Parable of the Prodigal Son (4)

Last month we saw the prodigal son at the swine trough, kneeling among the swine and seeking to fill his stomach with their food. However, we see a turning in his life. We must say that it was not of anything in this young man which caused him to turn, but there came a turning because God said, “Halt! Thus far and no further.”

Here we would like to dwell on two main thoughts: salvation through eternal election, and salvation because of the drawing cords from the Father’s house.

In respect to salvation through eternal election, the Lord had eternal thoughts regarding the prodigal son in the far-away country. It was the eternal love of God that there was a man at the swine trough whose heart and life could no longer be filled with the world. What is the greatest wonder that then can ever take place? It is, “He came to himself.” That is where the Lord stopped him, bringing him upon his knees.

If a man lived a thousand years and gained the whole world, he would still have nothing, because one day the world will let him go into outer darkness. Think for a moment of Judas, one of the twelve. He walked with Jesus, even preaching the message of Jesus Christ. There came a time when he went to the Sanhedrin and agreed to deliver Him unto them for thirty pieces of silver. Later we see Judas once more standing before the Sanhedrin with the deepest knowledge within himself of his wretchedness. Because he had betrayed his master, he stood there and cried out that he had betrayed innocent blood. Casting the thirty pieces of silver on the ground, he heard the cold, hard answer, “What is that to us?” He then turned away and hung himself, thus dropping into everlasting darkness, where the devil sings, “Lost, lost, forever lost.”

Now look again at the prodigal son. Was he better than Judas? No, there was no difference, but here we see the love of the father. The prodigal son came upon his knees, and the love of God caused him to cry out unto the Lord. “He came to himself.” Having received a glimpse backwards towards his father’s house, he might see the blessed state of that house.

Has that ever been your life: “He came to himself’? Has God opened your eyes at the swine trough of this world? If the Lord has done so, then it didn’t happen by chance, but then you have seen the wrong turn which you have made.

Do you know what the prodigal son came to see? He not only saw himself, but he also saw the lovely house of his father. In verse 17 we read that he said, “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” He saw the hired servants, even the most lowly, who worked for his father and received love and concern from his father. He knew that his father provided for all those who were employed by him, and he never sent one empty away.

Prodigal son, prodigal daughter, can you express what was living in your heart in the early stages of new life? In the beginning it is often hard for prodigal sons and daughters to express what they feel in their hearts. My theological instructor said to me, “When you go out into the congregations, you will meet a missing people. They cannot explain what they miss, but they know that it has become different for them in that far-away country. They once enjoyed that far country, but now it can no longer satisfy their hearts. They now say that they miss everything, because they miss God, having no God for their soul.”

“He came to himself.” Do you know why he came to himself? It was because God, from all eternity, has said, “I have loved him freely.” Do you know what that means? It is that He has loved him when there was nothing but sin and pollution. That is why there is a prodigal son who “came to himself.”

There is not a more blessed gospel message to preach than salvation because of God’s eternal election. God has loved His people from all eternity, has chosen them from all eternity, has opened a way from all eternity. There is not a more blessed message to bring unto people who are living by the swine trough of the world than that it is still possible to be converted unto the Lord. It is such a precious message for prodigal sons and daughters.

Judas sank in utter despair and took his own life because there was no longer any hope. Do you know why? It was not because he sank deeper in misery than this prodigal son, but because God gave not a place of repentance. That is what this prodigal son received, a penitent place before the Lord. If left to himself, the prodigal son would have crept under the swine trough and sunk away, as Judas did. But this he could not do because of the father’s house and the drawing cords of his father. The love of the father was poured forth from the father’s house into his heart. A most tender love descended from that house and flowed into the heart of the prodigal son. It was a strong pull toward that house.

Prodigal sons are drawn towards the Lord with the desire to bow before Him. They want to separate from the world because they need only one thing, that their soul might be saved. They bow their knees before the Lord and say, “O Lord, if Thou would only have mercy upon me and I could hear one word which speaks unto my soul.” It is as with the poet,

Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry
Have ready access unto Thee;
When in distress to Thee I fly,
O hide not Thou Thy face from me.

Do you see the prodigal son as he stands there? Do not be afraid to look at him. He is filthy, but he is not what he used to be. He is a sinner, and nothing at all, but by the grace of God he may arise. This we hope to point out next month.

Reader, may this also, by grace, be your portion. “He came to himself.” It was of God, a one-sided work of God. Do you know why he will go to his father’s house? It is because of the drawing cords which the father had laid.

— to be continued —

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