The Prodigal Son by Arthur W. Pink

Author:Arthur W. Pink
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Chapel Library
Published: 2012-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

3. The Prodigal’s Reception

How many an exercised heart has wondered what sort of a reception he would meet with if he came to God. Blessed it is to ponder the closing portion of the third part of this matchless parable. In expounding the significance of what is recorded of this “prodigal son” as he departed from the “father,” we have seen portrayed the representative experiences of the sinner. As we turn now to the happy sequel, we shall see that what happened to him as he returned to the “father” also pictures the representative experiences of the believer.

“And he arose, and came to his father, But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (verse 20). How inexpressibly blessed this is! Five things (the number of grace) are here predicated of “his father.” First, when he was yet a great way off his father “saw him.” And what does this tell us? Why, that the father was looking out for him! The father was eagerly waiting for him. And how keen are love’s eyes! Even while he was yet a “great way off” his father saw him. But how solemnly this brings out the distance in which by nature we were from God! Even after the sinner has “come to himself,” and turned his back upon the “far country,” and has set his face homewards, he is “yet a great way off!” Nevertheless, all praise to His sovereign grace, “But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:13).

Second, his father “had compassion.” The “prodigal” must have presented a miserable appearance: he had devoured his living with harlots (:30)—the illicit love for the things of the world, instead of loving God with “all our hearts”—he had suffered the effects of the “mighty famine” (:14), and he had gone out into the fields to “feed swine” (:15). What a pitiable object he must have been! Yet did his father have “compassion” on him! And O dear Christian reader, how did you and I look just before the Father received us? Understandings darkened, hearts desperately wicked, wills rebellious, minds at enmity against Him, with “no good thing” in us! Nevertheless, “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5).

Third, his father “ran” to meet him. We do not read of the “prodigal” running as he set out to return to his “father.” All that is said of him is that “he arose, and came to his father.” But of the “father” it is said that he “ran!” Do you know dear reader, that this is the only verse in all the Bible which represents God as being in a hurry! In the restoration of the ruined earth He acted orderly, we might say leisurely.

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