The Prodigal Son: A Deep Well of Wisdom

[Brother_Mike_V]

Most of us have heard of, have read, get the meaning of the 'parable of the Prodigal Son':

A: The 'Father' represents Christ/ God
B: The 'Younger Son' is one who rejects the Father and returns with a changed heart
C: The 'Older Son' follows the Father in obedience but lacks a true 'heart; for Him

We typical associate the younger son with a lost or back-sliden soul and the older with someone who thinks they are "saved" through works, the law, or religion.

I propose that the Younger Son also represents the 'New Testament Church' and the Older Son also represents the 'Old Testament Church'.

Thoughts?

 

[FrankLee]

The law vs the new covenant. The younger son the born again, and Holy Spirit baptized Christian serving God from the heart. The older son the laws of Moses, the old covenant whereby men serve God not from the heart but only in the letter of the law, not the spirit.

This poem was given me by the Lord many years ago.

Coming home

by Frank Lee Jennings


My journey worn by time and deeds
Weary of harsh and violent lands
Worn by ways of grasping man
Mostly tired of me, at the end of me
Completely tired of me

Learning though, oh how I’ve learned
Adventures? Not what I imagined
Daydreams have fallen far behind
They’ve now become another kind
Exercising myself to erase them

Simple things I used to mock
raise themselves to meet me
Hearth and home, love and kin
Far from the stain of my past sin
I run toward what I threw away

Going home, back the way I came
Home to the heart glow
Back to the kingdom without fear
A fountain place of cleansing tears
Will he turn me away? I fear.

Can it be? I wonder while walking
Is there yet a place for me?
Familiar hills come into view.
childhood places that I knew
Close to where I started

Years gone by could they yet dream
that I’d be coming home again?
just the same as I draw near
As when I left that ancient year
Only better and brighter and cleaner

Who rushes now to meet me
and throws himself upon my bosom?
My father weeping, offering grace
His graying head against my face
Our tears mingling as they flow

He leads me into his house
The servants laugh and smile
Just as though I'd never left
And father had never been bereft
Of his wandering, foolish son

A servant sets another place
a table spread by Father's grace
Friends and loved ones seated there
the servant brings another chair
And sets it next to my father

A prodigal came home today
knowing home's where I belong
so gives my heart a constant song
My father loved me all along
My father loved me all along


In simplicity at face value is the best way. We can read many lessons from the story.