The Importunate Window's Plea for Justice

'And He spoke a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray, and not to faint. . . . And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says.  And will not God avenge His own elect, which cry to Him day and night, and He is long-suffering over them?  I say unto you, that He will avenge them speedily.'--Luke 18:1-8

OF all the mysteries of the prayer world, the need of persevering prayer is one of the greatest.  That the Lord, who is so loving and longing to bless, should have to be supplicated time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes, we cannot easily understand.  It is also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer.  When, after persevering supplication, our prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest for our slothful flesh, and it has all the appearance of pious submission, to think that we must now cease praying, because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request.

It is by faith alone that the difficulty is overcome.  When once faith has taken its stand upon God's word, and the Name of Jesus, and has yielded itself to the leading of the Spirit to seek God's will and honor alone in its prayer, it need not be discouraged by delay.  It knows from Scripture that the power of believing prayer is simply irresistible; real faith can never be disappointed.  It knows how, just like the water, to exercise the irresistible power it can have, must be gathered up and accumulated, until the stream can come down in full force, there must often be a heaping up of prayer, until God sees that the measure is full, and the answer comes.  It knows how, just like the farmer has to take his ten thousand steps, and sow his ten thousand seeds, each one a part of the preparation for the final harvest, so there is a need-be for oft-repeated persevering prayer, all working out some desired blessing.  It knows for certain that not a single believing prayer can fail of its effect in heaven, but has its influence, and is treasured up to work out an answer in due time to him who perseveres to the end.  It knows that it has to do not with human thoughts or possibilities, but with the word of the living God.  And so even as Abraham through so many years 'in hope believed against hope,' and then 'through faith and patience inherited the promise,' it counts that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation, waiting and hasting unto the coming of its Lord to fulfill His promise.

To enable us, when the answer to our prayer does not come at once, to combine quiet patience and joyful confidence in our persevering prayer, we must specially try to understand the two words in which our Lord sets forth the character and conduct, not of the unjust judge, but of our God and Father towards those whom He allows to cry day and night to Him:  'He is long-suffering over them; He will avenge them speedily.'

He will avenge them speedily, the Master says.  The blessing is all prepared; He is not only willing but most anxious to give them what they ask; everlasting love burns with the longing desire to reveal itself fully to its beloved, and to satisfy their needs.  God will not delay one moment longer than is absolutely necessary; He will do all in His power to hasten and speed the answer.

But why, if this be true and His power be infinite, does it often last so long with the answer to prayer?  And why must God's own elect so often, in the midst of suffering and conflict, cry day and night?  'He is  long-suffering over them.'  'Behold! the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being long-suffering over it, till it receive the early and the latter rain.'  The farmer does indeed long for his harvest, but knows that it must have its full time of sunshine and rain, and has long patience.  A child so often wants to pick the half-ripe fruit; the husbandman knows to wait till the proper time.  Man, in his spiritual nature too, is under the law of gradual growth that reigns in all created life.  It is only in the path of development that he can reach his divine destiny.  And it is the Father, in whose hands are the times and seasons, who alone knows the moment when the soul or the Church is ripened to that fullness of faith in which it can really take and keep the blessing.  As a father who longs to have his only child home from school, and yet waits patiently till the time of training is completed, so it is with God and His children:  He is the long-suffering One, and answers speedily.

The insight into this truth leads the believer to cultivate the corresponding dispositions:  patience and faith, waiting and hasting, are the secret of his perseverance.  By faith in the promise of God, we know that we have the petitions we have asked of Him.  Faith takes and holds the answer in the promise, as an unseen spiritual possession, rejoices in it, and praises for it.  But there is a difference between the faith that thus holds the word and knows that it has the answer, and the clearer, fuller, riper faith that obtains the promise as a present experience.  It is in persevering, not unbelieving, but confident and praising prayer, that the soul grows up into that full union with its Lord in which it can enter upon the possession of the blessing in Him.  There may be in these around us, there may be in that great system of being of which we are part, there may be in God's government, things that have to be put right through our prayer, ere the answer can fully come:  the faith that has, according to the command, believed that it has received, can allow God to take His time:  it knows it has prevailed and must prevail.  In quiet, persistent, and determined perseverance it continues in prayer and thanksgiving until the blessing come.  And so we see combined what at first sight appears so contradictory; the faith that rejoices in the answer of the unseen God as a present possession, with the patience that cries day and night until it be revealed.  The speedily of God's long-suffering is met by the triumphant but patient faith of His waiting child.

Our great danger in this school of the answer delayed, is the temptation to think that, after all, it may not be God's will to give us what we ask.  If our prayer be according to God's word, and under the leading of the Spirit, let us not give way to these fears.  Let us learn to give God time.  God needs time with us.  If we only give Him time, that is, time in the daily fellowship with Himself, for Him to exercise the full influence of His presence on us, and time, day by day, in the course of our being kept waiting, for faith to prove its reality and to fill our whole being, He Himself will lead us from faith to vision; we shall see the glory of God.  Let no delay shake our faith.  Of faith it holds good:  first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.  Each believing prayer brings a step nearer the final victory.  Each believing prayer helps to ripen the fruit and bring us nearer to it; it fills up the measure of prayer and faith known to God alone; it conquers the hindrances in the unseen world; it hastens the end.  Child of God! give the Father time.  He is long-suffering over you.  He wants the blessing to be rich, and full, and sure; give Him time, while you cry day and night.  Only remember the word:  'I say unto you, He will avenge them speedily.'

The blessing of such persevering prayer is unspeakable.  There is nothing so heart-searching as the prayer of faith.  It teaches you to discover and confess, and give up everything that hinders the coming of the blessing; everything there may be not in accordance with the Father's will.  It leads to closer fellowship with Him who alone can teach to pray, to a more entire surrender to draw nigh under no covering but that of the blood, and the Spirit.  It calls to a closer and more simple abiding in Christ alone.  Christian! give God time.  He will perfect that which concerns you.  'Long-suffering--speedily,' this is God's watchword as you enter the gates of prayer:  be it yours too.

Let it be thus whether you pray for yourself, or for others.  All labor, bodily or mental, needs time and effort:  we must give up ourselves to it.  Nature discovers her secrets and yields her treasures only to diligent and thoughtful labor.  However little we can understand it, in the spiritual husbandry it is the same:  the seed we sow in the soil of heaven, the efforts we put forth, and the influence we seek to exert in the world above, need our whole being:  we must give ourselves to prayer.  But let us hold fast the great confidence, that in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

And let us specially learn the lesson as we pray for the Church of Christ.  She is indeed as the poor widow, in the absence of her Lord, apparently at the mercy of her adversary, helpless to obtain redress.  Let us, when we pray for His Church or any portion of it, under the power of the world, asking Him to visit her with the mighty workings of His Spirit and to prepare her for His coming, let us pray in the assured faith:  prayer does help, praying always and not fainting will bring the answer.  Only give God time.  And then keep crying day and night.  'Hear what the unrighteous judge says.  And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry to Him day and night, and He is long-suffering over them.  I say unto you, He will avenge them speedily.'

Though a beloved people cry continually unto a just God, yet will he in mercy be longsuffering to their enemies, and because of the longsuffering he will seem to delay his answer, but the delay will not be extended a moment longer than necessary. When the season of repentance is past, and the measure of iniquity is full (Gen 15:16), then the Lord's answer will be speedy, immediate. But despite this admonition to pray without discouragement, and this promise to answer with all speed, God's patience with the wicked, and his consequent delays in answering the prayers of the just, will prove such a trial to his people as to leave it questionable whether any of them will have faith enough to pray until the coming of the Lord.

The widow's prayer, "Avenge me"--"do me justice from my adversary," represents the prayer of God's children. Satan is their great adversary. He is the "accuser of our brethren," who accuses them before God day and night. (Rev. 12:10.) He is continually working to misrepresent and accuse, to deceive and destroy the people of God. And it is for deliverance from the power of Satan and his agents that in this parable Christ teaches His disciples to pray.

"I have been praying a long time for a favor, and I am inclined now to cease pleading for it." If you have a question about the rightness of the prayer, do not persevere in a mistake. Solve as quickly as possible the question as to the correctness of the request; for if you waver on that point, your prayer will be of that wavering kind which meets no acceptance with the Lord. If you are asking what you know the Lord has promised, and what is certainly for His glory, you may pray with confidence, and you may even spend the last breath in your body in praying for it. Give the Lord no rest, and take no rest yourself, but incessantly, perpetually, continually plead with God till He answers you out of His holy place.
 

Give Him no rest." What a word is this! I speak this with solemn awe upon me. When the Lord condescends so greatly, we must be doubly reverent. Give God no rest! I am amazed at such a command. Come, gracious Spirit, and teach me how to speak!
I

see then, first, very clearly, that importunity is here commanded. "Give Him no rest" is our Lord's own command to us concerning the great God. I do not suppose any of you ever advised a beggar to be importunate with you. Did you ever say, "Whenever you see me go over this crossing ask me for a penny. If I do not give you one, run after me, or call after me all the way down the street. If that does not succeed, lay hold upon me, and do not let me go until I help you. Beg without ceasing." Did any one of you ever invite applicants to call often, and make large requests of you? Oh, no! Importunity is a common enough thing when men are seeking earthly boons; but it is so sadly rare in heavenly concerns, that the lord has to exhort us to be importunate with him. He does in effect say, "Press me! Urge me! Lay hold on My strength. Wrestle with Me, as when a man seeks to tackle another to fall that he may prevail with him." All this, and much more, is included in the expression, "Give Him no rest." Importunity is commanded.
 

Importunity is influential with God. How vividly the Saviour sets this forth in His parables! The poor widow seeks justice of an unrighteous judge. She had a good case, and she appeared in court begging for justice, where she might expect it. She cried, "My lord, hear my suit!" She meets with no response: the harsh magistrate declares that he cannot attend to her. The court is occupied with other cases. At the first pause the widow is heard crying, "My lord, there is now an interval; will you hear me?" She is sternly refused. Another day she appears, and another, and another: her case is urgent, and she is in terrible earnest to be heard. She is put out of the court, once and again.

Then the order is given that she shall be kept out. But she gets in somehow, and her voice, so touching and piercing, is heard in season and out of season, seeking to be delivered from her adversary. Just as the court is closing she cries, "My lord!" and is answered, "Have not I told you many times before that I cannot attend to you?" "But, my lord!" He turns on his heel, and is gone to his home. The next morning, when he comes forth from his gate, there is the widow. She cries, "My lord!" With a curse he spurns her. He goes down to the court, and he takes his seat. You see "his excellency" on the bench with his officers around him—a very great personage is he.

The first thing he hears is, "My lord, I pray thee, avenge me of mine adversary!" "That woman again! Let her be removed. Go on with the next case." All day long whenever there is a pause, or when his lordship rises to retire, there is the same bitter wail, "O my lord, hear me, I pray thee!" The widow haunts him. He dreams about the sad-faced woman with the uplifted finger, and the cry, "Hear me, my lord; hear me!"

The next morning it is no dream. He is at breakfast, when the servant says, "A person begs to see you, sir. She has been at the door very often, and she will not go away." "What is she like?" "Well, it is a woman dressed in mourning—no doubt a widow." "Drive her away. She is a common nuisance!" He goes to the court, and there is the woman, and she begins again. Then the judge says to himself, "Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me." The Lord puts that woman's importunity before us as a model, and as an encouragement. "And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him?" Pray like that widow. Do not take "No" for an answer.
 

This parable has its key hanging at the door; the drift and design of it are prefixed. Christ spoke it with this intent, to teach us that men ought always to pray and not to faint, It supposes that all God's people are praying people; all God's children keep up both a constant and an occasional correspondence with Him, send to him statedly, and upon every emergency. It is our privilege and honor that we may pray. It is our duty; we ought to pray, we sin if we neglect it. It is to be our constant work; we ought always to pray, it is that which the duty of every day requires. We must pray, and never grow weary of praying, nor think of leaving it off till it comes to be swallowed up in everlasting praise. But that which seems particularly designed here is to teach us constancy and perseverance in our requests for some spiritual mercies that we are in pursuit of, relating either to ourselves or to the church of God. When we are praying for strength against our spiritual enemies, our lusts and corruptions, which are our worst enemies, we must continue instant in prayer, must pray and not faint, for we shall not seek God's face in vain. So we must likewise in our prayers for the deliverance of the people of God out of the hands of their persecutors and oppressors.

I. Christ shows, by a parable, the power of importunity among men, who will be swayed by that, when nothing else will influence, to do what is just and right. He gives you an instance of an honest cause that succeeded before an unjust judge, not by the equity or compassion for it, but purely by dint of importunity. Observe here,

1. The bad character of the judge that was in a certain city. He neither feared God nor regarded man; he had no manner of concern either for his conscience or for his reputation; he stood in no awe either of the wrath of God against him or of the censures of men concerning him: or, he took no care to do his duty either to God or man; he was a perfect stranger both to godliness and honor, and had no notion of either.

It is not strange if those that have cast off the fear of their Creator be altogether regardless of their fellow-creatures; where no fear of God is no good is to be expected. Such a prevalency of irreligion and inhumanity is bad in any, but very bad in a judge, who has power in his hand, in the use of which he ought to be guided by the principles of religion and justice, and, if he be not, instead of doing good with his power he will be in danger of doing hurt. Wickedness in the place of judgment was one of the sorest evils Solomon saw under the sun, Ecclesiastes 3:16.

2. The distressed case of a poor widow that was necessitated to make her appeal to him, being wronged by some one that thought to bear her down with power and terror. She had manifestly right on her side; but, it should seem, in soliciting to have right done her, she tied not herself to the formalities of the law, but made personal application to the judge from day to day at his own house, still crying, Avenge me of mine adversary; that is, Do me justice against mine adversary; not that she desired to be revenged on him for any thing he had done against her, but that he might be obliged to restore what effects he had of hers in his hands, and might be disabled any more to oppress her. Note, Poor widows have often many adversaries, who barbarously take advantage of their weak and helpless state to invade their rights, and defraud them of what little they have; and magistrates are particularly charged, not only not to do violence to the widow (Jeremiah 21:3), but to judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow (Isaiah 1:17), to be their patrons and protectors; then they are as gods, for God is so, Psalms 68:5.

 3. The difficulty and discouragement she met with in her cause: He would not for awhile. According to his usual practice, he frowned upon her, took no notice of her cause, but connived at all the wrong her adversary did her; for she had no bribe to give him, no great man whom he stood in any awe of to speak for her, so that he did not at all incline to redress her grievances; and he himself was conscience of the reason of his dilatoriness, and could not but own within himself that he neither feared God nor regarded man. It is sad that a man should know so much amiss of himself, and be in no care to amend it. 4. The gaining of her point by continually dunning this unjust judge (Luke 18:5): "Because this widow troubles me, gives me a continual toil, I will hear her cause, and do her justice; not so much lest by her clamor against me she bring me into an ill name, as lest by her clamor to me she weary me; for she is resolved that she will give me no rest till it is done, and therefore I will do it, to save myself further trouble; as good at first as at last." Thus she got justice done her by continual craving; she begged it at his door, followed him in the streets, solicited him in open court, and still her cry was, Avenge me of my adversary, which he was forced to do, to get rid of her; for his conscience, bad as he was, would not suffer him to send her to prison for an affront upon the court.

      II. He applies this for the encouragement of God's praying people to pray with faith and fervency, and to persevere therein.

      1. He assures them that God will at length be gracious to them (Luke 18:6): Hear what the unjust judge say, how he owns himself quite overcome by a constant importunity, and shall not God avenge His own elect? Observe,

      What it is that they desire and expect: that God would avenge His own elect. Note,

[a1.] There are a people in the world that are God's people, His elect, His own elect, a choice people, a chosen people. And this He has an eye to in all He does for them; it is because they are His chosen, and in pursuance of the choice He has made of them.

[b.] God's own elect meet with a great deal of trouble and opposition in this world; there are many adversaries that fight against them; Satan is their great adversary.

[c.] That which is wanted and waited for is God's preserving and protecting them, and the work of His hands in them; His securing the interest of the church in the world and His grace in the heart.

      (2.) What is required of God's people in order to the obtaining of this: they must cry day and night to Him; not that He needs their remonstrances, or can be moved by their pleadings, but this He has made their duty, and to this He has promised mercy. We ought to be particular in praying against our spiritual enemies, as St. Paul was: For this thing I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me; like this importunate widow. Lord, mortify this corruption. Lord, arm me against this temptation. We ought to concern ourselves for the persecuted and oppressed churches, and to pray that God would do them justice, and set them in safety. And herein we must be very urgent; we must cry with earnestness: we must cry day and night, as those that believe prayer will be heard at last; we must wrestle with God, as those that know how to value the blessing, and will have not have no for an answer. God's praying people are told to give Him no rest, Isaiah 62:6-7.

      (3.) What discouragements they may perhaps meet with in their prayers and expectations. He may bear long with them, and may not presently appear for them, in answer to their prayers. He is makrothymon ep autois--He exercises patience towards the adversaries of His people, and does not take vengeance on them; and He exercises the patience of His people, and does not plead for them. He bore long with the cry of the sin of the Egyptians that oppressed Israel, and with the cry of the sorrows of those that were oppressed.

      (4.) What assurance they have that mercy will come at last, though it be delayed, and how it is supported by what the unjust judge saith: If this widow prevail by being importunate, much more shall God's elect prevail. 

[a.] This widow was a stranger, nothing related to the judge; but God's praying people are his own elect, whom he knows, and loves, and delights in, and has always concerned himself for.

[b.] She was but one, but the praying people of God are many, all of whom come to Him on the same errand, and agree to ask what they need, Matthew 18:19. As the saints of heaven surround the throne of glory with their united praises, so saints on earth besiege the throne of grace with their united prayers.

[c.] She came to a judge that bade her keep her distance; we come to a Father that bids us come boldly to Him, and teaches us to cry, Abba, Father.

[d.] She came to an unjust judge; but we come to a righteous Father (John 17:25), one that regards his own glory and the comforts of his poor creatures, especially those in distress, as widows and fatherless.

 [e.] She came to this judge purely upon her own account; but God is himself engaged in the cause which we are soliciting; and we can say, Arise, O Lord, plead Your own cause; and what will You do to Your great name?

[f.] She had no friend to speak for her, to add force to her petition, and to use interest for her more than her own; but we have an Advocate with the Father, His own Son, who ever lives to make intercession for us, and has a powerful prevailing interest in heaven.

[g.] She had no promise off speeding, no, nor any encouragement given her to ask; but we have the golden sceptre held out to us, are told to ask, with a promise that it shall be given to us.

[h.] She could have access to the judge only at some certain times; but we may cry to God day and night, at all hours, and therefore may the rather hope to prevail by importunity.

[i.] Her importunity was provoking to the judge, and she might fear lest it should set him more against her; but our importunity is pleasing to God; the prayer of the upright is His delight, and therefore, we may hope, shall avail much, if it be an effectual fervent prayer.

      2. He intimates to them that, notwithstanding this, they will begin to be weary of waiting for him (Luke 18:8): "Nevertheless, though such assurances are given that God will avenge His own elect, yet, when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" The Son of man will come to avenge His own elect, to plead the cause of persecuted Christians against the persecuting Jews; He will come in His providence to plead the cause of His injured people in every age, and at the great day He will come finally to determine the controversies of Zion. Now, when He comes, will He find faith on the earth? The question implies a strong negation: No, He will not; He Himself foresees it.