The Persistent Widow and Its End-Times Message

For our study today, I want us to turn for

a few minutes to the scripture reading which Kimberly read

to us in Luke 18, 1 to 8. It's a

well-known passage, but it's a passage that's very rich in meaning,

especially for people who are living the exact time that

we are living right now. And that is very important

to all of us because it literally is a matter

of life and death. The way we relate to this

advice that Jesus gave us and how we react to

it is a matter of life and death.

So I hope that we can all.

Take this to heart and make it a part of

our lives no matter what stage of life we are

in right now. Now in chapter 17 of Luke, the

previous chapter to our scripture reading, Jesus had been speaking

about the time just before his second coming. And he

also went through the number of perils that people who

are living at this time are going to have to

pass through. With special reference to this period, he related

the parable that was read by Kimberly for our scripture

reading today, Luke 18, one to eight. Now a parable

is defined as a narrative whose primary purpose is to

teach a spiritual truth. And all of Christ's parables taught

not just one truth, but many truths. And each one

of them is rich for study. The parables of Jesus

were based on common everyday experiences of life, familiar to hearers,

and often it dealt with specific incidents that occurred in society.

Such seems to be the case of the parable for

our consideration today. So before we get into the details,

let's pause for a word of prayer and ask God

to focus our minds on the study for today. Father,

thank you that you sent your son to earth to

come and live for us and pay the penalty of

sin that was on each one of us. Lord, thank

you for what Jesus did and took the penalty on

himself and paid the price that.

Each one of us are to pay.

Father, his words are very important for us living in

this day and age.

To make a part of our lives.

So as we study this parable that he gave us,

especially for this time, I ask you to keep our

minds focused on his words. And Lord, may we make

his words a part of our life so that we

will be ready for his coming.

Amen.

Now the parable that we are studying for today is

commonly known as the parable of the unjust judge. But

I think it can also be called the parable of

the persistent widow because in the story, she stands out

as somebody who did what is very difficult to do.

She displayed the qualities of persistence, perseverance, earnestness, faith and

confidence of prayer, and all of the qualities which you

and I are going to need to get through the

last days before Christ returns. So she set the example

for each one of us. This is not the stuff

of the faint-hearted. We need to put on the armor

of God because you and I are going to be

in a battle.

This is warfare. And we need to.

Utilize the help of heaven that has been promised to

us if.

We are to be victorious.

The parable opens by clearly stating the central lesson of

this parable. And Jesus began this by saying, to this end,

men ought always to pray and not faint. So clearly,

Christ is telling us that prayer is going to be

a very important part of people who are living in

the last days, if they are to be able to

be successful and come through this time on his side.

And the other thing that he tells us is not

to faint. Now, the word that we would use today

is not be discouraged.

So this is what we ought to do. We always

ought to pray. Always.

And this mirrors Paul's counsel to us to pray without ceasing.

And Christ's words clearly refers to our time. And if

you think that this is not something that applies to us,

just pause for a minute and think about recent events.

Have you noticed the number of natural disasters that has

confronted us? different parts of the world.

It's unbelievable, the frequency, the.

Intensity that these are taking place is a warning every

time we hear this, that this is going to define

the last days, one of the definitions of the last days.

And this is what we need to be focused. Problems

seem to get larger and nobody seems to have the answers.

And this is going to be something that defines our age.

Huge problems and many people will put forward solutions thinking

that that is the solution and it's not and we

are confronted with the same problems again. And we find

that the Bible has given us answers to many of

these problems but that doesn't seem to be a source

that most of the world goes to. So the people

in God's remnant church should certainly set the example and

share the knowledge that we have.

So we have a choice to make.

And this choice is going to have eternal consequences for

you and me. And that is why it is so

important for us and our families. Now the parable, which

was read to us, lists three main characters in a

group that we need to consider. The first of these

was the unjust judge. Was the judge a scoundrel?

Absolutely. He was a disgrace to his profession.

A judge's primary duty is to ensure that justice is

served at all times. But this judge in the parable

had no regard for justice and no consideration for the

poor and their suffering. What makes the actions of this

unjust judge even more reprehensible is that the unjust judge

knew that legally the widow who came to him had

a just claim. And he could have brought this injustice

to a quick end, but he delayed, and it stoked

his ego to see the poor widow come and beg

and beg him for justice. Maybe he expected the widow

to offer him a bribe for a quick verdict in

her favor. But as we shall see, the widow had

nothing to offer because she really didn't have anything to

her name. It is entirely possible that the unjust judge

himself got his position to a bribery. He appears to

be pleased to wear the badge of honor of his

reputation that he neither feared God nor regarded man. Finally,

the unjust judge relents and gives the widow justice. And

the reason he relents is worth noting. He doesn't feel

any remorse for his action or feel any pity for

the widow. He relents because he fears his unjustifiable actions

against the poor widow will get out into the community

and he will be vilified. Here is how Ellen White

explains this in her book, Christ Objects Lessons. Incidentally, Christ

Objects Lessons is a gem of a book, a companion

book to study the parables that are in the Bible.

It is so rich in that the Bible comes alive

to us when we read the comments that she has

to add to the truth that is in the Bible.

And here's the comment that she had in Christ Object Lesson.

To save his reputation, to avoid giving publicity to his partial,

one-sided judgment, he avenged the persevering woman. That was a

sad reason why he did it, but I'm glad that

he did it because finally the widow did get her justice,

but after persevering. after going to him. The second character

in this parable is the widow. A widow in Jewish

society around the time of Christ, without any male relatives,

meaning no living husband, no living sons, no father, no brothers,

or adult male in-laws, occupied one of the most fragile, vulnerable,

and impoverished positions in the ancient world. Such was the case,

as we read in Luke, and that is exactly how. Now,

the Torah law for the Hebrew people repeatedly singled out

the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner as groups under

God's direct protection, commanding them to treat the community, this community, justly,

just as they were to treat it. The same standards

applied to them. The opposite seems to be the reality

in Christ's days. And in Mark 12, 40, Jesus denounced

the scribes who devour sin.

Widows' houses.

So that also is part of the truth that the

Jewish society faced during Christ's time.

A female in.

Jewish society did not inherit anything according to Jewish law.

Under Jewish law, only males inherited property, so the widow

did not inherit any property when.

Her husband died.

Scholars are sure that in this case, the widow's husband

mortgaged what property he had and the assets that he

had and died suddenly. And following his death, his creditors

would have come and snatched the property and all other

assets to satisfy the loan, leaving the widow with nothing.

In a highly patriarchal society, without sons or surviving male relatives,

a widow lacked legal representation, making her vulnerable to financial exploitation,

especially when it came to property disputes. What was the

widow to do in a case like hers where she

had absolutely nothing to claim and was looking for what

was truly hers? Here are some of the options that

were left for her during this time. There are five

options that she had Neither.

One of them very good.

The first was to see if she could get married

again and have her husband provide for her. That was

not always possible, especially for a widow. Trying to get

a family or relative to take you in. Now, this

was a time when a lot of people lived in poverty.

One more member of the family meant one more mouth

to feed and could put a huge burden on the families.

depend on gleaning or charity, like Ruth did when she

didn't have enough food to eat. Farmers and agricultural people

were told that they were never to harvest everything completely.

You had to leave a portion for the poor so

that they could collect that and feed themselves. There was

also charity, and if you could get some charity, well

and good. If you couldn't, then it would really be hard.

The temple took up a special tithe for the poor people,

and that didn't work as well as it should, like

many of the laws that were instituted by Christ for

the betterment of the Jewish society. And finally, the last

option that she had was to use a marriage dowry

that was hers according to the marriage contract. Now the

only thing that she could claim as her own that

had some value was the wedding dowry. Every Jewish bride

at the time she got married signed a contract which

included her wedding dowry. And what this contract did was

it stipulated the responsibilities of the husband, and more importantly,

it stipulated what the wife would receive in the event

of divorce or death. And that usually included a fixed

sum of money in the event that the husband died. Now,

in a previous parable in the Bible, in Luke 15,

the lady who lost that one coin, scholars feel that

the 10 coins that she received was her marriage contract

called a ketubah. That was in the contract that she

would get So she had it with her and she

lost one of these coins and in anguish, she turned

the house upside down to find this one coin. And

when she found it, she called her friends and neighbors

and rejoiced with me because I found the lost coin.

Because it was important for her to keep her dowry together.

And sometimes the husband would take this dowry and use

it and then replace it. And I know that happens

in marriages today and sometimes the replacement is not as

fast as it should be, but that's how families get

along and that's how they did in those days. But

this was hers and scholars think that even though she

lost all the property and all the property was taken,

her marriage contract ensured that she would get what was

stipulated in the marriage contract so she could survive in society.

But we find that the unjust judge, even though he

knew that this was the case, did not give her

justice till she kept coming and coming and coming to

him and finally he decided. Now this was a very

important feature of society And the rabbis made sure that

the marriage contract was not only signed but also enforced.

Because without this, widows were left without anything. So this

was much needed because divorce was frequent and it was

used very frequently also. A husband could literally divorce a

wife for no reason at all. And all he had

to do was say to his wife or write on

a note and give it to her or leave it

for her saying you don't please me anymore.

And that was it.

That was understood to be a divorce and the wife

would have to get along and manage with life and

he would then of course remarry or do whatever pleased him.

And Christ talked about this and he said that divorce

cannot be just for any reason, it has to specifically

be for biblical reasons, but we find that in society

that was not enforced and it created a lot of

hardship for the widows. Now, the widow was probably going

to the judge to get justice because of her marriage contract.

She knew that the marriage contract stipulated that there was

some money that was due her and she went to

him and kept asking the judge to grant her justice.

So the persistence of the widow was also a factor

in getting justice because if she didn't persist, the judge

on his own probably would not have taken any initiative

to bring justice in his case. Now the translation in

our scripture today of saying that she came to the

judge is not accurately translated. The translators, the King James

Bible translators did.

Not choose the best Greek word for this.

The sense that we have from reading the parable today

is that she came to the judge and that's it.

You know, she talked to the judge and he said

no and she went back and nothing more happened. The

right Greek parable chooses the parable which says she.

Came and kept on coming. She was relentless.

She was persistent and she kept on coming and that

is what changed the mind of the judge where he says, listen,

this woman is going to weary me.

She's going to make.

My life miserable because she comes so often, I see

her so often, if I don't give her justice, she's

going to wear me out. So that's the reason, that

was the wrong reason, but at least that was the

reason for the widow to get her justice. This is

one of the qualities that we are going to need

in the last days. You and I have to be relentless.

We have to be like the persistent widow. We need

to keep on coming and coming. And that's the way

we are going to get around what is needed in

the last days. And Christ's suggestion is what better way

to practice this than with our prayers. Be persistent in

our prayers. The third character in the parable is the adversary.

Now this is an easy one. If you go to

1 Peter 5, 9, it says, be sober, be vigilant,

because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion,

seeking who he may devour. Satan is the great adversary.

He is the accuser of our brethren, who accuses them

before God day and night. Revelation 12, 10. Now, here

is something that I think adds to our understanding of

this parable from Christ Object Lessons, page 166. He is

continually working to misrepresent, he being Satan. Satan is continually

working to misrepresent and accuse to deceive and destroy the

people of God. And it is for this deliverance from

the power of Satan and his agents that in this parable,

Christ teaches his disciples, you and me, to pray. So

this is a very good reason for us to have

persistent prayer because it keeps the accuser away from us.

The work of Satan as an accuser began in heaven.

And this has been his work ever since man's fall,

and it will be his work in a special sense

as we approach nearer to the close of world's history.

As he sees that his time is short, he will

work with greater earnestness to deceive and to destroy. Here's

a quote that's worth remembering. He is angry when he

sees the people on earth who even in their weakness

and sinfulness have respect for the law of Jehovah. He

is determined that they shall not obey God. He delights

in their unworthiness and has devices prepared for every soul

that they may be ensnared and separated from God. He

seeks to accuse and condemn God and all who strive

to carry out his purposes in this world in mercy

and love, in compassion and forgiveness. Now there's another character

or group that needs to be identified in this parable.

Now this is not a person.

But a group and it's known as the elect. And

this word is used in Luke 18 and it's also

used in other parts of the Bible talking about the

people that are going to live, the elect. Simply understood

the elect are the people that are going to be

living at different times that in church history where calamities

took place and God saved his people from these calamities.

Now we find the the use of word elect used

in Matthew 24, 22, and this refers to God's faithful

believers and true followers according to some distinct periods in

church history. Now the early Christian church, words that were

used to them and counsel that was given them for

the elect at this time, this was the early Jewish

and Gentile Christians living in Jerusalem who heeded Christ's warnings

And Christ's warning at that time was to leave Jerusalem.

When you see.

The armies of Rome who were going to be surrounding

the city, you were to leave the city. Now imagine

the plight of the Christians who at this time were

watching what was happening and they saw Rome surrounded. So

if you were a Christian and Christ's counsel was to

leave Jerusalem, How would you leave Jerusalem if the armies

of Rome were surrounding the city?

Do you take Christ's.

Words literally or do you find your own solution? Because

how am I going to escape? Because I leave the city,

the soldiers are surrounded that and they're going to stop

me and deal with me. So it must have been

a dilemma for the Christians. Should I trust Christ's counsel? Fortunately,

Christians followed Christ's counsel to them to leave the city.

And we find that through divine intervention, the armies of

Rome withdrew from the city of Jerusalem.

And all of.

The Christians at that time escaped. And great controversy tells

us that not one Christian lost their lives During that

period when the Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem and thousands of

people lost their lives, not one Christian did. Now the

same application comes to our day. We are going to

have a difficult period when we read the parables and

what Christ counseled to us.

But do we.

Follow his words and obey them literally or do we

think that Christ was speaking in parables and do something else?

Only when we follow Christ's words and follow his counsel

are we going to succeed and make it through the

difficult times that we are in.

So that is where the elect are.

So that's the first example of where the elect is used.

Then in the Middle Ages, the elect refers to the

believers in that period of time. There was great tribulation

with what happened during the Middle Ages. that period of

1260 years when there was severe persecution for all the

followers of Christ. And during that time also, we find

that God shortened the days of active persecution so the

people could survive that period.

And then the end time remnant, this is us.

This is when the elect also is here. And here,

Ellen White identifies the elect as the end-time people of

God who remain loyal to him during the final time

of trouble. For their sakes, God is going to cut

short the final period of severe trial so his faithful

remnant church would endure and be delivered for the second coming.

Now that we've had the major characters identified in the parable,

let us spend a few minutes identifying who they represent

and how it relates to us. Now, the first one,

the first character in the parable is the unjust judge. Now,

it surprises people that in the parable, the unjust judge

is compared to God, the Father, who is the righteous judge.

Now, you may say, How can that be true?

The unjust judge broke all the laws of God and man,

and how can that represent God?

God does not do that.

It doesn't represent God directly, but by contrast. And the

parable makes this contrast. What Jesus is saying that if

an unjust judge will answer the pleas of a widow

to get her off his back, how much more will

God answer the pleas of his people because he loves them?

So this is how God is compared to the unjust

judge in that way, that he is always ready to listen.

So it is by comparison of the judge and God.

They both answer the cries of the people, but for

different reasons.

And that is where the difference is. Okay?

Okay? So the second one, the persistent widow, represents.

The end time church. Now in the Bible, what does

a righteous woman represent? Anyone?

A righteous woman represents God's remnant church. What does an

unrighteous woman represent? An unrighteous woman represents God's, I mean,

the unrighteous church.

Okay? That claims to be God's church, but it's not

God's church. Okay? And a widow, what does a widow represent?

A widow represents God's church that is devoid of anything

of value. They have nothing that they can cling to

except Jesus Christ. So we are devoid of all earthly goods, property.

Our churches are going to be taken. Our houses are

going to be taken. Our automobiles are going to be taken.

Your bank accounts are gone.

What do you have left?

How are you going to make it? But that is

what is needed, a faith and a persistence that is

needed like the persistent widow to get through the time

of trouble that is coming for us. And we'll talk

a little more about that in a few minutes. But

if the church relies completely on God and continues to

depend on him, then we will make it.

With his help.

The adversary is Satan, as we said before. And he

accuses us day and night in the heavenly courts. But

Jesus is present on our behalf, making intercession from us.

And Christ reminds the heavenly courts that he has paid

the price for his people. And everyone is precious to him,

and he is going.

To claim them.

So while the accuser of our brethren is there presenting

the heavenly court with wisdom that we don't matter, we

are unclean, we don't follow, we don't have persistent prayer

of life, we do all of these things, how can

we be saved? We are so like on Christ that

it's impossible for the heavenly court to give us.

That justice that we deserve. or that we ask for.

And Christ is right there providing intercession, saying, my salvation

or my death covered everybody's need. So that has paid

the price in full, once and for all, and there's

nothing more that needs to be done. And that is

what changes the judgment in our favor. Now the elect,

this applies to people who go through difficult periods. And

the elect go through a very difficult time.

We all know this.

And the reason why they go through this difficult time

is something that should be kept in mind. And from

Christ Object Lessons, I want to read this quotation from

page 175.

The Lord permits trials.

In order that we may be cleansed from earthliness, from selfishness,

from harsh, un-Christ-like traits of character. Now, somebody may say

to me, listen, these are the people who are living

during the time of trouble. They have already been declared

as just through probation closed. Why do they need to

go through this time of trouble? But in the Bible,

we find that even though justice was served, God's people

had to go. Individuals who represent God's people went through trials.

Think of Jacob. Think of Daniel. Think of Joseph. Think

of Job. All of these people. There's many, many examples.

All of these people.

And it is to take away To be cleansed from earthliness.

What's the present day word for earthliness?

Secular? Okay. That's a good word. Anybody else? How about worldliness? Earthliness? Worldliness.

That's a term we use. And remember that we are

the church of Laodicea. And what is our problem?

Excuse me. What is our problem?

We are wishy-washy, lackadaisical. We are compromising people. We can't

make up our minds. We're neither here nor there.

You're lukewarm.

And Christ wants to spit us out because of the

lukewarm water that we represent. So we need to be

people who do not compromise. We should be uncompromising purely

with Christ. And this is what happens to the people

who have to go through the time of trouble. You know,

the close of probation. At the close of probation, we

find that the investigative judgment has finished in heaven and

all human cases are decided. The righteous receive the seal

of God while the unrighteous remain unpardonable. Mercy comes to

an end and God's restraining spirit is withdrawn from the impenitent. Now,

we also have the plagues that fall, but they don't

fall on the people who are purely the elect, who

are considered the elect in God's name. But they go

through a difficult time thinking that they have, and part

of the reason for the difficult time, the time of

trial that takes God's people through is to get rid

of these earthliness, the final polishing that needs to take place.

There are still some rough edges, and that has to

be done during this time, and it's a very difficult time.

And the Bible tells us that if this difficult time

is not cut short, nobody would survive. And so thank

God that he's going to bring this time of trouble

to a quick end. And then we find that that

is going to help each one of us go through

what is known as the time of Jacob's trouble. And

if you just briefly think about Jacob's trouble and what

happened to him, you may recall that he deceived his brother,

his older brother, and his father, and he had to

flee for his life from his home and go to

his relative's home, and he went to the home of Laban.

And then after 20 years, God told him that he

should come back.

Now, did God forgive Jacob? Yes, he did.

When did he forgive Jacob? When Jacob was fleeing the

first night, he spent under the stars with a rock

for his pillow. And he had the dream about the

ladder and angels going up and down. And at that time,

God told him that he was.

forgiven.

And he could put that burden off of his mind.

But Jacob, when he was coming back 20 years after spending,

working for Laban, when he was coming again to the

place where God told him to go, he thought he

wasn't forgiven and he was in agony. And when he

heard that Esau was coming, he literally became weak and

couldn't function because he thought that Esau who we're told

had 400 soldiers with him, was coming to meet him,

and Jacob was sure that he was coming to put

an end to him for what Jacob had done 20

years earlier. And so he went to this time of

agony known as Jacob's trouble, which you and I will

have to go when we go through the time of trouble.

But we find that God, he had an intervention with God.

He wrestled wrestled all night with someone who he didn't

realize and finally towards the end he realized that he

wrestled with God and his name was changed at.

That time from Jacob to Israel.

So that is what our experience of going through the trouble,

time of trouble is going to be.

Now some people Maybe this should be a.

Message of comfort to each one of us that's going

to go through this time of trouble and what we

need to do to engage in persistent prayer and rely

completely on God. This is taken from Christ Object Lessons,

page 174, slide number 7, and it says, God hears

the cry of the weakest human being. We pour our

heart's desire in our closets. Now remember, Christ told us

that when we pray, to go into our closet, secret prayer.

There is a place for secret prayer in our lives.

There is nothing wrong with praying in our closets. Prayer

which nobody else knows.

And that is....

That prayer is prayed persistently, it will have results. We

pour out our heart's desire in our closets. We breathe

a prayer as we walk by the way. And our

words reach the throne of the monarch of the universe,

God the Father. They may be inaudible to any human ear,

but they cannot die away in silence, nor can they

be lost through the activities or business that are going on.

Nothing can drown the soul's desire. It rises above the

din of the street, above the confusion of the multitude,

to the heavenly courts. It is God to whom we

are speaking, and our prayer is heard.

What do you say, church? Amen.

We are not left without any help. We are left

with the best help. And this should come as comfort

to each one of us. And this should encourage us

to include persistent prayers in our prayer life. Some people

claim that they are engaged in persistent prayer without obtaining

the results that they think they're due. And I think

all of us have met people who said, listen, I

know about persistent prayer.

I know about the widow.

I have engaged in this prayer and God has not

heard me. Let me comfort you with the words from

page 175 of.

Christ Object Lessons.

There is no danger that the Lord will neglect the

prayers of his people.

No danger.

The danger is is that in temptation and in trial,

we become discouraged and fail to persevere in prayer. That

is an answer. There are many people who think that

they prayed long enough. And I want to give you

an example of what persistent prayer involves and how the

length of time we pray doesn't matter. It's the earnestness

with which we pray. In closing, I want to give

you an example from the life of George Mueller. I

don't know if you've heard of George Mueller, but he

stands out in modern times as a fine example for

persistent prayer, like the widow prayed in our day, and

his example is worth emulating. Now, George Mueller was a

Prussian-born evangelist who opened orphanages in Bristol, England, and he

was renowned for relying entirely on God to supply all

his personal and ministry needs. Throughout his lifetime, he cared

for more than 10,000 orphans and raised millions of dollars

to care for them.

Yet he made it.

A strict rule never to ask human beings for money

or publish his financial needs, turning instead to persistent prayer

for all his needs. And let me give you one

example of persistent prayer that he prayed.

One persistent prayer that he prayed, he prayed for 52 years.

How many years?

52 years for five friends.

This was his plea.

He wanted them converted. And so these five friends, he

continued praying for 52 years.

He was persistent. So he began this.

In November 1844, and he prayed daily for the conversion

of these five. Eighteen months later, his first friend was converted.

He accepted Christ. Five years later, the second friend was converted.

Six years later, the third friend was converted and came

to the faith. For the final two men, Mueller prayed

every single day without failing for 52 years. When asked

towards the end of his life if he thought they

would ever be saved, he stated confidently, they are not

converted yet, but they will be.

How can it be otherwise?

The fourth man was converted shortly before Mueller died. The

fifth man, the final friend on his prayer list, was

brought to Christ.

A few months after Mueller's funeral.

Church, are you ready to begin in your own prayer

life the persistent prayer that you and I need.

That Christ gave this parable for?

And then he said that we need to not only

pray but we need to keep our faith.

And in the end of the parable, closing part of

the parable.

He says, when the Son of Man comes, will he

find a faithful people for him? I hope you and I,

with our families, with our kids, and all our loved ones,

will be among that group that will welcome Christ home.

Thank you.