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Author: Stephen Weller
785 words, 4 minutes read time

He Takes His Inheritance and Leaves

Scripture: Luke 15:11-16

With the previous lesson we completed another short section which included the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. With this lesson we start a longer section on the parable of the lost son and the compassionate father.

^{Lk 15:11} “And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them.”’

This parable has three main characters: A father and his two sons. The younger son, was probably a teenager since he was unmarried and does not want to wait for his father’s death to receive his inheritance. Since he was the younger brother, his inheritance would have been half of what the older brother would receive, or one-third of the estate. This double portion is seen in Deuteronomy 21:17 ESV: “but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, . . ., by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.” The younger son says to his father, “Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.” Surprisingly the father granted his request and allowed him to go his own way.

^{Lk 15:13} “Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. ¹⁴ And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.”

In the Proverbs we find warnings for the younger son. For example, in 13:11 ESV: “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.”; in 10:2 ESV: “Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.”; in 20:21 ESV: “An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end.”; and in 28:22 ESV: “A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him.”

Despite these warnings, “the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country.” We should now begin to see the warnings given in Proverbs begin to play out in the life of the younger son. He lacked management skills and didn’t know how to control his desires, “and there he squandered his property in reckless living.” Could he not see that his inheritance was running out and that one day it would be gone? To make matters worse, the weather took a turn for the worse and a severe famine developed in that country, and “he began to be in need.”

The Proverbs were again proven correct and the younger son finds that if he wants to live, he is going to have to get a job and earn a living, so “he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.” To be raising pigs that citizen was probably a Gentile because pigs were an unclean animal to a Jew. We see this in Leviticus 11:7 ESV: “And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.” Deuteronomy 14:8 ESV adds additional information that would make this a repugnant job for this younger Jewish son: “Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.”

By now the younger son was becoming desperate as “he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.” Anyone who was counted as a friend when he was living recklessly have now deserted him and he is left along with no one to help him in his desperate time of need. This is often the place where God can finally get the attention of a wayward child and begin the restoration process.

Conclusion

This younger son has clearly been traveling along the path to destruction and needs a new direction in life. For many people in the world who find themselves in similar situations, it is nearly impossible to find a way out. What is going to happen next in our parable?