17 Mar 2016
For the past several days I have been unable to get a passage of scripture off of my mind.
This passage is below in the Amplified Version and is interspersed with comments in black and red colored founts.
Luke 18:1-8)
1 ALSO [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up).
It is apparent that Jesus knows how critical prayer is to the work of the Lord in this world and how critical it is that His disciples pray and not give up. Do we realize what is at stake? Do we realize what battles can be won if we would just persist in prayer? Think with me for a moment of Moses standing on a hill above that battle with the rod of God lifted up in prayer.
Moses’ support ….. Two men and a rock:
Exodus 17:10-13 (GW)
10 Joshua did as Moses told him and fought the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill.
11 As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel would win, but as soon as he put his hands down, the Amalekites would start to win.
12 Eventually, Moses' hands felt heavy. So Aaron and Hur took a rock, put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron held up one hand, and Hur held up the other. His hands remained steady until sunset.
13 So Joshua defeated the Amalekite army in battle.
Two men and a rock were the support that Moses needed to insure that Joshua would defeat the Amalekites. We have Amalekites today that need to be defeated, Amalekites that are wrecking havoc with the people of God.
The Amalekites of our day have come to steal and to kill and to destroy all that is good and all that brings glory to our God.
2 He said, In a certain city there was a judge who neither reverenced and feared God nor respected or considered man.
3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Protect and defend and give me justice against my adversary.
4 And for a time he would not; but later he said to himself, Though I have neither reverence or fear for God nor respect or consideration for man,
5 Yet because this widow continues to bother me, I will defend and protect and avenge her, lest she give me intolerable annoyance and wear me out by her continual coming or at the last she come and rail on me or assault me or strangle me.
It is good for us to keep in mind that Jesus told this story for a purpose, that His disciples would understand the critical nature of prayer and particularly persistence in prayer. Since Jesus told this story, He could design the characters and their natures as He desired in order to best communicate truth. So in this story Jesus selected a widow, the least influential person in that society. And for His judge he selected a judge that cared only for himself, he did not regard man and had no respect for God.
Jesus’ argument, we are told by Bible scholars, was a common instructional method in the Hebrew culture of that time that might be described as “ if this true …. how much more will that be true.”
6 Then the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says!
7 And will not [our just] God defend and protect and avenge His elect (His chosen ones), who cry to Him day and night? Will He defer them and delay help on their behalf?
8 I tell you, He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [persistence in] faith on the earth?
Here is the point of Jesus’ teaching … “7 And will not [our just] God defend and protect and avenge His elect (His chosen ones), who cry to Him day and night? Will He defer them and delay help on their behalf?
8 I tell you, He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily.
This is not a call for casual praying. Jesus is calling His disciples to participate in extraordinary prayer. Jesus describes it as crying out to the Father day and night. It seems that this kind of extraordinary prayer requires first faith. James tells us that without faith we cannot expect to receive anything from the Lord. Next it seems to imply that extraordinary prayer requires passion. It is passion that causes us to cry out day and night. And lastly in His story Jesus is teaching us to be immovably persistent in our passionate prayers.
But then Jesus appears to lay out a closing challenge …. “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [persistence in] faith on the earth?”
In the past couple of weeks, the Lord has been waking me up nearly every night to cry out to Him concerning the Amalekite of abortion that is stealing and killing and destroying those who have are completely defenseless in our culture. The helpless unborn may be in fact the modern day widow in Jesus’ story. We have seen much evidence in the abortion arena of the unjust judge, but are we following the instruction of the Master Teacher? Are we crying out day and night against this abomination? Are we crying out for justice for those who have no voices of their own?
Our Great God desires to give to His family justice, but we must pray. We must become men and women of extraordinary prayer. The Holy Spirit is indwelling us in part to supply all we need to become people of extraordinary prayer. Will you ask the Helper for His help?
jeff williams
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