Situation Of The Widow

Listen again to what is brought to us from the parable which Jesus told of a persistent and determined widow.

Yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. Luke 18: 5

Bear ever in mind that even though we are using the word, widow, our all-inclusive meaning for our week’s receiving, embraces all who are widow-like in their experiences and dealings with the world. This is how Jesus introduces the parable.

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. Luke 18: 2b - 3

Jesus makes it clear that the widow is before a leader, an arbiter, a ruler, a judge, who has the supreme, given, earthly power to help her. He can give her what she so desperately needs right now. He has the power and authority to make her life free from the bondage, fears, torments and daily anxieties of her adversary. However, that judge is of the world, in that he does not fear God, and has no regard for others.

Immediately, our minds are thrown back to Pharaoh, a similar ruler. Moses and Aaron represent the widow, in that they have gone to Pharaoh who has the supreme, given, earthly power to help them. Just here, I see the Lordship of God in new and penetratingly dazzling light. Let’s veer away a bit to what Apostle Paul says about secular rulers. Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Romans 13: 1. 

Whatever Paul means, this I know, he gives God supreme Lordship of all. God is LORD! If by faith, through the Enabling Holy Spirit, we know, believe and accept Sovereign Jehovah, as LORD, then what we see is that His Lordship allows Him to send His own to those earthly rulers. Our Lord gave examples in several ways. He is Lord and Master of the law, but didn’t He pay the required lawful taxes? He is Lord of Healing, the Great Physician, but didn’t He send lepers to follow the lawful procedure of going to the religious leaders? What we are being made to comprehend of our Lord is this. He does not institute or allow something and then be unfaithful to it. If indeed God is Lord, and indeed He is, then in His Supreme, Divine Power and Authority, He sends His servants to Pharaoh to ask something of him.

Will your faith allow you to see these men of God before Pharaoh, not as bullies, demanding of this earthly ruler? Will faith let you view them in the spirit of humility, in God’s name, for Pharaoh to grant their now request? Whether we care to admit it or not, Pharaoh alone held the singular human power to grant the request of these humanly powerless men. The truth is that neither Moses, nor Aaron had any human power over Pharaoh, in exactly the same way as that widow had no human power over the judge.  

When these men of God spoke to this earthly ruler, O how he displayed in bold, bright, unmistakable colours that he, did not fear God nor regard men. Here is Pharaoh’s response. Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go. Exodus 5: 2b

Don’t you see? Both God’s chosen, beloved and protected, His widows and His workers, do stand before those in human authority who do not fear God, and have little or no regard for people.

Whoever you are, as you seek the provided earthly way of help, know that God is in it fully. God has never relinquished His Supreme Power to the world. He is Lord over the entire earth - everything and everyone in it - for He is LORD!

Whatever your situation, O needy, anxious, sorrowing one, God is very much with you and is taking you through.

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