Matthew 7:7-11

The Value of Prayer. An interpolation with no relation to the context. It is more suitably placed in Luke 11:9. The emphasis is on asking, seeking, knocking; no conditions or limitations are mentioned, but we must perforce understand Not as I will, but as Thou wilt. Seek and knock are pictorial illustrations of ask. Fish was, next to bread, the commonest article of diet round the Sea of Galilee; stones on the shore and perhaps water-snakes suggested themselves as substitutes. Lk. adds an egg and a scorpion. Evil is not simply stingy (Matthew 6:23 *); compared with God even loving parents are evil. good things is more original than Lk.'s Holy Spirit; it includes material as well as spiritual blessings.