When you are hungry, your taste buds become less particular.”
–Brad Dennison (The Long Trail)
“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled…”
“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled…”
–Luke 6:21 (NKJV)
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The wandering son is in a mess. We see that he finds himself not only slopping the pigs, but staying with them. What a plight–from wealth to rags; the wretched story of sin unfolded. My NKJV Bible has the subtitle of this not the Prodigal Son, but the Lost Son, for he was now truly lost and undone.
…there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that they swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.”
–Luke 15:13-18(NKJV)
I cannot fully understand the lure and attraction of the large cities. They hold nothing on me, yet in my experience I have had numerous students say how much they love New York City or Chicago. Why? Unless they are called by God to do work there, why set oneself up in the evil place? It reminds me of Lot moving to Sodom. And Christians, yes, they seem to adore Las Vegas. Why? Do they think they can get away with a “sin” when visiting because what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? Maybe that was the thoughts of the young man. He went to a “distant country” which meant a Gentile land. To live there he would quickly find that it would be “characterized by pagan values and heathen morals.” (Gary Inrig) Of course, he was in a condition that he no longer held to the God and teachings of his father’s house.
The Bible states that he “wasted his possessions with prodigal living.” (NKJV) William Barclay translates this as, “wanton recklessness,” and the NIV puts it this way, he “squandered his wealth in wild living.” Listen–choices bring consequences! He ran out of money, plus there came a severe famine on the land. Here in the United States we have been blessed by God to not have faced a national famine. If there is a shortage in one part of the country, there is land enough to make up for it in another, but other countries, nonindustrial (third world) do not have this pleasure. Think of Sudan, Ethiopia, and in fact, over 75% of the world cannot feed itself. The young man found himself in dire straits. Reality hit him in the face, just as the hunger hit his gut. Gary Inrig writes, “Desperation knows no pride, and the young man not lives with the pigs, he is willing to eat with them.”
“No one gave him anything,” what a sad commentary. Once wealthy, now hungry and in shambles. I am reminded of Horace Tabor and his wife Baby Doe. One of the richest men in America. A man who flaunted the wealth he made from his silver mines in Colorado. Then in the 1890s, the silver boom, busted. Gold became the only standard. The powerful man, once a senator, is reduced to a postal clerk and when he dies he leaves a worthless mine to Baby Doe who is found years later, penniless and frozen to death. There was no wealth to save either of them and they died in sickness and squalor.
Remember, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. They would have been content to leave the wretched lad in the pigpen, saying he deserved it. But Jesus goes on with the parable. The motivation for his thinking to return to rightly to him may have been hunger, but repentance is there for he wants to return to his father. Greg Lane has accurately said, “Any fun or pleasure that can be achieved outside of the Father’s House will eventually end.” It took a while; it took the loss of everything along with hunger to finally bring the man to his senses. “There is an insanity to sin,” said Gary Inrig. Think of it–leaving the Father’s House and now sits in the mud with the pigs. Henry Harbuck translates it this way, “But finally he came to his senses–realizing how depraved he had become.” Harbuck continues in the same verse, “all the numerous hired servants have enough food and even some to spare, [but I am] starving and almost dead from hunger!”
What did it take for the young man to come to his senses? The pigpen–with its slop, mud, and excrement. Hunger, for he was almost starving. And I wonder, was there also a hunger not only for the food to be found at his father’s house, but also the truth of God’s Word that was taught there? “We can never find ourselves in sinful indulgence. There is often more truth in the pigpen of consequences than in the banquet halls of revelry.” (Inrig) Party, party-hardy and where will it take you? This man left home to be free and found himself in bondage serving the pigs. I like the way Barclay puts this, “Jesus believed that so long as a man was away from God he was not truly himself; he was only truly himself when he was on the way home.”
Live with the pigs in the slop [of sin] or go home to the Father. That’s the choice before the young man, and many others. Once decided the person can then start to become the person that God intended; he can then begin to live as one of God’s children. If you find yourself in a condition similar to this Wayward Son, get up out of the slime and slop, come to your senses, and start on your way home.
——————————–
The wandering son is in a mess. We see that he finds himself not only slopping the pigs, but staying with them. What a plight–from wealth to rags; the wretched story of sin unfolded. My NKJV Bible has the subtitle of this not the Prodigal Son, but the Lost Son, for he was now truly lost and undone.
…there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that they swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.”
–Luke 15:13-18(NKJV)
I cannot fully understand the lure and attraction of the large cities. They hold nothing on me, yet in my experience I have had numerous students say how much they love New York City or Chicago. Why? Unless they are called by God to do work there, why set oneself up in the evil place? It reminds me of Lot moving to Sodom. And Christians, yes, they seem to adore Las Vegas. Why? Do they think they can get away with a “sin” when visiting because what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? Maybe that was the thoughts of the young man. He went to a “distant country” which meant a Gentile land. To live there he would quickly find that it would be “characterized by pagan values and heathen morals.” (Gary Inrig) Of course, he was in a condition that he no longer held to the God and teachings of his father’s house.
The Bible states that he “wasted his possessions with prodigal living.” (NKJV) William Barclay translates this as, “wanton recklessness,” and the NIV puts it this way, he “squandered his wealth in wild living.” Listen–choices bring consequences! He ran out of money, plus there came a severe famine on the land. Here in the United States we have been blessed by God to not have faced a national famine. If there is a shortage in one part of the country, there is land enough to make up for it in another, but other countries, nonindustrial (third world) do not have this pleasure. Think of Sudan, Ethiopia, and in fact, over 75% of the world cannot feed itself. The young man found himself in dire straits. Reality hit him in the face, just as the hunger hit his gut. Gary Inrig writes, “Desperation knows no pride, and the young man not lives with the pigs, he is willing to eat with them.”
“No one gave him anything,” what a sad commentary. Once wealthy, now hungry and in shambles. I am reminded of Horace Tabor and his wife Baby Doe. One of the richest men in America. A man who flaunted the wealth he made from his silver mines in Colorado. Then in the 1890s, the silver boom, busted. Gold became the only standard. The powerful man, once a senator, is reduced to a postal clerk and when he dies he leaves a worthless mine to Baby Doe who is found years later, penniless and frozen to death. There was no wealth to save either of them and they died in sickness and squalor.
Remember, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. They would have been content to leave the wretched lad in the pigpen, saying he deserved it. But Jesus goes on with the parable. The motivation for his thinking to return to rightly to him may have been hunger, but repentance is there for he wants to return to his father. Greg Lane has accurately said, “Any fun or pleasure that can be achieved outside of the Father’s House will eventually end.” It took a while; it took the loss of everything along with hunger to finally bring the man to his senses. “There is an insanity to sin,” said Gary Inrig. Think of it–leaving the Father’s House and now sits in the mud with the pigs. Henry Harbuck translates it this way, “But finally he came to his senses–realizing how depraved he had become.” Harbuck continues in the same verse, “all the numerous hired servants have enough food and even some to spare, [but I am] starving and almost dead from hunger!”
What did it take for the young man to come to his senses? The pigpen–with its slop, mud, and excrement. Hunger, for he was almost starving. And I wonder, was there also a hunger not only for the food to be found at his father’s house, but also the truth of God’s Word that was taught there? “We can never find ourselves in sinful indulgence. There is often more truth in the pigpen of consequences than in the banquet halls of revelry.” (Inrig) Party, party-hardy and where will it take you? This man left home to be free and found himself in bondage serving the pigs. I like the way Barclay puts this, “Jesus believed that so long as a man was away from God he was not truly himself; he was only truly himself when he was on the way home.”
Live with the pigs in the slop [of sin] or go home to the Father. That’s the choice before the young man, and many others. Once decided the person can then start to become the person that God intended; he can then begin to live as one of God’s children. If you find yourself in a condition similar to this Wayward Son, get up out of the slime and slop, come to your senses, and start on your way home.