James Nisbet Commentary - Matthew 7:7 - 7:7

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James Nisbet Commentary - Matthew 7:7 - 7:7


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ASK AND RECEIVE

‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’

Mat_7:7

Three thoughts, similar, yet distinct, rolled up together here, make one precept and one promise. To ‘ask,’ is a single, suppliant action: to ‘seek,’ is a continuous patient action: to ‘knock,’ is an earnest, importunate action. The three must not be divided. It is not three repetitions of the same thing. God often repeats His will; but the more you look into it, the more you will see there is no tautology—i.e. there is no saying the same thing over again in God’s Word.

It will be well to define, a little, the general encouragement which the text holds out to prayer. Now observe three points concerning this whole passage.

I. Every promise is attached to a duty—for God never separates promises from duty. It is true the blessing immeasurably outranges the means used for its attainment, so that there is no proportion between the machinery and the result—still the machinery must be planted before the result can be looked for—i.e. we must really ‘ask,’ really ‘seek,’ really ‘knock,’ before we can expect anything—for in the very command, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you’—the negative is involved,—‘If you do not ask, you shall not receive; if you do not seek, you shall not find; if you do not knock, it shall not be opened unto you.’ Therefore, be careful that the application—before you allow any expectation to go forth—is real prayer—‘asking,’ ‘seeking,’ ‘knocking.’

II. Concerning any duty, you must do it scripturally.—We cannot conceive of a promise without a condition. The condition may be expressed, or the condition may be understood; but it is evident that every promise has a condition. If you wish to arrive at the true meaning of any passage of Scripture, you must put together the different parts of the Bible which bear upon the same subject; and then, from the whole collectively, you will arrive at the true meaning of the original verse. It is God’s revealed will, to make over to every one of His redeemed people, all that He has covenanted to Christ in His word. Therefore the promises of the Bible are the field through which faith is to travel. If a prayer wanders outside the promise, it has forfeited its title to be heard; but, so long as it is within the promise, it may command God. Therefore it is not only necessary that we ‘ask,’ ‘seek,’ and ‘knock,’ but that we ‘ask,’ ‘seek,’ and ‘knock,’ in proportion to the promise—i.e. that the boon which we ‘ask,’ is a boon covenanted; that the treasure we ‘seek,’ is a treasure revealed; and that the door we ‘knock’ at, is the door appointed.

III. The promise lies at an indefinite future.—God says, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you’; but, in no instance, does He say when. He has pledged Himself to His children what shall be given them; but He has reserved to Himself the when, and the how; and God’s futures may seem long to the weary mind of man; nevertheless God’s futures are all sure. You may have been praying, all your life long, for a promised favour—you may be within five minutes of your death: you must expect it still. God will do it yet.

The Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘Another encouraging thing in connection with the work of the Universities Mission to Central Africa is the reconversion of the Nyasas. Years ago, the first event in this district was the bringing a great number of freed slaves from Zanzibar to form a village. At first they settled near Masasi, they migrated to Newala, and gradually they fell away terribly, and many became just like heathen again; but for the last few years they have, one by one, been coming back to their religion, saying that they want to be true Christians, and not only saying it, but actually giving up their bad ways. There has been no visible reason for this, but we believe it is a direct answer to the prayers of one man especially who, when he knew of any trouble such as this, made a note of the people’s names and prayed continually for them.’



SEEKING AND FINDING

‘Seek, and ye shall find.’

Mat_7:7

Those who, in this world, seek for glory and honour and prosperity and a great name, are doomed to failure and disappointment; they seek, but they do not find. They who hunt after happiness, whether they hunt for it in pleasure, or in business, in gaiety or in retirement, in study or in dissipation, seek, but do not find. But Christ tells us a different tale—that there is something which we shall find, if we seek after it. What is it?

I. The promise applied.—We might apply the promise to a great number of things—comfort under sorrow, cheerfulness and contentment under disappointment, light and guidance in the dark days of doubt and despair, hope and trust and confidence in God when all earthly things begin to fail, peace to the troubled conscience, pardon to the sin-stricken soul, hope in an after life. In all these ways, and in numbers of others, we shall experience the truth of our Saviour’s promise, ‘Seek, and ye shall find.’

II. New Testament examples.—We might interpret these words of Christ to mean something more. We might interpret them by numberless passages which we find scattered over the Bible, where ‘seeking God’ and ‘seeking after God’ occur again and again. If we interpret seeking God and seeking Christ as bearing the same meaning, we shall find, from examples in the New Testament, that our Saviour’s assertion is absolutely true, and that at least whilst He was living upon earth none ever sought Him and found Him not. (Note the cases of the shepherds, Simeon, the Wise Men, the Magdalene, etc.)

III. Saints and martyrs who have found Him.—But not to these alone, but to an unaccountable number of saints and martyrs, and prophets and priests, and kings and wise men—nay more, to an unaccountable number of humble and holy men and women before and since, to children of every age and degree, to the needy and poverty-stricken, to the unfortunate and the miserable, to the sorrowful and to the unhappy, have the words of our Saviour been fulfilled—‘Seek, and ye shall find’—seek Me in all times of joy and of sorrow, in all times of pleasure and of disappointment—seek Me in times of prosperity and of poverty; seek Me in the house of mourning and in the house of feasting, and ye shall find Me—ye shall find Me whom your soul loveth.

IV. Your personal experience.—You have followed Him first of all at a distance, but gradually and gradually you have drawn nearer; you have pressed closer and closer; and when, unperceived by any, you have ventured to touch the hem of your Saviour’s garment, His words to you have cheered you and comforted you—‘Go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.’ And they have been echoed and re-echoed within you till they have been the only words that you have heard, and you have at last received Him into your soul; you have found Him to be your Saviour and your God!

Finding, following’, keeping, struggling,

Is He sure to bless?

‘Angels, Martyrs, Prophets, Virgins,

Answer, Yes.’

The Rev. Edmund Fowle.

Illustration

‘Success in life, as men call success, is, beyond question, the lot of very few among us. Where one succeeds a thousand do not! A thousand will start in life with the same aims and objects, with the same chances and opportunities—and where one succeeds the 999 will fail. As in the old Corinthian games all competitors would run, or wrestle, or fight, but one only would gain and receive the prize. And this not at all because the 999 are wanting in steadiness or industry, or boldness, or judgment, but simply because it is the natural order of things—many run the race, but one obtaineth the prize. And disappointment comes even to those few who do succeed, and therefore success does not bring with it the happiness which I suppose we all look for. Some of you may have read an old novel, in which the author very skilfully portrays not only the disappointment, but the utter failure and unhappiness of the man whom he had made the discoverer of the “Philosopher’s Stone” and the “Elixir vitæ.” ’