(1 Timothy 2:4, New King James Version). But it’s a choice we have to make to stay
home, or to return if we have left.
‘“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music
and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your
brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has
him back safe and sound’”’ (Luke 15:25-27).
The older brother is to be commended for staying home. He never left. He
remained a son. He was neither lost nor dead. He was in the household with the
father, and enjoyed the richest delights at his father’s table. He obviously had not
suffered brokenness and degradation like his lost and dead brother. This is
reflected in Luke 15:28-30 where we read:
‘“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded
with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and
never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate
with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with
prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’”
What he had never learnt, however, was the heart of the father. He probably
thought he knew and understood his father, but he had not yet understood the
things that were important and valuable to his father. He probably thought his
father valued riches because he had them; maybe he valued honour, because he
had plenty. So he was confused and angry. He expected punishment for his
dissident brother, or at least great reward for himself for towing the line. His
father’s actions totally confused him for he did not understand that his father’s
greatest possession was his family, his sons, both of them, not just the obedient
one. He did not understand that all that the father had, it was all for his children,
both of them, not just the obedient one. He did not understand that the father could
never be content or comforted to give his inheritance to one of his sons without
the other.
And so the writer of Hebrews 11:39- 41 says: ‘ These were all commended for their faith,
yet none of them received what had been promised,^ since God had planned something better
for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.’