Wasting resources. Part 2

"The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in."  Luke 15:28   NLT

Today, let us look at the reactions of the older son. It would be easy to judge the guy but, come on, wouldn't you feel like this in his place? When you think about it, there must have been a tension between them before this all happened for him to fly off the handle in such a rebellious way. Yes, he would have been upset because his brother had left him with all of the work and taken part of the inheritance and squandered it. That is understandable. But, we see here a deep anger issue and stubborn behaviour that his father couldn't talk him out of. 

He let rip to his father about all he had done for him - never refusing his orders, working long hours, faithful and hardworking. He even had a dig at his father that, the fattened calf was brought out for this 'Son of yours,' yet he wasn't allowed a young goat to BBQ with his friends. There was a 'It's not fair' attitude about him. He was hurt, bitter, angry, rude, judgemental, childlike and dishonourable to his father.

The problems here were twofold:

(1)  God's grace can bring division at times

(2)  The hard-heartedness of the older brother

(1)  Whenever God is at work, some people are not happy with the result. 'What, this chap is coming to our church, you don't know what he is really like?' No we don't, but God does and if He is happy for someone to be saved and go to church, what is that to do with anyone else? 'There are people playing in the town square; they're singing hymns and speaking in a strange language, and they are also lifting their hands to Him. It's so embarrassing' Isn't that great; they did this at Pentecost and it's how the Holy Spirit affects people. There will always be contention wherever God is doing a work. But the wonderful thing is, when a person has walked away from God and then, returned to Him in repentance. That blesses God and should do others.

(2)  It is concerning when someone has such a hard heart that he or she are annoyed about someone coming back to their Father. Things need to change when there is dishonour and rebellion in any situation. We should respect our parents, our wives and husbands and our family. We should also be like this with whoever we meet. We may not like what some people do but, there is a place for challenging certain things. However, this should be done with grace not anger. 

There is a need to guard our reactions. If you have a short fuse, you need to deal with this and quickly. Sometimes we have to accept things that we do not approve of. Probably, someone may not approve of you but, still accept you. We can never please everyone but, we can give it our best shot.

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers

Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle 

Check it out

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B084G9S4FD/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2