Probably one of the best know parables of Jesus was that of the prodigal son! It has been interpreted in many ways.
I believe it tells the story of those who chose to move away from God after the flood. God showed himself faithful to mankind in that he chose a small people to be the oracles or the ones who would write about the things of God and also would be the people group that God would choose to bring the Messiah through.
The parable makes much about the riotous living the prodigal chose. How he used up the inheritance the the father of the story had willingly given him. So it is with all of us. God loves us so much but we choose to do our own things and go our own way. We try and try to make things work, but we never seem to be able to feel like we accomplish our potential.
When we finally seem to be getting ahead, we “find” friends who love to help us party at our expense and when troubled times come, they are nowhere to be found and we end up alone and at the end of our ropes. It seems to be a principle of God’s that most only find him when they have come to the end of the rope, eating the last straw (pig’s forage) that we finally come to our senses, however I digress….
We see in the story that God chose a peculiar people. The Jews. It seems that they had gone from a group that were dedicated to God, to a group that God HAD to bless because they believe he had made an everlasting covenant with them. They had grown into a familiarity with God that they believed he had to be at their beaconing call. So much so that they did not see how they had become. Selling lame birds and lambs in the temple for extraordinary prices. Making rules that were difficult to keep. Though they had stayed with Jehovah God , they had assumed relationship with him. So much so that Jesus had to come to them to show how corrupt they had become.
The Gentiles time had not come at that point, however, because of their corrupted hearts, the Jews killed the messenger (this is not just an indictment on them, but on all of us who do not follow after his teachings). But little did they know, he actually was a willing sacrifice, for He came that ALL may be set free. For another 40 or so years, God continued to use the Jewish converts to proclaim the gospel, however, it became evident that the leadership were NOT willing to follow. This is when the prodigal came back. The one who had left the father was returning and the Father with open arms accepted us.
Well, now that we have been in the Father’s house for 2000 years, we also have become familiar with the Father, and believe we deserve his blessings just because we do. However, Jesus warned us of these days in Revelation 3. We ARE the Laodicean Church. We are compromising what Jesus taught us and are accepting “every wind of doctrine”. We are headed for dark days, for treacherous times, and there will be many who will not hold up under it. The fields of harvest are here but there are no workers. God is calling for workers, begging for those who would want to see a harvest brought in, but we are unwilling. Yeah, we have churches that speak partial doctrine, however, most Christians are acting like they have retired.
God is calling the prodigals to come home and realize we are to do what he tells us to do and not the other way around.
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