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WE NEED A PROPER VIEW OF GOD
Luke 18:1-8
We would be greatly mistaken if we thought that Jesus was teaching that God is like this self-centered, callous judge. That would run counter to the entire biblical revelation of the character of God as a loving and tender Father in relation to His children. Jesus uses this humorous example as an argument from the lesser to the greater, taken to absurd lengths. If this widow could get justice from this hardened, crusty, uncaring old judge, doesn’t it follow that the loving, tender, gracious Heavenly Father will hear and answer His own children whom He has chosen when they cry out to Him for relief? There are three things here that we need to know about God:
GOD CARES FOR US. “Just as a Father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him” (Ps. 103:13). “Zion has said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; …” (Isa. 49:14-16).
GOD NEVER DELAYS ANSWERS BECAUSE OF A LACK OF CARE OR A LACK OF POWER. Although even in this lifetime we may not understand the reasons why God delays to answer our cries of agony, we can know for certain that He never delays to answer because He does not care for us or because He is unable to do what we need. He is able to do far more than we can ask or even think, even if it seems impossible to us.
GOD’S DELAYS ARE ALWAYS FOR OUR GOOD, EVEN IF THE REASONS ARE HIDDEN FROM US. The reason for the delay with the widow was that the unjust judge was unwilling (18:4), but that is never the reason with our loving Father in heaven. The unjust judge was acting out of selfish motives all the way, even when he finally granted her request. But God always acts out of self-sacrificing love, as seen supremely in the cross of Christ.
We must understand it from God’s timetable, not ours. With the Lord, a thousand years are like a day or as a watch in the night. He told Noah that there would be a flood, but 100 years went by without a drop of rain while Noah endured his mocking neighbors. He promised Abraham a son, but he watched Sarah go through menopause and 25 years elapsed before Isaac was born. He promised Joseph in his teenage years through his dreams that his father and brothers would bow down to him, but he spent his twenties in an Egyptian dungeon. He promised to deliver His people from bondage in Egypt, but 400 long years went by before He raised up Moses, and that only after Moses spent 40 years in the desert after his failure. He promised to send His Messiah, but His people had to wait 400 years after the last prophet before, in the fulness of time, God sent His Son (Gal. 4:4). Speedily by God’s calendar is not speedily by ours! One answer to the problem of delayed answers to our prayers is to get a proper view of God.
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