The Prodigal Son Feeding Pigs in the FamineBibleWorld
15:15Luke 15:15
And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
The verse shows the younger son after wasting his inheritance in reckless indulgence in a far country, where famine and want drive him to attach himself to a citizen of that land who sends him into the fields to feed swine. Feeding swine was the lowest and most degrading work, especially for a Jew, and his taking it reveals the depth of his poverty, humiliation and lost condition, friendless, ragged and hungry and perishing with hunger. His boasted liberty has become harsh bondage, for in joining himself to the citizen he is joined to sin and to the service of Satan, serving sin for poor wages with no hope of eternal life. His misery does not mean God has left him, for God in pitying love still seeks the wanderer while in rebellion and waits to receive the repentant with forgiveness, restoration and rejoicing. In his suffering he is brought to feel his need, remember his father's abundant provision and return in humble confession, and those in his low condition are to be met with pity, sympathy and free forgiveness rather than censure or reproach.
Prodigal's Plight in Far Country
The verse shows the younger son after he had squandered his inheritance in reckless, sinful indulgence and pleasure in a distant, strange country, where famine and want drove him to go and join, attach and bind himself to a citizen of that country who sent him into his fields to feed swine. This joining marks the depth of his poverty and lost condition.
Feeding swine was the lowest, most disreputable, menial and degrading work, especially for a Jew, and his willingness to take it shows desperate need and the depth of his poverty, lost condition and humiliation. He was left friendless, ragged, hungry, emaciated, destitute and longing even for the swine's husks, far from home and perishing with hunger. His fallen state was brought upon himself by separating himself from his father.
The verse belongs to the parable of the lost son, told with the lost sheep and lost piece of silver, which presents the Lord's dealings with those who have known the Father's love but have been led captive by the tempter and whose separation from the Father leads into hardship and degradation. Its desperate condition does not mean God has left such a one, for God remains kind and tender toward those exposed to temptation.
Christ told the story to illustrate immortal truth from facts of life and daily experience familiar to His hearers, gathering spiritual teaching from the surroundings of daily life. He came right to the point without long, farfetched, complicated reasoning, to commend truth to the conscience, touch the heart and awaken sympathies, drawing from His treasure things new and old while leaving hearers free to accept or reject without force. So given, the illustration was to interest every mind and appeal to every heart, so that the daily task instead of being a mere round of toil would be brightened and uplifted by constant reminders of the spiritual and the unseen.
The parable presents such sinners as people in need of a Saviour, far from the Father's house and wasting what they had, perishing with hunger in a strange country and separated from the Father. Their misery stands in contrast to the rich provision, abundant bread, privileges and bounties freely enjoyed even by the Father's hired servants.
Sin's Freedom Becomes Bondage
The son deliberately separated himself from his father so that he could manage his inheritance exactly as he pleased and escape his father's counsel, correction and advice. He rejected the restraints of home in search of liberty, seeking independence on his own terms. In doing so he mistook liberty for license, rejected his father's counsel, spent his fortune in reckless living, and when famine came was left so hungry that he longed to eat the pigs' food.
The youth who had boasted of liberty had become a slave, held by the cords of his sins, and the scene of his joining himself to a citizen of the far country and being sent to feed swine shows how sin's apparent freedom ends in bondage and misery. The son who had sought liberty is now a slave, for sin and self-indulgence bring bondage and ruin, reducing him by famine and want to a deeply degrading, menial task. The young man who had sought liberty is now enslaved by sin, with the pleasures that enticed him gone and himself left hungry, isolated and humbled, showing how sin turns claimed freedom into bondage and leaves a person wretched. Having rejected the restraints of home in search of liberty, he was driven by starvation to join himself to a local citizen who sent him to feed swine, the lowest and most disreputable work for a Jew, and his willingness to take such work shows how desperate his need had become. His supposed freedom has become harsh servitude, binding himself in desperate need after wasting his money to a local citizen and being sent to the degrading task of feeding swine, until his fallen condition leads him to remember his father's abundant bread and decide to return home.
To join himself to the citizen is to be joined to sin and the flesh and the devil, and to feed swine is to serve sin for no profit and poor wages, perishing in sins with no certain hope of eternal life. It is the condition of a thorough backslider who has left his Father's house and his Father's service and has joined himself to the service of Satan and of sin, a situation of great peril.
His friendlessness, want and humiliation were brought upon himself by his own disobedience and sin in separating himself from his father, leaving him friendless and in want and perishing with hunger in the low, degrading business of feeding swine, wretched and emaciated and destitute. After wasting his inheritance in sinful pleasure he joined himself to a citizen of a strange country and was sent into the fields to feed swine, left friendless, ragged and hungry and longing even for the swine's food, illustrating the misery of those who leave the source of true pleasure and seek satisfaction in a careless, pleasure-loving life. Having squandered his inheritance through sinful indulgence, famine and resulting destitution forced him from a life of pleasure into this lowly work, exposing the consequences of his choices. His friendlessness and hunger are consequences of his own disobedience through sin, and adversity brings him to recognize his need and decide to return home. The story is of a person brought low through selfish indulgence, belonging to the account of his degradation.
God's Unfailing Love and Welcome
The parable is a revelation of pitying love for those who have strayed from the Father, followed their own course, and been led captive by the tempter away from known love. The son's desperate want in the far country does not mean he has been left in misery, for God remains kind and tender and strong in love toward those exposed to temptation. He does not abandon the separated, grieving wanderer but works through influences to draw and bring the sinner back.
God takes the first step to seek men while they are still in rebellion, and the father waits with yearning love for the return. Infinite love is revealed in the gift of the Father's beloved Son as a sacrifice, making a channel for the outflow of that love so that believers are restored to favor. The sinner's assurance of acceptance, peace, and love rests on Christ's dying love manifested on Calvary, and with outstretched arms God in Christ daily beseeches even the lost and degraded prodigal to be reconciled, ready to receive, welcome, and restore him to divine favor through goodness and mercy.
When the wanderer awakens to his condition, feels his need, and returns in repentance, the Father who was sinned against receives such an erring son with compassion, pity, love, forgiveness, and greatest joy. There is welcome and encouragement with hope rather than accusation, reproach, or reminders of mistakes, and instead of censure there is a feast and rejoicing over the finding, in which heaven shares. The returned sinner is covered with the robe of righteousness, forgiven, restored to favor and to a place at the table.
Repentance that turns to God in sorrow for help and forgiveness is not degrading, for God receives with love, forgives sin, and covers the penitent with Christ's righteousness. Yet welcome to the Father's house does not end the matter, for enjoying a son's privileges requires meeting the conditions of sonship and accepting a son's obligations by living according to the Father's word. Those restored become obedient to all of God's commandments, give the whole life in unreserved surrender, stay in the fold like the found sheep, have life in Jesus Christ, and repay love by obedience. Even when joined to a citizen of that country and sent into the fields to feed swine, the prodigal remains within reach of more than finite possibilities if with full decision of soul he links himself with God and gives heart and soul to Him. On that turning God will accept and bless him and work with him to help other youth give their hearts to God and be converted, while still holding him accountable for all the good he might have done and which Jesus died that he might do, and still inviting him to wear Christ's yoke, lift His burden, and learn His meekness and lowliness of heart, with rest unto his soul as reward.
Awakening and Return to Father
The feeding of swine is the lowest point the separated son could reach in his course of sin, brought upon himself by his own disobedience in leaving his father, leaving him friendless and in want and perishing with hunger, wretched and emaciated and destitute in a low and degrading business. His suffering continues until he feels his need, and that adversity and humiliation make him sensible of his great sin and neglect and of his need of a father as the only one who can supply his great need. He remembers the kindness and love of his father and the privileges and bounties and abundant provision his father's hired servants freely enjoy. He turns from the swine and their husks, weak and hungry, with rags and pride overcome, and hurries home to decide to return to his father by humble confession to ask for a servant's place where he had been a child, appreciating his father's love and acknowledging his father's claims.
The longing to return to God is the Holy Spirit's tender appeal drawing the wanderer back to the Father from the strange country far from his father's house where he is wasting what he had. Those who recognize their need and decide to return can be guided toward salvation, can turn back to God and follow an enlightened conscience, and can return when they hear a message of love and hope rather than rebuke and condemnation. Return should not be delayed, but made with a humble heart to parents and to God.
The return pictures backsliders turning back to God and taking the heavenward path after leaving their Father's house and losing their Father's blessing, illustrating God's desire to save the lost on the way back from separation in the far country. A thorough backslider has left his Father's house and his Father's service and has joined himself to the service of Satan and of sin, in great peril that grieves the heart of Christ who loved him and died to redeem him. One who has long denied Jesus, pierced the Son of God and put Him to open shame, being away from his Father's house, must trust in God, grasp Jesus Christ by faith, fix the eye upon Him, cast himself helpless upon His mercy, come to the Father's house penitent, cease doing things known to be sin, give the little remnant of life to Jesus, and be saved by His cleansing blood, because Jesus waits to be gracious and heaven must not be lost. His duty is to turn square about at once and return like the prodigal to his Father's house and to his Father's service, deciding from that day to be a Christian.
Those once lost in sin who are brought back like the returned son can then help bring others to God. Obtaining a rich experience as the Lord leads step by step in the path of submission to His will and His way brings praise to God and weeping joy to those who hear of it.
Compassionate Work for Wanderers
One sunk so low as to be bound to a stranger in a foreign land and sent into the fields to feed swine is in degradation and need, and needs pity, help, sympathy, and above all free forgiveness. When he awakens to his condition, feels his need, becomes sensible of his great sin and neglect, and repents to return to the only one who can supply his need, he is to be met with tender sympathy, pity, hope, love, forgiveness, and greatest joy, welcomed and helped as the heavenly Father welcomes, not regarded with contempt. He is not to be met with efforts to make him feel where he erred, reminders of mistakes, reproach, censure, suspicion, contempt, cold rejection, or harsh judgment that may drive him to ruin, but with loving, patient, Christlike care. Teachers and others are to treat erring students and tempted, struggling souls in this same patient way rather than casting them off.
Those far from the Father's house, perishing with hunger and struggling against temptation in a course of sin, can still be reclaimed and brought back, and workers are to seek the lost and encourage them to return to the Father. They are to welcome and help them as the heavenly Father does, with a message of love and hope rather than rebuke and condemnation, with warmth, courtesy, and love, and those once lost in sin who are brought back can then help bring others to God. Those who share the true Shepherd's spirit do not wound and drive away the lost sheep but rejoice at the return of the repenting one, even as all heaven rejoices in the finding. The parable, told together with the lost sheep and the lost piece of silver, means much and its practical lessons must be carefully studied and practiced because eternal interests are involved.
The complaining elder brother's stubborn, selfish contempt, indifference, unsympathetic cold repulse, and unwillingness to receive the repenting brother and rejoice at his return stand in contrast to the father's tenderness when the erring child returns. That same displeased, envious, jealous spirit appears when an established church that has had labor bestowed on it and has its own house of worship resents labor given to new fields to gather new believers and bring the wandering sheep to the fold. It appears when church members murmur because ministers labor to give the truth to those who know it not instead of constantly feeding the church with sermons. A living church is not a gossiping church planting doubt, questioning, evil surmising, and jealousy, but an earnest, working, soul-hunting church whose members, having a knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, seek to save the lost, carry the message of salvation as chosen vessels and light bearers, stretch out hands all day long in burden for souls and sincere prayer, hunt for souls, strive to bring truth close to hearts without interest in mere theories and arguments, do righteousness in their own homes and in the church, and deliver an effective testimony by precept and example, lest constant feeding without doing bring a curse instead of a blessing.
Many become prodigal sons through indulgence in the home, where parents who are not doers of the Word permit children to follow pernicious ways, allow them too much freedom, and indulge will and inclination instead of restraining them. Education should be commanded in the home at the dawn of reason and carried forward in the fear and love of God, with mind and purpose sustained by firm, undeviating, sanctified principles, with consistency and affection enforced by a lovely and consistent example. Such indulgence that fails to restrain can lead children into destructive ways ending in the degraded state of one joined to a citizen of a far country and sent to feed swine.
The prodigal also figures those who claim to be Christians and even to be commandment keepers yet are transgressors of the law, unthankful and unholy, flattering themselves that they are Christians while their light is darkness and their influence is not unto sanctification or holiness. They employ entrusted talents and the talent of influence, given through sanctification of the truth for its given purpose, to counterwork God, becoming conformed to the spirit and principles of worldlings and exerting influence on Satan's side while retaining the form of godliness but in practice denying its power, from whom separation is commanded. Jesus yearns after such sons and daughters and longs to do them the good He would delight to do, but cannot bless them because of the perversity of their characters. So also the parable shows fatherly love bearing with Israel, continuing to send warnings and invitations despite resistance, even as the people resisted mercy and faced Jerusalem's coming destruction.
The verse shows the younger son after wasting his inheritance in reckless indulgence in a far country, where famine and want drive him to attach himself to a citizen of that land who sends him into the fields to feed swine. Feeding swine was the lowest and most degrading work, especially for a Jew, and his taking it reveals the depth of his poverty, humiliation and lost condition, friendless, ragged and hungry and perishing with hunger. His boasted liberty has become harsh bondage, for in joining himself to the citizen he is joined to sin and to the service of Satan, serving sin for poor wages with no hope of eternal life. His misery does not mean God has left him, for God in pitying love still seeks the wanderer while in rebellion and waits to receive the repentant with forgiveness, restoration and rejoicing. In his suffering he is brought to feel his need, remember his father's abundant provision and return in humble confession, and those in his low condition are to be met with pity, sympathy and free forgiveness rather than censure or reproach.
Prodigal's Plight in Far Country
The verse shows the younger son after he had squandered his inheritance in reckless, sinful indulgence and pleasure in a distant, strange country, where famine and want drove him to go and join, attach and bind himself to a citizen of that country who sent him into his fields to feed swine. This joining marks the depth of his poverty and lost condition.
Feeding swine was the lowest, most disreputable, menial and degrading work, especially for a Jew, and his willingness to take it shows desperate need and the depth of his poverty, lost condition and humiliation. He was left friendless, ragged, hungry, emaciated, destitute and longing even for the swine's husks, far from home and perishing with hunger. His fallen state was brought upon himself by separating himself from his father.
The verse belongs to the parable of the lost son, told with the lost sheep and lost piece of silver, which presents the Lord's dealings with those who have known the Father's love but have been led captive by the tempter and whose separation from the Father leads into hardship and degradation. Its desperate condition does not mean God has left such a one, for God remains kind and tender toward those exposed to temptation.
Christ told the story to illustrate immortal truth from facts of life and daily experience familiar to His hearers, gathering spiritual teaching from the surroundings of daily life. He came right to the point without long, farfetched, complicated reasoning, to commend truth to the conscience, touch the heart and awaken sympathies, drawing from His treasure things new and old while leaving hearers free to accept or reject without force. So given, the illustration was to interest every mind and appeal to every heart, so that the daily task instead of being a mere round of toil would be brightened and uplifted by constant reminders of the spiritual and the unseen.
The parable presents such sinners as people in need of a Saviour, far from the Father's house and wasting what they had, perishing with hunger in a strange country and separated from the Father. Their misery stands in contrast to the rich provision, abundant bread, privileges and bounties freely enjoyed even by the Father's hired servants.
Sin's Freedom Becomes Bondage
The son deliberately separated himself from his father so that he could manage his inheritance exactly as he pleased and escape his father's counsel, correction and advice. He rejected the restraints of home in search of liberty, seeking independence on his own terms. In doing so he mistook liberty for license, rejected his father's counsel, spent his fortune in reckless living, and when famine came was left so hungry that he longed to eat the pigs' food.
The youth who had boasted of liberty had become a slave, held by the cords of his sins, and the scene of his joining himself to a citizen of the far country and being sent to feed swine shows how sin's apparent freedom ends in bondage and misery. The son who had sought liberty is now a slave, for sin and self-indulgence bring bondage and ruin, reducing him by famine and want to a deeply degrading, menial task. The young man who had sought liberty is now enslaved by sin, with the pleasures that enticed him gone and himself left hungry, isolated and humbled, showing how sin turns claimed freedom into bondage and leaves a person wretched. Having rejected the restraints of home in search of liberty, he was driven by starvation to join himself to a local citizen who sent him to feed swine, the lowest and most disreputable work for a Jew, and his willingness to take such work shows how desperate his need had become. His supposed freedom has become harsh servitude, binding himself in desperate need after wasting his money to a local citizen and being sent to the degrading task of feeding swine, until his fallen condition leads him to remember his father's abundant bread and decide to return home.
To join himself to the citizen is to be joined to sin and the flesh and the devil, and to feed swine is to serve sin for no profit and poor wages, perishing in sins with no certain hope of eternal life. It is the condition of a thorough backslider who has left his Father's house and his Father's service and has joined himself to the service of Satan and of sin, a situation of great peril.
His friendlessness, want and humiliation were brought upon himself by his own disobedience and sin in separating himself from his father, leaving him friendless and in want and perishing with hunger in the low, degrading business of feeding swine, wretched and emaciated and destitute. After wasting his inheritance in sinful pleasure he joined himself to a citizen of a strange country and was sent into the fields to feed swine, left friendless, ragged and hungry and longing even for the swine's food, illustrating the misery of those who leave the source of true pleasure and seek satisfaction in a careless, pleasure-loving life. Having squandered his inheritance through sinful indulgence, famine and resulting destitution forced him from a life of pleasure into this lowly work, exposing the consequences of his choices. His friendlessness and hunger are consequences of his own disobedience through sin, and adversity brings him to recognize his need and decide to return home. The story is of a person brought low through selfish indulgence, belonging to the account of his degradation.
God's Unfailing Love and Welcome
The parable is a revelation of pitying love for those who have strayed from the Father, followed their own course, and been led captive by the tempter away from known love. The son's desperate want in the far country does not mean he has been left in misery, for God remains kind and tender and strong in love toward those exposed to temptation. He does not abandon the separated, grieving wanderer but works through influences to draw and bring the sinner back.
God takes the first step to seek men while they are still in rebellion, and the father waits with yearning love for the return. Infinite love is revealed in the gift of the Father's beloved Son as a sacrifice, making a channel for the outflow of that love so that believers are restored to favor. The sinner's assurance of acceptance, peace, and love rests on Christ's dying love manifested on Calvary, and with outstretched arms God in Christ daily beseeches even the lost and degraded prodigal to be reconciled, ready to receive, welcome, and restore him to divine favor through goodness and mercy.
When the wanderer awakens to his condition, feels his need, and returns in repentance, the Father who was sinned against receives such an erring son with compassion, pity, love, forgiveness, and greatest joy. There is welcome and encouragement with hope rather than accusation, reproach, or reminders of mistakes, and instead of censure there is a feast and rejoicing over the finding, in which heaven shares. The returned sinner is covered with the robe of righteousness, forgiven, restored to favor and to a place at the table.
Repentance that turns to God in sorrow for help and forgiveness is not degrading, for God receives with love, forgives sin, and covers the penitent with Christ's righteousness. Yet welcome to the Father's house does not end the matter, for enjoying a son's privileges requires meeting the conditions of sonship and accepting a son's obligations by living according to the Father's word. Those restored become obedient to all of God's commandments, give the whole life in unreserved surrender, stay in the fold like the found sheep, have life in Jesus Christ, and repay love by obedience. Even when joined to a citizen of that country and sent into the fields to feed swine, the prodigal remains within reach of more than finite possibilities if with full decision of soul he links himself with God and gives heart and soul to Him. On that turning God will accept and bless him and work with him to help other youth give their hearts to God and be converted, while still holding him accountable for all the good he might have done and which Jesus died that he might do, and still inviting him to wear Christ's yoke, lift His burden, and learn His meekness and lowliness of heart, with rest unto his soul as reward.
Awakening and Return to Father
The feeding of swine is the lowest point the separated son could reach in his course of sin, brought upon himself by his own disobedience in leaving his father, leaving him friendless and in want and perishing with hunger, wretched and emaciated and destitute in a low and degrading business. His suffering continues until he feels his need, and that adversity and humiliation make him sensible of his great sin and neglect and of his need of a father as the only one who can supply his great need. He remembers the kindness and love of his father and the privileges and bounties and abundant provision his father's hired servants freely enjoy. He turns from the swine and their husks, weak and hungry, with rags and pride overcome, and hurries home to decide to return to his father by humble confession to ask for a servant's place where he had been a child, appreciating his father's love and acknowledging his father's claims.
The longing to return to God is the Holy Spirit's tender appeal drawing the wanderer back to the Father from the strange country far from his father's house where he is wasting what he had. Those who recognize their need and decide to return can be guided toward salvation, can turn back to God and follow an enlightened conscience, and can return when they hear a message of love and hope rather than rebuke and condemnation. Return should not be delayed, but made with a humble heart to parents and to God.
The return pictures backsliders turning back to God and taking the heavenward path after leaving their Father's house and losing their Father's blessing, illustrating God's desire to save the lost on the way back from separation in the far country. A thorough backslider has left his Father's house and his Father's service and has joined himself to the service of Satan and of sin, in great peril that grieves the heart of Christ who loved him and died to redeem him. One who has long denied Jesus, pierced the Son of God and put Him to open shame, being away from his Father's house, must trust in God, grasp Jesus Christ by faith, fix the eye upon Him, cast himself helpless upon His mercy, come to the Father's house penitent, cease doing things known to be sin, give the little remnant of life to Jesus, and be saved by His cleansing blood, because Jesus waits to be gracious and heaven must not be lost. His duty is to turn square about at once and return like the prodigal to his Father's house and to his Father's service, deciding from that day to be a Christian.
Those once lost in sin who are brought back like the returned son can then help bring others to God. Obtaining a rich experience as the Lord leads step by step in the path of submission to His will and His way brings praise to God and weeping joy to those who hear of it.
Compassionate Work for Wanderers
One sunk so low as to be bound to a stranger in a foreign land and sent into the fields to feed swine is in degradation and need, and needs pity, help, sympathy, and above all free forgiveness. When he awakens to his condition, feels his need, becomes sensible of his great sin and neglect, and repents to return to the only one who can supply his need, he is to be met with tender sympathy, pity, hope, love, forgiveness, and greatest joy, welcomed and helped as the heavenly Father welcomes, not regarded with contempt. He is not to be met with efforts to make him feel where he erred, reminders of mistakes, reproach, censure, suspicion, contempt, cold rejection, or harsh judgment that may drive him to ruin, but with loving, patient, Christlike care. Teachers and others are to treat erring students and tempted, struggling souls in this same patient way rather than casting them off.
Those far from the Father's house, perishing with hunger and struggling against temptation in a course of sin, can still be reclaimed and brought back, and workers are to seek the lost and encourage them to return to the Father. They are to welcome and help them as the heavenly Father does, with a message of love and hope rather than rebuke and condemnation, with warmth, courtesy, and love, and those once lost in sin who are brought back can then help bring others to God. Those who share the true Shepherd's spirit do not wound and drive away the lost sheep but rejoice at the return of the repenting one, even as all heaven rejoices in the finding. The parable, told together with the lost sheep and the lost piece of silver, means much and its practical lessons must be carefully studied and practiced because eternal interests are involved.
The complaining elder brother's stubborn, selfish contempt, indifference, unsympathetic cold repulse, and unwillingness to receive the repenting brother and rejoice at his return stand in contrast to the father's tenderness when the erring child returns. That same displeased, envious, jealous spirit appears when an established church that has had labor bestowed on it and has its own house of worship resents labor given to new fields to gather new believers and bring the wandering sheep to the fold. It appears when church members murmur because ministers labor to give the truth to those who know it not instead of constantly feeding the church with sermons. A living church is not a gossiping church planting doubt, questioning, evil surmising, and jealousy, but an earnest, working, soul-hunting church whose members, having a knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He has sent, seek to save the lost, carry the message of salvation as chosen vessels and light bearers, stretch out hands all day long in burden for souls and sincere prayer, hunt for souls, strive to bring truth close to hearts without interest in mere theories and arguments, do righteousness in their own homes and in the church, and deliver an effective testimony by precept and example, lest constant feeding without doing bring a curse instead of a blessing.
Many become prodigal sons through indulgence in the home, where parents who are not doers of the Word permit children to follow pernicious ways, allow them too much freedom, and indulge will and inclination instead of restraining them. Education should be commanded in the home at the dawn of reason and carried forward in the fear and love of God, with mind and purpose sustained by firm, undeviating, sanctified principles, with consistency and affection enforced by a lovely and consistent example. Such indulgence that fails to restrain can lead children into destructive ways ending in the degraded state of one joined to a citizen of a far country and sent to feed swine.
The prodigal also figures those who claim to be Christians and even to be commandment keepers yet are transgressors of the law, unthankful and unholy, flattering themselves that they are Christians while their light is darkness and their influence is not unto sanctification or holiness. They employ entrusted talents and the talent of influence, given through sanctification of the truth for its given purpose, to counterwork God, becoming conformed to the spirit and principles of worldlings and exerting influence on Satan's side while retaining the form of godliness but in practice denying its power, from whom separation is commanded. Jesus yearns after such sons and daughters and longs to do them the good He would delight to do, but cannot bless them because of the perversity of their characters. So also the parable shows fatherly love bearing with Israel, continuing to send warnings and invitations despite resistance, even as the people resisted mercy and faced Jerusalem's coming destruction.