In A Miry Pit

Psalm 40

Have you ever had the misfortune to get stuck in the mud, perhaps with a car, or even worse, when out hiking?  I have seen some videos of animals who have found themselves stuck in a mud pit.  They struggle to get loose, but only make themselves stuck even worse.  If they are fortunate, some kind-hearted person comes around to help them get free.  In our psalm today, David speaks of being caught in a miry pit, and of the only One who could help him.  Let’s look over our psalm for today.

As we read through the Old Testament, we quickly see that David faced a lot of problems throughout his life, both before he was king, and also after.  Many of these problems were serious, and he felt like he was trapped in a miry pit, from which he couldn’t escape.  A wet and muddy pit is not a place you want to find yourself in.  You are exposed to danger.  Also, very importantly, the more you struggle to get out, often the worse stuck you become.  When serious problems come our way, we can feel like we are in a muddy pit that threatens to swallow us up.  The more we try to free ourselves, the worse things become.  We cry out, and if we are fortunate, someone might be able to help us out.  Often though, there is no one there, or no one who cares.  Perhaps someone tries to help us, but there is nothing they can do to get us out.

What did David do when life found him stuck in difficulties that seemed just like a miry pit?  He didn’t seek or depend upon any human to help him.  Instead, David called upon the Lord to help him.  He didn’t struggle and try and get out himself, only to get further stuck.  He waited for God to help him, and he waited patiently (vs. 1-2).  Like many people, I am not a very patient person.  And this is especially apparent when there is a crisis.  David recounts, though, that he learned when stuck the best thing to do was to cry out to the Lord, and then wait patiently for Him to answer.  Rather than getting angry or frustrated with God and any delays, he praised Him.  David said God gave him a new song of praise (vs. 3).  Through our times of waiting, we can develop the virtues of submission, humility, patience, joyful endurance, and persistence in well-doing.

David received some benefits from being willing to wait for the Lord to answer, rather than trying to work things out himself, and we can learn from this, too.  One was that when David waited for God, He lifted him out of his despair.  Problems can bring despair, especially if we can’t seem to get free, but if we wait for God, He will lift the despair.  When God answered David, He pulled him from the pit and put him on solid ground, something sturdy, like a rock.  Throughout the psalms we often read of being on a rock, higher than our enemies or problems, or of being hidden behind a rock, a place of safety.  Scripture sometimes compares God with a rock, Someone solid and secure, who we can go to in order to hide in safety.

Another benefit we have when we wait for God to answer, is that when the answer comes, we have a new song of praise for God.  We are called to rejoice and be glad in the Lord, and to have joy, especially when He has delivered us from the miry pits we find ourselves in (vs. 16).  Some may question how it is possible to be happy when we’re stuck in a pit.  How are those who are walking closely with the Lord able to rejoice and have joy during these times?  There is a difference between happiness and joy.  Happiness relies entirely upon one’s circumstances.  When difficulties or pain arises, happiness leaves.  Joy is a gift from God.  It helps us find hope and peace, even when life is falling apart.   Having hope and joy doesn’t mean we ignore reality.  Having hope will acknowledge reality, but at the same time we acknowledge God’s sovereignty.  Our hope and joy cannot be tied to whether a circumstance or person changes.  It must be tied to the unchanging promises of God.  We have joy and hope for the good we know God will bring from our situation.

When sin or circumstances, either our own or someone else’s, leads us to end up in a muddy, mucky pit in life, we need to remember to call upon God for His help, rather than struggling to get out ourselves, only to end up further mired.  Call upon God for help, and then wait patiently for Him to respond.  When we do, He will lovingly lift us out and set us on good, solid ground.

Jesus - The Passover Lamb

 Exodus 12:1-14

Today marks the beginning of Holy Week, where Christians recall the last week of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, beginning with His entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the institution of the Lord’s Supper, and His crucifixion on Good Friday.  The setting for the first Lord’s Supper was the Jewish Passover meal.  For our Scripture today let’s look into the Old Testament book of Exodus, where we have the background and meaning of the Passover celebration, and see what God teaches us about what the Passover really means.

As our Scripture opens, God was preparing to liberate the people of Israel from years of slavery in Egypt.  He had just passed judgment on Egypt with nine plagues for their oppression of the Hebrews and as judgment on their idolatry and pagan gods.  There was one more plague to come, that of the slaying of the firstborn.  God gave some instructions to follow in order to escape from being victim of the tenth plague.  The members of each family were to kill a lamb for the Passover meal, and take the blood of that lamb and place it upon the doorposts and lintel of their house (vs. 7).  When the Death Angel passed through the land, when he saw the blood upon the doorposts and lintel, he would pass over that house (vs. 13).

This whole memorial celebration ritual of the Passover clearly pictures and symbolizes the Messiah Jesus and His sacrificial death for us.  The lamb that was taken and killed for each family was a sacrifice, a substitute for the person who would have died in the plague when the Death Angel passed through the land (vs. 3).  It was clearly understood that for them to be spared from death, an innocent life had to be sacrificed in their place.

Why a lamb?  The lamb represented innocence and gentleness.  The prophets often spoke of the tender compassion of God for His people under the figure of a Shepherd and the Lamb, such as in Isaiah 40:11.  God always used the lamb as an important symbol.  When John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the Jewish people, he called Him the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29, 36).  He recognized Jesus as the fulfillment of the symbolism of the Passover lamb.  It was a worthy symbol of the Savior, who in innocence endured suffering as our substitute (I Peter 1:19).  The Jewish historian Josephus (37-100 AD) said that it was customary in his day to kill the Passover lamb at 3 pm, shortly before sunset (vs. 6).  That was the time of day that Jesus Christ, the true Passover Lamb, was killed.

On the night of that first Passover, the family had to be sure that they took some of the blood and applied it to the doorposts and lintel in order to be spared from death coming to the family.  The firstborn son of every family who did not have blood on their doorposts was killed.  That blood symbolized the Blood that Jesus, the Lamb of God, would shed upon the cross at His crucifixion.  His life was sacrificed, His Blood poured out, for our sins.  Whoever accepts the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior, which in a real sense is applying His Blood to their hearts, will not suffer eternal death and damnation for eternity.

The lamb had to be partaken by every member of the household (vs. 4,8).  The same is in regards to salvation.  Just because one member of a family is saved, even if it is the head of the house, doesn’t mean everyone is.  Each must come to Jesus for themselves.

The lamb had to be killed in order to get the blood that would protect them.  This foreshadowed the Blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who gave His Blood for the sins of all people (I Corinthians 5:7).  The blood that was applied to the doorposts and lintel was a real symbol of substitution of one life given for another (Leviticus 17:11).  A ram caught in a thicket was substituted for Isaac (Genesis 22:13-14).  Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22; I John 1:7).

On the night of the first Passover, as the Death Angel went through the land of Egypt, he passed over all houses that had the blood applied.  That was all one had to do in order to survive.  The angel didn’t look inside the house to see if they had done good deeds or were worthy.  He just checked for the blood on the doorposts.  The same is true today to see if one will spend eternity in heaven with God.  God checks for the Blood of His Son Jesus, and whether it has been applied to our hearts.  None of us are worthy.  Only the Blood of Jesus can cover us.  Have you applied the Blood of Jesus to your soul?  If not, do not hesitate to call upon the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior today, for tomorrow may be too late.

Parable Of The Wicked Vineyard Workers

Luke 20:9-19

How do we react when we hear words of correction, especially if they are given rather sternly?  Do we heed the corrective message given to us, or do we become angry?  And if we become angry, does our anger turn to rage, wishing we could clobber that person, and somehow bring him down?  In our Gospel Scripture for this week, Jesus gives one of His final messages to the crowds, a word of correction, in the hopes of turning some hearts around from their continued rejection of God and His ways.  Let’s look at His message, the reaction He received, and how we might apply the message to ourselves.

As our Scripture opens, we are in the last week of Jesus’ life.  A few days earlier He had entered Jerusalem upon a donkey to the cheering crowds.  Now, within a day or two, He will be betrayed, given a mockery of a “trial”, rejected by the crowds, and taken out of the city to be crucified.  With only a handful of hours left, Jesus told His last parable to the crowds.  His audience that day included both Pharisees and other religious leaders from Jerusalem, along with the crowds in the city, many who had come to celebrate the holy days of the coming Passover.

The parable told the story of a vineyard owner, who had planted a vineyard and leased it to vinedressers or tenant farmers, and then left the country for a while.  When it was time to bring in the harvest, the owner sent some servants to collect some of the fruit.  However, the farmers abused and harmed those messengers.  The owner sent more messengers, who were treated similarly.  Finally he sent his son, thinking that he would be respected.  On the contrary, the farmers took the son out of the vineyard and killed him.  Jesus ended the parable by saying that when the owner of the vineyard returns, he would take the vineyard from those tenants and give it to others, to which His audience gave a horrified response (vs. 9-16).

Why did the people listening to this parable of Jesus give such a shocked, and almost angry response?   It was because this time they understood exactly what Jesus meant with this parable, and they did not like the meaning of it.  The owner of the vineyard represents God the Father.  The vinedressers were the Jewish people.  The servants and messengers were God’s prophets, many of whom the Scriptures record as being shamefully treated, beaten, and even killed by both the Jewish religious and political leaders.  Lastly the son of the owner represents Jesus, the Son of God.

The people of Israel were given the responsibility to follow God and be His light, His messengers to the rest of the world.  Yet when He sent His prophets and preachers to them, how were they treated?  The Old Testament records over and over again that most were rejected, and many even abused or killed.  Now Jesus, God’s Son, has come, and He knows that within a couple of days He will be taken outside of Jerusalem and killed, prophesying His death.  The kingdom and all the spiritual advantages that had been Israel’s would now be given to “others”, symbolizing the Church, which consists primarily of Gentiles.  The Church is the channel through which God has been operating since the days of the New Testament up through today.  Israel will be restored to full fellowship with God when Jesus returns.

Jesus continues His teaching in verses 17-18, where He quotes Psalm 118:22.  The chief cornerstone represents Jesus the Messiah, who the religious leaders and majority of the people have rejected.  Ignoring a cornerstone is dangerous, as a building will topple, tripping or crushing people, picturing judgment and punishment.  Jesus is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to these and all unbelievers (Isaiah 8:14; I Peter 2:7-8).

The horrified and angry response in verse 16 was because Jesus indicated that the rebellion of the people in the vineyard was to be punished, and they would receive their just reward.  The audience realized that the people, religious leaders, and nation were at the brink of reaping their consequences.  This would occur when Jerusalem and the Temple would be completely destroyed in 70 AD.

Today, just as in Jesus’ day, many people do not want God’s plan and ways in their life and for this world.  They want their own way.  They reject God, and they reject His messengers, often with harsh and vicious words and actions.  They do not want His Son, Jesus, in their lives, either.  What is your response to God, His Son, and His messengers today?  Have you received Him, or do you reject Him, like those in this parable?  Instead of saying “Certainly not”, meaning “God should not allow it”, this crowd should have been crying “God have mercy on us!”

Keep Pressing On!

Philippians 3:8-14

Do you have a shelf of trophies at home, or awards of honor that you achieved by being the best, or top notch at something?  Maybe you achieved excellence in some sport or in an artistic ability, or perhaps some special recognition for outstanding work at your job.  There is nothing wrong with being reasonably proud of one’s achievements.  However, in our Scripture passage for today, the Apostle Paul speaks of how he felt about all of the spiritual achievements he had attained and reached before coming to faith in the Lord Jesus.

If awards and medals were given out for religious achievements, Paul would have had a trophy case full of them during the years he was a Pharisee in the Jewish faith.  He was a student of the great Jewish teacher and scholar Gamaliel, and was a scholar himself.  Paul was a very zealous Pharisee, who devoutly kept the law.  He also, with the full support and approval of the Jewish religious leaders, persecuted the followers of Jesus and the new Christian faith.  These were achievements that any devout Jewish man at that time would have been quite proud of.  However, as we read our Scripture verses, Paul said that he counted them as nothing, as garbage, compared to knowing the Lord Jesus as Savior (vs. 8).

A person’s relationship with Jesus is more important than anything else.  Since becoming a Christian, Paul lost many things, some things that many people might have thought important, such as his standing and position in Jewish society, his former friends, his wealth, family, etc.  However, he didn’t mind.  He counted all of that as garbage compared to what he had in Jesus.  Paul willingly renounced all of his earthly advantages and the religious privileges in order to attain salvation.  He knew that he could not trust in those accomplishments to be saved, and neither can we.  Any moral or spiritual achievements we might have attained will not bring salvation.

Paul described the righteousness he had before faith in Jesus as the “righteousness of the law”, which is proud self-righteousness of external morality, religious rituals and ceremonies, and good works.  These are produced by the flesh, and cannot save us.  Many people are sadly trusting in their religious rituals and good works to get them to heaven.  However, as the Bible tells us, only faith in Jesus and His righteousness can save us (vs. 9).  The righteousness which is by faith is made possible by the Cross, and is given to us by God as we trust what Jesus did on that Cross for us.

Paul knew that he wasn’t perfect.  None of us are.  We still sin and make mistakes, and will continue to do so until we reach heaven.  Paul, though, had a goal, and he pressed on towards that goal (vs. 12-14).  He knew he would never become completely Christ-like in this life, but that was his goal, to become more and more each day.  Just like a runner sees the end of the track, and pushes on towards it.  Or an archer continues to aim for the bull’s eye, we push on for the goal of becoming like Jesus.  We should not let anything take our eyes off of our goal of becoming more like Jesus.  We must lay aside everything harmful, and forsake anything that may distract us from being an effective Christian.

There are some things that can hinder us in pursuing this goal, and that is looking back.  A runner shouldn’t look back if they want to win the race.  They need to look forward.  As believers we can be tempted to look back at two different things.  One is past achievements and spiritual victories.  The other would be past mistakes, particularly big ones.  Paul had both.  He had established many churches, and led many to the Lord.  He also had some sins he could have let weigh him down, such as persecuting the early Church and even contributing to the death of some Christians, such as Stephen.  Paul said to forget those things that are behind (vs. 13), and instead press on.  Because our hope is in Jesus, we can let go of past guilt, and instead look forward to what God will help us become.  Also, believers should stop relying on past virtuous deeds and achievements.  God has more for you to do for Him today and tomorrow.

Like Paul, we need to press on towards the goal of the prize of becoming more like Jesus (vs. 14).  As we study these verses, we should ask ourselves whether we are putting anything above our relationship with Jesus.  Are our priorities correct or off?  What are we willing to give up in order to know Jesus better?  Paul counted all he had achieved before as rubbish, something he cast out of his life.  He also was not going to be burdened by the past, either the mistakes or resting on his past laurels.  Let’s keep pressing on!

 

Sow In Tears, Reap In Joy

Psalm 126

People can usually be divided into one of two groups.  Either they are optimists or pessimists.  The glass is either half empty or half full.  They either see all of the clouds, or they will notice the sun peeking from behind the clouds.  I, myself, tend to lean towards pessimism, and I have to be careful with myself or else I can easily become a “Negative Nellie”.   In our psalm reading today, despite anything that has happened in the psalmist’s past, he chooses to be positive.  Though a short psalm, it is a very uplifting one.  Let’s look it over.

The setting of this short psalm is likely following the Jewish people’s captivity in Babylon, written after they began to return to their Promised Land (Ezra 1), or following some other captivity.  Some scholars have suggested that it possibly could refer to when God delivered Jerusalem from conquest by Sennacherib, the Assyrian emperor who had defeated and overrun the northern kingdom of Israel (II Kings 19:20-35).   Whatever the background for this psalm is, the author and his friends are a joyous and praise-filled group.

As the psalm opens, our psalmist is proclaiming that the people’s release from captivity is like a dream come true (vs. 1-3).  They are laughing and singing for joy.  Some people only like to focus on the nightmares, not the good dreams.  Sure, they are being set free, but rather than rejoice over that, they prefer to harp on the bad time they had while in captivity.  They lost their nice home.  They had to work in a job they didn’t like over in Babylon.  The food was strange.  They didn’t know the language.  On and on they go.  They don’t see the good dream, the things to rejoice over.  They can only see the nightmare.

Unfortunately, this is also the case with some Christians.  They can only look on the dark side of everything.  They dwell more on their trials than on what God has done for them.  A spiritually healthy Christian will dwell on the honor of God, and how He has brought them out of a pit, and set them upon a rock higher than them (Psalm 61:2).  We do have afflictions in life, but God delivers us out of them.  The deeper our troubles , the louder our thanks to God should be.  As believers and followers of the Lord Jesus, our focus should be like these people in verse 3, focusing on what great things the Lord has done for us.  There is never a day that we cannot find many blessings that the Lord gives us, beginning with the greatest one, when the Lord Jesus set us free from the captivity of sin and Satan, and brought us salvation.

The psalmist then speaks of our sowing in tears, but reaping in joy (vs. 5-6).  The past sins of the people had brought about their captivity, which were years of tears for them.  However, when they turned their hearts around, returning to the Lord, they could reap His joy.  We also find hardships in life, along with pain and trouble.  Some of them are caused by our own actions, and some that just come upon us because we live in a fallen world.  For those who know and love God, our tears are seeds that will one day bloom into joy.  Our tears can be seeds that will grow into a harvest of joy, because God is able to bring good out of tragedy.

Verses 5 and 6 can also have another way of looking at them.  The Lord Jesus referred to the Word of God as being seed in His parable of The Sower (Matthew 13:3-23).  Many, many times we bring the Word of God to our lost friends and relatives, and others, yet they resist and refuse to listen or accept Jesus as their personal Savior.  This brings us heartache, sorrow, and tears.  Yet we should never give up witnessing and praying for them, as one day our witnessing may bear fruit and bring in a harvest.  The more we witness and pray in tears, the more we will return bringing our sheaves (the souls of the newly saved) with us.

God does great things in our lives, and we should be open and aware of them, acknowledging them with praise and thankfulness.  His power not only releases us from sin’s captive hold, but brings us back to Him.  Be patient.  God’s great harvest of joy is coming!

Making A Way Through The Troubles

Isaiah 43:16-21

Have you ever worked a maze puzzle?  There is a starting point, and the goal is to make it to the end point.  There are many dead ends, paths that are blocked, and paths that lead to nowhere.  If you’ve ever walked a maze, such as a cornfield maze that many farms make in the autumn, they can be fun, but also frustrating when you go down a dead end path, and your way is constantly being blocked.  Life is often like that, when your way is being blocked with problems and broken or failed dreams and desires. Sometimes the problems are quite serious, and unless you can find some way out, the end result will be disastrous.  If only a way would open up for us to find the way through!  In our Scripture for today from the prophet Isaiah, the Lord gives a promise to His children, that when we turn to Him, He will make a way.  Let’s look at this Scripture.

In this Scripture passage from the prophet Isaiah, he presents to us several different scenarios where the people’s pathway through life has been blocked, or come across some danger, preventing them from getting through.  The first one is by a body of water from getting to the other side (vs. 16).  If in life, we have to make it to the other side of the “water” for our health, our safety, or just to survive, how are we going to get there?  We have run up against a block to our path, and there is no way through.

Next we read of the horse and chariot coming (vs. 17).  In the days of Isaiah the horse and chariot were the most dreaded military might there was.  To face an army of chariots and powerful horses was a terror, especially if your army had few or none, and at that time only a wealthy and powerful nation had them.

The third dreaded pathway Isaiah mentions is that of the wilderness and desert (vs. 19-20).  If someone is needing to get to a destination, they don’t want to have to pass through a wilderness or a desert.  Those places don’t have water, and can frequently have fearsome and dangerous animals.

However, what does the Lord tell Isaiah?  As the prophet relays His message to us, God promises His children that He will make a way for us through the waters.  We might be facing some terrible danger in our life, but God says that if we are trusting in Him, He will put down those “chariots and horses” that are coming against us.  Their power will be extinguished.  The Lord also promises those who are in a covenant relationship with Him that He will make a road for us through the wilderness, and bring rivers of water for us to drink from when we are fainting.

The path of our life often may be narrow and tough.  Our situation may be as hot and barren as a desert, or as forlorn and meaningless as a wasteland.  However, with Jesus in our life as Savior, He will make a way for us.  He promises to make a way in the wilderness.  God delights in blessing us with surprising moments of joy where He turns our path in life from despair to one of wonder (vs. 19), if only we will see them.

Another lesson that the Lord has for us here is that He does not want any of us to live in the past, either continually bemoaning our past sins, or crying over the past tragedies we have gone through (vs. 18).  With God’s forgiveness we can leave our past mistakes behind, and live for today and the future the Lord gives us.  With His healing, we can move on from the past tragedies and hurts we have gone through, and go on in the life He gives us now.  Forget what is past.  Don’t dwell on it.  All it does is tire and depress us.  We need to learn what lessons there are from past mistakes or past hurts, and then look for the new way the Lord is setting out for us.  Let go of the painful past to make way for what God has in store for you today.

Sometimes tragedies in a life can be so strong and deep, the pathway in life has struck such a dead end, that we would wonder how God could possibly bring good out of it.  But just like the seeds of some trees are only released in extreme heat, such as a forest fire, in like manner God can and does bring good and “new life” from tragedies.

God wants us to look and listen to what He is doing for us in Jesus Christ, our Savior.  If we are abiding close to Him in our life, He has promised that He will make a way for us through the water, through the desert, and put down any “chariots” that come at us.  We just need to trust in His promises!

The Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32 

Our Scripture reading to close out this fourth week of Lent is a very well-known parable from the Gospel of Luke, that of the Prodigal Son.  Most of us are familiar with this parable that Jesus told the crowds, and especially the Pharisees and scribes who continued to try and discredit Him with the people, and trap Him in His words.  Let’s take another look here, and see what new lessons the Lord could teach us.

In this parable that Jesus tells, we see a father and his two sons, who are probably young adults.  As the story begins, the younger son demands of his father his share of the inheritance.  He didn’t want to wait until his father died, he wanted it right then.  This disrespectful son was basically telling his father to hurry up and die because he wanted his money, and if he wasn’t going to die then for his son’s convenience, then to give him his money right then.  The son took his money and traveled far away, and began to live it up (vs. 11-13).  He probably bought expensive clothes, fine wines, a shiny new chariot, threw extravagant parties, etc.  The Greek word for “prodigal” means dissolute, and conveys the idea of an utterly debauched lifestyle.  This young man wasn’t just spending recklessly, he was wild and unrestrained.  He was decadent and depraved.

But that didn’t last forever.  A famine came and the economy crashed.  The son’s money quickly ran out and all of his sin-loving “friends” abandoned him.  He had nowhere to turn, and eventually ended up feeding pigs.  It got so bad for him, and he was so hungry, that he even envied the pigs for their slop (vs. 14-16).

This son symbolizes sinful, lost mankind, far away and estranged from God.  They live their lives any way they desire, with no thought of God or their condition at all.  This young man’s situation could not have been more desperate.  He symbolizes the sinner, estranged from God, and who is spiritually helpless and in despair.  After a while, this son came to his senses.  He recognized and admitted that he was a sinner, and that despite his shameful conduct, he needed to return to his father (vs. 17-19).

Now we turn to take a look at the father.  How had he felt when this son had basically told him he wished he was dead, and demanded his inheritance?  Some parents might have written this child off as dead to them, but as we read that is not what this father did.  He is a picture of God, eager to forgive, and desiring the returning sinner.  As verse 20 indicates, this father was always on the look-out for his son, hoping and praying for his return.  Periodically through the day he would scan the horizon for some sign of the boy, and one day his prayers were answered.  When he saw a figure in the distance that looked like his son, this father took off in a run to greet and welcome the boy home.  Despite the stench of the pigpen his boy had been living in, this father took him into his arms in a loving, forgiving embrace.

The Lord God is not indifferent or hostile to us in our sinful condition, like the false pagan gods are portrayed as.  He is the Savior, longing to see sinners repent, and return to Him, even more than this father did.  Jesus rejoices each time a sinner is saved (Luke 15:7, 10).  God’s love is constant, patient, and welcoming.  He will search for us, just as a shepherd does for the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7).  God will give us opportunities to respond to His love and forgiveness, but He will not force us to come to Him.

Finally, we see the other son, the one who did not run off with his share of the inheritance, but remained at home, working for the father.  When he heard that his brother had returned, and that the father welcomed him back with love, giving him his status as son again, along with new clothes and a banquet, he became angry and resentful (vs. 25-28).  This son is representative of self-righteous people who are indifferent and even hostile to repenting sinners.  Many of these types of people say they want to see sinners get saved, but they certainly don’t want them to come into their church.  They avoid them and won’t welcome them, for fear that the “stench of their sins” might come near them.

The father was not happy with this son’s attitude as he came out to plead with him to come in and rejoice (vs. 28-32), and neither is God happy when He sees a self-righteous attitude in us.  Do we resent God’s gracious forgiveness of others whom we consider to be “far worse sinners” than ourselves?   That would be acting like the Pharisees, for whom this parable was primarily directed.  Don’t be self-righteous, but rather, rejoice when others, no matter their background, come to Jesus.  If you are far away from God, living in the slop and sin of the world like the prodigal son, God is there longing and waiting for you to return.  Do not hesitate one more day.  Return to the Lord, as His loving arms are waiting to welcome you home.