Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Luke 15:14

14. when he had spent all ... a mighty famine--a mysterious providence holding back the famine till he was in circumstances to feel it in all its rigor. Thus, like Jonah, whom the storm did not overtake till on the mighty deep at the mercy of the waves, does the sinner feel as if "the stars in their courses were fighting against" him (Jud 5:20).

in want--the first stage of his bitter experience, and preparation for a change.