Joseph was exalted in a very special way.
From palace to a pauper, it wasn’t overnight.
But prodigal’s resources soon vanished out of sight.
It happened fairly quickly. The money was all gone,
It was a major problem for him to carry on.
At last he found employment, to feed a farmer’s hogs.
A job that only should be done by “unclean, gentile dogs”.
A Jew would never do it. For working with the pigs
Was thought of by the Jewish men as far too infra-dig.The situation humbled him. He had no food to eat.
The only thing was “pig food”; His fall was thus complete.
He came back to his senses. He wanted to return.
To go back to his father; that was his deepest yearn.
His father’s lowest servants were better off than he.
And so he started walking, back to the family.
We are not told the details. The Lord leaves us to guess,
The hardships that he went through to rectify his mess!
How many days it took him, we do not know for sure.
To see his father’s face again. I think he would endure,
Anything and everything. He had one goal in mind.
To get back to his family in spite of what he’d find.
He had his own agenda of what he thought he’d say.
He kept on going through it each step along the way.
“Father, I’m unworthy for you to call me son.
Not in view of all the wicked things that I have done.
Let me be a servant, the lowest of the low.
I will be your bond slave regardless where you go.
How can you forgive me? I cannot put things right.
I’m no longer suitable to pass within your sight.”
There’s one thing he’d overlooked; his father’s love and care.
Yes his father let him go, but father’s inmost prayer,
Was for the prodigal’s return. He’d watched the roads each day,
Longing for his precious son who’d wandered far away.
Scanning the horizon his one wish was to see,
His son returning home to him. How happy he would be.
Now let me tell a secret. I want the world to know.
That prodigal’s identified. The Father let me go.
All that I had was wasted. My future - everything.
I truly had no prospects; There’s nothing I could bring.
All I had was “pig swill”. I stood before his throne,
Naked and unworthy; a sinner to the bone.
And yet the Father welcomed me; received me as His child.
Washed away my wickedness declared me undefiled.
It happened because Jesus exchanged with me His place.
He received my punishment. I received His grace.
Jim Strickland – written Saturday, 11 June 2011
