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| RESPOND: (5–10 minutes) Say: We’ve heard in this story that God rejoices when one of his children comes home. I know that each of you are at different places in your relationship with God, and I also know that God loves you wherever you are and is always eager to give you a “Welcome back” hug. Let’s have a little party today, to celebrate God’s huge love for us! Celebrate and have fun! INSIGHTS FROM SCRIPTURE: The story of the lost son is a parable. A parable is a story that functions as a metaphor. Some of the parables told in the Bible are aphorisms more than narratives, such as Mark 3:24-25. The passage used in this Bible study is more of a metaphorical narrative. This means that Jesus was telling a story that had a deeper meaning. Although Jesus was telling a story about a man and his son who ran away, it is easy to see that he was relating this to the way we relate to God. In the biblical times when this parable was told, the idea of inheritance was to keep all the family’s wealth and property in the family. In the biblical worldview it was believed that a man lives on only through his family, so if he wants his “stuff” to keep living with him then it must stay in the family line. This is evident in the Israelite law in Numbers 36:7 where it talks about not letting possessions leave the tribe. Knowing this makes it easier to understand why the older brother is angry at the father for celebrating with the son because he has taken half of what the family owns and lost it. This means that half of the father’s possessions are no longer in the family. Continued... |
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