November 28, The Parable of the Unjust Judge, Luke 18:1-8

November 28, The Parable of the Unjust Judge, Luke 18:1-8

This parable gives a teaching similar to the one given with the Lord’s Prayer and the Parable of the Friend at Midnight in Luke 11:5-8. Remember; don’t push the parable beyond its primary meaning. God is not a friend unwilling to help. God is not an unjust judge. To our experience, sometimes it appears that God is not answering our prayers. The message of this parable is that if an unwilling friend (Luke 11) and an unjust judge can be moved to action through persistence, how much more God will answer our prayers if we persist.

Notice the explanation or application of this parable is given in verse 6-8. Jesus says, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.” He may mean listen to the teaching of this parable or listen to how the judge was moved by the widow’s persistence. I was once challenged by a book or audio teaching on prayer to pray for a specific need for 40 days. The author challenged a group of business leaders to try it, and if their prayers were not answered in 40 days, he would personally give them $500. If their prayers were answered, they owed him $500. Out of the 10 (or 20 I don’t remember exactly), who accepted the challenge, everyone sent him a check for $500. The last one said he did not have his prayer answered but the practice of prayer so dramatically changed his life he felt he owed him the $500.

God gives us what we pray for. James 5 says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. Persistence in prayer demonstrates to God that we believe and that we are completely committed. Try it. Lift a request to God for 40 days. See if God does not answer your prayer. If want the $500 challenge, give me a call.

¹ Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ² He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

   ⁴ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

 ⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ 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? ⁸ 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?”—Luke 18:1-8