In the parable concerning persisting prayer in Luke 18:1-8 the unrighteous judge refers to the righteous God (vv. 6-7). The “widow” in verse 3 signifies the believers. In a sense, the believers in Christ are a widow in the present age because their husband Christ (2 Cor. 11:2) is absent from them. The believers in Christ also have an opponent, Satan the Devil, concerning whom we need God’s avenging. We ought to pray persistently for this avenging and not lose heart. Verse 8 indicates that God’s avenging of our enemy will be at the Savior’s coming back (2 Thes. 2:6-9).
This parable indicates the suffering we have from our opponent during the Lord’s apparent absence. During His apparent absence, we are a widow and our opposer is troubling us all the time. While our opposer is persecuting us, it seems that our God is not righteous, for He allows His children to be unrighteously persecuted. For example, John the Baptist was beheaded, Peter was martyred, Paul was imprisoned, and John was exiled. Throughout the centuries thousands upon thousands of faithful followers of the Lord Jesus have suffered unrighteous persecution. Even today we are still undergoing unrighteous mistreatment. Our God seems to be unrighteous, since He does not come in to judge and vindicate. When our Husband is apparently absent and we are left on earth as a widow, temporarily our God seems to be an unrighteous judge. Although He appears to be unrighteous, we still must appeal to Him, pray persistently, and bother Him again and again.
On the one hand, this parable indicates that the Judge is sovereign. This means that whether or not He judges is up to Him. Seemingly without reason, He may either listen to the widow or not listen to her. This parable reveals that God is the sovereign Lord and that He judges whenever He chooses. On the other hand, this parable indicates that we need to bother the Lord by praying persistently. The significance of this parable is profound. We all need to know God as He is revealed here.
This item and the next two are all figures in the book of Revelation to portray what God is. In the book of Revelation God makes His revelation known to us “by signs” (Rev. 1:1), that is, by symbols with spiritual significance. John received a revelation so divine, mysterious, and profound in many respects that no human words can explain them adequately. Thus they are made known by signs. Revelation 4:2 and 3 say, “There was a throne set in heaven, and One sitting upon the throne, and He who was sitting was like in appearance to a jasper stone and a sardius.” According to Revelation 21:11, jasper is “a most precious stone...clear as crystal.” Its color must be dark green, which signifies life in its richness. Jasper here, as Revelation 21:11 indicates, signifies God’s communicable glory in His rich life (John 17:22, 2). It is the appearance of God, which will also be the appearance of the holy city, New Jerusalem. The city’s wall and its first foundation are built with it (Rev. 21:18-19).
Sardius is a most precious stone in the color of red, which signifies redemption. Whereas jasper indicates God as the God of glory in His rich life, sardius signifies God as the God of redemption. On the breastplate of the high priest in the Old Testament, the first stone was sardius and the last jasper (Exo. 28:17, 20). This signifies that God’s redeemed people have their beginning in God’s redemption and their consummation in God’s glorious appearance in life.
Revelation 21:22 indicates that God is the temple in the New Jerusalem: “And I saw no temple in it, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.” The Greek word for temple in this verse, naos, does not denote the whole temple in a common way including the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place. Rather, it denotes the inner temple, the Holy of Holies. This inner temple is the Lord God, signifying that God will be the place in which we, His redeemed, dwell and serve Him. In the New Jerusalem we shall dwell in God. God Himself will be the dwelling place of all His serving ones.
In Revelation 21:23 we see that God is the light in the New Jerusalem: “And the city has no need of the sun nor of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” The temple of the city is God Himself, and the light is also God Himself. The Lamb as the lamp shines with God as the light to illumine the city with the glory of God, the expression of the divine light. Because this divine light will illumine the holy city, there will not be the need of natural light or man-made light. God Himself will be the light in the holy city.
In these messages we have considered many aspects of God’s person. We may have exhausted the New Testament in this matter. As we consider all the aspects of God’s person, we can see what kind of God is dispensing Himself into us.
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