9, 10. (a) What change of circumstance did the prodigal experience, and how did he react to it? (b) Illustrate how some today who abandon true worship experience a plight similar to the prodigal’s.

⁹ “When he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred throughout that country, and he started to be in need. He even went and attached himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to herd swine. And he used to desire to be filled with the carob pods which the swine were eating, and no one would give him anything.”—Luke 15:14-16.

11. How was the prodigal’s dilemma compounded, and how have some today found the world’s allurements to be an “empty deception”?

¹¹ The prodigal’s dilemma was compounded by the fact that “no one would give him anything.” Where were his newfound friends? Now that he was penniless, he was as if “an object of hatred” to them. (Proverbs 14:20) Likewise, many today who stray from the faith discover that the allurements and views of this world amount to “empty deception.” (Colossians 2:8) “I suffered much pain and heartache without Jehovah’s guidance,” says one young woman who for a time left God’s organization. “I tried to fit in with the world, but because I was not truly like others, they rejected me. I felt like a lost child who needed a father to guide me. That is when I realized that I needed Jehovah. I never wanted to live independent of him again.” The prodigal in Jesus’ illustration came to a similar realization.