30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 15 11-32 To seek and the save the lost - The prodigal son 31 Labourers, who are in tune with God
📖 Luke 15:11-32
13Mar2020 - *Labourers, who are in tune with God* - _Luke 15:11-32_ - Bible reading: _Isaiah 59:14-16_
_Luke 15:25-30 “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. (26) So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. (27) And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.' (28) "But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. (29) So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. (30) But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.'_
Yesterday, we said that the priority of our life is the gospel or His word. If this is not so, our life will fall apart. _Mark 8:35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it._
We see that the elder brother/Pharisees, were not concerned that the lost be found and that the dead come back to life. Our choices in life reveal our priority. If our choices are made on the basis of saving our life and not the gospel, then, claiming that we are burdened for the lost is hypocrisy.
The younger son had returned and the celebration had begun. The elder brother was not in tune with the heart of the father at all. He asked the servant what the celebration was about. He should have rushed into the house to know for himself but the fact that he stayed outside and enquired from the servant shows that there was already a coldness in his relationship with his father.
The servant’s answer to the older son is revealing. _“Your brother has come…”_ is what the servant said. In the servant’s perception, this was such a joyful occasion and the older brother should be thrilled that *his brother* had returned. Whereas, the older son’s response to his father, when he pleaded with him to come in was, _“this son of yours…” not ‘my brother’.
All of this shows how distant the older son was from the grief of the father. He did not share his father’s pain. God longs that we be in tune with the pain of His heart. God longed for the people of Nineveh to repent and when they did, God relented from doing them harm.
_Jonah 3:10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it._ Look at Jonah’s response to the ways of God. _Jonah 4:1-3 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. (2) So he prayed to the LORD, and said, "Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm. (3) Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!"_
The Jonah story is about a prophet, who was not in tune with the heart of God.
Consider God’s grief. _Isaiah 59:14-16 Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands afar off; For truth is fallen in the street, And equity cannot enter. (15) So truth fails, And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him That there was no justice. (16) He saw that there was no man, And wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him._ God wondered that there was no intercessor. God wonders that there are none, who share His pain.
*Thought to ponder*
Will you put your hand up to be counted by God that you will share His grief and pain and be an intercessor?