12. A PERSISTENT WIDOW Luke 18:1-8
NOTE: The women in the time of Jesus neither could sue anybody nor be witnesses at court. Their male relatives had to handle such legal matters for them. This widow obviously didn't get any such help. Perhaps her male relatives even tried to take away the inheritance from her children.
1. Recall a time when you cried out for help from God day and night. Why is it easy to give up praying in such times (1 and 7)?
2. Imagine the life of this widow. Which hardships did she have to face while raising and nurturing her children all alone?
3. What makes some people similar to the judge in this par¬able: that they neither fear God nor care about men (2)?
Why did Jesus compare God with an unjust judge?
Have you ever felt as if God were an unjust judge? If you have, when?
4. The widow was convinced that the unjust judge would event¬ually help her. Why?
How could we become convinced of God's eventually helping our loved ones and us?
5. What happened in the heart of the widow while she was crying for help time after time?
What happens in our hearts while we are praying a long time in spite of God's silence?
6. What do the words of Jesus in verses 7-8 mean?
7. Jesus stood once before a judge. What were the similarities and the differences between these two situations - his and the widow's? (Don't look it up, discuss it from of your memory.)
How did the prayer of Jesus differ from the prayer of this woman (3)?
Why was the verdict of Jesus different from that of the widow?
Was God's verdict about Jesus just or unjust?
8. What does verse 8b have to do with the parable?
9. What does this parable teach to you personally about prayer (verses 1, 5, 7, 8)?
GLAD TIDINGS: When Pilate condemned Jesus to death he was an unjust judge. But when God at the same time condemned Jesus to die he was just, because our sins, yours and mine, were attributed to him at that moment.
Version for printing
Downloads
Contact us
Webmaster