The parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18 is not a command to pester God until He gives in to our desires, but an exploration of the character of God. Daniel Bunn uses this text to remind us that God can and will bring justice to His people, whom He loves.
The parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18 is not a command to pester God until He gives in to our desires, but an exploration of the character of God. Daniel Bunn uses this text to remind us that God can and will bring justice to His people, whom He loves.
Character of God
Life with Jesus | Week 6
April 7, 2019 | Daniel Bunn
Luke 18:2 NIV
He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.
Luke 18:3 NIV
And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
Luke 18:4-5 NIV
For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
Parables are told to address specific situations for specific audiences.
Luke 18:1 NIV
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
We no longer believe that what we are doing is leading to the goal that we desired in the first place.
The lesson is persistence: don’t give up.
Luke 18:6-8 NIV
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
The parable is not about persistence; it’s about the character of God.
Faithful prayer is not so much about what or how we pray; it’s about knowing the one to whom we pray.