Luke 18:1-3 says, “And He told them a parable with the purpose that they ought always to pray and not lose heart, saying, There was a certain judge in a certain city who did not fear God and did not respect man. And there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, Avenge me of my opponent.” 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.
In verse 3 the widow asked the judge to avenge her of her opponent. The Greek word rendered “avenge” may also be translated “procure justice for.”
In this parable the Lord indicates that the believers in Christ have an opponent. This opponent is Satan, the Devil, concerning whom we need God’s avenging. We ought to pray persistently for this avenging (see Rev. 6:9-10) and not lose heart.
According to verse 4, the judge for a time would not avenge the widow of her opponent. Then he said within himself, “Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow causes me trouble, I will avenge her, lest by continually coming she wears me out” (vv. 4-5). Following this, the Lord went on to say, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says; and God, shall He not by all means carry out the avenging of His chosen ones, who cry to Him day and night; and yet He is longsuffering over them? I tell you that He will carry out their avenging quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (vv. 6-8). The Lord’s word in verse 8 indicates that God’s avenging of our enemy will be at the Savior’s coming back.
Literally, the Greek words rendered “faith” mean “the faith.” This denotes the persistent faith for our persistent prayer, like that of the widow. Hence, the faith here is the subjective faith, not the objective faith.
We need to consider the parable in 18:1-8 in the context of the lengthy record of the Lord’s journey from Galilee to Jerusalem (9:51—19:27). During the course of His teaching given on this journey, the Lord covers many aspects of matters related to the jubilee, to the kingdom of God, and to Himself as our enjoyment. He speaks regarding His death, His resurrection, God’s salvation, the coming reward, the kingdom age, the evil generation, and the condition of the Pharisees. All these matters are related either directly or indirectly to the kingdom of God and to the enjoyment of Christ.
Today’s evil generation can distract us from the enjoyment of Christ. This generation seeks to stupefy us, to drug us, so that we have no sense about what is happening. The entire world has become stupefied, and, having been drugged, the worldly people have no sense, no consciousness, of the fact that they have been carried away from the enjoyable Triune God.
The Triune God is for man’s enjoyment. Nevertheless, the fallen human race has no concept of this whatever; it has no sense concerning it at all. The people of the world are busy with marrying and giving in marriage, with buying and selling, with planting and building (17:27-28). They have no thought concerning God being their enjoyment, for they all have been drugged, stupefied. Therefore, in His long journey from Galilee to Jerusalem the Lord touched this matter a few times. For example, in chapter fourteen He told His disciples that they must hate the things of this generation. They even need to hate their own soul life, for they should hate anything that distracts them from the enjoyment of Christ. In chapter seventeen the Lord comes to this point again when He speaks about the stupefied generation, which keeps God’s people away from their enjoyment of the divine inheritance. Before He touches this matter again in chapter eighteen, He unveils to us something else that concerns our enjoyment of the jubilee, and this is the persecution that comes from our opponent.
We need to realize that as God’s people in this stupefied and stupefying generation we are like a widow. In a sense, our Husband, the Lord, is absent. Furthermore, we have an opponent who is constantly persecuting us.
Before the Lord Jesus went to the cross to accomplish His all-inclusive redemption, He opened the veils from many directions to show His followers things that are related directly and indirectly to their enjoyment of Him as their jubilee. They needed to realize that the most distracting thing is this present generation with all its components. The components of the evil generation stupefy the worldly people.
The Lord also reveals to His disciples that while we are seeking Him, we need to hate any thing and any matter that frustrate us from our enjoyment of Him. Furthermore, as we are enjoying Him, we shall suffer persecution. This persecution comes from our opponent, the one who is the enemy of God and who has become our enemy because we take sides with God.
The parable in 18:1-8 indicates the suffering we have from our opponent during the Lord’s apparent absence. Actually, the Lord is not absent; He is present. But during His apparent absence, we are a widow whose opposer is troubling her all the time.