The traditional Jewish expectation of the Messiah (מָשִׁיחַ) was that he would be a great king of the line of David who would overthrow Israel’s enemies and establish the Kingdom of God upon the earth. This expectation was founded upon various promises written in the Torah of Moses as well as various oracles of the Hebrew prophets. For example, in the scroll of Isaiah it is written: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder: and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isa. 9:6-7). On the face of it, this prophecy says that the Messiah would establish the Kingdom of David as an everlasting kingdom and that all the promises of Zion would be fulfilled: the Temple would be restored in Jerusalem; the exiles would be regathered; the world would experience peace and the knowledge of God would flow to the nations (for more on the Messianic expectation, see “As the Day draws Near“).
When Yeshua therefore proclaimed “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” the Torah scholars and religious leaders of Israel wondered what he meant. Didn’t Moses say that God would one day raise up someone “like him” who would spectacularly lead the people? (Deut. 18:15). Didn’t the prophets say that Messiah would restore Israel to greatness beyond that known in the days of King Solomon? Would he not restore the Holy Temple? Gather in the exiles? Is it not written of the day of Messiah: “God will be King over all the world; on that day, God will be one and His Name will be one” (Zech. 14:9)?
In light of this, it’s understandable that the Pharisees and religious leaders were confused. This shouldn’t scandalize us, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the prophets were regularly misunderstood and persecuted by the sages in Jewish history. Still, the sages missed the coming of Yeshua because there are two distinct pictures of Messiah given in the visions of the prophets. On the one hand, Messiah is portrayed as a great king, a deliverer, and a savior of the Jewish people who comes in triumph “in the clouds” (Dan. 7:13), but on the other he is depicted as riding a donkey, lowly and humble (Zech. 9:9), a suffering servant, born in lowliness, despised and rejected of men (Isa. 53). These two images of Messiah eventually lead to various oral traditions that there would be two Messiahs: “Messiah ben Joseph” (מָשִׁיחַ בֶּן־יוֹסֵף) and “Messiah ben David” (מָשִׁיחַ בֶּן־דָוִד).
When Yeshua said that the Kingdom of God was “at hand,” then, he clarified that this meant something more than the establishment of the kingdom of Zion on earth but further involved the sacrificial ministry of Messiah who would serve in a priestly function to atone for the sins of the people before the kingdom would be realized. This was alluded to in Torah itself with the offering of the Passover Lamb in Egypt as well as the need for blood sacrifices before the covenant was given to Israel at Sinai. In other words, just as Moses enacted the sacrifices before the establishment of the theocratic kingdom of Israel, so Yeshua would offer up himself as the LORD’s Suffering Servant to atone for the sins of his people and to establish the new covenant (Isa. 52:13-53:12; Jer. 31:31-34). “The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will people say ‘Here it is!” or ‘there it is!’ because the kingdom of God is to be within you” (Luke 17:20-21). The kingdom is a matter of the heart. The King was now present, at hand; and the LORD had prepared him a body to offer up so that his people would be made whole (Psalm 40:6-8; Heb. 10:5-9; Isa. 53:4-5).
After explaining this to the Pharisees, Yeshua then turned to his disciples and said: “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, `Look here!’ or `Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:22-37). The day of His coming will sudden, surprising, and utterly unmistakable. There will be no time then to prepare for the end. It will be a time of great and swift judgment upon humanity: “Where the dead body is, there the vultures will gather.”
This is an apocalyptic vision of the End of Days. Despite the redemption realized by God through Yeshua and the spread of the gospel message, evil will grow worse and worse until, like the days of Noah or the days of Lot, God will execute worldwide judgment and intervene to forcibly establish his kingdom upon the earth. Meanwhile, however, the disciples would have to “endure unto the end.” They are to be busy sharing the message of salvation and inviting others into the kingdom. They would suffer and undergo persecution; they would yearn for their deliverance and be tempted to despair of their hope.
In this context, then, Yeshua told a succinct parable to encourage them to always be praying and never to lose heart. He said: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, `Get justice for me from my adversary.’ For awhile he refused, but afterward he said within himself, `Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'” Then the Lord added: “Carefully consider what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find such faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).
Now there are a least two ways to understand this parable (and probably more). The most common way is to think that Yeshua is teaching the importance of perseverance in prayer. Indeed Luke introduces the parable by apparently giving us its point: “Then He spoke a parable to them, that people always ought to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). Yeshua then uses what is called “kal va’chomer” reasoning, (i.e., קַל וְחמר, “light and weighty”), namely, that if a light condition is true, then a heavier one is certainly true. If the helpless widow had no power other than her persistence as she appealed to the hardhearted judge, then how much more will God – who deeply loves and cares for his people – listen to their petitions for deliverance? Just as the powerless woman received her petition by refusing to give up her faith that the truth will finally prevail, so the disciples will receive their petitions by continuing to press on in faith. Yeshua then ends this short story by concluding: “Carefully consider what the unjust judge said: Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?” (Luke 18:7)
In other words Yeshua was teaching his followers by using contrast. Understood this way God is nothing like the unjust judge of the parable. He doesn’t need to be cajoled, pestered, or manipulated to intervene on our behalf. Those who know him – those chosen ones who cry out to him and hunger and thirst for his righteousness – may be confident that God hears their prayers and supervises their way. Amen.
There is another way to understand this parable (though I’ve never heard others teach it along these lines) which has a similar conclusion that we should persevere in prayer and not lose heart, but it understands, on the contrary, that though God may appear (or “disguise himself”) as an “unjust judge” regarding our plight, He nevertheless will eventually bring about justice and vindicate our suffering for both our ultimate good and for his ultimate glory.
This “nevertheless” doesn’t imply that God is in any way callous or indifferent to our troubles, of course, but rather believes that he will use our struggle to refine our character and to help us learn to endure. “In patience possess your souls” (Luke 21:19). After all, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are our ways his ways: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9). It’s not that God is unwilling to “hear our case” and to vindicate matters for us; it’s just that in our present state we could not understand such even if he did…
Moreover, if God were to immediately fulfill our every petition, how would we learn to trust in him? Wouldn’t we become stunted in our growth, as a young child would be who was doted upon and given everything he or she wanted? Moreover, would we not be presuming upon God’s grace by regarding him as our servant? A “genie” in a bottle? Would we not elevate ourselves above our Creator? God forbid. No, some things – perhaps the very best things – that God gives can only be received through suffering the perseverance of faith – the cry of the heart that will finally be vindicated.
Only God has the wisdom and power to turn evil into good, to turn “our mourning into dancing,” and to enable us to say in hindsight, as did Joseph to his brothers: “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). Some people think they can “teach a person a lesson” through retribution and revenge, but God is not like that at all: “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all his ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He” (Deut. 32:4).
Nevertheless God assuredly can “teach us a lesson,” even though we may not understand what he is doing or why he is doing it as we are being taught. The helpless widow was powerless and broken, yet God allowed her to walk through her ordeal to behold the vindication and beauty of the Lord. In the end she didn’t understand the “whys and wherefores,” but she received her consolation…
This secondary interpretation fits the overall context of the parable, since Yeshua told this short story in response to the Pharisees’ question about the timing and coming of the kingdom. They had assumed, as I mentioned above, that the Messiah would come to Israel as a great king to subdue God’s enemies and establish his righteousness. But Yeshua had not come with great power to establish the kingdom of David and restore Israel, and therefore they reasoned he could not be the Messiah. Like Moses and David, Yeshua came first as a Shepherd, then as a King. The rabbis of Yeshua’s day were not wrong to expect God to keep his promise to establish his kingdom on the earth, of course, but they “confounded the visions” of the Messiah, ignoring the role of the “Suffering Servant,” Mashiach ben Yosef, in preference of the regal glories that would come to Israel. They overlooked the need for the redemption of Israel’s sin and need for atonement that would be manifest at the cross of Yeshua. They failed to understand that after Messiah’s suffering as our saving Redeemer, the invitation would go out to enter the kingdom – first to Israel, and then to all the nations (Isa. 52:13-15). Then would come the time of “Messiah ben David,” when all Israel would be saved, the exiles regathered, and evil finally eradicated.
However – and this is of great practical application – until the great Day of the LORD comes and Yeshua will be recognized and honored as Israel’s true Messiah, evil will continue to flourish in the world, and therefore God’s chosen people will continue to know heartache and suffering. Yeshua’s parable, then, was meant to comfort those who were “enduring to the end.” God’s chosen cry out to him “day and night” awaiting the completion of their salvation – even with the full assurance that it will assuredly come (Rom. 8:23).
Yeshua’s question at the end of the vignette, namely, “but when the Son of Man appears, will he find faith in the earth?” therefore presents a challenge: Do you really believe? Will you continue to press on in faith despite the seeming indifference (or absence) of God as the Judge? Will you trust in God’s great plan to save the world – even if you can’t understand how it works or descry God’s hand? Or more personally, will you continue to trust in God’s plan for your life even if you do not understand why he allows suffering and trouble in your life? Will you hold on to faith that God secretly works “all things together” for your ultimate good and his glory? If so, the Lord encourages you to pray and never to give up. He is coming at just the right time. Your tears will be wiped away. Yours will be a glorious end!
Jer. 29:11 Hebrew page (pdf)