Charles Spurgeon used this parable to illustrate the bondage of sin. He said, “There was once a tyrant who summoned one of his subjects into his presence and ordered him to make a chain. The poor blacksmith—that was his occupation—had to go to work and forge the chain. When it was done, he brought it into the presence of the tyrant and was ordered to take it away and make it twice the length. He brought it again to the tyrant, and again he was ordered to double it. Back he came when he had obeyed the order, and the tyrant looked at it then commanded the servants to bind the man hand and foot with the chain he had made and cast him into prison.”
Spurgeon continued with an application. “That is what the devil does with men. He makes them forge their own chain, and then binds them hand and foot with it and casts them into outer darkness.”