“A CERTAIN man had two sons ... . Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant” (Luke 15:11:25, 26).
We oftentimes read with interest the parable of the Prodigal’s return; but many stop too often at the end of that, and forget that “a certain man had TWO sons.” We like to hear how the wanderer was received back, but does the question ever arise, What about the elder son, what became of him?
Are any of those who may look at this little paper still in company with the elder son of the parable? We are all either inside, rejoicing with the Father in His joy, and thus identified with the returned wanderer: or outside in company with the elder son.
If this last, dear friend, why? Look a moment at his history, ― “he came and drew nigh to the house,” and hearing the music and dancing, wanted to know what it was all about. Have you ever wondered what made your believing relatives and friends so happy? and have you asked yourself what it all meant?
God the Father rejoices in the return of the lost one; and they have told you how they were once in “the far country,” but have now been brought to God, and they are glad. Well, then, how about you, dear reader? Are you angry too? Why? Is not the door open for you, the same door by which the younger brother was taken, in? Indeed it is, and still kept open by a hand of love. “He was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him.” The servant stands on one side, and the master of the house comes out himself to “entreat”! “As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” How blessed! God can thus “come out,” for the Shepherd has been right down into the very depths of death, to enable a holy God to come out in righteousness, as well as grace, and save “all that come unto God by him.”
But do you join hands with this poor elder son in his answer to the entreaties of love, “Lo, these many years do I serve thee; neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends?” Look at what this answer is made up of; pride, self-righteousness, and selfishness; ―pride, in his length of service; self-righteousness, in his claim never to have transgressed; and utter selfishness, as shown in his complaint that his father had never-given him a kid that he might make merry with his friends. He did not want his father’s company, but the gift, that he might enjoy it with his friends. Is this like you, dear unconverted reader, outside, angry, and proud? Oh! think, God is keeping the door open, as it were, with His hand on the latch, entreating up to the very last moment.
Don’t put this of by saying the elder son is a picture of the Jew. No doubt he is; but the first elder son we read of was no Jew. Cain was not a Jew, and Cain’s has been the sad history of every proud, self-righteous, selfish sinner ever since; and Cain’s end, as described in the Epistle of Jude, will be the everlasting end of all such. Oh! pause, and think. You are either inside, rejoicing in company with the Father, having come to an end of yourself, nothing on you but what the Father’s grace has provided to cover your nakedness, and rejoicing in His joy at having His lost one back; or else outside, refusing to come in,― “angry, and would not come in;” proud, in standing up in your own strength before Him; self-righteous, in cleaving to your own wretched morality apart from Him; and selfish, in refusing Him the joy of blessing you according to His own heart.
Or it may be you know that you have no righteousness of your own, and you would gladly have the blessing. If so, what saith the Word to you, “we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God?” Everything is done; all that God has of blessing is there for you in Christ, as long as the door of His mercy stands wide open, for “he hath made him to be sin for us [he] who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Sinner, God beseeches you, “why standest thou without?”
Or yet you may know all this, dear friend; you may have often heard “the old old story” from the lips of some loved relative or friend, and you like sometimes to think of its sweetness, but you don’t like “to make a profession!” You think “there is plenty of time yet.” You are young maybe, and life is before you. Take care, the day is AT HAND when that door, kept open, as it is now, by the mercy of a God of love, will be closed forever on those then found “angry” and who “would not go in;” and you may be fixed, too late, as an angry arguer with an entreating God, instead of a thankful adoring receiver of His mercy. Oh! now bow, before it be too late, and let Him have His joy in blessing you with all that He has.
“Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke; then a great ransom cannot deliver thee” (Job 36:18).
J. R. B.