There are several questions posed in Luke 18 on faith, which as we’ve seen in verses 1–8 is better translated as trust. Do we trust in God’s justice or our own vengeance? Do we trust in God’s righteousness or in our own righteousness?
Author: Jeff
In Luke 18:8, Yeshua said that before the Son of Man’s return that “the faith” would be scarce on Earth. From the Greek word for “faith,” pistis, we learn that we need to seek God’s strengthening of the “pillars” that supporting our role as “temples” for God on Earth: trust in God’s promises and justice.
Many look to the apocalyptic Matthew 24, also touched on in Luke 17:20-37, for signs of the “end times.” But the context in both books suggests the real message is a call for Israel to purge itself of pride in anything other than God and offload that rebellion upon the Messiah.
Continuing the themes of hope for the “lost” from God (Luke 15) and hope in God being more wealth-creating than material goods (Luke 16), the parables of Luke 17 give us positive role models of hope and trust in God.
The overall theme of Luke 16 is how we are to use material wealth. Is Luke 16:19–31, known as “the rich man and Lazarus,” a travelogue of hell or a parable related to wealth?
This passage has three seemingly distinct teachings — parable of the shrewd manager, whether the Law and Prophets stopped with Yokhanan the Baptizer and a “one-liner” on divorce — but all of them as well as the parable that follows of the rich man and Lazar deal with one topic: God as Master or wealth as Master.
This chapter covers a central theme via the interrelated parables of the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son: The Son of God was sent to “find” and “bring back” the “lost sheep” of Israel. With the soon approach of the annual Lamb Selection Day for Passover — 10th day of the first month of God’s calendar — it’s fitting to note God’s “tale of three lambs” in Luke 15 and throughout Scripture