It is an old, familiar story, that story of the “Prodigal Son”—the wayward son. We have read in the Bible of the prodigal’s return; we like to hear how the wanderer was welcomed back to his father’s house, but too often we stop at the end of that and forget that “a certain man had two sons.” What about the elder son? What became of him?
We read in Luke 15 that “he came and drew nigh to the house,” and, hearing the music and dancing, he wanted to know what it was all about. Have you ever wondered what made your Christian relatives and friends so happy? And have you asked yourself what it all meant?
They have told you how they were once in “the far country” but have now been brought to God, and they are glad. Well, then, how about you? Are you still near the house, listening to the music, but outside? Why? The door is open for you, the same door by which the younger brother was taken in.
The elder brother “was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him.” The servant stands aside, and the master of the house comes out himself to “entreat.” “As though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
How blessed! God can thus “come out” to entreat, for the Saviour has been right down into the very depths of death to enable a holy God to come out in righteousness as well as grace and save all that “come unto God by Him.”
Do you join hands with this poor elder son in his answer to his father’s entreaties? “Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.” Look at what his answer is made up of: pride, self-righteousness and selfishness. Pride, in his length of service—self-righteousness, in his claim never to have transgressed—and utter selfishness, as shown in his complaint that his father had never given him a kid that he might make merry with his friends. He did not want his father’s company; he wanted only the gift that he might enjoy it with his friends.
Pause and think! You are either inside, rejoicing in company with the Father and happy in His joy at having His lost one back, or else outside, refusing to come in. “Angry, and would not come in”: proud, in standing up in your own strength before Him; self-righteous, in clinging to your own morality apart from Him; and selfish, in refusing Him the joy of blessing you according to His own heart.
You may know all this; you may have often heard “the old, old story” from some relative or friend, and sometimes you like to think of its sweetness, but you don’t like “to make a profession.” You are young, maybe, and life is before you. Take care! The day is near when that door, now kept open by the mercy of a God of love, will be closed forever on those who would not go in. Oh, now, before it is too late, let Him have His joy in blessing you with all that He has.