Unceasing Prayer: Parable of the Persistent Widow
I have uploaded one of my early articles in Restoration Quarterly to my Academic Page. The article is a fairly technical discussion of Luke 18:1-8, the Parable of the Unjust Judge or the Parable of the Persistent Widow. It is available here.
At the heart of the parable is a comparsion between God and the judge, and a comparsion between the disciples and the widow. If an unjust judge will give a widow what she desires because she wears him out with her persistent pleas, surely God will hear the cries of his people. If a widow will persistently go before a unjust judge for vindication, surely disciples should cry out to God without ceasing and refuse to giving up praying.
The question mark in this relationship is not whether God will vindicate his elect for surely he will, but the question mark is whether the Son of Man, when he returns, will find “faith” (a people who continually pray) on the earth?
Note: Over the next few weeks or months, I will return to my “first love” (the reason I started this blog) project of attempting to make class materials, previously published materials, etc. available on my blog. One project will take me some time…my dissertation but there is, I’m sure, no rush for that. 🙂
January 27th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
John Mark, what happened to your Privilege or Silence series? The posts have vanished.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
JOHN MARK
WHAT HAPPENED….
IS it the computer i am on
THOUGHT about those post”s all day to day.
my answer to the mess would have been,
these good fine men were working off of a bad …
paradine…
as the word being used is not inclusive of god’s righteous word in the rest of his story in dealing
with men and creation where the new covenant is silent…..
that is described as going beyond. ridiculous to ME
john mark
gods good is good
gods word is always righteous.
we limit ourselves by finding sin where there is a righteous freedom from condemnation from sin
perfect love is without fear.
my opinion is that where the new is silent, we should be so familiar with the word of god’s COMPLETE word,
we as a body would function WITH a tad more unity of the spirit if we used that sword instead of pulling out a pocket knife.
so to speak 🙂
than we do at present.
and the mess of the last four posts..
how did tim understant pauls words
2ed tim 3 14-17 i think that is it you know the one…. All scripture is.
what is all scripture….to timothy it is not the gospel just the letter…
anyhow
blessings
john mark and all
i got nothin on this comp. to use
hope you
January 28th, 2009 at 6:17 am
My apologies to readers. I have discontinued the “privilege or silence” series since I was asked to prepare it for publication this fall in a journal. Should that not materialize, I will pick it up again. Once published, I will make the material available online again in due time.
John Mark
January 29th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
No, I can’t imagine thatANYONE wants to read YOUR dissertation.
So you can just send it to me.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Once published, I will make the material available online again in due time.
uh hu…
and should i add this to the list of “I WILL GET BACK TO THIS AT A LATER DATE.”
FOR THOSE OF US THAT HAVE BEEN HEAR this last year…
to those of you that have not.
this list is becoming a scroll!
🙂
i do hope you are not developing carpoletunnel in your wrists…. john mark
even if you do Thats ok …
i do have that voice activated software…
🙂
rich
January 28th, 2016 at 6:23 pm
Interesting analysis of this parable. But I suspect the application has less to do with the Lord’s return than with getting help from God for problems in the here and now – such as with health or financial difficulties. The glaring problem or disconnect I see few people of faith address is the palpable lack of or delay in response to prayer. For if we cannot clearly see God answering prayers, all of our rationalizations are empty. God clearly can and has answered prayers immediately, as He did with Daniel, Jesus and others. So why the delay and why so often? Jesus could have made birds talk to prove He was was who He claimed to be. But instead He healed people. Has God lost interest in doing that? If we figure out why He rarely heals people now in answer to prayer, I suspect we like Paul will be able to persuade men not with arguments but a demonstration of God’s power.