Let’s talk about The Parable of the Friend at Night? Jesus tells us to ask and keep on asking (Matthew 7:7), and whatever we ask in God’s will is assured to us. He had just taught the disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer, which includes the phrase “Your will be done” (Luke 11:2). So, putting it all together, we see that we are to be persistent in asking for God to work in our lives and answer our prayers according to His perfect will and timing, having confidence that He will do so.

So, although the Greek word really does literally mean shamelessness or impunity or a lack of sensitivity to what is proper, the idea of persistence is also clearly indicated in the context, as the following explanation by Jesus makes clear. But before we move on to His application of this parable, it is good to consider for a moment what type of parable this is. It is what many would call an implied “how much more parable,” in which an argument is made from the lesser to the greater. For example, one prominent parable scholar observes: As most interpreters agree, it is an argument from the weaker to the stronger. It is a “how much more” argument, a procedure common in Jewish hermeneutics, but the reader must supply the “stronger” element that makes explicit the intent of the parable. A second “how much more” argument is explicit in 11:13 and shows how the parable in 11:5-8 is to be interpreted … The parable says in effect: “If a human will obviously get up in the middle of the night to grant the request even of a rude friend, will not God much more answer your requests? (Klyne Snodgrass, Stories With Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus, p. 447)

The question itself is quite long and extends from verse 5 through verse 7: NKJ Luke 11:5-7 [Open in Logos Bible Software (if available)] And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves [ἄρτος, bread or loaf of bread]; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you ‘?” Discover more details with the The Parable of the Friend at Night video on YouTube.

If we look at another parable, we will have no doubt that Jesus is contrasting and not comparing the heavenly Father with the character in the parable. (Luke 18:1-8) Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.