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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadR.A. Torrey Collection: Torrey, R A - Keep Praying Until God Answers: 03 - The Widow Would Not Let the Unjust Judge Rest
TOPIC: Torrey, R A - Keep Praying Until God Answers (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 03 - The Widow Would Not Let the Unjust Judge Rest
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The same lesson is taught in a very striking way in the second passage in Luke to which I have already referred, Luk_18:1-8 :
"And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
"Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:
"And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.
"And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
"Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
"And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
"And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
"I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith [literally, "the faith"] on the earth?"
We find the central lesson of this parable in the words with which our Lord Jesus opens the parable, which are really the text of the whole parable: "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint." The clear meaning of the parable is that when we pray, we are to pray on and on until we get the thing we desire of God.
The exact force of the parable is that if even an unrighteous judge will yield to persistent prayer and grant the thing that he did not wish to grant, how much more will a loving God yield to the persistent cries of His children and give the things that He longs to give, but which it would not be wise to give, would not be for their own good, unless they were trained to that persevering faith that will not take no for an answer.
So we see again that God does not always give us at the first asking what we desire of Him in prayer.