The Big Story of the Bible, Part 7 - Chapter 6: Unfaithfulness
October 13, 2022 | by: Dale Thiele | 0 Comments
Posted in: Pastoral Encouragement
Have you ever imagined being the father in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15)? You have two sons. One of them comes to you and wants out. He has had enough of the family living and wants freedom. You have only loved him, cared for him, and provided for him. If he would only remain with you, he would be set for life. But he rejects all that by demanding his portion of the inheritance so he can be free. Once he leaves, you look for any sort of update that a traveler may have about your prodigal son. You pray daily for his return. You grieve over him when you learn of his promiscuous living. You become anxious when you hear he is financially destitute. You pray and hope he would return, broken from the experiences.
This is the experience of God with Old Testament Israel. He gives them everything to be blessed and to be a blessing: a covenant, people, land, and a king, not to mention the promises of one to come. Yet, time after time, Israel wants out. They want to worship idols according to their own imaginations. They want to be like other nations with multiple gods. They believe the lie that God is withholding blessings from them. God does not look for updates about how Israel is doing, but he actively sends his prophets to warn Israel of their crash course with destruction.
This is Chapter 6 in the Big Story of the Bible: Unfaithfulness. In chapter 5 we saw God give Israel yet another blessing, a king who is the foreshadow and ancestor of the Promised One. David, and his son Solomon, enjoyed a great period of peace and prosperity. That all comes to an end when Solomon’s heart wanders. 1 Kings 11:1 & 1 says, “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women…when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God.” Solomon, and all Israel with him, became like the prodigal son.
The rest of 1 and 2 Kings is the sad tale of a people chasing the pleasures of the world, rejecting a God who patiently calls for them to return. Their unfaithfulness led to the division of the kingdom. Some lead the people in repentance to come back, like Hezekiah and Josiah, but in the end Israel and Judah continue to spiral further and further away from God.
When we hear the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15, we often think of ourselves and our wayward hearts, which is appropriate. Perhaps, though, Jesus had Old Testament Israel in mind. He is responding to the critique of the Pharisees and scribes from verse 2. He reminds them of their heritage, their past. Israel was just as wayward as the prodigal son. And now he warns them that they have become like the older son, scorning the grace and generosity of the father.
The point of this chapter is that we too either doubt the goodness of our Father or scorn his grace. We either believe God withholds blessing from us or we are convinced we have earned our spot in his favor. Israel’s history, and the parable of the prodigal son, warn us of the dead-end pursuit of pleasure and blessing apart from God. The warnings of the Old Testament prophets, first given to unfaithful Israel, serve us as well as warnings of running away from God.
