A brother, speaking to Sunday school children, talked about how wonderful it is to “belong”: to belong to someone or to be able to say of something, “That belongs to me.” To illustrate his point, he asked the children if they could tell him anything that belonged to them. He received three wonderful answers.
The first, a boy, answered the question by saying that his “coat” belonged to him, while the second, a girl, said that her “Bible” belonged to her. It was, however, the answer that the third, a little boy sitting in the front row by his father, gave which specially touched our heart. When asked what he had that belonged to him, he said simply and eloquently, “My daddy.”
His confidence in and love for his father were obvious in this sweet and simple two-word response. It was very touching to be thus reminded of the value of a father who has won the confidence and trust of his little boy. It is a vital thing, much to be desired, that our beloved children see in their fathers a personal and precious “belonging”! Where this condition is so, in the home or in the assembly, there will be wonderful opportunity for the nourishing and preserving of our children, who are growing up in this morally dark world.
The account of the prodigal’s brother in Luke 15 suggests important principles which may be used, we believe, with great profit for fathers who desire that the same wonderful relationship which our little friend expressed might exist in their families.
First, then, we notice in Luke 15:2525Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. (Luke 15:25) that the “elder son was in the field.” Energetic and industrious as he may have been, he could not experience the joy of communion with the father’s heart in a place outside the father’s presence. In the field he was occupied with service and work; those in the presence of the father in the house were occupied with music and dancing.
We are reminded of Saul, whose father Kish sent him to seek the lost asses. After a time, Saul and his servant turned their steps towards his father’s house, “lest,” he says, “my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us.” May we fathers be careful (both in our families and in the assembly) that it is our children, not their service or abilities, which are important to us. It would be a sad home or assembly where the children’s value was measured by their abilities and service. Let us cultivate in our children a desire for that joy which fellowship provides!
The prodigal’s brother not only missed the joy of the father’s fellowship; he missed the father’s counsel and instruction. Thus it was left to a servant to explain the circumstances that were then taking place in the house (ch. 15:26). At the very beginning of the book of Proverbs the father pleads with his beloved son to “hear” his “instruction” (ch. 1:8). Let us be careful not to get these two things (fellowship and instruction) out of their moral order. The joy and communion of the father’s presence must come first if the father’s instruction is to have its greatest benefit.
Upon hearing the good news of his younger brother’s repentance and return, the elder brother displays an unforgiving spirit (ch. 15:28). Earlier, his service had denied him fellowship with his father; now his anger denies it. Let us who are fathers be first in displaying before our children the spirit of Ephesians 4:3232And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32): “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” If children do not see this spirit displayed in fathers, how can they be expected to display it in their own lives?
The reaction of the father to all this sad display is humbling and beautiful! The proud, haughty, elder son would not go in to the father, so in love and grace the father goes out to him. How beautiful and humble real, divine love is, and to what lengths it takes a father who is seeking the blessing of his beloved children! We know that each circumstance is different, and only personal communion with God can give the needed wisdom for fathers. But let us remind our hearts that love covers “a multitude of sins” and that the “father spirit” as seen in the beloved Apostle Paul would always “very gladly spend and be spent for you” (2 Cor. 12:1515And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. (2 Corinthians 12:15)).
Even the self-righteous son’s disdain of the father’s forgiveness of his brother does not stop the flow of the father’s love (ch. 15:29-32). His sad, legal spirit only brings a gracious confirmation of that same father’s love for him: “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” What tender, loving and affectionate words! Grace triumphs over legality, even as it triumphed over sin when the repentant prodigal came home!
Then we see that the father’s love is tempered by his wisdom. He utters not one word of encouragement regarding the bad temper of his eldest son. Rather, his loving answer serves as a striking rebuke to that unforgiving spirit. Love does not need to use harshness when it heaps “coals of fire on his head.” The father’s joy and happiness at the return of the once morally dead younger brother may finally have touched a cord in the elder brother’s heart and conscience. The father was not “overcome of evil,” but overcame “evil with good.”
We hope, after all this, the elder son’s legal spirit was greatly subdued and his hard heart so melted that, in time, he too was able to say, “My father, his love and his house belong to me!”
Ed.