This is what happens to you and me if we are prodigals when the Lord begins to deal with us. When this point comes in life, this is the greatest blessing in disguise imaginable. When it comes to the point where life seems futile, and we begin to discover the pain, the corruption, the shallowness, the emptiness, and the false promises of this world with all its bright lights, then at last, there's hope. That's the beginning of seeking the Lord. If he is going to convert us and bring us to himself, the first thing he does is to send a famine into our lives. Not a literal famine whereby there's no food in the shops, but a famine of truth and of meaning, a famine of happiness. Suddenly we realize this life is vain; suddenly we begin to discover the truth about ourselves. We get a feeling of emptiness and dissatisfaction with life. We begin to see through all the things around us, and we develop a tremendous hunger. ‘I was going along so well. I had no time for God; I wasn't interested in the gospel; I spurned him; I took my life and I just enjoyed myself and now it has all changed. Now, all of a sudden, I get very heavy moments’, we say to ourselves. ‘Life doesn't seem worth living. What's it all for? Where am I going? I can't enjoy those sinful pleasures I used to enjoy. I have got a hungering and a thirsting within me. I want to know the meaning of life, and sometimes I feel so unclean and so ashamed of the things I do.’
It's like the surgeon's knife. He begins to operate upon us in his kindness but at first the operation is hard and it's painful, and we suddenly run out of all our optimism, and we lose all capacity to be satisfied with the things of this passing world. God sends in a famine and our confidence goes and life begins to look hollow and vain. Now what is the result of that? Do we instantly say, ‘Oh I must quench this thirst. I must come to God. I must repent of my sins, I must be converted, life is not worth living without him’? Is that what happens? Not at first, because we are so proud, and we are so determined in our rebellion against God, that at first we still try to solve the problem some other way. This is reflected here in this wonderful parable.