The Irony of the ‘Prodigal Son’ (I).

Come with me let’s do this long reading together.

“¹¹ And he said, A certain man had two sons: ¹² And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. ¹³ And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. ¹⁴ And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. ¹⁵ And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. ¹⁶ And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. ¹⁷ And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! ¹⁸ I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, ¹⁹ And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. ²⁰ And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. ²¹ And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. ²² But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: ²³ And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: ²⁴ For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. ²⁵ Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. ²⁶ And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. ²⁷ And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. ²⁸ And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. ²⁹ And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: ³⁰ But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. ³¹ And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. ³² It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found” Luke 15: 11- 32.

The Bible gives us the story of a man, who had two sons and obviously lived happily. One day, the younger made a demand to be given his lot and portion, that which would rightfully be his in case of the demise of the father, so that he may do with it as he pleases. Pretty strange you may say because inheritances are given or passed on at the demise of the owner but it this case, it was demanded for. His wish was granted without hesitation.

Contrary to what some of our children Sunday schools make us think that the father yielded to his son’s demand reluctantly, or the younger son was insolent and lawless; many other thoughts or personification may be attribute to the younger son, however, as we proceed in this piece, I will bring to bare how most appropriate the younger son was to make such demands.

After having his requested granted, he wondered to a distance land, outside the reach of his father where he spent all he had in riotous living. He eventually ran out of supplies, and went into a state of depravity, lack, despair, confusion and emotional pandemonium and was treated in humanly. He lost his sense of worth and didn’t know his value anymore. Circumstances broke him down and cause him to descend lower that he could have ever imagined. He was in every way unworthy and not fit to be called the son of his father. He became less than a morsel of bread.

He eventually returned to his father and begged for forgiveness after coming back to his senses and he was accepted.

This story portrays to us, the unfeigned love of our Father, his mercies that endures forever, and his grace that’s ever sufficient.

His compassionate heart and loving kindness. His outstretched arm that is always ready to welcome us back home. The son was warmly and heartily received by his father, and his acceptance was marked and sealed it a feast. This story was tagged, “The Prodigal Son”.

In one of my pieces, I said in writing that the Bible initially was not written in English, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and some parts in Aramaic, while the New Testament was written in Greek.

Books of the Bible were written like letters, just like this piece you are presently reading, and was never segmented into chapters and verses.

English as a language lacks certain depth of expression therefore, several details are hidden beyond the reach of the average reader. It takes some extra work and in depth study to lay hold of some truths in their most accurate presentations.

In light of the above, I’d like to also state that tagging of chapters was done by scholars as well, letters at best come in paragraphs not chapters and verses. The theme “The Prodigal Son” was done by scholars, in fact, the Bible never called him a prodigal child, rather the worst description he was given was he spent all he had on riotous living and was humiliated by lack and hunger that he sought to be eat the same food pigs ate.

Like earlier on said, this story portrays our Father God, as a good and ever loving father, who had a son that wondered into darkness but returned.

The good news about this is that he that was dead was now alive, and he that was lost was now found, praise God.

If according to the parable, God is our loving father, and the younger son shows us sometimes, when we intentionally rebel against God’s ordinances and choose to be lords of our own lives, with time, we become victims and susceptible to the vagaries of life, subject to the natures’ influences and spiritual manipulations and orchestrations.

We learn from our experiences and return back. The bible says we should come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain grace and mercy in the times of need; “¹⁶ Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” Heb. 4: 16.

We however do not need to learn from experience, if people have threaded upon a path before us, then it is absolutely unnecessary for us to go through same experience. All we need to do is learn.

For every time we decide to learn by experience, our lives become the specimen for experiment and elementary biology makes us understand that the more a specimen is used, it’s worth, value and usability depreciates. This means ergo that the more we learn by experience, the less value we have in the long run. This however is not absolute.

We were not born to start building from scratch, we are called to carefully build on the foundation that’s been laid and to stand on the shoulders of giants; accurate fathers and forbearers.

Permit a diversion here.

The agenda of God spans thousands of years and generations, it spans beyond a man’s lifetime, we must learn to dive into hallowed antiquity and understand the sovereign agenda of God that has been travelling through the ages and align properly. It is important that we are well acquainted with knowledge, right knowledge, and flow, rather than learning from experience.

Experience is NOT the best teacher. Selah!

Back to my analogy.

I’d like to say emphatically that there was nothing wrong with the younger son demanding front that which was going to be his at the demise of the father.

Find out the reason in the next release of my next piece on the same subject matter.

Cheers.