February 27, 2015

Luke 15:11-32

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

Today we will finish Act Two of the Three-Act Play, with Scene IV concerning the father’s gracious response to his first-born son’s insolence.  The son spoke unkind words when “…his father came out and pleaded with him…” (Luke 15:28) to come in and join the celebration for his younger brother’s return.

•      Luke 15:31 – The father said to his elder son, ”Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.”  As we analyze the elder son’s thinking from the story Jesus is telling, we see he was estranged from his father as much as his younger brother was when he was off in a far country.  His idea was, “I have to be good and obedient to stay in my father’s good graces.  And then someday I will inherit all his wealth!”  His focus was not on loving his father and enjoying the father/son relationship with him.  His focus was on the possessions of his father, and that eventually he would own them – when the old man died!

What was lacking in his mindset was that he was already fully accepted into the family and the decisions of the family, and all the family assets were available simply for the asking!  After all, hadn’t the father graciously given the younger son his full inheritance early, simply because he requested it?

Do you know, Christian, that God “…has made us accepted in the Beloved?”  Who is the Beloved?  It is Jesus Christ – Beloved of the Father!  When you receive Jesus as your Savior, “…you are in Christ Jesus…” as it says in I Corinthians 1:30.  Being in Him, we are accepted by the Father as much as He would accept His own Son!  We are born into His family!  We are sons and daughters of God! (see John 1:12; John 3:3-5).  And Jesus told us in Matthew 7:11:

      If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
      much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who
      ask Him?

Are you acting like you are not a child of the King?  Do you think you are not worthy to ask God for what you need?  Didn’t Jesus say in John 16:24, “Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full…”?

Can you see why this elder son needed to repent and ‘come home’?  The younger son had already done that.  Now it was his older brother who needed to repent – to turn from his selfish thinking, his self-righteous attitude!

•      Luke 15:32 – “It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.”  In the elder son’s mind, the father was foolish to welcome his Prodigal Son back into the family, even throwing a big party for the occasion.  So the father graciously and patiently laid out three reasons for his actions.

“…your brother….”  The elder son had disrespectfully called his brother, “…this son of yours…” (Luke 15:30).  He was laying the his brother’s foolish decisions and wasteful living at the door of his father!  But the old man gently steered his son back to the truth:  “…your brother…” – same father, same family, same privileges!

How often does God have to remind us who believe that we are all equally part of His family? (see Matthew 12:50; Hebrews 2:11; James 2:1-3).

“…your brother was dead and is alive again….”  Dead?  Yes, spiritually dead according to Ephesians 2:1:  “…dead in trespasses and sins….”  Paul in Romans 6:1 through 10 even likened new life in Christ to being raised from the dead.  “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:11).

And the young man might very well have been dead in his self-exile, as far as his family was concerned.  They didn’t know if he was living or not!  But then, repentant, he had come home (Luke 15:18 through 20).

“…your brother was…lost and is found.”  There are three parables with similar themes in Luke 15 – The Lost Sheep (Luke 15:4-7), The Lost Coin (Luke 15:8-10), and The Lost Son (Luke 15:11-32).  All were lost and then found again!  Jesus stated His purpose for coming to earth in Luke 19:10:  “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”  As this young man was lost and then found again – reinstated to father and home – so we who are lost in sin are found when we come home to God by Jesus Christ!

Whether you have wandered and squandered, and need to come home – or whether you have stayed home in your self-righteousness, Jesus Christ can find you, save you, and reconcile you back to the Father.  Come to Him in faith today!

February 25, 2015

Luke 15:11-32

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

Let’s continue analyzing the elder son’s attitude toward both his brother and his father – from Luke 15:28 through 30:

      Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.  So he answered and
      said to his father, “Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never
      transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a
      young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.  But as soon as this
      son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you have
      killed the fatted calf for him.”

We have already seen the older brother was angry because his father had received his younger son home from “…a far country…[where] he wasted his possessions with prodigal living.” (Luke 15:13).  Any way you cut it, receiving him back into the family would be expensive, and number one son would lose some inheritance!  So he “…would not go in…” to the homecoming celebration! (Luke 15:28).  When “…his father came out and pleaded with him…” (Luke 15:28), he first held up his own goodness compared to his brothers badness.  He was righteous compared to his younger brother, but it was a self-righteousness – and he too needed to repent as his brother had done!

Now in Luke 15:30, he reveals his insolent attitude toward his father:  “But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you have killed the fatted calf for him.”

•      “But as soon as this son of yours came….”  Notice how he worded it.  He would not refer to the younger son as his brother.  “…this son of yours…” was how he put it.  In saying this, he derogatorily implied that the poor choices the young son displayed were gleaned from his father!  After all, the old man was making a very poor choice in receiving back his younger son after all he had done!  The elder brother was not about to extend grace to him as his father had.  All he was concerned about was what Jesus called mammon in Matthew 6:24 – money, and the things money can buy!  He despised his brother for being so wayward, and he despised his father for his soft heart – and, apparently, his soft head!  And the first-born was also angry at the old man for not recognizing and rewarding his obvious goodness and loyalty!

•      “…who has devoured your livelihood with harlots….”  No mention had been made by anyone of paying prostitutes for their services.  But in his self-righteous thinking, this would obviously be what the younger son would have done!  After all, isn’t that what anyone would do with no morals and a lot of money?  What he probably would not allow his own mind to think was, “That’s what I would do if given the opportunity!  Of course, not around here would I do it.  I have my good reputation to uphold.  But if I was in a far country….”

Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”  Yes, even the heart of the good and moral person is desperately wicked if not made new by being born again.  And who can know such a heart?  The next verse in Jeremiah says this:  “I, the LORD search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his way, and according to the fruit of his doings.”  As it also is written in Hebrews 4:13:  “…there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”  God knows you inside out!  So you might as well come to Him, confess the thoughts, words and deeds of your wicked heart, and receive His own goodness through the Lord Jesus Christ.

•      “…you have killed the fatted calf for him.”  This, more than anything else the elder brother says, shows his mercenary heart!  He does not care for the joy this occasion of the Prodigal Son’s homecoming gives to his father.  Never mind that it is the greatest day of the old man’s life!  All he sees is his own inheritance decreased!  After all, killing the fatted calf meant a really big celebration – and probably the whole town was invited!  He – brother number one – was the son who deserved the fatted calf!  And he didn’t even get a young goat to have a party with his friends!

When you look closely at the heart – the thinking – of this elder brother, he is very much like the Pharisee Jesus spoke of in Luke 18:10 through 14:

      Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax
      collector.  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank
      You, that I am not like other men — extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even
      as this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” 
      And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes
      to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”  I
      tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for
      everyone who exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will
      be exalted.

So which brother are you? – the younger brother who came home to his father, or the elder brother who stayed home but was yet estranged?

February 23, 2015

Luke 15:11-32

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

In Act Two, Scene II involving the elder brother of the Prodigal Son parable, we are going to look at the attitude of the number one son in some detail by examining Luke 15:28 through 30:  “But he was angry and would not go in…” to the celebration the father had thrown to receive back his wayward son.

      Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.  So he answered and
      said to his father, “Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never
      transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a
      young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.  But as soon as this
      son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you have
      killed the fatted calf for him.”

•      Luke 15:28 – “…he was angry and would not go in….”  Remember we discussed in the last blog what might be the financial outcome of the younger brother’s return:

One – The younger brother might be received back to full sonship and rewritten into the will, getting one third of the father’s remaining wealth.  That would mean a reduced share to the elder brother, and the younger would end up with the majority of his father’s estate.

Two – Even if he was not reinstated in the will, the costs of his homecoming celebration would be substantial!  There would also be the expenses of settling the young man back into the family – clothes, living arrangements, extra food and so on.

So the elder brother was angry – angry at his brother’s profligate living and thinking he could just waltz home again, angry about the joyous reception his father had given him, angry because of the expense involved!  It was all his money now when the old man died!  He didn’t care about his father, just as his brother didn’t.  He just wanted his father’s wealth!  At least the younger one repented.  He didn’t!  And he wasn’t about to celebrate his brother’s return!

•      Luke 15:28 – “Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.”  Notice the father went to both sons!  The younger one he joyously met as he was coming home.  The elder was stubbornly refusing to be part of the same family with his younger brother.  But the father loved them both, and wanted them both to be his sons and brothers to one another!

Doesn’t God come to meet us all?  Hasn’t Jesus paid the price for the sins of us all?  Doesn’t He love the whole world enough to die for us, even though some refuse to come in and be a part of the family?  Yet doesn’t He plead with all of us to come in? (see Matthew 11:28; Luke 19:10; John 3:16, II Corinthians 5:20; I John 2:2; Revelation 22:17).

•      Luke 15:29 – “So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time….’ ”  He was the good son, and he apparently always obeyed his father.  But why did he obey his father?  It was not out of love, but because he desired to remain in the old man’s good graces so he would get his double share of the estate!  Compared to his brother, he certainly was good!  But he was basing his goodness on his obedience!  His righteousness far exceeded that of his flagrant sinning brother!  But it was self-righteousness!

You see, Jesus was emphasizing two types of sinners here:  the obvious dissolutely living sinner and the good moral sinner.  Both are sinners before God!  What the Lord was saying is that both needed to repent:  the one of his flagrant sins, the other of his self-goodness!

We have no goodness before God!  In Isaiah 64:6 we learn “…all our righteousnesses [the very best we can do!] are like filthy rags…” before God!  If we have no goodness, we have to seek His goodness, asking for forgiveness, confessing both our obvious sins and our self-righteousness.  It is then that God bestows His own goodness – perfect goodness – to our account!  As it says in Romans 4:24 and 25, God’s own righteousness…

      …shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord
      from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised
      because of our justification.

• Luke 15:29 – “…and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends.”  Never mind the fatted calf – he was angry that the old man hadn’t even given him a kid, a young goat, to roast for a party with his friends.  He was thinking of himself as poor, yet this son was privileged – the first-born of a wealthy father.  He would someday be the estate master, calling all the shots!  And, according to his father in Luke 15:31, “Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.”  The father’s wealth was accessible now!  All his son had to do was ask!

Are not we like that with God?  We too often think, “I’m not worthy.  Why would God even bother with me?  I won’t even ask.”  But Paul plainly said in Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  He may not grant you an enormous amount of money or perfect health now, in this life.  But He surely makes available in abundance “…the fruit of the Spirit…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22 and 23).  If we have that, what more do we need in any situation?

We’ll continue examining the elder son’s attitude in Wednesday’s blog.

February 20, 2015

Luke 15:11-32

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

In this Three-Act Play, Act One was all about the younger brother of the family.  He is often called the Prodigal Son. We saw him brazenly ask his father for his share of the father’s wealth – his inheritance – before the his dad even died!  He didn’t care for his father, just the property, the good things of his father!  Once he got his share, off he went and blew all the money on loose living in a far country.  Broke and in the midst of a famine, he hired out to feed pigs, but there was no food for him!  In Luke 15:17, it says, “…he came to himself…,” and decided to go home to his family.  But he didn’t feel he deserved sonship, so he would offer himself to his father as a hired hand – hoping to pay his father back and earn his way back into the position of a son.

When his father ran to meet him, the boy started to tell him his pre-thought-out speech recorded in Luke 15:18 and 19:  “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Make me like one of your hired servants.”  But his dad wouldn’t let him finish.  He instead immediately bestowed full sonship back upon his boy with a robe, a ring, sandals and a great celebration!  (Luke 15:22 and 23).  His son was back home and restored to him! (Luke 15:24).  It was the greatest day in the old man’s life!

In Act Two we meet the elder brother.

•      Luke 15:25 through 27 – “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.  So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.  And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ ”

The firstborn son “…was in the field…” while his younger sibling was off in “…a far country… wast[ing] his possessions with prodigal living….”  The first son had stayed home and worked the farm.  He was the good son!  As a matter of fact, by his own lips he testifies of good living in Luke 15:29:  “Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time….”  He boldly said this to his father, and the old man didn’t challenge him on that statement, so it must have been true!

But not all is well with the situation!

•      Luke 15:28 – “But he was angry and would not go in [to take part in the celebration].”  Why was he angry?  I had said in Act One, Scenes II, the father “…divided up all his wealth between his two sons – one third to the younger and two thirds to the elder, according to God’s direction in Deuteronomy 21:17.”  The one third given to the younger brother was now gone, so everything that was left of the father’s possessions would then have been his inheritance – if his brother had not come home!  Now that brother number two was home, there would be two possibilities, and both would effect the first son’s inheritance:

▸      One – if brother number two was received back fully into the family as a son, he might be rewritten into the will to get one third of the father’s remaining wealth.  If that was the case, the younger would inherit one third of the remaining two thirds, effectually getting a total of 5/9 (or .5555) of the father’s estate  That would leave the elder brother 4/9 (or .4444) of the estate.  And he was supposed to get twice what his younger brother got – not less!

▸      Two – even if he was not reinstated in the will, the celebration that the father was hosting for his wayward-son-come-home was a big deal!  And costly!  And then there would be the expense for the son’s clothes – the rags smelling of pigs would have to go!  There would be adjustments in the household, other living expenses, etc. – all using up the father’s wealth!

Either way, it would prove to be expensive!  And it says the elder son was angry – angry that his brother had blown so much money, angry that he had to gall to come back at all, angry that his father had so readily received him back, angry that it would prove costly – TO HIM!  You see, it was stated earlier that the younger son didn’t care for the father, just the things of the father! (Act One, Scene I).  But now we find out his older brother also loved not the father but the father’s wealth, which he thought rightfully belonged to him!

The younger brother was the bad actor, the flagrant sinner!  The elder brother was the good one, but he was self-righteous!  BOTH were LOST!  BOTH needed to repent!  But only the younger brother had repented and come home.  His elder brother had stayed home but was still estranged!

In Scene Two of Act II on Monday, we will examine more closely the elder brother’s self-righteous and disrespectful attitude.

February 18, 2015

Luke 15:11-32

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

In Scene III of Act One of the Three-Act Play, we saw the Prodigal Son again in the presence of his father as the old man literally ran to meet him!  And we saw in Luke 15:18 and 19 the confession the young man had planned to make to his dad:

      I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned
      against heaven and before you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son. 
      Make me like one of your hired servants.”

His confession was good in that he realized he had sinned against God first and also his father by squandering his inheritance – an inheritance given to him before his father died, against all social norms!  He had ‘hit bottom’ starving in the pig sty, and he determined to go home as a repentant sinner!

But we also learned his confession was wrong because he was going to ask for the position of a day-laborer and try to earn his way back into the family.  A sinner cannot earn his or her way into God’s family!

In Luke 15:21 the young man started to give his planned confession.  But his father cut him off in the middle of it…

•      Luke 15:22 – “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet.”  What was the father doing here by giving the son “…a robe…ring…and sandals…”?

▸      The robe was an expensive long garment like the father wore – a symbol of wealth and family!

▸      The sandals also were worn by the well-off.  Day-laborers could seldom afford such footwear.

▸      The ring – I saved it for last – is the most significant.  It contained the family seal in reverse, so when, for instance, a contract was made, or ownership was to be established, the ring would be pressed into a wax seal or into wet clay to show the seal or ‘signature’ of that family!

The father was conferring back full sonship on his Prodigal Son, the one who thought “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” (Luke 15:19).

Isn’t that what God through Jesus Christ has done for us?  It is written in John 1:12: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name….”  And John wrote in I John 3:1:  “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”  Such love only comes by the grace of God accessed by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior!  There is no possibility of working to pay God back for offending Him by our wasteful and sinful living!  As it says in Titus 3:4 through 7:

      …the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by
      works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He
      saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy
      Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our
      Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs
      according to the hope of eternal life.

•      Luke 15:23 and 24 – The father further commanded his servants, “And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

He had received his son home again – back from the being lost, back from, as it were, being dead!  This was the best day of the old man’s life!  It was time for celebration!  The fatted calf was reserved for special celebrations.  Meat was not an everyday part of the diet in Jesus time.  It was too expensive!  And the fatted calf was like serving filet mignon!  To such a celebration the whole town would be invited!  It was a large and expensive affair!  But the cost to the father was not an issue – his son had come home!

•      Luke 15:24 – “And they began to be merry.”  So ends Act One of the Three Act Play.  And it sets up Act Two which concerns the other son, the elder son of the family.  We will meet him in Friday’s blog.

February 16, 2015

Luke 15:11-32

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

In Scene III of Act One of the Three-Act Play the Prodigal Son finally makes it home from the pig sty in “…a far country….” (Luke 15:15).  Well, as Scene III opens, he has almost made it home!

•      Luke 15:20 – “But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.”  Now we have to understand a bit about appropriate behavior for older Jewish men – especially a wealthy and respected Jewish man.  He would be wearing a long outer robe down to his feet. In order to run to his son, we get an idea what he would have to do from the example of Elijah in I Kings 18:46:  “And the hand of the LORD came upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.”  The father would quickly have tucked the hem of his robe into the sash around his middle so he would not trip on it when he ran to greet his son!  By this action he would have bared his legs for all to see!  And this was not considered proper behavior for an elder man of means in that day!  But – caution to the wind – he did it anyway!  His son was more important to him!

There is something implied here that is important.  It says “… when he was still a great way off, his father saw him….”  His father was watching for his boy to come home – probably ever since the Prodigal Son left!  How long was he gone?  A month?  A year?  Several years?  It does not say.  But the young man was away long enough to completely go through his inheritance, and to be miserable for awhile in that foreign pig sty!  All this time, his father kept vigil – watching for his son to come home!  No wonder he saw him “…still a great way off…”!

And no wonder when “…his father saw him… [he] had compasson…” on him!  His heart had been filled with love and compassion for his lost son for a long time!  We can learn a lesson here:  If we are going to have compassion on the lost of this world, we need to determine to love them before we encounter them – because God already loves them!

Again, proper behavior be gone, “…his father…fell on his neck and kissed him.”  We can just see the old man grab and embrace his son – his son smelling of pigs! – burying his head against the neck of the young man, and just bawl!  Do you think God might bawl with joy when we come home to Him through faith in Jesus Christ?

•      Luke 15:21 – “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ”  The young man had carefully planned out just what he would say upon meeting his father (see Luke 15:18 and 19).  And he started out according to plan!  But he only got half way through his speech of repentance before his father cut him off!  But he got it right in what he did say!  “…I have sinned against heaven….”  Yes, he had sinned against his father also.  He admitted that next.  But all sin is first of all against God!

David confessed the same in Psalm 51:4 when he told God, “Against You, You only, have I sinned….”  Considering what he had done by committing adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband Uriah murdered to cover it up, such confession might sound strange.  But primarily sin is breaking God’s laws!  So I think the young man realized this, and carefully – and correctly – thought out what he would say.

But it is really not the exact words that matter so much!  David, in the same psalm of confession tells us, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise.” (verse 17).  And the Prodigal Son certainly had a change of heart – a broken heart, from proud, selfish and independent to humble, broken and now very dependent upon others.  “…a broken and a contrite heart….” is what God wants, not precisely chosen and correctly repeated words!

But let’s further consider the young man’s planned out speech to his father.  According to the last half of Luke 15:19 he was going to request, “Make me like one of your hired servants.”  A hired servant was a day-laborer, and Matthew 20:8 through 10 tells us he would be paid a denarius – the going laborer’s rate – at the end of the day.  What this young man was going to say implies that he was somehow planning to pay his back his father for the inheritance he had squandered.  The plan was not a good one!  If he had been given only one talent of wealth for his share of the inheritance, at the rate of half a denarius a day (he would have to have some money for living expenses – bare minimum, the other half danarius) it would have taken him 12,000 days to pay his father back – almost 33 years!  And what his father had given him was most likely a lot more than one talent!

On what basis do we often come to God?  We bargain with Him!  “God, if you will just get me out of this mess, I will serve you for the rest of my life! I will give you ______________ [fill in the blank]! ”  But Isaiah 64:6 says this:  “…We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags….”  Our righteousnesses are the very best we can do!  If they are like a filthy rag, what do our not-so-righteous deeds look like to God?  In other words, we have nothing to offer God – nothing to even begin to pay Him back for what He has given us!  And what has He given us?  Complete forgiveness of sin, eternal life forever with Him, abundant life now through the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  How can any price be put upon such an inheritance?  It can’t be!  It is priceless!  And it is freely given to us by the Father!  All we have to do is reach out the empty hand of faith and receive it – receive Jesus Christ as Savior, the One who purchased us for such salvation at the cost of His very life on the cross!

So the Prodigal Son apparently had it in his mind that he would somehow buy back a humble position in his father’s household.  What was his father’s reaction to his wayward son’s arrival?  We shall see in the next blog.

February 13, 2015

Luke 15:11-32

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

We will continue to view Act One of the Three-Act Play In Luke 15:11.  This first Act covers the story of the The Prodigal Son, the younger of a rich man’s two boys.  In Scene I we looked at the son’s very unusual and defiant request, “Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.” (Luke 15:12).  He was only interested in his father’s wealth, not the father himself!  But the father granted his son’s wish, and it says, “So he divided to them his livelihood.” (Luke 15:12).  He divided up all his wealth between his two sons – one third to the younger and two thirds to the elder, according to God’s direction in Deuteronomy 21:17.

Then it says of the young man in Luke 15:13 – “And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, [and] journeyed to a far country…” where he “…wasted his possessions with prodigal living.”  And when famine hit that far country, “…he began to be in want.” (Luke 15:14).  “Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.” (Luke 15:15).  A Jewish boy feeding pigs – so contrary to what God said in Leviticus 11:7 and 8!  Apparently, the guy for whom he was working didn’t treat his bond slaves very well because he wasn’t even feeding the young man!  It says in Luke 15:16, “…he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.”

That’s where we left him – in the pig sty!  But Act One is far from over!  On to Scene II!

•      Luke 15:17 – “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”  Why is it we sometimes have to hit rock-bottom before we come to ourselves?  But The Prodigal Son realized – finally! – that his way was the wrong way!

If he had just been familiar with his own Jewish scriptures, he may have learned before he got into this mess what it says in Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 (KJV):  “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”  Yes, as it says in Proverbs 6:23, “For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light; reproofs of instructions are the way of life.”  And God pleads with His children, in Deuteronomy 30:19:  “…I have set before you today life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live….”

But it also is written in Jeremiah 17:9:  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”  So, like the rest of us, maybe he would not have avoided all his pain had he known the right way!  We are all sinners, and we all sin against God and one another because that is our nature!  We all need a new nature, and only the Lord can give us that! (see Romans 3:10, 23; John 3:3-5; II Corinthians 5:17).

•      Luke 15:18, 19 and 20 – “I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Make me like one of your hired servants.’  And he arose and came to his father.”  He had it all worked out in his mind!  But he was still wrong, as we shall see!  At least he was turning more in the right direction!

So was he right at all?  Yes, because of several things:

     First, he decided to do something about his wrong decisions!  I have met too many people who basically say, “Yeah, I sure have messed up my life!  But it is too late for me!”  And they stay where they are – in one way or another, in the pig sty!

Second, he was going back to the one against whom he had sinned the most – his father – and he was determined to make amends.  He still had some things to learn about such amends, but at least he was going to try.

Third, he planned to confess his sins to his father.  He was wrong – his daddy was right!  And he would tell his father that in plain language – no fudging the truth!  That is confession!

Fourth, he repented!  This maybe should have been listed second, because it was the first thing the young man mentioned in his decision:  “I will arise and go to my father….”  Repentance means turning from the direction you are presently heading, and going back the other way!  The Prodigal Son had been heading in a sinful, rebellious and destructive direction, and now he would turn around and go home!

…these where his plans, and…

Fifth, he followed through!  For it says, “And he arose and came to his father.”  It may have been difficult to get up out of the mud and leave the pigs.  After all, he had gotten used to those miserable conditions!  And, apparently, he was half-starved and not in the best physical shape to travel home from a far country.  But perhaps with great effort, he got up, put one foot before the other, kept at it, and accomplished the long journey home!

In Act One, Scene III we will see what happened upon his arrival.

February 11, 2015

Luke 15:11-32

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

In Luke 15:11, Jesus begins a parable that is commonly called, The Prodigal Son:  “A certain man had two sons.”  I am not going to reproduce all at once the whole parable, or the 14 verses that cover Act One, of this Three Act Play.  But the first Act covers the story of the younger son, The Prodigal Son. Let’s look at some highlights:

•      Luke 15:12 – “And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’”  This was unheard of in Jesus’ day, or at least very rare – that a son would seek his inheritance before his father died.  But this shows that he did not care for his father, but the wealth, the possessions of the father!  He would rather have his father dead than alive so he could lay his hands on his inheritance!  But being impatient, he boldly asked for his share now!

The family wealth was often tied up in land, flocks, herds and sometimes hard cash.  According to Deuteronomy 21:17, the firstborn son would inherit a double portion of the father’s wealth.  He was then expected to then be the patriarch of the family, carry on the family’s good name, keep the family together, and provide for any indigent members.  So the younger of the two sons in this case would receive a single portion – one-third of his father’s wealth.

The father at first seems a bit spineless – no reprimand, no argument, no refusal to the younger son.  It just says in…

•      Luke 15:12 – “So he divided to them his livelihood.”  Here is our first introduction to the eldest son – “…he divided to them…”!  This means the father delivered up all his wealth to his sons – before he died!  He was still the patriarch and in command of the family, but he gave all his goods away!

If he did not have a significant cash reserve, he would have had to sell some of his flocks, herds and/or land to give the younger son his one-third portion.  It does not say how he did it, just that he did.  As we shall see in Act Two, the elder son stayed on the farm and in subjection to his father as before.

•      Luke 15:13 – “And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, [and] journeyed to a far country….”  Anyone who has experienced a prodigal offspring knows that a far country does not have to be far away!  But in this case, it probably was.  The young man wanted to get away from the rule of the father and the apparently obedient example set by his brother.  He wanted to get out where he could make his own decisions and do his own thing!

As it says in Job 12:12, “Wisdom is with aged men, and with length of days, understanding.”  This is often the case, and apparently the younger son had not grown yet in wisdom and understanding!  For it says in…

•      Luke 15:13 – “…and there [he] wasted his possessions with prodigal living.”  How he wasted his possessions it does not say.  But he did – to the extent that it is recorded in the next verse that “…he had spent all….”

•      Luke 15:14 – “But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.”  In such an agricultural economy, a prolonged drought or perhaps a locust infestation would cause a severe famine.

The young man had not planned ahead and he had left no reserve for ‘a rainy day’!  He was living for the moment, and as long as he had coins jingling in his pocket, he had ‘fair-weather friends’ around him, and he was fine!  He could do what he wanted to do, and he was happy!  Well, happiness is not necessarily doing what one wants to do, but this young man thought he was happy, deceiving even himself!

But famine hit, and so did poverty!  “…and he began to be in want.”

•      Luke 15:15 – “Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.”  The man to whom this young man became a bond servant – for that is what joined himself probably means – was not Jewish, but of another nation.  And this foreigner did not abide by the same laws or code of conduct common among the Jews!  Apparently, he was not a good slave-master because we shall see in the next verse, he wasn’t even feeding the young man!

Notice also the young man’s job:  He was caring for pigs!  According to Leviticus 11:7, “…the swine, though it divides the hoof, and having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.”  Pigs were one type of animal that was unclean to the Jews!  And they were further instructed in Leviticus 11:8, “Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.  They are unclean to you.”  This young man had fallen to the lowest of the low for a Jew – living with pigs!

•      Luke 15:16 – “And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.”  He even would have eaten pig-food – garbage!  He was that hungry!  He was that much in want!  But no one gave him anything because no one where he was cared for him!

We shall leave this Prodigal Son in the pig sty until Act One, Scene II.

February 9, 2015

Isaiah 43:1-3; 41:10

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

Let’s finish the series God Intimately Knows Us! The scripture is Isaiah 43:1 through 3 and 41:10, presented in reverse order:

      …thus says the LORD, who created you…and He who formed you…“Fear
      not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.
      When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers,
      they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not
      be burned; nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD your God,
      the Holy One of Israel, your Savior….Fear not, for I am with you; be not dis-
      mayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will
      uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

In the first three blogs, we made it through the first three verses of Isaiah 43. Now we will look at Isaiah 41:10 in four parts:

•      “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God…..” It says in Colossians 2:9, “For in Him [Jesus Christ] dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” And in Colossians 1:27 Paul reminds us “…Christ in you, the hope of glory.” So God is more than just with us! He is in us by His Holy Spirit! Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you….I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 28:20).

God reminded His children in Isaiah 43:1 through 3 that He created mankind in the first place, and He redeemed them when they fell into sin. But – as applied to the Israelites – He redeemed them from slavery in Egypt, giving them passage through the waters of the Red Sea (see Exodus 14:15-17; 23; 28) and through the Jordan River when they entered the Promised Land (see Joshua 3:15-17). The “…through the fire…” part is a prophecy that would be literally fulfilled a hundred years later (see Daniel 3:24-26).

If He would do all that for them, why would they fear or be dismayed? And we today have 2,700 more years of God’s faithfulness on which to rest our hope! We have seen and experienced as Christians the full redemption of God through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that Redeemer being with us and in us – why should we ever fear or be dismayed?

•      “I will strengthen you….” It is significant that the first thing God tells His people is that He will strengthen them. This reminds us that He wants us to do what we can do! Some people just want to be delivered from challenging situations. But God wants us to be strong and get through tough times, because the tough times of trials and temptations build our faith, make us strong, and change us more and more to be like Jesus! (see Romans 5:3-5 and James 1:2-4).

How does God want to strengthen us? Isaiah 40:31 tells us, “…those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Wait on the LORD by reading, studying and meditating upon His Word. Wait on the LORD in prayer. Wait on the LORD by being obedient to His leading. He will see that we have the needed strength to get through whatever we are facing!

•      “…yes, I will help you….” So you see, His help often comes after His strengthening! Here is what Psalm 28:6 through 8 says about it:

      Blessed be the LORD, because He has heard the voice of my supplications!
      The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I
      am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will
      praise Him. The LORD is their strength, and He is the saving refuge of
      His anointed.

The trusted is in the past tense, then David states, “…I am helped…” – present tense. David, who wrote this Psalm, had already trusted in the Lord, and by that trust he had been strengthened. He had experienced God’s help many times. Why? Because “The LORD is my strength….” Strength is a present and ongoing characteristic derived from the trust (faith) of the true believer. Strength undergirds God’s help and usually precedes it. Then our trust in that help grows even more!

•      “…I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Wherever God’s hand leads us, we can be sure of one thing: He is always righteous! And being righteous, He is always just and good! This is why Paul can say in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” According to the next verse, the good toward which God is working is to “…conform [us] to the image of His Son…” Jesus Christ.

As children, we are often confident when we are holding our parent’s hand. May we have even greater confidence as our Heavenly Father holds us with His righteous right hand!

Isaiah 43:1-3 and 41:10 teaches us what Paul summarized in Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

February 6, 2015

Isaiah 43:1-3; 41:10

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

God Intimately Knows Us! is the name of this series, presented with the featured scriptures from Isaiah in reverse order, Isaiah 43:1 through 3 and 41:10:

      …thus says the LORD, who created you…and He who formed you…“Fear
      not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. 
      When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers,
      they shall not overflow you.  When you walk through the fire, you shall not
      be burned; nor shall the flame scorch you.  For I am the LORD your God,
      the Holy One of Israel, your Savior….Fear not for I am with you; be not dis-
      mayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will
      uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

We looked at the first two verses of Isaiah 43 in the last two blogs, and discovered in verse 1 why God said “Fear not….”  God created our first parents and then redeemed mankind from sin by sending His own Son Jesus Christ to be our Savior.  To be redeemed is “…to be bought out of the slave-market of sin!”  The Lord bought us with the price of His own blood!  We no longer belong to anyone but Him!  We Christians ourselves have no real claim to our own lives!  And in verse 2 we saw the result of God’s redemption and ownership, all based on the previous experience of the Israelites through history:

•      “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…” (see Exodus 14:15-17; 23; 28).
•      “When you pass…through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.” (see Joshua 3:15-17).
•      “When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; nor shall the flame scorch you.” (see Daniel 3:24-26).

Now on to verse 3!

•      “For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior….”  God, being holy, can do no evil, nothing bad!  It says in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

Paul wrote in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”  From the context, it is obvious that all things means all good things!  The apostle presents here an argument from logic – from the greater to the lesser:  If God would not hold back from giving us the greater (the greatest!) – His own Son dying for our sins – then surely He will give us all other good things, since anything else constitutes a lesser gift!

The greater gift is emphasized here in Isaiah 43:3 when God said “For I am…your Savior….”

•      For the sake of space, I did not write out the last part of Isaiah 43:3 and on into verse 5.  But I quote it here:

      I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.  Since you
      were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you;
      therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life.  Fear not, for I
      am with you….

Now here is an eye-opener!  We are worth more to God as His children than entire godless nations!  In verse 4 above God said of Israel “…you were precious in My sight….”  Christians today are no less precious to God because we are His children through faith in Jesus Christ. (see John 1:12).  What about the godless nations?  In Isaiah 40:15 it is written, “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the balance; look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.”  I’ll bet you didn’t know where the phrase “a drop in a bucket” came from!  As far as “…the small dust on the balance…,” the nations are not even equal in God’s eyes to respectable-sized dust – just small dust, so small it does not even change the sensitive weight on the balance!

So when God tells us we are precious in His sight, WE ARE!

Is it any wonder that He reminds us again at the beginning of verse 5:  “Fear not, for I am with you…”?  Why should we ever be afraid?  God Intimately Knows Us!

We will finish this series in Monday’s blog.