Bob Sorge. Unrelenting Prayer. Kansas City MO: Oasis House, 2005. Print.

Unrelenting Prayer is another excellent book on prayer by the author of The Fire of Delayed Answers. There is a lot to the book as it focuses on the parable of the widow and the unjust judge found in Luke 18:1-8.

The point of the parable according to Sorge is that “men always ought to pray and not lose heart.” (Luke 18:1 NKJV) Sorge then goes on to say how he struggled for about ten years with a problem that he was unable to solve and the Lord seemed unwilling to heal. In other words, this is not some pious theology, this is like Job, told from real experience.

I am reminded of the book The Hiding Place where the author Corrie ten Boom tells of her family’s trials in a German concentration camp. They were sent there for sheltering Jews in their Haarlem, Netherlands, house during World War II. Before Corrie’s sister Betsie died in the prison camp, she told Corrie to share the Gospel with others with words like these:

Tell them that there is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still…And they will listen because you have been there.

Bob Sorge has been there.

Sorge points out that there is a paradox in this parable in Luke 18. The widow persists in asking the unjust judge for justice. Even though the judge cares neither about man nor God (plus ça change), he eventually takes care of the woman’s case because she is persistent, not because he cares about her or about justice. She has nowhere else to turn.

Her appeal is for justice. So Jesus then emphasizes that a just God will answer persistent prayers so much more. But note how Jesus phrases this:

And shall not God avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though he bears long with them? (Luke 18:7 NKJV)

He is just—and this is important—but He often bears those prayers (or pray-ers) a long time.

We do not know how long the widow annoyed the judge, but the Bible tells us that some people waited many years for an answer to their prayers. Abraham waited twenty-five years after God first promised him heirs. Moses waited forty years in Midian before the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Jacob endured many years at the hands of Esau, then Laban, then untrustworthy sons, then a famine, about fifty-five years in all before he is reunited with all his sons.

But the parable presents a paradox. In the very next sentence, Jesus says, “I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.” (Luke 18:8 NKJV) Take a long time and act speedily? Does that make sense? As Shakespeare would say:

That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow. (A Midsummer’s Night Dream 5.1.63)

Well, like the paradox that begins A Tale of Two Cities—”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”—both statements are true says Sorge. How can that be?

Verse seven is true because sometimes things do take a long time. But verse eight is true because when the answer comes, God does things speedily. Then we know it is from God.

So when Sarah finally gave birth to Isaac, many other things happened around the same time including God re-establishing His covenant, an angelic visitation, the destruction of Sodom, and so on. It was forty days from when Moses and Aaron first confronted the Pharaoh and when the Israelites left Egypt for good. Jacob’s restoration occurred almost overnight when he was reunited with Joseph and lasted the rest of his natural life, thirteen years. Sorge tells these stories more dramatically and in more detail.

Indeed, he points out that while Jesus’ story is a parable which may or may not be true, the Bible does tell the history of a widow who had many setbacks and appeared to be abandoned by God—Naomi. At one point she even says, “Do not call me Naomi [Hebrew “pleasant”], call me Mara [Hebrew “bitter”].” (Ruth 1:20) But her faithful daughter-in-law gives her a legal grandson through her kinsman-redeemer Boaz. The events surrounding Ruth’s marriage and social elevation also happen quickly.

In each case, Sorge notes, the individual did not give up. Indeed, the persistence did not so much pay off as it drew the person closer to God. Sorge quotes another pastor as saying “another word for temptation is options.” (147) Most people in the Western world no longer worship idols, but Sorge interprets Isaiah 44:17 as saying that “a god is anything to which we ascribe the power to deliver us.” (159, italics in the original)

Just as the woman in the parable focused on the judge for help, so the believer focuses. He reminds us that “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 NKJV) As Sorge says:

Set your sights high enough, however, and you’ll probably find yourself with only one option—God. (162)

Isn’t that really the best option?

N.B. Sorge notes that a number of modern translations of the Bible translate verse 7 and 8 of Luke 18 to eliminate the paradox, usually by turning verse 7 into a rhetorical question answered by verse 8 as if to say, “Will God delay? No, He answers quickly.” But the Greek text indicates that God is “patient over them” in verse 7, so those translations like the King James and New King James Versions are more accurate by retaining the paradox of the original.