ICS Daily Devotions
Come Home
Luke 15:12-15 (NKJV) 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. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and 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 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.
This parable not only shows forth God’s divine nature, His unmerited favour and unlimited compassion versus the great need of man, it also illustrates how God reacts to outright rebellion and the sins of man.
When the younger son asked for his inheritance before his father’s death, he was in reality asking his father to die. Sadly, many people also want their inheritance without a relationship with God, because they want to live their lives apart from God and be free from the Father’s care. They wish that God were dead or would just be a prosperity God who would bless them when they need but leave them alone otherwise.
Oftentimes, college students have moved away from home, their parents and accountability, only to find that enjoying their new-found freedom have landed them right on their faces. They had felt restrained at home and attracted by the world. The beginning of all sins is when we no longer enjoy God’s presence, His love, and His ways. We become restless when we can’t find satisfaction in God, but if we don’t attach ourselves to God, we will either attach to someone or something else, such as drugs, alcohol, money, sex, a sport, a hobby, TV shows, the computer, an employer or even a spouse.
Many of us want to be free and be our own lord. The prodigal son’s rebellion and downward course illustrate the terrible toll of sin in human lives. The son was totally humiliated by the people whom he worked for as pigs are considered unclean by the Jews, but he was at such a low point of his life that he was feeding pigs and desired to eat whatever was fed to them. However, this was not a punishment from the Father, because Scripture says a man reaps what he sows.
Galatians 6:7-8 (NKJV) Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
Unlike the prodigal son in the passage, many prodigals refuse to come home because they are concerned about what their parents, family or friends would say, but Jesus is using this parable to say, “Come home from sin, from a broken relationship, and from the sting of this world! Come Home!”
Sermon Series: The Love of the Father (The Compassionate Father and the Two Lost Sons)
