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This week we conclude our study of Luke chapter 17 and commence Chapter 18. Please read verses 17:25-37 and 18:1-8 every day this week and, if possible, use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
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Luke 18:6-8 (NLT)
‘Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”’
These few verses provide an ‘application’ to the teaching that Jesus brought in the earlier verses. Over the years, many of us have majored in trying to bring sound teaching and solid doctrine to those in the congregation. All of this is of course commendable and I’m not for one second advocating teaching anything other than solid, biblical exposition. However, my point is that there has not been much room or perhaps even little encouragement given to how we are to ‘apply’ the teaching. The result of course is that we have people who are well versed and equally well learned in the Scripture but whose lives are mainly untouched by the truth of His Word. Jesus exhorts us in these verses ‘to learn a lesson’. That means that we have to use what we know to change our behaviour. Here’s another analogy: A car is equipped with a steering wheel. It is meant to be turned which then changes the direction that the car is heading. God’s Word can be likened to the steering wheel. We have to grip it with both hands and ‘use’ it. Our lives then are changed as we apply His Word.
So what is the application of the teaching in these verses? Referring back to yesterday, we saw that the parable was told in order to provide instruction in the area of prayer. Jesus firstly uses an illustration of an ‘unjust judge’ who provides the correct answer eventually, to highlight HOW MUCH MORE God is prepared to do for His people. He is not comparing Himself to that judge in a similar fashion. The comparison is only there to identify the difference between them. God and the unjust judge are in fact opposites!
The second point that could be missed here is that Jesus brings in the term ‘chosen people’. While Israel are God’s chosen nation, this word in the original language means ‘elect’ and refers to all Christians. Before the foundation of the world, according to His sovereign will, God has chosen you. You are who Jesus is talking about here. He is asking, perhaps even demanding that we as Christians persevere in our prayers and open up our hearts to Him continually day and night. He doesn’t want shopping list prayers just before we go to bed. He wants us to live a life of continual communication with Him. The promise that He has for us is that He will answer our prayers. Stand on that promise and use it in our prayers.
Lastly, the whole of the parable is about perseverance and this implies that there is a delay or long-suffering aspect to the answer to our prayers. Is there not a contradiction then when Jesus says ‘He will grant justice to them quickly’? Well, 2 Peter 3:9 says: ‘The Lord is not slow in fulfilling His promise, as some understand slowness, but is patient with you’. The implication is that once the proper time has arrived, God will act very quickly! A couple of years ago, the congregation of Oasis Community Church visited another church one Sunday. God gave us literally a word that morning. The word was ‘Suddenly’. While it is perfectly accurate to say that God had given the vision for the church a long time ago and that there has been a long period of time where He has been preparing us as a people, I can say with assurance that He has indeed done something remarkably quickly and we are seeing the fulfilment of the word ‘Suddenly’ every week. All Glory to God!
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