Loving prodigals can be heartbreaking and confusing. It’s hard to know what to do. When should we help? And when should we stay out of the way? Perhaps we should ask ourselves, are we really helping or could we merely be helping them stay comfortable in their pigsty, the very place God wants them to feel uncomfortable, even hungry?
If you have a prodigal, I hope you’ll read today’s post and share your thoughts.
And from our other readings:
What is death? Why do we call an unbeliever spiritually dead? What is the second death?
Finally, some questions we should ask ourselves. James tells us we are to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. But I think we could also say that we should be doers and not just talkers when it comes to doing. Do we talk a lot about God or actually live for Him? Do we talk about winning souls or do we share the gospel? And do we talk about prayer or do we pray? I know these are convicting questions for me. How about you?
Today’s Readings:
Judges 7 & 8
Psalm 49.10-20
Proverbs 14.22-24
Luke15.11-32
Dealing with Prodigals & Hard Questions for Every Believer
Luke 15.11-32:
Another Well-Known Story
Yesterday I talked about the danger of having a “ho-hum, I’ve heard that before” attitude about the stories in the Bible that are familiar to us. Today’s reading is another very familiar story, that of the “prodigal son.”
11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. 13 And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
So often when we read this well-known parable, our minds go to all the prodigals we know. Or maybe we think about our own testimony, how we were once prodigals. Certainly, those are important things to think about.
We need to identify those prodigals we know so we can pray for them, but we also need to take a closer look at some of the other important points in this parable.
Let’s start with the father in the story and how he responded, not just to his son’s homecoming, but also to his prodigal years.
Do You Know a Prodigal?
Perhaps you have a prodigal, a son or daughter you have prayed for and wept over. You probably look forward to the day you can say, “My son (or daughter) was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (v. 24).
We often fret and push and prod our prodigals to repent and come home. And, all too often, instead of letting them spend enough time in the pigpen to come to the end of themselves, we keep “feeding them”—bailing them out of many of their problems, not understanding that the “hunger” they are experiencing is God’s way of helping them come to their senses.
14 But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
This father was watching for his son, but he didn’t go after him, he didn’t send him money or help him in some way when he was “down on his luck.” It’s important to remember, the father in the story represents God who knows everything that is going on in the lives of His prodigals, yet lets us go our way and lovingly allows us to suffer the consequences of our actions (Prov. 26.3).
Prodigals, Consequences & Older Brothers
It was the consequences that brought the prodigal son to his senses.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
But his father saw him coming and ran to meet him. Instead of making him one of his hired servants, he threw a party to celebrate his return. His older brother’s response, however, was quite different.
28 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”
The older brother represented the Pharisees and others with their self-righteous, self-sufficient attitudes.
The Prodigal’s Brother
Some “older brothers” might not be so easy to recognize. Yet, we need to remember that the child who didn’t “rebel,” who finished college and has a good career is just as lost as the prodigal apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. But often, like the older brother in the parable, they believe they’re “righteous” and see no need to turn to God.
And while we must entrust both of them to Him, we should be just as faithful to pray for the “older brother or sister” as we are the more obvious prodigal.
So, let’s love our prodigals and their other brothers. Let’s be ready to rejoice with all of heaven when they really come home. But let’s not get in the way of God’s important work in their lives. Let’s allow them to see their need for the One True Savior.
Today’s Other Readings:
Judges 7 & 8:
Gideon’s 300
God had raised up Gideon as Israel’s leader to defeat the Midianites. But before they headed out in battle, God thinned the army. First, He told Gideon to send home all who were afraid. Next, He commanded him to watch as the men drank water and only take those who cupped their hands to drink. Only 300 did. The other 32,000 were also sent home. 1 Corinthians 1.27 says:
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.
It would seem foolish to send 32,000 men home and keep only 300 to fight an enemy whose army was “as numerous as locusts” and who had “camels without number.” But God understood that if they defeated their enemy with a huge army, they would be tempted to think they had done it in their own strength. Instead, God Himself routed their enemy for His own glory.
Sometimes God thins our armies, too. He allows us to lose those things on which we depend so we can learn to rely on Him alone. When we have come to the end of ourselves, when we feel the weakest and the least able, even foolish in comparison to others, God often shows up and does great things … all for His glory!
Psalm 49.10-20:
Received by God
But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for He shall receive me. Selah (v. 15).
Remember selah means pause and think.
Unless Jesus comes back before then, all of us will die—saints and sinners. But death is not the end of our existence. Death is separation.
Unbelievers are said to be spiritually dead because they are separated from God.
When we die physically, our body is separated from our spirit.
And those who die without being spiritually regenerated will die the second death, being separated from God for all eternity in a place where the fire is not quenched and the worm never dies (Mk. 9.44-45).
But those of us who have received Him here, have the promise that He will receive us into everlasting glory!
Proverbs 14.22-24:
Hard Questions for Every Believer
In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty (v. 23).
That is true of spiritual things, too. Too often we talk about the things of God but don’t do the work that goes along with it.
I posed these questions in the introduction, but they are worth repeating and thinking about often:
- Do I talk about God or actually live for Him?
- Do I talk about winning souls or do I share the gospel with those I meet?
- And do I talk about prayer or do I pray?
Here are some posts that might help.
About prayer:
“Frustrated with Your Prayer Life?”
“Praying like Paul: A Prayer for Spiritual Growth”
About the gospel:
“Do You Live with a Sense of Guilt?”
“Could You Be a Christian in Name Only?”
About living for God:
“Fearing God in an Anti-Christian Culture”
“The Cost of Doing Right & the Cancel Culture”
“Remember God’s Power, Promise & Presence”
What about you?
What thoughts come to you as you read this post?
Are there any prodigals in your life? If so, how are you responding? Could you be helping them stay relatively happy in their pigsty? And what about the “older brother”? Do you know one? Are you just as passionate about praying for him or her?
And finally, what things might God be stripping away so you can be more dependent on Him?
I hope you’ll share your thoughts.
Coming Up:
In the coming days, we’ll talk about polygamy and our acceptable sins, how to forgive when you’re not feeling it, and how spoiled children can become selfish adults.
I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss any of them.
If you would like to receive a FREE downloadable and printable Bible study through the book of Mark, you can click here for more information.
Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥
Note about this post:
I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer.
A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”
I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.
Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)
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