Articles
A Far Country
You are probably familiar with the story of the Prodigal Son. In that story that Jesus tells (Luke 15:11-32), the younger son goes to his father and says, “Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me” (Luke 15:12). The story does not tell of the father trying to dissuade the son from taking the inheritance, nor does it tell of the father pleading with him not to leave. The father granted the younger son’s desire and “not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living” (Luke 15:12, 13).
We may infer that the younger son, while living with his father, had his sights set on that “far country,” for that is where he went not long after receiving his portion. It seems, from the relatively short time between the demand and the departure, that this was his plans all along. What we do not know is where the younger son got the idea to go, how he heard or knew of this “far country,” or what he had been told about it that moved him to think it was where he needed to be, and then go. We also are not told why the younger son thought this “far country” would be better than where then was — living in his father’s house and enjoying all the benefits of that life. Whether someone passing through told him, or he heard from someone in the house about it, we are left to guess. What we do know is the following:
The ‘Far Country’ Was Not as Good As He Might Have Expected. After the younger son spent all he had, “there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want” (Luke 15:14). Whatever ‘friends’ he may have had when he came to this “far country” with his portion of the inheritance, they were nowhere to be found when he was in want. He resorted to joining himself to a citizen of that country and was given the task of feeding pigs (Luke 15:15). Things got so bad and he became so desperate, “he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything” (Luke 15:16). To a Jew, this was the most embarrassing and disgusting job, for pigs were unclean (Lev. 11:7, 8). While he may have expected greater things and a life of pleasure, the younger son had hit rock bottom. This was not the country nor the life he had expected!
The ‘Far Country’ Was a Wasteland. As the story reveals, when the younger son went to this “far country,” he “wasted his possessions with prodigal living.” The NKJV has a footnote on the word “prodigal,” noting it simply means wasteful. The NASB translates this as, “he squandered his estate with loose living”; the NIV says he “squandered his wealth in wild living.” I think we get the picture! This young man wasted whatever fortune he had — that is the obvious part.
But we might also recognize this young man not only wasted his wealth, but he also wasted his life. Whatever time he spent in this “far country” was not spent improving his standing in the world, improving the lives of others, and certainly not in serving the Lord. He followed in the steps of the wise writer [though he didn’t learn from his mistakes] and sought pleasure and fun, only to learn [the hard way] that it was all a vain pursuit (Eccl. 2:1-3). Too late, the younger son saw what the wise writer saw: “And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun” (Eccl. 2:11). This life was wasted.
If we understand the parable of the Prodigal Son, we know God is the father, and the younger son is the one who leaves God for the pursuit of worldly pleasures. And, like the story tells us, such a life is a wasted effort and does not profit — for the one who pursues it and for anyone within his circle of influence. Many have tried and many still do try, but this life will never be of any profit for those who choose the “far country” of worldliness and pleasure. As with the younger son in this story, it may give some temporary pleasure and excitement, but it will be short-lived, and there will be consequences that will be detrimental.
It will only be when we realize, as did the younger son after hitting bottom, that life is far better with his father, that our lives will improve and we will actually profit. The younger son came to his senses (Luke 15:17), and returned to his father, and it was then that his father welcomed him back gladly (Luke 15:20-24). Once we realize our heavenly Father will never stop loving us (Rom. 8:38, 39), we will see the foolishness of seeking the “far country” of this story.
But there is a different “far country” that we should be seeking!
In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer reminds the Jewish Christians of the first century of those of times past who demonstrated a life of faith, including men such as Abraham. In noting his example, the writer points to the example of Abraham when he was told to go to a land of which he knew nothing, and “obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Heb. 11:8). While there, he “dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents” (Heb. 11:9). But why?
He continues: “for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). He would later note that Abraham and others of faith “did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth” (Heb. 11:13). The writer then reveals to us the mindset of such ones: “People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:14-16). Though living here, they sought another home: Heaven! Now, that is a “far country” worth seeking! They were seeking eternal life in heaven!
The apostle Paul wrote of this land, but framed differently; in his words, he contrasted “the earthly tent we live in” [this fleshly body] with “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1), and then admitted, “For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life” (2 Cor. 5:2-4). In simple terms: We want the eternal, heavenly body, and desire something far better than this earthly, temporary home. We want no part of a wasteland; we desire a home in heaven!
How about you? What home do you seek?—An earthly, temporary one? A land of wasted effort and worthless results? No one in their right mind would desire a meaningless or wasted life, but far too many of us are pursuing just that, while deceiving ourselves into thinking it will somehow be different for us. It will not. No one who pursues the pleasures of this worldly life will have anything of value in the end, for it will all be left behind when we die, or be destroyed completely when the end of all things arrives.
And if you are a dedicated, faithful follower of Jesus Christ [a Christian], then it should be a given that you “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). As the song says, ‘This world is not our home, we’re just a passing through.’
Where is ‘home’ to you? — Steven Harper
