Jeremiah 34:17
... thus says the LORD: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, declares the LORD
"The prodigal son was looking for freedom and found slavery" Barry Camp (via @drewsteadman1 on twitter)
We want freedom, we don't want to be slaves. Following God seems a bit too much like slavery with someone telling us how we should live our lives and so we want "freedom" from God. The problem with that is when we try to opt out of God's kingdom, we make ourselves slaves to other things. The prodigal son was free to enjoy life in his father's house, but the "freedom" he wanted from his father didn't turn out to be freedom at all. The "freedom" that God is declaring in Jeremiah will leave them open to all sorts of dangers that God had been protecting them from.
The prodigal son returned and was accepted back by the Father. We can do that because the only truly free one, Jesus, chose to give up that freedom and die, taking the wages of our rebellion so that we can be set free from slavery to sin and live in the true freedom that is only found in Him.