TEXT: LUKE 11: 5- 13 5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?

7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; and seek, and ye shall find; and knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (KJV)

Today I would like to deliver a message entitled “BREAD AT MIDNIGHT.”

It is written a man who seeks bread at midnight for his friend.

Well, let’s remember the day of end time is likened as night, or darkness. And, we know that this parable has possible relation to the end time.

Let’s look at the text.

5 “And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?”

The main theme in this passage is bread. Bread is the metaphor of bread of life, the Word, in the Bible.

Well, the issue here is that there was no bread in his house. It may be thought very strange that there were not two or thee pieces of bread even though his friend came at midnight, but such fact is the great point with emphasis that there was no bread at midnight.

The Bible says concerning the end time that it is the days of no bread or of famine regardless of how we think or about it or not.

It is written on Revelation as below.

REVELATION 6: 6- 8 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny (denarius), and three measures of barley for a penny (denarius); and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. (KJV)

A denarius means a day’s wage for a worker. It may be more than ten thousand yen now. Even such an amount of money can buy only a measure of wheat (about a litter) or three measures of barley (three litters). Wheat is the material of bread and so it is associated with famine of the Word.

Like proving it, it is told about famine, famine of the Word, on the latter verse as, “Power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”

It is suggested that the days of Revelation, the end time, is the time of famine, famine of the Word.

It is written on Amos concerning the days of famine as below.

AMOS 8: 11- 14 11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again. (KJV)

The famine of the end time is not that of bread, the Bible, but is understood that of hearing the words of the Lord, that is, hearing the messages.

The Bible says such days come as that even if they hear a message of any pastor they are not filled with power at all nor can walk as it is poisoned.

I am sorry to say, but this is in the present day probably not completely but in great scale fulfilled, isn’t it? It is now the days when the Church and Christians are weak. Isn’t it clearly shown that the cause for this is the famine, that is, the lack of bread and water?

7 “And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.”

The saying here, “the door is now shut,” is the same as below.

LUKE 4: 25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. (KJV)

The heaven was shut up three years and six months in the days of Elijah. And it did not rain. The people were hungry for bread and thirsty for water. Yet the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail for this widow in Zarephath in such a time. Likewise, he who seeks bread at midnight is the type of those who seek bread and water of life from the Lord in famine. And, the first answer to him was, “Trouble me not: the door is now shut.”

The house owner clearly answered, “I cannot rise and give thee.” So, do grasp that it is basically the time of famine now when there is no bread or water as the door is shut up. It is common that there is no bread or water. It is now the time, as is written on Thessalonians, “only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.”

8 “I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.”

But there is a way to turn over this situation of famine and the word of the house owner to refuse to give bread. It is the importunity. So, do know that the only condition to make it possible that we are given bread and water, that is, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and brought up by them, is to pray, and pray and pray. Those who pray should be the ones who have importunity.

9 “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; and seek, and ye shall find; and knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

It is the sad situation if we have no bread of the Word or water, even a piece of bread, though people come to the service for hunger and thirst. But we never have to despair. Firstly, we have nothing or bread from the beginning. As the manna came down from heaven, we cannot find any anywhere if we cannot be given this bread from heaven. That was so from the beginning and will be so from now on. If we think that differently, it is our error.

Therefore, if we ask, seek and knock, it will be given to us. That concretely means to pray. Those who ask bread and water from heaven will be given them. Others who remain and are satisfied with the things of men will not be given.

10 “For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

It is repeated again to pray. We should ask, seek and knock, not doing anything.

11 “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?”

A serpent corresponds to that serpent that distorted the words of God to lies, the Pharisees and scribes who were blamed of Lord Jesus as, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers,” and now the theologians, pastors and teachers who teach the false theology.

Why they give such food of serpents, messages with perverted words, to fill the believers’ hunger is because they are not given things of heaven as they do not ask. It is not the will of God that children of God are filled with food of serpents for hunger.

12 “Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?”

A scorpion may be related to devils. So, it is also not the will of God that children of God are filled with the drink of devils for thirst as they come to the Church. This is not from the true Father in heaven but from the father of this world, Satan.

Therefore, how much messages to fill hunger and thirst of the people are sought in this day! Let those who are given the revelations of the Lord pray and ask for this service.

13 “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”

It is also here emphasized to ask. So, we know that the only way to ask this bread and the Holt Spirit is only one, to seek, that is, concretely, to pray, regardless it is tribulation age or not, or famine or not.

There is no discrimination here. Ability, sex, race or age has nothing to do with it.

Do remember that those who ask will receive of this Person so that they will be able to fill their friends for their hunger.

Let’s do the will of the Lord in the end time.

End.