Luke 11:9-10: And I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone asking receives and the one seeking finds; and the one knocking, it will be opened.
“That’s all I can stands, cause I can’t stands no more.” – Popeye the Sailorman.
Luke 11:9-10 comes right on the heels of a story Jesus told about a man seeking three loaves of bread from a neighbor because he was having a friend spend the night. In oriental culture a man would face great dishonor if he did not show proper hospitality to a visitor and feeding him was an important aspect of this hospitality. The man went to his neighbor late at night and began pounding on the door asking his neighbor for three loaves of bread (note three loaves, three represents the Godhead). His neighbor and family were already in bed and did not want to be bothered and told the man to go away. But the man persisted until the neighbor finally got up and gave the man what he wanted to shut him up lest he wake up the whole neighborhood. Then Jesus said a curious thing: “Knock and it will be opened.” Was Jesus saying that we must be persistent in our petitions keep pounding on that door until we finally wear God down to the point where He says: “Oy, angel, give the slob want he wants before he breaks the door down and get me that bottle of aspirin while you are at it.”
Christians have a hard time understanding this story. Yet, the Jews of Jesus day heard something far different that we do in our modern, Greek, Western culture. For one thing, they knew and understood a truth that we as Christians seem to not understand.
This truth is illustrated in the Talmud and I have no doubt Jesus was drawing upon this truth using a humorous story to express it. The Talmud illustrates this truth by explaining that when a king enters the battlefield, he changes his clothing to be unrecognizable. If the enemy recognizes him they will try to kill him. Yet, his servants nearby can recognize him by his gestures and those who are afar can still discern that the troops are guarding a certain place and the king is probably there. The Talmud further explains that this is also true of prayer. Our distracting thoughts and emotions are guarding the King so that we can not see Him. You must therefore be persistent and push yourselves even more, for the King is there; but our distractions and emotions are merely hiding Him from us. You see we automatically think that the sleepy neighbor was a representation of God but in fact the sleepy neighbor represents all of the distractions and emotions that keep us from bringing our petitions to God. God is the three loaves of bread. We must be persistent in battling our distractions and emotions for God is there and if we are persistent we will break through those barriers of distractions and emotions and find Him. If we seek Him we will find Him.
Note Jesus says knock and it will open. Again we in our Western thought automatically think of a door. Yet in the Aramaic the word knock is neqash which literally means to play a harp. It comes from a Semitic root which has the idea of opening one’s heart. Its root is often used with the word neqaph which means to have intercourse, an expression of opening your heart to another person, or neqar which means to dig or search as in reaching into the depths of your heart, or nega which is pouring your heart out. In following the common thread of the Semitic root of NQ Neqash would apply to the playing of a harp because that is an instrument like the violin that is so sensitive to one’s touch that your expression of your heart will be expressed in its music. Thus, if we knock or neqash, express our heart to God, He will open the gateway to His presence.
I have a friend who was cheated out of a $100,000 life insurance policy and as a result lost her home and ended up homeless, living out of her car. Someone tried to comfort her by saying, “God loves you.” You know something she wasn’t feeling God’s love at that moment, nor could any amount of people saying, “God loves you” cover her anguish. She was not feeling God’s presence and you cannot blame her, Jesus doesn’t, that is why he says knock neqash and the door will be open. Just keep playing that harp, just keep pouring you heart out to God. If you are angry at Him, tell Him, He knows it already. He can take it.
I remember the story of a woman who spent her life climbing to the top of her acting profession. She never gave one thought to God, never expressed her heart to God. Then one day a doctor told her that her daughter was going to die. Her fame and money could not save her daughter. She became so frustrated and angry she got into her car, drove out to the desert and there alone in the desert where no one was around she began to scream at the top of her lungs, she began to negash express her heart to God. She cursed God out with all the vulgar, obscene words she could think of, she cursed God, Jesus and if she knew there was a Holy Spirit she said she would have cursed Him too. Then after one half hour of negash expressing her heart to God, she fell back exhausted in the silence that comes after a lot of screaming. In that silence she heard a voice, an audible voice and it said, “That is the first time you have spoken to me, I love you.”
.You know you have to really admire Popeye. His heart was truly with Olive Oyle. Well, after all she was one hot number with two dashing young sailors fighting for her attentions. Poor Popeye, he was always the under dog. Yet in watching Popeye as a kid, I always knew he had that can of spinach in the waiting. What I could not understand is why he waited until Brutus had him kicked, punched and almost out for the count before he pulled out that spinach, before he began to negash.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I am like Popeye. I grow weary of being the good soldier, tired of the battle. The distractions and emotions are so numerous I can not see the King and I just want to give up. I wait until I am down for the count before I pull out my can of spinach, my negash, speak my heart to God. But that is what God wants, our hearts, even if it is filled with angry and bitterness toward Him. He will take that. Negash is not just rosy, King James English talk, “I know thou are God and thou lovest me and all things worketh together with meith – thouest.” Negash, knocking is reaching into the depths of your heart and expressing it to God in true, clear honesty. Speak you heart and it will open. The word open in the Aramaic is pethach which comes from the Semitic root of PTH, which means breakthrough.
Recent Comments