The Persistent Widow Parable

THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel ✦✦✦ A New Teaching Series THE PARABLES AND THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL Proving the Singular Mission of YAHSHUA Through Every Parable He Taught ✦✦✦ PART TWELVE THE PERSISTENT WIDOW Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 1 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel AND THE UNJUST JUDGE The Woman Israel — and the Ungodly Nations YAHWEH Raised Up to Protect Her Until the King Returns Luke 18:1–8 A Midweek Bible Study Rev. John Shane Vaughn First Harvest Ministries International Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 2 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel INTRODUCTION TO TONIGHT'S STUDY Beloved — tonight we take up one of the most misunderstood parables YAHSHUA ever spoke. You have heard it preached a hundred times as a parable about persistence in prayer. Keep asking, keep knocking, don't give up on YAHWEH. And while that application is true at some level, it is not what the parable is actually about. This parable is a Two-House prophecy — one of the most stunning YAHSHUA ever delivered. It is the story of: •A widow — scattered Israel, stripped of her Husband, wounded, forgotten, crying out day and night for justice. •An unjust judge — a Gentile nation raised up by YAHWEH to protect the widow, even though that nation itself neither feared Elohim nor regarded man. •An adversary — the enemies of the covenant seed who have oppressed her through twenty-five centuries. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 3 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel •A promised return — the coming of the King who will finally avenge His scattered ones and gather them home. YAHWEH does not need godly nations to preserve His widow. He can use ungodly nations. He can use unjust judges. And He has been doing exactly that for 2,520 years — protecting scattered Israel through the very Gentile empires that had no idea who they were protecting. Let us open our Bibles. And let us see — once again — that every parable YAHSHUA spoke was about the recovery of His scattered people. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 4 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel THE TEXT BEFORE US Luke 18:1 "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." Luke 18:2–5 "There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me." Luke 18:6–8 "Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 5 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel This is the prophecy of the whole age of Israel's hiding — and the whole age of YAHWEH's silent protection of her through Gentile hands. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 6 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel I. NOT PRIMARILY A PARABLE ABOUT PRAYER Read the Framing Verse Carefully. The introduction says YAHSHUA spoke this parable "that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." And so the modern pulpit stops there. "Pray without ceasing. Don't give up." But look at the closing verse. Luke 18:7–8 "And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him... when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" The parable does not end at "pray more." The parable ends at the coming of the Son of Man. The parable is not about individual devotion — it is about the endurance of the elect through the long age of oppression, until the King returns. •The praying is not the individual saint on his knees at bedtime. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 7 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel •The praying is the cry of the elect — scattered Israel — going up day and night for centuries. •The answer is not a personal favor from heaven. •The answer is the return of the King and the vindication of His people. This parable was given so the scattered elect would not faint during the long silence — because YAHWEH is coming, and He will not tarry beyond the appointed day. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 8 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel II. THE WIDOW IS ISRAEL Who Is the Widow? She is not a random victim. In the language of the Hebrew prophets, the widow is Israel herself — the covenant wife of YAHWEH, separated from her Husband, hidden among the nations, wounded and voiceless. Isaiah 54:4–6 "For thou shalt not be ashamed: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name... For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and as a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God." Jeremiah 3:14 "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 9 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion." The widow of the parable is the scattered ten tribes — divorced from her Husband when she walked out of Jerusalem, wandering the earth in shame, unrecognized by the nations, waiting for the day when her Husband would return and vindicate her. The widow is not a metaphor for a devout individual. The widow is the whole House of scattered Israel — bereaved of her covenant, hidden among the Gentiles, crying out day and night for the King to come home. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 10 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel III. THE ADVERSARY Who Is the Adversary? The widow cries out — "Avenge me of mine adversary." Who has wronged her? Who has stripped her of her name, her language, her feasts, her Torah, her identity — as we saw on the Jericho road in the Good Samaritan parable? The adversary is every force that has opposed the covenant seed: •The assimilating nations — the Gentile empires that absorbed her and made her unrecognizable to herself. •The religious systems — the priests and denominations that took her tithes but never told her who she was. •The political systems — the world empires that ruled her without ever knowing whose blood ran in her veins. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 11 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel •The persecutors — the pogroms, the inquisitions, the exiles, the crusades against every remnant that dared to keep Sabbath or feasts. •The whole age of hiding — the twenty-five centuries in which the woman's very existence was denied and her voice was silenced. The adversary is the whole system of the present age that has kept the widow hidden, voiceless, and vulnerable — and against which she has been crying day and night for the King to come. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 12 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel IV. THE UNJUST JUDGE Now Comes the Stunning Prophecy. "There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man." Read that description carefully. This judge: •Feared not Elohim — no covenant loyalty, no reverence for the sacred name. •Regarded not man — no natural mercy, no human compassion. This is a portrait of an ungodly nation. Not righteous. Not covenant-keeping. Not particularly kind. Simply a nation that governs — that holds power — that possesses the machinery of law and enforcement. And YAHWEH Uses That Nation to Protect the Widow. Here is the doctrinal earthquake. YAHWEH does not need a righteous nation to preserve His widow. He can raise up an unjust judge — an ungodly nation — and use it to shelter scattered Israel for centuries, Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 13 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel even though that nation has no idea who it is sheltering. Isaiah 45:1 "Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him." Cyrus — the pagan Persian emperor — was called by YAHWEH His anointed. Not because Cyrus was godly. Cyrus was not. But because YAHWEH raised him up to protect the covenant seed and release them from Babylon. This is the pattern across all of history. •Persia under Cyrus — pagan but protective. YAHWEH used her to send Judah home. •Rome in her early centuries — polytheistic but protective. YAHWEH used her roads, her language, her legal framework to spread the gospel of the Kingdom to every place the scattered tribes had gone. •The Holy Roman Empire, medieval kingdoms, feudal Europe — corrupt, sometimes brutal, but Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 14 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel functioning as walls behind which the hidden ones survived century after century. •The Anglo-Saxon Western nations — Britain, then America — nations that in and of themselves are not truly godly, but which have functioned as the unjust judges of our age, providing the freedom, the law, the borders, and the protection under which scattered Israel has grown to full stature. •Every succession of Gentile powers across twenty-five centuries has been an unjust judge — raised up by YAHWEH not because they were righteous, but because they were useful. YAHWEH used ungodly nations — nations that neither feared Him nor regarded man — as instruments of protection over His widow, so she could survive the long age of hiding until the Son of Man returned. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 15 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel V. THE PRINCIPLE — YAHWEH USES WHOM HE WILL The Principle Transcends the Individual Instance. It does not matter which unjust judge you point to in a particular hour of history. The principle remains — YAHWEH is sovereign over every Gentile government, and He uses each one as He wills to preserve His covenant seed. •Some judges arose to shelter her briefly. •Some judges arose to protect her for centuries. •Some judges arose seemingly by accident, without any awareness of what they were doing. •Every one of them served YAHWEH's purpose whether they knew it or not. Proverbs 21:1 "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will." Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 16 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The unjust judge in the parable did not act out of righteousness. He acted because the widow wearied him. He gave her justice not because he loved YAHWEH but because she would not stop coming to his door. And that is exactly how YAHWEH has moved the hearts of Gentile rulers to protect scattered Israel across the ages. •Cyrus signed the release decree not out of piety, but because YAHWEH stirred his heart. •Constantine legalized Christianity not out of true conversion, but because the political moment demanded it. •Western nations enshrined freedom of worship not because they understood the covenant, but because they had been raised up to be the walls around the hidden ones. The principle is the same in every generation: YAHWEH bends the will of ungodly rulers to protect His widow — and He does it whether they know it or not. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 17 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 18 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel VI. THE WIDOW'S CRY DAY AND NIGHT And While the Judge Rules — the Widow Cries. "And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary." The widow does not wait passively for justice. She cries out. Day and night. Continually. She wearies the judge with her voice. This is the picture of the covenant seed through the long age of hiding. •She has cried through Assyrian captivity. •She has cried through Babylonian exile. •She has cried through Roman rule. •She has cried through medieval darkness. •She has cried through pogroms and inquisitions. •She has cried through World Wars and Holocausts. •She is crying now, in this hour, through the awakening remnant of FHMI and every scattered saint who has heard the call to Sabbath, feasts, Torah, and the Sacred Names. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 19 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The widow's cry has never stopped. And her cry is not for personal favors. Her cry is for the return of the King and the vindication of the covenant. "How long, O YAHWEH, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"* (Revelation 6:10). That is the widow's cry. That is the voice of the scattered elect going up day and night for two thousand five hundred years. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 20 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel VII. GOD SHALL AVENGE HIS OWN ELECT Now Comes the Promise. Luke 18:7–8 "And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." YAHSHUA does not compare YAHWEH to the unjust judge. He contrasts YAHWEH with the unjust judge. •The unjust judge acted from irritation. •YAHWEH acts from covenant love. •The unjust judge did the right thing for the wrong reason. •YAHWEH does the right thing for the right reason — because His elect are His covenant seed and He has sworn to redeem them. And He Bears Long. "Though he bear long with them." Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 21 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel This is the mystery of the long silence. YAHWEH is not slow. YAHWEH is not indifferent. YAHWEH is patient — bearing long with the widow, letting the age of unjust judges run its full course, so every scattered saint can be gathered before the sickle falls. 2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." But the long silence has an appointed end. "He will avenge them speedily." When the appointed hour arrives, YAHWEH will not delay. The King will come. The widow will be vindicated. The adversary will be judged. The age of hiding will end. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 22 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel VIII. WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMETH The Closing Question Is Actually a Prophecy. "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Do not read this as a wistful question. Read it as a prophetic decree. The Greek is ten pistin — literally THE faith. Not any faith. Not general belief. THE faith — the specific covenant faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The faith- line. The faith-people. YAHSHUA was not asking, "Will there be devout individuals left?" He was declaring, "Will there still be an Israel on the earth when I return?" — and the whole parable is His prophetic answer that YES, she will still be here. And Here Is How She Will Still Be Here. The parable itself contains the mechanism of her survival. YAHWEH will raise up a natural Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 23 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel government of imperfect men — a nation like the unjust judge of the parable — and that nation will become the home of the lost tribes until the King returns. •Not a righteous nation. •Not a covenant-keeping nation. •Not a nation that fears Elohim or regards man. •A natural government of imperfect men — that will nonetheless preserve Israel. YAHSHUA was prophesying the rise of a specific kind of nation — a natural government of imperfect men — that YAHWEH would raise up to give the lost tribes a home. And that nation would guarantee that Israel would still be on the earth when the King returned. This Is the Whole Mechanism of the Age. The unjust judge is not a random detail in the parable. He is the prophesied protector-nation — the one Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 24 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel YAHWEH would appoint to shelter the widow until the King came home. •She would live in his city. •She would cry at his door. •She would find justice through him even though he was unjust. •She would survive because of him even though he did not know why he was preserving her. The lost tribes would find a home in the house of a nation that was itself imperfect. That is the prophecy. That is the guarantee. That is why the King can ask the question and know the answer. And the Answer Is Yes. The King will find THE faith on the earth. He will find Israel. He will find her because YAHWEH raised up a natural government of imperfect men to preserve her. •He will find her small. •He will find her scattered. •He will find her often unrecognized even to herself. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 25 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel •But He will find her — because the prophesied home for the lost tribes was raised up exactly as YAHSHUA foretold. The parable of the unjust judge is not just a story about persistence. It is YAHSHUA's own prophetic decree that YAHWEH would raise up a natural government of imperfect men to give the lost tribes a home — so that when the Son of Man returned, He would find Israel still alive on the earth. FHMI Lives Inside That Prophecy. Every scattered saint who has awakened to Sabbath, feasts, Torah, and the Sacred Names — every congregation that has thrown off Babylonian tradition and taken up the covenant of the fathers — every voice that is still crying at the judge's door in this hour — lives inside the prophecy YAHSHUA gave in this parable. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 26 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel We were preserved by imperfect men, in imperfect nations, under imperfect governments — because YAHWEH promised through this very parable that He would raise up such a home for us until the King came back. The question was never, "Will there be Christians?" The question was, "Will there still be Israel?" And YAHSHUA answered His own question by prophesying the very government that would preserve her. She is here. She is awakening. She will be found. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 27 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel IX. THE PATTERN OF THE PARABLE Let Us Draw It All Together. •The city — the earth, the present age. •The judge — the ungodly Gentile nation raised up by YAHWEH to hold power in that age. •The widow — scattered Israel, the covenant seed of the ten tribes, bereaved and hidden among the nations. •The adversary — every force that has oppressed the widow, from assimilation to persecution to the whole system of the age of hiding. •The cry day and night — twenty-five centuries of the elect crying out for the return of the King. •The judge's reluctant justice — the unwitting protection YAHWEH has arranged through every Gentile power that has ruled over the widow. •The Son of Man's coming — the appointed end of the age, when the King returns to vindicate His widow and establish His Kingdom. And FHMI stands as one of the voices of the widow at the judge's door — crying Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 28 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel out for the King to come, refusing to give up, holding to Sabbath, feasts, Torah, and the Sacred Names while the age of the unjust judges runs its full course. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 29 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel REFLECTION QUESTIONS Three Questions for Tonight's Class: 1. If YAHWEH has been using ungodly nations to protect His covenant widow for twenty-five centuries — even nations that neither fear Him nor regard man — how does that change my understanding of history, politics, and the current world order I live under? 2. If the widow's cry has never stopped — and if the awakening remnant of this hour is one of the voices of that cry going up to heaven — am I crying, or have I grown silent? Am I still asking the King to come, or have I settled into comfort while the age winds down? 3. When the Son of Man comes — will He find the kind of faith the widow had? Will He find me at the judge's door, still contending for the covenant, still Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 30 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel refusing to give up — or will He find me asleep in the mixed Christianity of the age? Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 31 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel CLOSING WORD The Persistent Widow is not primarily a parable about prayer. It is the prophecy of the whole present age — the age in which the covenant widow has been hidden, protected by ungodly instruments, crying out day and night for the King to return. The widow is scattered Israel. The judge is every ungodly nation that has served as her wall. The adversary is the whole system of the age that has kept her silenced. And the promise is the return of the King. •She has been crying for twenty-five centuries. •The judges have come and gone. •The age is running out. •The King is coming. And FHMI is the voice of the widow at the door of the judge in this hour. Do not go Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 32 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel silent. Do not grow weary. Do not drift back to the traditions of Babylon. The King is at the door — and when He comes, He will find faith on the earth, because we will still be crying out with the widow of the parable until He arrives. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 33 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Next in the Series — Part Thirteen: The Rich Man and Lazarus — and we will see how YAHSHUA closed the Two-House teaching with the parable of the two men who died — the rich man representing the House of Judah with all its covenant privileges, and Lazarus representing the scattered ten tribes of Israel begging at the gate — and how the great reversal at the end vindicates the scattered while exposing the presumption of the religious. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 34 THE PERSISTENT WIDOW — Part Twelve: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel ✦✦✦ Rev. John Shane Vaughn First Harvest Ministries International The Parables and the Lost Tribes — Part Twelve Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 35