Luke 18

Luke 18:1-8 . PARABLE OF THE IMPORTUNATE WIDOW.

1-5. always--Compare Luke 18:7 , "night and day."
faint--lose heart, or slacken.

2. feared not . . . neither regarded--defying the vengeance of God and despising the opinion of men.
widow--weak, desolate, defenseless ( 1 Timothy 5:5 , which is taken from this).

3. came--kept coming. See Luke 18:5 , "her continual coming."
Avenge me--that is, rid me of the oppression of.

5. continual coming--coming for ever.

6-8. the Lord--a name expressive of the authoritative style in which He interprets His own parable.

7. shall not God--not unjust, but the infinitely righteous Judge.
avenge--redeem from oppression.
his own elect--not like this widow, the object of indifference and contempt, but dear to Him as the apple of the eye ( Zechariah 2:8 ).
cry day and night--whose every cry enters into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth ( James 5:4 ), and how much more their incessant and persevering cries!
bear long with them--rather, "in their case," or "on their account" (as) James 5:7 , "for it"), [GROTIUS, DE WETTE, &c.].

8. speedily--as if pained at the long delay, impatient for the destined moment to interpose. (Compare Proverbs 29:1 .)
Nevertheless, &c.--that is, Yet ere the Son of man comes to redress the wrongs of His Church, so low will the hope of relief sink, through the length of the delay, that one will be fain to ask, Will He find any faith of a coming avenger left on the earth? From this we learn: (1) That the primary and historical reference of this parable is to the Church in its widowed, desolate, oppressed, defenseless condition during the present absence of her Lord in the heavens; (2) That in these circumstances importunate, persevering prayer for deliverance is the Church's fitting exercise; (3) That notwithstanding every encouragement to this, so long will the answer be delayed, while the need of relief continues the same, and all hope of deliverance will have nearly died out, and "faith" of Christ's coming scarcely to be found. But the application of the parable to prayer in general is so obvious as to have nearly hidden its more direct reference, and so precious that one cannot allow it to disappear in any public and historical interpretation.

Luke 18:9-14 . PARABLE OF THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN.

11, 12. stood--as the Jews in prayer ( Mark 11:25 ).
God, &c.--To have been kept from gross iniquities was undoubtedly a just cause of thankfulness to God; but instead of the devoutly humble, admiring frame which this should inspire, the Pharisee arrogantly severs himself from the rest of mankind, as quite above them, and, with a contemptuous look at the poor publican, thanks God that he has not to stand afar off like him, to hang down his head like a bulrush and beat his breast like him. But these are only his moral excellencies. His religious merits complete his grounds for congratulation. Not confining himself to the one divinely prescribed annual fast ( Leviticus 16:29 ), he was not behind the most rigid, who fasted on the second and fifth days of every week [LIGHTFOOT], and gave the tenth not only of what the law laid under tithing, but of "all his gains." Thus, besides doing all his duty, he did works of supererogation; while sins to confess and spiritual wants to be supplied he seems to have felt none. What a picture of the Pharisaic character and religion!

13. standing afar off--as unworthy to draw near; but that was the way to get near ( Psalms 34:18 , Isaiah 57:15 ).
would not lift up--blushing and ashamed to do so ( Ezra 9:6 ).
smote, &c.--kept smiting; for anguish ( Luke 23:48 ), and self-reproach ( Jeremiah 31:19 ).
be merciful--"be propitiated," a very unusual word in such a sense, only once else used in the New Testament, in the sense of "making reconciliation" by sacrifice ( Hebrews 2:17 ). There may therefore, be some allusion to this here, though not likely.
a sinner--literally, "the sinner"; that is, "If ever there was one, I am he."