iii. Relating to the Father (7:7–11)
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door [gate] will be opened. 9 Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”
Context
Although most commentators see no connection between this section and the preceding one, these verses are closely related to 7:6. Matthew 7:6 describes the disciple’s calculated response to those who despise the gospel of the kingdom. Matthew 7:7–11 shows the heavenly Father’s gracious response to those who long to enter the kingdom. These verses have a close relationship to 7:13–23 since both sections focus on how one enters the kingdom.
Exegesis
Readers often assume that 7:7–11 is a blanket promise concerning prayer in general. However, the explicit connections between this passage and other portions of the Sermon demonstrate that Jesus’s focus here (as in 7:13–23) is specifically salvation, being permitted to enter the kingdom of heaven. “Ask,” “seek,” and “knock” were terms used as metaphors for prayer.149 “Ask” evidently refers to asking for “good things” since 7:11 promises that the heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask him. These good things do not refer to mere staples such as bread and fish (7:9–10), but to those things that the Father views as good, those things deemed most important in the Sermon. The Sermon has emphasized that the kingdom and the righteousness required to enter it matter more than food, drink, and clothing (6:33) and that the disciple should value these things above all else. Luke 11:13 interprets these “good things” as including a reference to the Holy Spirit. A reference to the kingdom and its righteousness in Matthew is fully compatible with Luke’s interpretation since the Holy Spirit produces the righteousness that is required for entering the kingdom. Those who ask for spiritual blessings will receive them.
“Seek” specifically recalls Matt 6:33: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Thus, in the context of the Sermon, the command “seek” means to seek the kingdom and the righteousness required to enter it. Jesus promises that those who seek the kingdom and righteousness will find what they are looking for. God will grant them the righteousness that they crave, and they will be permitted to enter the kingdom on judgment day.
The command “knock” also has an important link in the Sermon. Matthew 7:13–14 refers to a narrow gate through which one enters eschatological life and contrasts this with a wide gate by which one enters eternal destruction. In first-century Palestine, a person normally approached a gate, knocked upon it to announce arrival and request entrance, and the gate would be unlocked and opened from within (Acts 12:13). Thus “knock” means “knock on the narrow gate that leads to life,” and “it will be opened”150 means that God will permit the one who offers this prayer to enjoy eschatological life.
God assures those who pray that he will grant them the blessings of righteousness, life, and kingdom entrance because of his gracious character. Jesus pointed out that human fathers generally do not give their children something harmful when they have asked for something beneficial. The small loaves of bread that were part of the daily diet of first-century Palestinian Jews might resemble the stones scattered across the terrain (Matt 4:3), but a loving father would not dare substitute a stone for a loaf when his child was hungry. The fish consumed by Jesus’s disciples might look something like snakes since both had scales and propelled themselves with a winding movement, but a loving father would never substitute a “detestable animal” (Lev 11:42; Gen 3:14) for a clean one when his child needed food. If depraved human fathers were generous enough to give good things to their children, how much more could Jesus’s disciples expect the heavenly Father to be generous. He has no trace of the selfishness that characterizes fallen humanity.
Bridge
The theme that God is a loving parent who desires to meet the needs of his children also appears in the Old Testament also where it is most poignantly expressed using feminine imagery of a mother’s love for her young child (Isa 49:15[1]). Jesus confirmed the Old Testament teaching that God will not abandon or forget his children who cry out to him.
Charles L. Quarles, Matthew, Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2022), 202–4.
149 France, The Gospel of Matthew, 144.
150 The CSB inserts the word “door” but the word for door (θύρα) is not present in the Greek text of this verse. If a subject of the verb is supplied by translators, the term “gate” is preferable since this highlights the connection to 7:13–14.
Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
Even if these forget,
yet I will not forget you.
(Is 49:15, CSB)
