The Parable of the Friend at Midnight
Luke 11:5-13 NLT
Luke 11:5
Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread.”
To start with let’s look at the culture in which they lived at this time. The scene is that of a home where the family probably all sleeps in one room. It very well may be a one room home. They would all be sleeping on one single large mat so it would be difficult for the father to get to the door and slide the heavy bolt that locks it without waking up his family. In the middle of the night I wouldn’t imagine anyone would be happy about responding to a knock on their door, but the custom in first-century society was that the host would be expected to welcome a guest no matter what time he arrived.
Both the word ‘persistence’ and ‘boldness’ are used to describe the actions of the night caller. Since God is repeatedly described as being eager to grant our requests when asked, the word ‘boldness’ very likely is the word meant here. In this case it would appear that it was not persistence in prayer that was required, but rather the intensity of the prayer found in ‘boldness’.
While v. 9 leans toward persistence, v. 10 makes it clear that all who ask shall receive, not only those who ask repeatedly. This lends itself to the notion that there are different ways to pray. That is for a different study, but you can be sure that there are different circumstances in which we pray so the importance and intensity of each prayer would be altered in some small way. The key is that God hears all of us when we cry out to him in prayer. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.
In his name & for his glory,
Richard Keller
Bread of Life Ministries
Resources: Expositor's Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament, Copyright 2004; https://www.gotquestions.org/types-of-prayer.html; Life Application Study Bible, Tyndale House Publishing, 2007.
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