In Luke 18 we see the story of the Unjust Judge. This is a familiar parable and one that is usually mis-applied. Once again, due to lack of study of the word, many will teach that God is the Unjust Judge.
As we discovered in the teaching on the “Unforgiving Servant” found in Matthew 18, a failure to find the real truth in the parables will lead us to a wrong conclusion of God and His nature. IF in this parable, the unjust judge is God, then this parable also raises some disturbing questions about God and His mercy and justice.
So what happens with this story and others like it that are improperly and falsely taught is the listener gets a wrong concept or idea of God. This results in a failure to recognize you’re righteous and will cause a wrong idea of worship and service.
The God of the Pharisees was not easy to live with. Our notion of God must always determine the quality of our religion. If you perceive God to be stern and exacting, then the results of your trying to be like God will be someone who is stern and exacting. God is just indeed and he will not condone sin, but through the blood of the everlasting covenant He is able to act toward us exactly as if we had never sinned.
He is not hard to please although He may be hard to satisfy. He expects of us only what He Himself first supplied and there’s the rub. We are trying to satisfy God by our own performance rather than embracing what he has already done. God loves us for ourselves, not for our efforts to please Him. He values our love more than our performance. He valued our lives more than he valued his Son’s life. “He sacrificed the very life for those who caused the death of the very life He sacrificed.” How many times have you heard that in my blogs. Well, you will keep on hearing it until it sinks way in with revelation truth.
Many Christians cannot get free from their perverted notions of God. This poisons their hearts and destroys their inward freedom. It causes them to work at doing what is right without enthusiasm or joy. The temptation to make our relation to God judicial (judicial meaning “interprets and applies the law&rdquo
instead of personal is very strong. Millions of professed believers talk as if God were real and act as if He were not.
We boast in the Lord, but watch carefully that we never get caught depending on Him. This type of faith will “fight for its verbal creed” (denominations), but refuse to get into a predicament where their futures must depend upon that very creed being true. This pseudo faith always arranges a way out in case God fails.
The average church and most Christians simply do not dare to check their beliefs or practices with the truth of God’s word. They want to enjoy the thrill of feeling right, but are not willing to endure the inconvenience of being right. In other words, truth sits on the shelf and grieves until the professed followers embrace truth for a short period of time. Then they depart again when the bills become due abandoning that very truth. Said another way, these types of believers will protest great and everlasting love for the truth, but will not let their love cost them anything.
True moral wisdom must always be an echo of God’s voice. Are you hearing God? God will speak to the hearts of those who prepare themselves to hear. God’s miraculous power is in his word. The miraculous is in His word. I think today the church has put the miraculous in the category of “crisis” time only or emergencies only. It’s God’s desire for us to connect to His miracle power every day, all the time. In us, on us, through us, all around us.
Isaiah 48:17 says He’s the God who teaches us to profit. Study the word out. It means He’s the God who shows you how to get the advantage in every situation or circumstance.
Okay. Luke 18, verse 1. It will be necessary for you to have a bible or a bible website up and running, because I’m not going to put every scripture statement in this teaching like I normally do. God said this teaching is to be as interactive as it can be.
Right away we see in the KJV that the word faint is used. It means lose heart as translated in the NAS. Now stop here because that verse has been generally misunderstood.
Jesus spoke a parable. Parable is two Greek words. Para and bully. It means to cast along side. So it’s a story Jesus would throw along side a spiritual truth, in order to demonstrate the spiritual truth. So Jesus used this story to teach the followers a truth about prayer and holding onto hope.
Remember in a previous teaching I stated that a parable is not a comparison, it’s a contrast. Parables do not describe actual truth, but instead they come alongside to emulate the truth. That’s why when we study a parable, we ought to look for the truth of a parable in the impact of the story as a whole, not in the moral quality of the individual characters. Also, as we search out the contrast we will discover the mystery in what is being said.
So He spoke this parable. It doesn’t say that men ought to pray all the time. Once again, remember, it’s a parable. It’s a selection statement. He’s saying when given the choice to pray or give up, always choose prayer. When given the choice to pray or throw in the towel, don’t ever throw in the towel. When given the choice to stand on what God says, or saying forget it. STAND.
The word He uses there for pray is the Greek word “prosukomyhe”. It’s pronounced “pro sook oh my hey”. It doesn’t mean just to supplicate or ask. It means to make a positive statement or declaration in the direction of God.
It’s similar to the word used in john 14:13 and 14. It’s the word ask. This is the Greek word “Atayo”, which means to “put a demand on what is due”. In other words when you’re battling stuff in your life that is trying to break you and shut you down, He’s saying stand. Take God’s word and declare it back to Him, reminding Him of His promises to you.
When you declare God’s word/promises back to Him, you’re praying. We tell God who He is, but that’s not all. We also remind Him of what He said is ours, because as we do, someone else is listening.
Moving on to verses 2 and 3. We are introduced to the judge in verse 2. In verse 3 we are introduced to this woman who kept coming to the judge demanding protection from her opponent. The King James says “avenge”. New King James says “get justice”, Easy to Read version says "Give me my rights", but the NAS says “legal protection”.
So we see that her request is for justice. Don’t miss that. What does that tell us? Someone is messing with her. You need to see that and get that, because many times when we get in a period of transition or in a phase of change, the enemy takes an opportunity to try and rob us of that situation.
Some of us decide in that time that God does not want the change to happen since it’s not apparent to us that it is proceeding. Well let me tell you right now, that’s wrong! God is not a taker, he’s a giver. It is the enemy who comes to steal, kill & destroy. Remember, in your life, in situations of transition, in times of change, when it looks hopeless, pray and don’t give up. Don’t listen to the lie of the enemy. He will try to tell you it’s not for you. It’s not for today. It’s not God’s will. Give it up. NO. That’s not the time to quit. It’s the perfect time to start. Pray, but make sure you pray God’s word back to Him.
Now in verse 5 it says the judge said he would get justice for her even though he’s not worn out. He doesn’t care about men and women and all their problems. He doesn’t fear God. It's important to note that God determined we would understand that the judge did not care about men and women, nor did he fear God, because He put those words in both verse 2 and verse 4. When God repeats something that quickly, take note of it, because it's important.
Here comes one of the most important parts of this parable. Right there in verse 6. It says “Hear what the unrighteous or unjust judge said”. This is the key to the whole parable, and this is where most people misappropriate it. If we miss what Jesus says in verse 6, we miss the importance of this parable. He said “hear what the unjust judge said”. We’ll go back and see what he said in part 2 and find out why this verse 6 is so important. In the meantime, study through verse 8 on your own. We'll discuss and explain that also in part 2. Grace and Peace.
Comments