very sick, and no one really understands it.”¹⁷ So the only thing that can confront and succeed against such a debased mindset is the pure, unadulterated Word of God shared unapologetically with the world. So, says Jesus, if people with carnal minds can know that you should not try to fool a child with something it is not, how much more will God be kind, gently and understanding to His own children by giving them the real thing to share with others.

When God passed before Moses on Mt. Sinai, He told him, “Yahweh, the Lord, is a kind and merciful God. He is slow to become angry. He is full of great love. He can be trusted. He shows his faithful love to thousands of people.”¹⁸ When speaking of His people, God said, “Can a woman forget her baby? Can she forget the child who came from her body? Even if she can forget her children, I cannot forget you.”¹⁹ This led the Lord to tell His people, “My thoughts are not like yours. Your ways are not like Mine. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.”²⁰

Too often, believers feel compelled to make the plan of salvation so simple that anyone in the world can figure it out with their logic. But it doesn’t make any sense for the Prince of Glory to die for a hell-bent sinner but they never meet, or to give His life to pay for the penalty on their sins without them even asking that it be paid. If salvation is not accepted by understanding in faith there is no other way, then it cannot be the true message of salvation. This led the prophet Micah to declare, “There is no God like you. You take away people’s guilt. God will forgive His people who persevere. He will not stay angry with them forever, because He enjoys being kind.”²¹ Imagine that! A God that loves forgiving wrongs done against Him without exacting a price or penalty from the guilty party! This led to a member of Korah’s family to write: “The Lord freely gives every good thing to those who do the right thing.”²² This led to another member of Korah’s family to inscribe: “God’s love will come together with His faithful people. Goodness and peace will greet them with a kiss.”²³

Augustine put it this way: “Moreover, great hope has been given, and is given, by Him who does not deceive when He promises: for He says, “Every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened.” Therefore there is need of perseverance, in order that we may receive what we ask, and find what we seek, and that what we knock at may be opened.” To this Augustine adds that these are the conditions of an effective prayer, in that they should be made in the name of Christ,²⁴ with faith, and according to God’s will.²⁵ Yet we must not forget that Jesus has already made it clear, that when we ask, seek and knock, we should know exactly what we are asking, seeking and knocking for, and this is to know more about God and how to do His will in our lives.

Augustine continues: “Now, He has called those evil who are as yet the lovers of this world and sinners. And, in fact, the good things are to be called good according to their feeling, because they reckon these to be good things. Although in the nature of things also such things are good, but temporal, and pertaining to this feeble life: and whoever that is evil gives them, does not give of his own; for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof,²⁶ who made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is.²⁷ How much reason, therefore, there is for the hope that God will give us good things when we ask Him, and that we cannot be deceived, so that we should get one thing instead of another, when we ask Him; since even we, although we are evil, know how to give that for which we are asked? For we do not deceive our children; and whatever good things we give are not given of our own, but of what is His.”²⁸ In Augustine’s mind, the principle involved here by what Jesus said, can be carried over into everyday living and that it is intended to promote honesty and genuine generosity.

But in order to do that, we must understand the full impact of what Jesus is saying here about God’s generosity, we must see it in the context of what He just said about asking, seeking, and knocking. In other words, when we go to God for understanding, wisdom, or even our daily needs, if we do not try to fool our own children with substitutes for the real thing, how much more will the Father in heaven not deceive His children with things that are of no value or with the intent of making them think they received one thing when in fact they were given another. This should therefore teach us that no matter what we receive from God as an answer to our prayer, cherish it because it is the right thing for the right time. By grasping this, we will be able to then proceed with what our Lord is about to teach those who follow Him.