| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 36 |
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The story moves swiftly. “Not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey.” From many a home door young men have gone forth to begin a noble career — brave knights to redress wrong; heroic soldiers to fight for country; missionaries to carry the gospel to darkened lands. Then the departure was honorable. But this prodigal’s going forth waste to shame, dishonor, and wretchedness.
Mark the haste. It was not many days after he had demanded his portion when we see him on his way to the far country. Sin’s course is swift. When a man has broken away from God’s control, he is eager to leave God’s presence. Our first parents, after they had sinned, hid themselves from God among the trees. When you have done wrong to a friend you dread to meet him. Sin makes us ashamed to look into God’s face. The prodigal could not now endure his father’s loving presence, and quickly went away.
The story of sin is always the same — a story of want and ruin. In the far country the prodigal wasted his substance with riotous living. His money was soon gone. But money is not all of a man’s “substance.” Indeed, money is really not substance at all. It is the most uncertain unsubstantial thing a man has. Life is substance. Character is substance. Manhood is substance. An artist bought a piece of canvas for a few cents. He then put a picture upon it — an immortal creation — and it was sold for more than a hundred thousand dollars. God put His own image on the soul of man, and now a human life is priceless. Man is God’s child, but a little lower than God.
Thus we have hints of the meaning of the “substance” which the prodigal wasted. If money were all a man wasted when he plunges into a sinful life, it was a small matter. Men often lose money, and are still rich as ever, because manhood is left, character is left. But when one goes into sin, though his money remain, thought he is still a millionaire, he has wasted that which is worth infinitely more than money — God’s blessed, infinite gift of life.
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