The Path of the Prodigal
"And He said, 'A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me." So he divided his wealth between them.'" Luke 15:11+12
"And He said, 'A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me." So he divided his wealth between them.'" Luke 15:11+12
It has been some time since I have done these devotionals, but it is most certainly a good time to start back up. I want to start first by saying that I apologize for letting these things go for quite as long as they did, and to say that I will do my best to bring these devotions every morning\evening.
For the next few days, or maybe even a week or two, I would like to look deeply at a passage of Scripture and see what it says. This will be a little different than what I am used to doing, so bear with me if it seems belabored.
We open on the story of the Prodigal Son, a great story that I think every Christian can relate. I do this story because, as I'm sure all of you can, I can relate both to the older and the younger son. There have been far too many times in my life of me being the younger son, wandering away from God. There have similarly been too many times when I have been the older, joyless and loveless. But praise be to God that He is always the Father in the story; wise, compassionate, loving, and looking out for the best of His children.
Verse one opens on the fact that the man has two sons. We see in this verse that Jesus is using a story to illustrate a point. The two previous stories were supposed to illustrate the joy of Heaven over a lost sinner. However, as the last two parables were about inanimate objects, this one is more personal and talks about a man with two sons.
Moving to the next verse, we see here that the younger brother is asking for his inheritance. It seems that the younger brother is and has been the delinquent one of the bunch, and I get the distinct impressino from this parable that the younger son was something of a trouble maker. What seems to be really disturbing about what the youngster said to his father is that he was, in essence, wishing the father's death and saying he couldn't wait for his father to die. In that culture, the inheritance (much as in this one) would not go to the sons until the death of the father. This inheritance would equal, for this case, one third of the father's wealth. The older son would get the "double portion," or two thirds, in this case.
The son obviously couldn't wait for his money, and basically said to the father "Why don't you just die off so I can get what's mine?" Now what astounds me in this parable is that the father just lets the son get away with it, and actually gives him the money! But notice here what the verse says! The money is divided to BOTH the sons! This will become more important later as we look further on in this verse. Right now suffice it to say that both sons get whatever money the father is leaving them, the father gets whatever he needs to survive on and keeps some of the money, and that is that. Now the eldest son didn't seem to mind the money being divided, and once more, that will become important later on.
In the interests of time and space, we will only go through two verses a day, but each look will end with something we can take away from the two verses. For today, I can certainly see myself in that younger son. How often do we, in effect, say that to our Father? "God, just give me what's mine and butt out!" Whenever we strive to get our own way, when we chase after the garbage of the world, and when we get involved in things that God hates, we are telling Him that we wish Him dead and out of our way, so we can have our inheritance, which is the world. I would urge you, brothers and sisters, to contemplate on this and cry out to God that our hearts be softened in this area.
For the next few days, or maybe even a week or two, I would like to look deeply at a passage of Scripture and see what it says. This will be a little different than what I am used to doing, so bear with me if it seems belabored.
We open on the story of the Prodigal Son, a great story that I think every Christian can relate. I do this story because, as I'm sure all of you can, I can relate both to the older and the younger son. There have been far too many times in my life of me being the younger son, wandering away from God. There have similarly been too many times when I have been the older, joyless and loveless. But praise be to God that He is always the Father in the story; wise, compassionate, loving, and looking out for the best of His children.
Verse one opens on the fact that the man has two sons. We see in this verse that Jesus is using a story to illustrate a point. The two previous stories were supposed to illustrate the joy of Heaven over a lost sinner. However, as the last two parables were about inanimate objects, this one is more personal and talks about a man with two sons.
Moving to the next verse, we see here that the younger brother is asking for his inheritance. It seems that the younger brother is and has been the delinquent one of the bunch, and I get the distinct impressino from this parable that the younger son was something of a trouble maker. What seems to be really disturbing about what the youngster said to his father is that he was, in essence, wishing the father's death and saying he couldn't wait for his father to die. In that culture, the inheritance (much as in this one) would not go to the sons until the death of the father. This inheritance would equal, for this case, one third of the father's wealth. The older son would get the "double portion," or two thirds, in this case.
The son obviously couldn't wait for his money, and basically said to the father "Why don't you just die off so I can get what's mine?" Now what astounds me in this parable is that the father just lets the son get away with it, and actually gives him the money! But notice here what the verse says! The money is divided to BOTH the sons! This will become more important later as we look further on in this verse. Right now suffice it to say that both sons get whatever money the father is leaving them, the father gets whatever he needs to survive on and keeps some of the money, and that is that. Now the eldest son didn't seem to mind the money being divided, and once more, that will become important later on.
In the interests of time and space, we will only go through two verses a day, but each look will end with something we can take away from the two verses. For today, I can certainly see myself in that younger son. How often do we, in effect, say that to our Father? "God, just give me what's mine and butt out!" Whenever we strive to get our own way, when we chase after the garbage of the world, and when we get involved in things that God hates, we are telling Him that we wish Him dead and out of our way, so we can have our inheritance, which is the world. I would urge you, brothers and sisters, to contemplate on this and cry out to God that our hearts be softened in this area.
posted by Charlie | 9:07 PM
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