<p>7:9&nbsp;<em>Which one of you</em>- The Lord was addressing the disciples in Matthew's record of the Sermon. We can imagine Him looking around at each of them.</p>
<p><em>If his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?- </em>Ask... giv<em>e </em>are the same words as in 7:7. The Lord sensed that His promise of Divine response to prayer for salvation would be so hard for them to accept. He is here persuading them by all manner of methods to simply accept that reality. We are God's children, and He will not be cruel to us. It would be unnatural and counter-instinctive for Him to not save us. For His is the Kingdom- therefore He desires to give it to us, He designed it for us.&nbsp;<br />
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The point has been made that loaves of bread looked like stones, just as there were some fish (similar to eels) caught in the sea of Galilee which looked like snakes (7:10). This surely played a part in the Lord's temptation to turn the stones of the wilderness into bread (Mt. 4:3). The similarity of the Aramaic words for bread and stone would have strengthened the connection. The simple message is that God will not play a cruel trick on us- because He is our loving Father. The Lord sensed human scepticism about God's simple offer of salvation. It is simply there- for all who will trust Him in a simple, child-like way. Perhaps the stone is to be connected with how the same word is used for the millstone of condemnation in Mk. 9:42 and Rev. 18:21, and &quot;the stone of stumbling&quot; in 1 Pet. 2:8. If we seek the bread of the Kingdom (a common Jewish concept at the time, Lk. 14:15), God will not condemn us. Note how the Lord spoke of salvation and relation with Him as &quot;the children's bread&quot; (Mt. 15:26), the bread of salvation given (<em>didomi</em>&nbsp;as in Mt. 7:7) freely (Jn. 6:32). The Lord saw to the essence of human fear- of Divine condemnation, that instead of the children's bread we would be given the stone of condemnation. One reason for the crucifixion was in order to try to openly persuade the world of God's grace- that it is for real. The Lord's teaching here signals one of man's greatest difficulties: to believe in God's grace. To accept His desire and passion to save us.</p>
<p>The&nbsp;<em>giving</em>&nbsp;of bread to us by Jesus at the breaking of bread (<em>lambano</em>&nbsp;again, as in 7:8) is surely an acted parable of His utter commitment to indeed give us the bread we seek above all things (Mt.&nbsp; 26:26). Earlier in the Sermon, the Lord had used the same words to teach us to do just this: &quot;Give us this day our daily bread&quot;. So He clearly intends us to see ourselves as the hungry little child, asking his daddy for bread. And surely God will not disappoint. The prayer will be answered.</p>