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Christ’s Object Lessons
If you have chosen such a life, you know that you are spending
money for that which is not bread, and labor for that which satisfieth
not. There come to you hours when you realize your degradation.
Alone in the far country you feel your misery, and in despair you cry,
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?”
Romans 7:24
. It is the statement of a universal truth which
is contained in the prophet’s words, “Cursed be the man that trusteth
in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from
the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not
see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the
wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.”
Jeremiah 17:5, 6
. God
“maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain
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on the just and on the unjust” (
Matthew 5:45
); but men have the power
to shut themselves away from sunshine and shower. So while the Sun
of Righteousness shines, and the showers of grace fall freely for all,
we may by separating ourselves from God still “inhabit the parched
places in the wilderness.”
The love of God still yearns over the one who has chosen to sepa-
rate from Him, and He sets in operation influences to bring him back
to the Father’s house. The prodigal son in his wretchedness “came to
himself.” The deceptive power that Satan had exercised over him was
broken. He saw that his suffering was the result of his own folly, and
he said, “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough
and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father.”
Miserable as he was, the prodigal found hope in the conviction of his
father’s love. It was that love which was drawing him toward home.
So it is the assurance of God’s love that constrains the sinner to return
to God. “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”
Romans
2:4
. A golden chain, the mercy and compassion of divine love, is
passed around every imperiled soul. The Lord declares, “I have loved
thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I
drawn thee.”
Jeremiah 31:3
.
The son determines to confess his guilt. He will go to his father,
saying, “I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no
more worthy to be called thy son.” But he adds, showing how stinted
is his conception of his father’s love, “Make me as one of thy hired
servants.”