Three Aspects of Prayer, Luke 18.1-8

The Three Aspects of Prayer

Our prayer has these three aspects: (1) we ourselves, (2) the God to whom we pray, and (3) our enemy, Satan.

The Parable of Luke 18

In the parable recorded in Luke 18.1-8 our Lord Jesus touches upon all three features in prayer of which we have been speaking. In this connection, please note that we find three persons mentioned in the parable, namely: (1) the judge, (2) the widow, and (3) the adversary. The judge (in a negative way) represents God, the widow is representative of the church today or individual faithful Christians, while the adversary stands for our enemy the devil. When we explain this parable we frequently pay attention only to the relation between the judge and the widow. We note how this judge, who neither fears God nor regards men, finally avenges the widow because of her incessant coming; and, we conclude, since our God is not at all virtueless as is this judge, will He not surely avenge us speedily if we pray? Now this is about all that we explain from this parable.

Yet too many of us are unaware of the fact that we are neglecting another important person in the parable. Let us see that if there is no adversary, would this widow find it necessary to go to the judge? Yet she is driven to seek out the judge because she is oppressed by the adversary. Especially when we consider the words which this widow says to the judge, we cannot fail to recognize the place the adversary has in the story. For the sake of brevity the Scripture merely records these few words: "Avenge me of mine adversary"—yet how very much is contained in such a short sentence! Does it not tell of a most agonizing situation? Asking for vengeance reveals that there are wrongs. Where do such wrongs and grievances come from? None other than from the oppression of the defendant—the adversary: and thus is uncovered the deep enmity which exists between him and the widow. It also tells of the severe harassment this widow has suffered at the hands of the adversary. What she complains of before the judge must undoubtedly be a rehearsal of her past experiences and of her current situation. What she asks for is that the judge may avenge her the wrongs done to her by bringing the adversary to justice.

In one sense this adversary is the central figure of the parable. Without him there would be no disturbance created under the judicial rule of the judge; nor, of course, would the widow be troubled—she could quite easily live in peace. Unquestionably, without the adversary there would be no story nor parable, for the one who stirs up all the troubles is this adversary: he is the instigator of all confusions and afflictions. And hence he ought to be the focus of our attention as we now take up the three characters in the parable one by one.

The Judge

This judge is the only authority in a certain city. He governs it entirely. In a sense this is a picture of the power and authority of God. Even though at present Satan temporarily rules over the world, he is but a usurper who has occupied it by force. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross He already cast out the prince of this world. In His death He "despoiled the principalities and the powers . . . [and] made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col. 2.15). Although the world still lies under the evil one, it is totally illegal. And God has appointed a day when the kingdom shall be retaken and His Son shall be king over this world for a thousand years, and onward, then, to eternity. Yet before that time arrives God only permits Satan to remain active, while He himself holds the reins of government of this world. Satan may rule over all that belongs to Satan himself, he may even persecute all that belongs to God; nonetheless all of this is but for awhile. And even in this short while, Satan is entirely restricted by God. He may harass the saints but only within certain limits. Aside from what God permits, the enemy has no authority whatsoever. This we can perceive clearly in the story of Job. Just as this judge rules an entire city, so God rules over the entire world. And just as it is highly irregular for people under the rule of a judge to harass others and thus to become adversaries, so it is most extraordinary, even monstrous, for Satan who is under the rule of God to persecute the saints.

The character of this judge is told us in his own words: "I fear not God, nor regard man." What kind of immoral person he truly must be, neither having regard for God nor man. Yet due to the incessant coming of the widow and asking for vengeance, he is so troubled and worn out by her pleas that he finally avenges her. The Lord Jesus employs this judge in negative terms to underscore the goodness of God: for God is not like the virtueless judge in the parable: on the contrary, He is our gracious Father and He protects us: how He always loves to give us the best of things: and He is not unrelated to us as is the judge with the widow. Now, therefore, if such a judge as this one in the parable is willing to avenge the widow because of her incessant pleading, how much more will God who is so virtuous, so kind, and so intimately related to us avenge His children who pray to Him unceasingly? If an immoral judge will avenge a woman for her continuous cry, will not God at least work because of His own people? The reason why the widow finally obtains the judge’s consent to avenge her is to be found in her incessant asking. She can pin no hope in the judge himself, knowing how immoral and virtueless he is. Yet we must recognize that the answer to our prayer to God not only comes because of our praying unceasingly—which in itself should be sufficient for us to obtain what we ask for—but also because of the goodness of God. That is why the Lord Jesus concludes the parable by asking: "Shall not God avenge his elect?" These three words, "shall not God", imply a comparison. Inasmuch as the widow depends solely on her incessant asking as the means of getting what she asks for, shall we not receive that which we ask for because of our constant prayer to God and because of His goodness?

The Widow

This widow has no one on whom to rely. The very word "widow" sufficiently betrays the fact of her isolation. The husband on whom she always depended for her living is dead. She is now a widow. She truly serves as a good type for us Christians in the world. Our Lord Jesus has already ascended to heaven; so that speaking simply from the viewpoint of the physical, Christians are as without reliance as any widow. The teaching of Matthew 5 unveils the painful conditions of us Christians. We are to be the meekest of all, who offer no resistance of any kind; and hence, we suffer persecution and humiliation everywhere. The Lord Jesus and His apostles never instruct the believers to seek for power and position in this world; instead, they teach us to be humble and lowly by accepting the spite and harassment of this world and by refusing to claim anything according to right or law. Such is the position of the Christians and the path which our Lord himself has set for us. Inasmuch as the Son of God must die on the cross without any resistance or murmur, can His disciples ever expect a better treatment from the world? In view of all this, the widow here is indeed a good illustration of us Christians in this age.

The Adversary

Now even as the widow has her adversary, so we Christians have ours too. And our adversary is Satan. For the very meaning of the word "Satan" is "adversary", which signifies an enemy: "your adversary the devil" (1 Peter 5.8). We should therefore clearly recognize who is our enemy. Then we shall know how to approach our judge who is our God and accuse our enemy. If we wish to examine the root reason for the enmity existing between us and the devil we shall find that a long history lies behind it. To put it simply, this enmity began in the garden of Eden. After the fall of man, God said: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. 3.15). Inasmuch as the devil hurt us human beings, God has placed enmity in our hearts as well as in Satan’s heart.

We know that the seed of the woman mentioned here in Genesis has reference to the Lord Jesus Christ: He and the devil are eternally at enmity. And this is something appointed by God himself. We who believe in the Lord Jesus stand on the Lord’s side; accordingly, we cannot but reckon the Lord’s enemy to be our enemy. Likewise, Satan the enemy of our Lord will not pass us lightly by and not oppose us. He considers the Lord Jesus to be his enemy, so that he is constrained to look upon the disciples of the Lord as his enemies also. But those who have not believed in the Lord Jesus are the devil’s children (see John 8.44), and naturally the devil loves his own. Yet we have believed in, and are united with, the Lord Jesus; therefore, we will incur the devil’s hatred for the sake of his hate towards our Lord.

Such enmity deepens day by day. Since the enemy is so strong and we are so poor and desolate as is the widow, he uses all his powers to oppress us—causing us great loss. So much have we suffered at his hands that we cannot stress too strongly how Christians today are wronged by the devil. And if these wrongs are not avenged, we will suffer loss forever. What a pity that many of God’s children are still unaware of the oppression of Satan.

Satan and the Saints

As the adversary evilly treated the widow, so the devil today evilly treats us believers. Who knows how much we have suffered at his hands? Of course, when he persecutes us he neither manifests his own self nor acts directly. All his works are done through people or things. He is not intent upon showing forth himself; on the contrary, he instigates people of the world to act for him while he himself directs in secret. As the devil took upon himself a cover in the form of a serpent at his first working, so he will seek a cover each time he operates today. Owing to his concealment, God’s children are often mistaken in recognizing their real enemy.

Sometimes he weakens believers’ bodies, causing sickness and pain (see Acts 10.38); yet the believers may regard their conditions in terms only of hygiene or fatigue, without realizing that the devil is at work behind the scenes. In this one respect alone, oh how greatly do the Christians suffer at his hands!

Sometimes the enemy incites people of this world to persecute believers (see Rev. 2.10), who are therefore attacked by their communities, friends, and family members. Yet they think this is due to people’s hatred towards the Lord; what they do not perceive is that the devil actually instigates the assaults. Sometimes the evil one works in the environment, involving believers in hardships and dangers. Frequently he will create misunderstanding among Christians so as to separate the dearest of friends and cause much heartbreak and tears.

Sometimes the enemy cuts off believers’ material supplies, reducing them to wants and even to starvation. At still other times he oppresses their spirit and makes them feel depressed, restless and aimless. Or he may afflict the will of believers, causing them to lose the power of free choice and thus not be able to know what to do. Or he injects irrational fear into believers’ hearts. Or Satan heaps things upon them to overtire them, or else takes away sleep from them to wear them out. Or he injects unclean or confused thoughts into their mind to weaken their resistance or else fashions himself into an angel of light to deceive and to lead the believers astray.

It is just impossible to exhaust the list of all the works the devil does. In short, the enemy will do anything which can cause believers to suffer either spiritually or physically, to fall into sins, or to incur loss or damage. Unfortunately, many of God’s children are unaware of the works of Satan when they suffer at his hands. Whatever happens they attribute to the natural, the accidental, and the human—not discerning how in many natural occurrences there abides the satanically supernatural, how in many accidental episodes there hides the devilish plotting, and how in many human dealings there is involved the wicked maneuvers of the enemy.