I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
I tell you, he will avenge them speedily, х en (G1722) tachei (G5034)]. As when "His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel" (Judges 10:16), so "His bowels are troubled" for His own elect, crying to Him day and night from the depths of their oppressions: He is pained, as it were, at the long delay which His wisdom sees necessary, and at the sore trial to which it puts their faith, and is impatient, so to speak, until "the time, the set time," arrive to interpose.
Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith (that is, any belief that He will come at all), on the earth? 'Yet, before 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, Is there any faith of a coming Avenger, any expectation that the Church's Lord will ever return to her, left on the earth?'
Remarks:
(1) Thus the primary, the historical reference of this parable is to the Church in her widowed, desolate, oppressed, defenseless condition, during the present absence of her Lord in the heavens. And the lessons it teaches, in this view of it, which are two-fold, are most precious. One lesson is, that though we are to be "always ready, not knowing when our Lord may come," we are at the same time not to be surprised though "the Bridegroom should tarry," so long as to wear out the patience of the most, and almost extinguish the hope of His coming. And the more so, as His coming will be needed, not only because the Bride can never be contented with anything short of the presence of her Beloved, but because in her widowed state she is exposed to all manner of indignities and wrongs, from which her Lord's coming alone will set her completely free. But another lesson is, that in these circumstances prayer is her proper resource, that though He seems to turn a deaf ear to her, she is to "pray always, and not faint," assured that she is dear to her Lord even when He seems to deny her; nay, that her incessant crying to Him is that which will bring Him to her at length; but yet, that the faith of His coming, through the length of the delay, will have reached its lowest ebb, and nearly died out, before the day dawn and the shadows flee away! It may be added that it would seem a law of the divine administration, that both judgment and mercy, when long delayed, come at last with a rapidity proportioned to the length of that delay. Of Judgment it is said, "He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" (Proverbs 29:1); and so it is said, "Their foot shall slide in due time" (Deuteronomy 32:35). Of mercy it is, here said, When at length it comes, it will come "speedily." But,
(2) The application of this delightful parable to prayer in general is so obvious as to have nearly hidden from most readers its more direct reference; and this general application is so resistle ss and invaluable that it cannot be allowed to disappear in any public and historical interpretation.
As the subject of this section has no connection with the two preceding ones, so the precise time and place of it are, as usual in this portion of our Gospel, left quite indefinite. But the purpose for which it was spoken-the lesson it was intended to convey-is more precisely expressed than in most other cases; because it is expressed both as a preface to it and as the concluding moral of it.