13 `And not many days after, having gathered all together, the younger son went abroad to a far country, and there he scattered his substance, living riotously;
`And -- a certain man was rich, and was clothed in purple and fine linen, making merry sumptuously every day,
And he said also unto his disciples, `A certain man was rich, who had a steward, and he was accused to him as scattering his goods;
As a bird wandering from her nest, So `is' a man wandering from his place.
A man loving wisdom rejoiceth his father, And a friend of harlots destroyeth wealth.
Rejoice, O young man, in thy childhood, And let thy heart gladden thee in days of thy youth, And walk in the ways of thy heart, And in the sight of thine eyes, And know thou that for all these, Doth God bring thee into judgment. And turn aside anger from thy heart, And cause evil to pass from thy flesh, For the childhood and the age `are' vanity!
Ah, sinning nation, a people heavy `with' iniquity, A seed of evil doers, sons -- corrupters! They have forsaken Jehovah, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have gone away backward.
And lo, joy and gladness, slaying of oxen, And slaughtering of sheep, Eating of flesh, and drinking of wine, Eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.
`Come ye, I take wine, And we drink, quaff strong drink, And as this day hath been to-morrow, Great -- exceeding abundant!'
Thus said Jehovah: What -- have your fathers found in Me perversity, That they have gone far off from Me, And go after the vanity, and become vain,
Dost thou not do this to thyself? `By' thy forsaking Jehovah thy God, At the time He is leading thee in the way? And now, what -- to thee in the way of Egypt, To drink the waters of Sihor? And what -- to thee in the way of Asshur, To drink the waters of the River? Instruct thee doth thy wickedness, And thy backslidings reprove thee, Know and see that an evil and a bitter thing `Is' thy forsaking Jehovah thy God, And My fear not being on thee, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah of Hosts.
O generation, see ye the word of Jehovah: A wilderness have I been to Israel? A land of thick darkness? Wherefore have My people said, `We mourned, We come not in again unto Thee.'
Who are putting away the day of evil, And ye bring nigh the seat of violence, Who are lying down on beds of ivory, And are spread out on their couches, And are eating lambs from the flock, And calves from the midst of the stall, Who are taking part according to the psaltery, Like David they invented for themselves instruments of music; Who are drinking with bowls of wine, And `with' chief perfumes anoint `themselves', And have not been pained for the breach of Joseph. Therefore now they remove at the head of the captives, And turned aside is the mourning-feast of stretched-out ones.
O My people, what have I done to thee? And what -- have I wearied thee? Testify against Me.
but when thy son -- this one who did devour thy living with harlots -- came, thou didst kill to him the fatted calf.
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, And make happy in the way thy heart, Be not thou among quaffers of wine, Among gluttonous ones of flesh, For the quaffer and glutton become poor, And drowsiness clotheth with rags. Hearken to thy father, who begat thee, And despise not thy mother when she hath become old.
A treasure to be desired, and oil, `Is' in the habitation of the wise, And a foolish man swalloweth it up.
Whoso `is' loving mirth `is' a poor man, Whoso is loving wine and oil maketh no wealth.
For a harlot consumeth unto a cake of bread, And an adulteress the precious soul hunteth.
Keep far from off her thy way, And come not near unto the opening of her house, Lest thou give to others thy honour, And thy years to the fierce, Lest strangers be filled `with' thy power, And thy labours in the house of a stranger, And thou hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food, And hast said, `How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised, And I have not hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear. As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a company.
The wicked according to the height of his face, inquireth not. `God is not!' `are' all his devices. Pain do his ways at all times, On high `are' Thy judgments before him, All his adversaries -- he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, `I am not moved,' To generation and generation not in evil.
Those saying to God, `Turn aside from us,' And what doth the Mighty One to them? And he hath filled their houses `with' good: (And the counsel of the wicked Hath been far from me.)
A son of twelve years is Manasseh in his reigning, and fifty and five years he hath reigned in Jerusalem; and he doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, like the abominations of the nations that Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel, and he turneth and buildeth the high places that Hezekiah his father hath broken down, and raiseth altars for Baalim, and maketh shrines, and boweth himself to all the host of the heavens, and serveth them. And he hath built altars in the house of Jehovah of which Jehovah had said, `In Jerusalem is My name to the age.' And he buildeth altars to all the host of the heavens in the two courts of the house of Jehovah. And he hath caused his sons to pass over through fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and observed clouds and used enchantments and witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and a wizard; he hath multiplied to do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger. And he placeth the graven image of the idol that he made in the house of God, of which God said unto David, and unto Solomon his son, `In this house, and in Jerusalem that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I put My name to the age, and I add not to turn aside the foot of Israel from off the ground that I appointed to your fathers, only, if they watch to do all that I have commanded them -- to all the law, and the statutes, and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.' And Manasseh maketh Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, to do evil above the nations that Jehovah destroyed from the presence of the sons of Israel. And Jehovah speaketh unto Manasseh and unto his people, and they have not attended,
as in day-time, let us walk becomingly; not in revellings and drunkennesses, not in chamberings and lasciviousnesses, not in strife and emulation; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and for the flesh take no forethought -- for desires.
for sufficient to us `is' the past time of life the will of the nations to have wrought, having walked in lasciviousnesses, desires, excesses of wines, revelings, drinking-bouts, and unlawful idolatries, in which they think it strange -- your not running with them to the same excess of dissoluteness, speaking evil,
and having come, he did proclaim good news -- peace to you -- the far-off and the nigh,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Luke 15
Commentary on Luke 15 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 15
Lu 15:1-32. Publicans and Sinners Welcomed by Christ—Three Parables to Explain This.
1. drew near … all the publicans and sinners, &c.—drawn around Him by the extraordinary adaptation of His teaching to their case, who, till He appeared—at least His forerunner—might well say, "No man careth for my soul."
2. murmured, saying, &c.—took it ill, were scandalized at Him, and insinuated (on the principle that a man is known by the company he keeps) that He must have some secret sympathy with their character. But oh, what a truth of unspeakable preciousness do their lips, as on other occasions, unconsciously utter., Now follow three parables representing the sinner: (1) in his stupidity; (2) as all-unconscious of his lost condition; (3) knowingly and willingly estranged from God [Bengel]. The first two set forth the seeking love of God; the last, His receiving love [Trench].
Lu 15:3-7. I. The Lost Sheep.
3-7. Occurring again (Mt 18:12-14); but there to show how precious one of His sheep is to the Good Shepherd; here, to show that the shepherd, though the sheep stray never so widely, will seek it out, and when he hath found, will rejoice over it.
4. leave the ninety and nine—bend all His attention and care, as it were, to the one object of recovering the lost sheep; not saying. "It is but one; let it go; enough remain."
go after … until, &c.—pointing to all the diversified means which God sets in operation for recovering sinners.
6. Rejoice with me, &c.—The principle here is, that one feels exuberant joy to be almost too much for himself to bear alone, and is positively relieved by having others to share it with him. (See on Lu 15:10).
7. ninety-nine just … needing no repentance—not angels, whose place in these parables is very different from this; but those represented by the prodigal's well-behaved brother, who have "served their Father" many years and not at any time transgressed His commandment (in the outrageous sense of the prodigal). (See on Lu 15:29; Lu 15:31). In other words, such as have grown up from childhood in the fear of God and as the sheep of His pasture. Our Lord does not say "the Pharisees and scribes" were such; but as there was undoubtedly such a class, while "the publicans and sinners" were confessedly the strayed sheep and the prodigal children, He leaves them to fill up the place of the other class, if they could.
Lu 15:8-10. II. The Lost Coin.
8. sweep the house—"not done without dust on man's part" [Bengel].
10. Likewise—on the same principle.
joy, &c.—Note carefully the language here—not "joy on the part," but "joy in the presence of the angels of God." True to the idea of the parables. The Great Shepherd. The Great Owner Himself, is He whose the joy properly is over His own recovered property; but so vast and exuberant is it (Zec 8:17), that as if He could not keep it to Himself, He "calleth His friends and neighbors together"—His whole celestial family—saying, "Rejoice WITH Me, for I have found My sheep-My-piece," &c. In this sublime sense it is "joy," before "or in the presence of the angels"; they only "catch the flying joy," sharing it with Him! The application of this to the reception of those publicans and sinners that stood around our Lord is grand in the extreme: "Ye turn from these lost ones with disdain, and because I do not the same, ye murmur at it: but a very different feeling is cherished in heaven. There, the recovery of even one such outcast is watched with interest and hailed with joy; nor are they left to come home of themselves or perish; for lo! even now the great Shepherd is going after His lost sheep, and the Owner is making diligent search for the lost property; and He is finding it, too, and bringing it back with joy, and all heaven is full of it." (Let the reader mark what sublime claims Himself our Lord covertly puts in here—as if in Him they beheld, all unknown to themselves, nothing less than heaven in the habiliments of earth, the Great Shepherd above, clothed in a garment of flesh, come "to seek and to save that which was lost")!
Lu 15:11-32. III. The Prodigal Son.
12. the younger—as the more thoughtless.
said, &c.—weary of restraint, panting for independence, unable longer to abide the check of a father's eye. This is man impatient of divine control, desiring to be independent of God, seeking to be his own master; that "sin of sins, in which all subsequent sins are included as in their germ, for they are but the unfolding of this one" [Trench].
he divided, &c.—Thus "God, when His service no longer appears a perfect freedom, and man promises himself something far better elsewhere, allows him to make the trial; and he shall discover, if need be by saddest proof, that to depart from Him is not to throw off the yoke, but to exchange a light yoke for a heavy one, and one gracious Master for a thousand imperious tyrants and lords" [Trench].
13. not many days—intoxicated with his new—found resources, and eager for the luxury of using them at Will.
a far country—beyond all danger of interference from home.
wasted, &c.—So long as it lasted, the inward monitor (Isa 55:2) would be silenced (Isa 9:10; 57:10; Am 4:6-10).
riotous living—(Lu 15:30), "with harlots." Ah! but this reaches farther than the sensualist; for "in the deep symbolical language of Scripture fornication is the standing image of idolatry; they are in fact ever spoken of as one and the same sin, considered now in its fleshly, now in its spiritual aspect" (Jer 3:1-15; Eze 16:1-17:24) [Trench].
14. when he had spent all … a mighty famine—a mysterious providence holding back the famine till he was in circumstances to feel it in all its rigor. Thus, like Jonah, whom the storm did not overtake till on the mighty deep at the mercy of the waves, does the sinner feel as if "the stars in their courses were fighting against" him (Jud 5:20).
in want—the first stage of his bitter experience, and preparation for a change.
15. joined himself, &c.—his pride not yet humbled, unable to brook the shame of a return.
to feed swine—glad to keep life anyhow, behold the son sank into a swineherd—among the Jews, on account of the prohibition of swine's flesh, emphatically vile! "He who begins by using the world as a servant, to minister to his pleasure, ends by reversing the relationship" [Trench].
16. would fain have filled—rather, "was fain to fill," ate greedily of the only food he could get.
the husks—"the hulls of a leguminous plant which in the East is the food of cattle and swine, and often the nourishment of the poorest in times of distress" [Stier].
no man gave … him—not this food, for that he had, but anything better (Jer 30:14). This was his lowest depth—perishing unpitied, alone in the world, and ready to disappear from it unmissed! But this is just the blessed turning-point; midnight before dawn of day (2Ch 12:8; 33:11-13; Jer 2:19).
17. came to himself—Before, he had been "beside himself" (Ec 9:3), in what sense will presently appear.
How many hired, &c.—What a testimony to the nature of the home he had left! But did he not know all this ere he departed and every day of his voluntary exile? He did, and he did not. His heart being wholly estranged from home and steeped in selfish gratification, his father's house never came within the range of his vision, or but as another name for bondage and gloom. Now empty, desolate, withered, perishing, home, with all its peace, plenty, freedom, dignity, starts into view, fills all his visions as a warm and living reality, and breaks his heart.
18. I will arise and go to my FATHER—The change has come at last, and what a change!—couched in terms of such exquisite simplicity and power as if expressly framed for all heart-broken penitents.
Father, &c.—Mark the term. Though "no more worthy to be called his son," the prodigal sinner is taught to claim the defiled, but still existing relationship, asking not to be made a servant, but remaining a son to be made "as a servant," willing to take the lowest place and do the meanest work. Ah! and is it come to this? Once it was, "Any place rather than home." Now, "Oh, that home! Could I but dare to hope that the door of it would not be closed against me, how gladly would I take any place and do any worK, happy only to be there at all." Well, that is conversion—nothing absolutely new, yet all new; old familiar things seen in a new light and for the first time as realities of overwhelming magnitude and power. How this is brought about the parable says not. (We have that abundantly elsewhere, Php 2:13, &c.). Its one object is to paint the welcome home of the greatest sinners, when (no matter for the present how) they "arise and go to their Father."
20. a great way off—Oh yes, when but the face is turned homeward, though as yet far, far away, our Father recognizes His own child in us, and bounds to meet us—not saying, Let him come to Me and sue for pardon first, but Himself taking the first step.
fell on his neck and kissed him—What! In all his filth? Yes. In all his rags? Yes. In all his haggard, shattered wretchedness? Yes. "Our Father who art in heaven," is this Thy portraiture? It is even so (Jer 31:20). And because it is so, I wonder not that such incomparable teaching hath made the world new.
21. Father, I have sinned, &c.—"This confession is uttered after the kiss of reconciliation" (Eze 16:63) [Trench].
22. But the Father said, &c.—The son has not said all he purposed, not so much, because the father's demonstrations had rekindled the filial, and swallowed up all servile feeling [Trench] (on the word "Father," see on Lu 15:18), but because the father's heart is made to appear too full to listen, at that moment, to more in this strain.
the best robe—Compare Zec 3:4, 5, "Take away the filthy garments from him; behold I have clothed thee with change of raiment; and they clothed him with garments" (Isa 61:10; Re 3:18).
a ring—(Compare Ge 41:42; Jas 2:2).
shoes—Slaves went barefoot. Thus, we have here a threefold symbol of freedom and honor, restored, as the fruit of perfect reconciliation.
23. the fatted calf—kept for festive occasions.
24. my son—now twice his son.
dead … lost—to me; to himself—to my service, my satisfaction; to his own dignity, peace, profit.
alive again … found—to all these.
merry—(See on Lu 15:10).
25. in the field—engaged in his father's business: compare Lu 15:29, "These many years do I serve thee."
28. came his father out, and entreated him—"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him" (Ps 103:13). As it is the elder brother who now errs, so it is the same paternal compassion which had fallen on the neck of the younger that comes forth and pleads with the elder.
29. these many years … neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment—The words are not to be pressed too far. He is merely contrasting his constancy of love and service with the conduct of his brother; just as Job, resenting the charge of hypocrisy by his friends, speaks as if nothing could be laid to his charge (Job 23:10-12), and David too (Ps 18:20-24). The father attests the truth of all he says.
never … a kid—I say not a calf, but not even a kid.
that I might make merry with my friends—Here lay his misapprehension. It was no entertainment for the gratification of the prodigal: it was a father's expression of the joy he felt at his recovery.
thy son … thy living—How unworthy a reflection on the common father of both, for the one not only to disown the other, but fling him over upon his father, as if he should say, Take him, and have joy of him!
31. Son, &c.—The father resents not the insult—how could he, after the largeness of heart which had kissed the returning prodigal? He calmly expostulates with him, "Son, listen to reason. What need for special, exuberant joy over thee? Didst thou say, 'Lo, these many years do I serve thee?' In that saidst thou truly; but just for that reason do I not set the whole household a-rejoicing over thee. For thee is reserved what is higher still—a tranquil lifelong satisfaction in thee, as a true-hearted faithful son in thy father's house, nor of the inheritance reserved for thee is aught alienated by this festive and fitting joy over the once foolish but now wise and newly recovered one."
32. It was meet—Was it possible he should simply take his long vacant place in the family without one special sign of wonder and delight at the change? Would that have been nature? But this being the meaning of the festivity, it would for that very reason be temporary. In time, the dutifulness of even the younger son would become the law and not the exception; he too at length might venture to say, "Lo, these many years do I serve thee"; and of him the father would say, "Son, thou art ever with me." In that case, therefore, it would not be "meet that they should make merry and be glad." The lessons are obvious, but how beautiful! (1) The deeper sunk and the longer estranged any sinner is, the more exuberant is the joy which his recovery occasions. (2) Such joy is not the portion of those whose whole lives have been spent in the service of their Father in heaven. (3) Instead of grudging the want of this, they should deem it the highest testimony to their lifelong fidelity, that something better is reserved for them—the deep, abiding complacency of their Father in heaven.