The Parable of the Relentless Widow
In these verses Christ teaches the wisdom of relentless prayer. It supposes that
all God's people pray. It goes to the next step which is perseverance in prayer.
Men ought to always pray and not to faint or grow weary. Many Christians keep up an "occasional" conversation with the Lord, and perhaps in a time of trial, they
pray with some regularity. It is our duty and privilege to pray and we must never
grow weary of praying.
The key to this parable is not the value of prayer, but the value of repeated
prayer. Here a judge finds for the woman who was being persecuted, not because he
was swayed by her evidence but because he was weary of her continually being in his
court. Note:
- The bad character of the judge. He neither feared God nor man.
He had no concern for the opinion of his fellow man and no
concern for the here after. He is described as a "stranger"
both to godliness and honor.
- The distress of the poor widow. She was being wronged by someone
with authority and she was terrified. She neither had the money
to hire a defender nor the knowledge of the law to defend herself.
But day after day she cried out to the judge, "Avenge me of my
adversary." She was asking to have returned to her anything that
had been wrongfully taken from her and for a "cease and desist"
order to be given to the man who was wrongfully bothering her.
- The perseverance of the poor widow. Without skills and money, she
had to rely on the impatience of the judge. By continually
crying out to the judge for justice, which she rightfully deserved.
she got the judge to grant her partition.
The purpose of this parable was to teach the Disciples and us that in the bringing
of our partitions to the Lord, we must pray with faith, fervency and perseverance.
Notice the parallel:
- There are people in this world who are God's own elect, who
meet with a great deal of trouble and opposition. Like the
Apostle Paul, they pray to the Lord to remove the "thorn"
from their flesh. Paul prayed three times for its removal,
whatever it was, patiently waiting for deliverance of Grace
whichever the Lord would grant. Well the Lord granted Paul
Grace sufficient to bear up under his problem and Paul mentioned
it no more. But it was perseverance in asking that got him
his answer.
- Many are not answered so quickly for God has great patience with
the adversaries of his message whose efforts often bring trouble
to His people. Vengeance belongs to the Lord and will come in
His time, however, the lesson is to persevere in the asking.
- What assurance do we have that mercy will eventually come?
- The widow was a stranger to the judge, we are God's elect.
He knows us, loves us and is concerned for us. Delays
are often tests of patience.
- She was only one person, we are many who come to Him with
the same partition. The Saints unite in glorifying God
they also unite in their requests.
- She came to a judge who told to keep her distance. We come
to the Father who bids us to come boldly to Him.
- She came to the judge as her own advocate. We have an advocator
who sits o the right hand of God, Christ Jesus.
- She had no guarantee of justice while we have the promise
the God hears and will in His own time, answer.
- She had access to the judge only at specific times. We
have access to the Throne of Grace anytime.
- Her request was making the judge angry and might have worked
against her. Our requests are pleasing to God, the prayer
of the saved is pleasing to Him.
Finally, Jesus says that in spite of all the above advantages, 7 listed in all, and
all the assurances that are given to God's elect, they will become weary in
waiting. "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" The
question implies that He will not. Thus the following is supposed:
- That it is upon the earth only that there is occasion for faith.
There are no un-believers in death. Sinners and saints alike,
will know the reality of Christ's message.
- That faith is the great thing that Jesus looks for. When He comes,
He will not be looking for perfection or works, He will be
looking for faith.
- That if there were any faith to be found, He will find it. No
faith is too small to escape the eye of Jesus.
- That it had been foretold that when Jesus returns, He will find
very little faith. The world will grow steadily more evil,
godliness will be had to find, in particular, there will be few
that will have faith in His coming and look forward to it,
even praying for it.
- That even though there will be those who are praying for His
return, Her will delay to the extent that the wicked will scoff
and the faithful will doubt.
Will Jesus find any faith on earth when He returns?
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