“The Younger Son” (Part 2)
The younger of two sons took all his inheritance and wasted it in prodigal (riotous) living. He apparently had no backup plan for when he ran out of money; he truly subscribed to the “Let’s Live for Today” philosophy. However, reality caught up with him, and he could no longer pay his bills (Luke 15:14). Had he made no friends—either male or female? Where are they in his hour of need? None are mentioned. All he could think to do was to join himself to a citizen of that far country to which he had traveled. This translation is found five other times in the New Testament: 1) After Ananias and Sapphira died, no one “dared join them” (the disciples, Acts 5:13); 2) Philip was told to “join” himself to the Ethiopian eunuch’s chariot (Acts 8:29); 3) Saul tried to “join” himself to the disciples after his conversion (Acts 9:26); 4) Although it was immoral, one could be “joined to a harlot” (1 Cor. 6:16); and 5) It was preferable instead to be “joined to the Lord” (1 Cor. 6:17).
This cleaving to the citizen evidently involved doing whatever work the man wanted done. The man “sent him into his fields to feed swine” (Luke 15:15). A good Jewish man would have nothing to do with swine. How embarrassing it was to have such a job! Furthermore, his pay seems to only have involved a place to stay; he was not receiving three square meals a day because he was coveting the pods the swine ate. According to Strong, this “fruit was shaped like a horn” and had “a sweet taste; it was and is used not only for fattening swine, but as an article of food by the lower classes.”
Food at home was much better—and he didn’t have to fight hogs at mealtime! Surely, he was reminded of how far he had fallen socially. At home, he was probably respected by the servants; he had plenty of food to eat, and he had family members as company. He came from an atmosphere of love and sharing to a country of desolation and no comfort: “no one gave him anything” (Luke 15:16). Many people profited from all the money he had spent there, but none of them regarded him as family or friend. He was now destitute. And there is no one else to blame.
Finally, he came to himself (v. 17). This was a mental journey rather than a physical one. He traveled in his thoughts from what he had freely given up to the place he was now. No comparison. Plenty versus famine. Wealth versus poverty. Family and friends versus swine. What had he been thinking? The pleasures of sin and immediate gratification? What he had left behind may have been a more Stoic existence, even at times requiring sacrifice, but the outcome was far more livable than his own plan. He thought of home and how servants fared far better than he now was. And he had learned a valuable lesson—humility. He would acknowledge his sin and unworthiness and not even ask to be treated as a son (15:17-19).