Daily EncouragementSample

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is also the Parable of the Elder Brother. We tend to neglect him, possibly because we are too much like him! How excellent a fellow he was. We meet him coming from the field, fully occupied in his father’s work. His service was of long standing, with a fine record of obedience. Doubtless there was no trace of vice in his private life. Any church would have taken him in! Yet in truth his condition was tragic. He was out of sympathy with his father’s heart. He had no concern for his brother, and felt no joy at his return. He served his father as a slave rather than as a son. He was completely self-centred, as his words reveal. What a picture of a Christian who has lost the joy of his salvation! How gracious a father he had - “So his father went out and pleaded with him.” This is how God deals with such elder brothers. Says a famous Scottish preacher, “This whole business of the adjustment of your relation to God as one of perfect love, is his not yours. It is not you that have to go to Him; He comes to you.”