579th Post Jesus Said Concerning Parables Con't. - Parables on Forgiveness Con't. - Parable of the Prodigal Son Con't. 6th Post - Luke 15: 11 - 32 Con't.

Luke 15: 11 - 32 Parable of the Prodigal Son Continued - 6th Post.
We will be looking at this parable and the character of the father in the parable.  The father in this parable did not act like a normal father in Israel at the time of Jesus.  Israel was a patriarchal society, where the father is the head of the family.  Now consider all the fathers you know, and if you are one, would you act like this father?  Your youngest son comes up to you and asks for his inheritance early, would you give it to him??  Probably not!  You would think that if you gave him his money, he would spend it on wild living, until he was broke.  If you were foolish enough to give this son what he asked for, you certainly would not let him come home.  In this parable, we father's, would be wrong on both counts.  The father not only gives the younger son what he wants, but takes him back after he had lost all the money.  Unbelievable!  This is exactly why Jesus told this parable!  Our Heavenly Father lets us have free choice.  Sometimes, if we choose the wrong thing, it can get us into deep trouble.  This is what happened here.  The young man was on the right path, but chose not to follow his father's teaching and struck out on his own.  His Heavenly Father knew the young man had made a wrong choice, but let him go anyway.  When we find ourselves separated from God, we have only ourselves to blame for God being distant from us.  God did not move, we did!  Sometimes when we find ourselves here, we want to blame God for letting us go so far wrong.  You ended up in this situation, because you were leaning on your own understanding and not God's.  I will be continuing next post.