“AND took his journey into a far country,” are words used by the Lord Jesus in the story of the Prodigal Son, to describe the distance the sinner is from God. The son, once at home with the father, is now a long distance from him, and what has put him there? Sin. It is sin that has separated man from God, corrupted and alienated his being. So that he is not only “far of” from God, and stranger to Him, but he is also corrupted in his being, his heart being deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
But the time came when the prodigal was stopped in his mad career, and what is true in the parable is true of every one that ever has been, or ever will be, converted. Reverses, affliction, brought this young man to himself. And such is the way of God in multitudes of cases.
It may be that the reader cannot understand the reverses and afflictions that have come upon him. They have been either sent or permitted of God, and for this reason, He wishes to awaken your soul, to cause you to think seriously of where you are, what you are, and where you are going. It is love divine that leads Him thus to deal with you. He wishes you to return; in fact, to be saved.
The young man “began to be in want” Friend, have you ever known the meaning of those words for yourself? Has a “famine” come upon that which once delighted your poor heart, and appeared to satisfy, but which in reality was a delusion, and are you beginning to realize that there is something wrong between you and God, that you have wronged your Creator, that the distance between Him and you is not that in which man was created, but is the fruit of sin? Are you beginning to be in want? If so, thank God for it; it is but the beginning of brighter days. The discovery of your condition as a sinner, and your distance from God, may be painful, but now necessary, for in the discovery you acquire a sense of need which ends in turning to God. “I must turn to my God,” said a young man, upon whom God allowed the waves of affliction to roll, which swept everything away that his heart could cling to. It resulted in his salvation.
The prodigal turned for the moment to a citizen of that country, but further degradation only awaited him from that quarter. The company of swine and the withholding of the husks that the swine ate, only increased his misery. Can the world, the citizens of the “far country,” assist a soul that is in need? Can they appreciate the trouble and exercise and distress of one that is beginning to be awakened by God to a sense of his great moral distance from Him? Not at all. They can only misunderstand it all. No man gave to this awakening prodigal.
But it worked good for him, for it says, “And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father.”
Where, indeed, is the sinner’s resource? Is it in his fellow-men? No. Where is it? It is in God. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help” (Hos. 13:99O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. (Hosea 13:9)). “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:99But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. (Jonah 2:9)). “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else” (Isa. 45:2222Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22)).
And has not God shown His love in the gift of His Son, the Lord Jesus, and already met the need of guilty man in the atoning death of Christ, and provided that which will fit him for His holy presence? “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved. God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the, propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9, 109In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9‑10)).
If God can save, these verses show us how God can save. “He sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Sin caused the distance; the removal of the sins by the death of Christ opens the way for the return of the repentant sinner.
“He began to be in want.” Have you, dear reader? “He came to himself.” Have you, dear reader? “He arose and came to his father.” Have you, dear reader? Have you returned, or are you on your way back to the Father? The work which is the righteous ground of God justifying a sinner was accomplished on the cross, when Jesus said, “It is finished,” and bowed His head and gave up the ghost; while the blessed God of all grace, through the gracious operations of His Holy Spirit, creates in the heart a sense of need, which leads the sinner to retrace his steps back to God, and to trust in the Saviour who died for him. And the love that purposed man’s salvation, and gave Jesus to die for sinners, now waits to receive all that return. God says, “If ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come” (Isa. 21:1212The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come. (Isaiah 21:12)).
Thus we read, “But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.”
What a reception by the father! Wonderful picture of God receiving the sinner just as he is! And on the bosom, and in the ear of the father, were the true place to own in confession the greatness of his sin.
The father would fit him for his house. Thus we hear immediately following the confession of the son the father’s voice, saying, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it: and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.”
The “ring” is a figure, perhaps, of the unending love of our God and Father.
The “shoes” clearly speak of relationship, as in the Eastern countries only the members of the family wear their shoes in the house; the servants leave them at the door.
The “fatted calf” beautifully expresses the communion of the children with the Father in the relationship into which He has brought them.
It is a present relationship that we stand in with God the Father. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” The kiss, the best robe, the shoes, the place at the Father’s table, the joy of His presence, the light of His blessed countenance, are all ours now, if we have returned. It is for us to simply enjoy the relationship and place we have. The father, as he looked at his son, was happy to have him there; and the son, as he looked at the father, could but overflow with thankfulness and praise.
It is thus with God and His people. The believer has joy which is unspeakable and full of glory. But what shall we say of the joy of God the Father! He fills the presence of the angels with His holy joy when a sinner repents, ―a joy which but deepens when he is received and fitted for His presence, a joy which will be an “exceeding joy” when the Saviour presents them before the presence of His glory, and a joy that will fill the heart of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, through the eternal ages.
Beloved reader, will you return as a sinner confessed to this blessed God, who so loved you as to give His own Son to die for you? Will you furnish all heaven with an occasion for rejoicing by your return? The blessed God but waits to run forth to meet you, to kiss you, to pardon you, to clothe you, to put, the ring and shoes on, and to bring you into the very bosom of His family as a son, not a hired servant, and make you perfectly happy in His love, and rejoice over you forever. Oh! my friend, I beseech you to come. God says, Come; the Lord Jesus says, Come; the Eternal Spirit says, Come. Oh! won’t you come?
ANON.