Meditation on the Text of the Week

Giving God No Rest

Now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that he will bring about justice for them speedily.
Luke 18: 7,8

This promise of God's delivery of speedy justice to His elect as they cry to Him is uttered by our Lord to give the point to a parable which He told “to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.” The parable is, of course, the story of the widow and the unjust judge. It is one of the most misunderstood and misused parables of our Lord.

The widow represents the weak, defenceless and vulnerable. She was being illegally exploited by an oppressor (Luke 18: 3). She was seeking lawful protection from a judge who was himself corrupt and venal and who cared not for right or wrong. Every day she appeared before the judge. She wore him down. For his own peace, he decided to give her legal protection.

If an unrighteous, evil judge can be persuaded to give protection to a defenceless widow through constant importunity, how much more will our utterly righteous heavenly Father give care and protection to His beloved, suffering sons and daughters.

Oftentimes this parable is taken out of its biblical context, and made into a generalised teaching concerning importunity in prayer. God will hear and answer if we just persist in praying, is the alleged general principle. But this is a misleading abstraction. It is neither a good, nor necessary inference.

We must be careful to take the lessons of this parable from the context. Jesus has been warning of the coming catastrophic judgment upon Judea, as the Son of Man appears at the head of His armies. In the meantime, evil Judea would continue on for many years after its rejection and crucifixion of the Son of Man. It would be like the days of Noah: “they were eating, they were drinking, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark” (Luke 18: 27) Life would go on as usual for many years yet.

But a certain definitive time would come, just as the definitive day that Noah entered and sealed up the ark, and the definitive day that Lot left Sodom—then came the judgment. Then the Son of Man will be revealed. At that time, get out! Leave the city and country! Flee! Do not look back! “On that day, let not the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house go down to take them away; and likewise let not the one who is in the field turn back. Remember Lot's wife.” (Luke 18: 31,32).

It is in this context that the Lord gives us the parable of the unrighteous judge. In a world of evil, ripening for God's judgment, the righteous are always oppressed and hated. They are ridiculed and mocked. They are stripped of legal protection. They suffer terrible injustices. When that happens, the Lord instructs us to pray daily until God's deliverance comes. He also promises that God's coming will not tarry. It will not be long. He will not delay long over His beloved children.

It is in these circumstances that we are to importune the Lord night and day for justice and protection.

But are there more general principles we can learn to apply to a wider set of circumstances than the ones in our text? Yes—but very carefully, and cautiously. It is appropriate to be importunate in prayer when we are convinced that what we seek is God's will and dispensation for us. It is appropriate to be importunate when we know that what we seek is God's clear revealed will for us.

So, if one falls ill, should one pray without ceasing for healing and restoration to health? No. One should pray once, twice, thrice. It is enough. (II Corinthians 12:8) It is heathenish to believe that by much praying one can make God listen and bend His will to ours. “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6: 7).

But in our illness, should we pray daily for strength to endure, patience to abide, grace to continue to serve? Yes, yes and yes. For these things are clearly commanded in Scripture. So much praying in our modern times is about getting, achieving, or changing things. Far less is about the achievement of God's will in our lives and communities as a result of circumstances or providences it has pleased the Lord to bring upon our lives.

We must never seek to bend God's will to ours. As stewards, we must ever pray to bend our wills, purposes, efforts, and labours to His will. Only then can we pray in faith, believing, so that we might receive.

In this light, the parable of the importunate widow is very instructive, for amidst oppression and injustice to God's people, it gives biblical warrant to pray without ceasing, not only that we might become more conformed to Christ as we suffer and that His strength might be glorified in our weakness, but that we might be delivered out of unjust oppression.

God has explicitly revealed that it is His will to come to deliver His people speedily from unjust oppression at the hands of wicked men. And so, in this circumstance, we are commanded to give the Lord no rest until He delivers His people, as He has promised.