We are looking at the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In this daily devotional, we are looking at how we need to repent when we sin.
Nuggets
- We, like the prodigal son, have to face the consequences of our choices.
- We, like the prodigal son, have to repent.
Devotions in the Luke’s Diagnosis and Prescription series
To read a devotion in the Parable of the Prodigal Son series, click the appropriate button below.
At the end of the last devotion, we left the prodigal son in a foreign country. Because of his poor decisions, he had run through his inheritance and had nothing left.
Let’s see how the prodigal son used that as a learning experience.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
• We, like the prodigal son, turn away from God.
• We, like the prodigal son, are far from God when we allow sin to rule our lives.
The Prodigal Son Hits Rock Bottom
“After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything” (Lk. 15: 14-16 CSB)
We, like the prodigal son, have to face the consequences of our choices.
So, how did the party life work out for the prodigal son?
Oh, wasn’t this a kick in the pants! The prodigal son went from rich (compared to what he was) to having to work for a living. Not only was he working for a living, but he also was working for a foreigner with unclean pigs (Lev. 11: 3-4).
That would have been rock bottom for the prodigal son.
No, working for a living is not degrading. Working for someone from a foreigner country is not degrading.
The parable is telling us the prodigal son had a huge slide down the socioeconomic ladder. Jews knew pigs were unclean animals and thought they needed to separate themselves from those from other nations.
The prodigal son took a job that he felt – in his day and in his culture – was degrading. He went from his father being his master to his employer being his master.
The point is that the prodigal son ended up in the exact opposite position than he thought he would be in when he left his father’s house.
It would be easy to say that it was because of the famine that the prodigal son’s standard of living tanked. It wasn’t.
The prodigal son found himself in this situation because “… he squandered his estate in foolish living” (Lk. 15: 13 CSB). The King James Version says riotous living. It is reiterated in verse 14: “After he had spent everything …” (Lk. 15: 14 CSB).
The prodigal son brought it upon himself by his choices.
Okay, let’s roost there a second. Robinson said something that got me thinking. He wrote, “Removed from influences which had hitherto kept him in check, he began the career of a profligate and debauchee.”
Resource
I know this is the Sunday Morning Bible Study series, but switch gears to Redo for Godliness.
Dad was out of the picture, so son went wild. That meant son didn’t have dad’s character.
God doesn’t want us to be just us. He wants us to be us with His character.
Jesus was trying to tell us here that living a sinful life is not going to be satisfying. Oh, it may look like it for a while, but in the end, it won’t provide us happiness.
It is also a waste. The prodigal son spent all of his money and didn’t even have happiness to show for it.
The Repertorium Oratoris Sacri put it this way. “Poverty is the condition of the soul that seeks happiness in the world. By losing his God, the sinner loses everything.”
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Having God’s character is more satisfying.
The Repertorium Oratoris Sacri brought up another interesting point. If the prodigal son left so he wouldn’t have to work in his father’s house, that didn’t turn out for him. He is working for a foreigner in probably worse conditions.
The King James Version translated pods as husks. I understand that better. I used to feed the pigs. I would put shelled corn into the feeder. Sometimes, they would get ears of corn and have to get the kernels off themselves.
I don’t remember ever giving them just husks or even corncobs with the husks still on them. I didn’t consider that food — even for pigs.
But the prodigal son would have been happy to eat husks?!?! He was envious of pigs?!?!?!?! He had a huge attitude adjustment.
I guess it goes to show we will do what is needed when we hit rock bottom.
The Prodigal Son Came to Repentance
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! “I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers’” (Lk. 15: 17-19 CSB)
We, like the prodigal son, have to repent.
Okay, the prodigal son repented. Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
Glossary
But did he really repent? It says “… he came to his senses …” (Lk. 15: 17 CSB). But all he really talked about was how much better he had it at home. “… How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger!” (Lk. 15: 17 CSB). He talked about what he didn’t have instead of how he had wronged his father.
We have to make a decision to submit to God. We have to choose to ABCD.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
But does this mean God will save us even if we are only looking for fire insurance?
Well, let’s look at what the prodigal son had to do.
- The prodigal son had to come to his senses. He had to realize what state he was in and what his father expected of him.
- He had to make up his mind that he wanted to change his situation and his character.
- He had to admit that he had sinned.
- He had to come home. He couldn’t stay in the foreign country, living the life of sin he had chosen.
- He had to realize that he was not in the position to give orders.
- That meant he had to confess to his father where he went wrong and commit to obeying his father.
You know, I don’t get to make the determination of whether someone is sincere in their repentance or not. That is above my pay grade.
Only God can make that decision. Only He knows what is really in someone’s heart.
We have to do the self-evaluation Alexander described before we can have repentance. That is a personal exercise.
We all have to have a clear idea of where we are at and where God wants us to be. Alexander thought that was what the comparison to the father’s workers was.
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The King James Version translated it as the prodigal son saying there was bread for his father’s workers. Taylor pointed out the contrast of his expectations when he left home and what he would be content with returning home.
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The prodigal son had to hit rock bottom before he realized he needed to return home. He did that because he “… came to himself …” (Lk. 15: 17 KJV).
I read that to mean that the prodigal son came back to be the son that his father had raised him to be. That puts Proverbs 22: 6 in a new light. “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22: 6 ESV).
We are to teach our children to have God’s character. They may struggle with it — they may even shed it for a while. When they hit rock bottom, hopefully they will be like the prodigal son and pick it back up.
One reason the prodigal son could pick it back up is because he had to realize his father wouldn’t turn him away if he came back. He had to get that to heart level.
God won’t turn us away either. Boyd made a wonderful statement when he wrote, “The fact that we are sinners is no reason why we should stay away from our God.”
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The remembering how it used to be has to bring the regret for how far we have strayed from there. If we don’t have the regret, we don’t have the repentance.
But Robinson had it right. The regret has to lead to hatred.
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No, I don’t think that is too extreme. Repentance is where we turn away from the sin. We aren’t going to totally turn away if we still like it.
God wants us to mortify sin. Mortify means to place a death penalty on our sins.
Glossary
There is going to be no death penalty for something we still like.
Most importantly, the prodigal son woke up to what he had. Dunning wrote, “He is awakened to a hope of pardon and gracious reception.”
Resource
The prodigal son had to have the hope that his father would, at a minimum, agree to his offer of becoming his servant. Otherwise, why would he make the long treck back home?
Robertson made an interesting statement. He wrote, “… men desert the world when the world deserts them.” Does that mean we are only going to come to God when we aren’t satisfied with our lives here in this world?
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Robertson felt, yes, we have to be driven to God. That is sad that we have to hit rock bottom before we can accept God’s gift of salvation.
But doesn’t that make it mean more? We know without a shadow of a doubt that God is calling us and that we can depend on Him.
God gives us the gift of salvation. It is given to all mankind.
But not everyone accepts the gift. God inviting us to be His children is not enough. We usually have to have our own version of the famine — loss of job, loss of a relationship, loss of health — to wake us up to accept the gift.
Robertson pointed out something I hadn’t thought about before. He wrote, “After a life of wild sinfulness religion is servitude at first, not freedom.”
Resource
That was what the prodigal son’s stint at working for one of the citizens of the country in which he was living was — servitude. He didn’t go from party central to being reinstated as son instantaneously.
The servitude stint made him approach his Father with the proper attitude.
What, should the prodigal son gone back and demanded to be reinstated as a son?
Let’s look at it this way (thanks to Robertson). Children are to obey their parents out of love. A servant fulfills his job description.
The prodigal son did not show his father love. He basically said, by demanding his inheritance early, that the father was abusing him.
He can’t just come back and demand reinstated as a son without fixing the relationship. He had to get to where he wanted to fix the relationship, not just go home for the eats.
He was going home with the right attitude. He didn’t have a good pout going. He wasn’t railing against the unfairness. He was going home contritely.
The flip side of the prodigal son deserting the world is that he was going back to what was good. We might even go so far to say that he didn’t know how good he had it until he gave it up and it wasn’t good.
Cowper reminded us that we need to know God. That is the only way we will know how good we have it.
Resource
The Parable of the Prodigal Son hinges on the son realizing that he needs to repent and turn away from his sin. That is the only way he will be welcomed home.
Making the Connections
If we want God’s blessings, we don’t get to call the shots. God does.
God is Sovereign God. He made us. We disobeyed Him.
If we want restored to God’s love, we have to do it His way. In order to become children of God, we have to admit that mankind was separated from God after the original sin, making us sinners; believe Jesus paid the penalty for those sins to become our Savior and Redeemer; confess God as Sovereign God; and demonstrate that commitment by submitting our lives to living our lives following His laws and commandments.
That is what the prodigal son had to do. That is what we have to do.
Father God. If we have never before, we want to go through the steps of repentance just as the prodigal son did. If we have asked Jesus to be our Savior and Redeemer, we acknowledge that we still sin. Help us to repent and turn back to You. Lord, we choose to repent and want to change our character to be like Yours. Amen.
What do you think?
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