And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.  He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.  And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’  For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ”  And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.  And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?  I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Luke 18:1-8

Within the history of Israel recorded in the Old Testament, we read quite a lot about judges and widows.  Jethro advised Moses to use judges to govern Israel (Ex. 18:21-22).  God expected them to be righteous people who feared Him while exercising just and impartial judgments and refusing to participate in bribery (Deut. 16:18-20; 2 Chr. 19:5-7).  Widows were to be cared for and treated well (Ex. 22:22; Deut. 24:17-21), especially by judged and those in other positions of authority (Deut. 27:19; Jer. 22:3; Mal. 3:5).  Christ was upset with the scribes and Pharisees of His day when He observed their mistreatment of widows (Matt. 23:14).

The judge in this parable was probably a civil authority in Jerusalem, an appointee of the Romans or Herod.  He might have even been a pagan Gentile, considering that he “neither feared God nor respected man” (Lk. 18:2; cf. Matt. 22:37-40).  He did not care for the widow because he did not care about God, nor did he care about the laws of God cited above which protected the widow.  He was not the kind of judge God had in mind as we’ve seen in the passages studied thus far.  He would not have had any respect or any sort of real consideration for his fellow man.  This is not surprising, because no one will view their fellow man in the right way if they do not fear God at all.  Jesus described him as “unrighteous” (Lk. 18:6), which means he was likely open to taking bribes.  He probably was one who didn’t mind giving prejudiced, corrupt judgments.  He might have even been an atheist; if so he had no fear of eternal punishment as a motivation to do right by this widow.  Public opinion would not motivate him to give anyone justice because he had no respect for man and thus cared little for what others thought of him.

This would have been bad news for the widow.  Being a woman on top of being widowed, she was already in a hopeless situation.  In that time and culture, she had very few options even before coming to this unjust judge.  She was obviously very weak and poor.  She likely had no family, no funds.  There was no social or financial pressure she could leverage to use to deliver herself.  She could not solve the problem of her oppressor by herself, but now she had to deal with not only him but a corrupt judge.  Her only hope, scant though it was, was that this unjust judge would give her justice.  Her only plea was, “Give me justice against my adversary” (Lk. 18:3).  It’s noteworthy that she did not want vengeance, but justice, for the wrong done to her.  She wanted her enemy who was treating her badly and oppressing her to stop.

At first, the judge refused to either hear her case or render a favorable verdict.  I imagine her reaction.  “Is he listening?” she might have asked herself.  “Does he care?  Obviously not.  Will I ever get the relief I seek?”

But she didn’t let any of this stop her.

She was like that Canaanite woman whose faith in Christ was so strong that she kept trying even after it might have seemed to her that Jesus was not going to help her (Matt. 15:21-28).  She kept coming back, “day and night” (Lk. 18:7), refusing to be discouraged, never taking the judge’s “No” for an answer.

Her persistence eventually paid off.  The judge finally gave in.

Not out of pity, mind you.  Not because he cared for her.  Remember, he had no regard for anyone.

Not out of a desire to obey God’s commands to care for widows, either.  Remember, he did not fear God.

Instead, it was for selfish reasons.  He just wanted to get her out of his hair (Lk. 18:4-5).  Note verse 5:  “…yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.”  In the original language, “beat me down” literally means “give me a black eye.”  I wonder if he worried his political position would be in peril if he didn’t help her.

Regardless, he ended up helping her…and it was all due to her persistence.

What’s the point?  “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Lk. 18:1).  We should not give up nor lose heart in our prayer lives, brethren.

God wants us to devote ourselves to prayer (Col. 4:2), to always pray with joy and gratitude for everything (1 Thess. 5:16-18).  He wants us to “not grow weary” and never “give up” nor “lose heart” (Gal. 6:9; 2 Cor. 4:16).

The widow did not get what she wanted from the judge immediately.  For all she knew she would never get what she wanted from him.  But she persevered.  She never gave up, never stopped bringing her case before, refusing to get discouraged.

That’s how we must be.  The point is not that God will hear us because we persevere in prayer.  The point is that we should persevere in prayer even when the answer seems to be long delayed…or even if it seems the answer is “No.”

Remember, we are praying to our heavenly Father.  Our heavenly Father is always willing to help us and bless us.  Our heavenly Father knows what is best for us.  He will give us what is best for us at the time it is best for us, even if it is not what we ourselves know is best for us.

Jesus pointed out the inner thoughts of this unrighteous judge (Lk. 18:4-6) because he wanted to make a comparison between that man and our righteous, loving God.  The judge didn’t care about the widow; he answered her pleas just to get her out of his hair.  If an evil man like him will respond to the perseverance and persistence of a widow who had no power, money, or influence but still refused to give up and be discouraged…

…then think of how effective the continual, persistent prayers of a faithful Christian will be to the Righteous Judge who loves us!

Insistence shows our faith.  It shows that we are certain that God will answer our prayer with what He in His wisdom and love knows is best for us, and that He will do so in the time He knows will be best for us.

Because we are so certain of this, we will continue to pray to Him, even when everything seems like there is no hope that He will answer.  Persistent prayer helps us understand how much we depend on God.

Consider Luke 18:7-8:  “And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?  Will he delay long over them?  I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily.  Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

When our faith is tested, where shall we go?  What shall we do in the face of adversity, opposition, persecution, and seeming hopelessness?

The hardships of life may wear on us, but we must not give up.  Our God is just, and He will answer our prayers.  He will avenge the wrongs done to us.  It might happen now, years later, or even at the cusp of eternity…but it will happen.

I know this because I know that God cares and is listening.  He will do what is right and deliver us from evil.  So we keep on praying, confident that we will receive when we ask in accordance with His will (1 John 5:14), trusting that we will not receive what is not for our good and is wrong for us.

God will give justice to those who wrong us, and he will do it “speedily.”  “Speedily” comes from the same Greek term used in Revelation 1:1’s “shortly come to pass.”  That Greek term carries with it the idea of something happening with suddenness and quickness.  It does not necessarily mean that it will occur immediately.  From time to time in different places in Revelation we see prophecies and descriptions of Judgment Day and the end of the world, events which have yet to take place going on now 2,000 years after Revelation was written.  So “shortly come to pass” does not necessarily mean that it’s going to happen really soon.  But when the end of the world and the day of judgment come, they will happen suddenly, quickly.

That’s what Jesus is saying here.  God will answer in his own good time, and when he does he will avenge us very suddenly and quickly in however manner he does it.  Since Jesus immediately speaks of his coming (“when the Son of Man comes”), it’s likely he has in mind the day of judgment when God will punish the unrepentant wicked.  That will come upon them very quickly and very suddenly when it happens.

Do we believe this?  Is our faith that strong so that we will never give up praying for him to help us, or is our faith so weak that it will shrivel up and die rather quickly in the face of adversity?  When Jesus comes again, will he find faith on earth?  Our faith?  Will we be patiently waiting for him, every loyal, ever ready?