“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 18v1-8
Here we find a marvelous parable in which Jesus teaches us to always pray and not lose heart. Unfortunately many have twisted this parable in a discouraging, rather than encouraging way. Some will say, “See, God is like this judge. If we are just persistent enough and have enough faith, God will eventually give in, like the judge, and answer our prayers.” But that is the opposite meaning the parable intends to give. The point is not that God is like the unrighteous judge. The point is that God is not like the judge. It’s a lesser to greater argument. If the unrighteous judge answered the petitions of the widow, after much delay, how much more readily will our heavenly Father give justice to the cries of His elect?
There are two main distinctions that I would like to draw out from the text.
The Nature of the Relationship
In the parable, the judge had no fear of God, or respect for man. Therefore, he had no relationship with the widow. He is a judge who has no concern for the justice of his people. Therefore he had a total disconnect with the widow.
To the contrary, the God of the Bible perfectly enjoys, glorifies, and fears Himself within the trinity. And because of His great mercy He does not merely respect mankind, as is considered a base-level characteristic of a decent person, He loves the world (John 3:16). While God loves the world in general, He goes further. God has a special, intense, and precise love for His children. It is a love that is sealed by the irrevocable work of His Son, in which we are brought into union with Him. God is not distant, careless, disconnected, or unconcerned with us as the unrighteous judge who had no relationship with the widow. God is near, full of care, connected, and concerned for us because He has a special relationship with us. We are His redeemed. We are the apple of His eye.
The Emotions of the Relationship
What makes the doctrinal truths of our relationship with God something that fills our hearts with hopefulness in prayer is the emotion that flows from the nature of the relationship. Because the unrighteous judge has no relationship with the widow, he was bothered, pestered, and annoyed with her, as if she was a pesky dog to him.
God is emphatically not like this with His children. Because of the blood-stained cross of Christ, our heavenly Father loves to hear from us. He is not bothered by the constant “baa’s” from His sheep.
He is not annoyed by our persistent complaints. He does not shew us away as if we were a pesky yapping dog. He doesn’t swat at us as if we were annoying gnats on a hot summer day. He doesn’t tiredly groan at us like one does at an alarm clock. He does not take a deep breath, bracing Himself, when He sees you approaching. Instead the eye of our heavenly father sparkles with excited affections toward us as He gazes upon us in our continual coming to Him. His heart leaps within Him as we clamor toward the throne of grace. Our Father lovingly looks forward to the times we come to Him in earnest prayer. Even more, God came to us in order that we would come to Him. He hikes up His cloak and sprints toward our weary souls. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus proved it. What a blessing it is to be adopted by such a father as this.
May we be constant in prayer as our faint hearts are filled with strength by the nature and emotion of our relationship to God through His Son Jesus Christ.
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