The Prodigal Son

THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel ✦✦✦ A New Teaching Series THE PARABLES AND THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL Proving the Singular Mission of YAHSHUA Through Every Parable He Taught ✦✦✦ PART FOURTEEN THE PRODIGAL SON Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 1 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The Younger Son Who Demanded His Portion — and the Elder Brother Who Refused the Feast Luke 15:11–32 A Midweek Bible Study Rev. John Shane Vaughn First Harvest Ministries International Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 2 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel INTRODUCTION TO TONIGHT'S STUDY Beloved — tonight we take up the most beloved parable YAHSHUA ever spoke — and one of the most consistently misread. You have heard it preached a hundred times as a story about any wandering sinner who comes home. The lost soul in the pigpen. The rebellious teenager. The alcoholic prodigal. And while that individual application is beautiful and true at some level, it is not what the parable is actually about. This parable is the Two-House story expanded into three thousand years of prophetic history. It is the fullest and richest of all YAHSHUA's parables — because it takes the entire Two-House narrative and unfolds it into a single family story. •A younger son — Ephraim-Israel, the ten tribes who demanded their portion and left the Father's house •A far country — the Assyrian captivity and the long dispersion through the appointed places Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 3 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel •A famine and pigpen — the deep idolatry and spiritual starvation of the scattered ones •A coming to himself — the Reformation, the Wesley Revival, the awakening remnant of every generation •A return home — the recovery of Christianity, the covenant, the Sabbath, the Torah •A feast of welcome — the coming Kingdom-feast that is being prepared for the returning son •An elder brother — Judah, the professing religious son, standing outside the feast, refusing to come in This is not a parable about individual wandering. This is the prophetic biography of scattered Israel across three thousand years — from covenant breaking to covenant coming home. Let us open our Bibles. And let us see — once again — that every parable YAHSHUA spoke was about the recovery of His scattered people. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 4 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel THE TEXT BEFORE US Luke 15:11–13 "A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living." Luke 15:14–16 "And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him." Luke 15:17–19 "And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 5 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants." Luke 15:20 "And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." This is the fullest Two-House parable in the Bible — the three-thousand-year journey of Ephraim compressed into one story. The Father sees him afar off — because YAHWEH has been watching for the return of the scattered tribes across every generation of the long exile. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 6 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel I. TWO SONS — THE TWO HOUSES The Certain Man Had Two Sons. The two sons in this parable are unmistakably the two houses of Israel and Judah. •The younger son is the House of Israel — Ephraim who obtained the birthright blessing from Jacob (Genesis 48). Though physically the second- born of Joseph, Ephraim was blessed above Manasseh and received the birthright of Israel. He is "the younger, son of the parable." •The elder son is the House of Judah — represented in YAHSHUA's own day by the Jews of Judea, who by that time were largely a mix of Judah, Levi, Benjamin, and a heavy portion of Edomite proselytes forcibly converted under John Hyrcanus. This same division of Israel into two portions is referenced across the parables — the Two Sons of Matthew 21, the Two Debtors of Matthew 18, the Rich Man and Lazarus of Luke 16. All are variations of the same Two-House pattern. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 7 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The Prodigal Son is not primarily about individuals. It is the story of the two houses — Ephraim and Judah — the two portions of covenant Israel walking two entirely different paths through history. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 8 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel II. THE YOUNGER SON DEMANDS HIS PORTION Give Me the Portion of Goods. "Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me." In 975 BC, Ephraim-Israel demanded his portion of the Kingdom and broke away from the Throne of David. •Under Rehoboam, the ten northern tribes refused to remain under the covenant Throne •They set up their own kingdom under Jeroboam •They erected golden calves at Dan and Bethel •They established their own priesthood •They kept their own feasts on days of their own choosing The Kingdom, or means of living, was divided between the two sons, and the two Houses carried on separately, each under its own line of kings. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 9 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The younger son's demand was not merely a request for money. It was a demand for his portion of the covenant inheritance — separated from the covenant Throne and the covenant Temple. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 10 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel III. THE FAR COUNTRY — ASSYRIAN CAPTIVITY AND BEYOND Not Many Days Afterward. "Not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country." Not many years after the division of the Kingdom, the younger House of Ephraim fell into full idolatry — and by the providence of YAHWEH, took his journey into the far country of Assyria. •There he could have his idolatrous worship to the full •There he forsook the Law of YAHWEH •There he forsook the rules, customs, and beneficial standards of life that Moses had established •There he "wasted his substance with riotous living" He had come to a land where there was a famine of true worship and common righteousness. And he began to be in want. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 11 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel From Assyria to Europe to the Isles. The journey of the younger son did not end in Assyria. From Assyria, the scattered ten tribes were driven westward and northward — through the Caucasus, across the Black Sea, into the Balkans, through the steppes of Asia, and eventually into the isles and lands of the West. By the providence of YAHWEH, they came to the appointed places — the isles marked out for them in prophecy, where the covenant seed would multiply into a multitude of nations exactly as Jacob had prophesied over Ephraim (Genesis 48:19). The far country of the parable is not one place. It is the entire multi-century journey of scattered Israel from the Assyrian captivity to the appointed places of the West — the whole diaspora of the ten tribes across the earth. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 12 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel IV. THE PIGPEN AND THE HUSKS Feeding Swine in a Foreign Land. "He joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine." This is the depth of the younger son's fall. •A covenant Israelite — of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob •Reduced to feeding swine — the very animal declared unclean by Torah •In the fields of a foreigner — under the citizenship of a Gentile master •Longing to eat the husks the pigs were eating — because no man gave unto him He joined himself to the citizens of Babylon — the Gentile nations — and tried to satisfy himself with their heathen customs. But all the time he remained unsatisfied and hungry, with an inherent desire to return to the true worship of YAHWEH. This is scattered Israel in the deepest days of the exile — nationally alive but Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 13 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel spiritually starving. Gentilized in name, in language, in feasts, in worship — but still carrying somewhere in the bones the covenant hunger that could not be filled with heathen husks. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 14 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel V. WHEN HE CAME TO HIMSELF The Awakening of Ephraim. "And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!" Here is the turning point of the parable — and the turning point of history. The younger son remembered. He remembered the Father's house. He remembered the bread. He remembered his covenant identity, however faintly. He compared his own condition — a wandering pigfeeder in a foreign land — with the abundance of the Father's household. This is the awakening of scattered Israel. •Eventually Ephraim-Israel came under the influence of Christianity in the appointed places •The gospel of salvation was clearly preached to him Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 15 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel •He began to compare his own lot with that of others who dwelt in the light of the Father's household •The four Gentile kingdoms carrying out the divine purpose during Israel's punishment had run their course •He witnessed the goodness of a settled home under the influence of the God of his fathers And he began to come to himself and to repent. The Reformation and the Great Awakenings. The repentance of the prodigal is doubtless the conversion of migrated Israel to Christianity, resulting from the Reformation era and the Great Awakenings that followed. •Wycliffe, Tyndale, and the early Reformers put the Bible in the hands of the people •The Reformation broke the grip of the papal system on Ephraim •By 1800, the punishment term of Ephraim was drawing to a close •The Wesley Revival shook the isles Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 16 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel •Missionary and Bible societies formed and became active •The younger son came full circle in his repentance When the parable says "he came to himself," it is describing centuries of gradual awakening — from Wycliffe to Wesley to Whitefield to the modern Two- House recovery in our own generation. Ephraim has been coming to himself for six hundred years. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 17 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel VI. THE FATHER'S WELCOME While He Was Yet a Great Way Off. "But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." As long ago as the first century, YAHWEH prepared for the son's return. •The apostles planted the Christian church in the appointed places •When Ephraim-Israel arrived, he came to a land already prepared for him •He came to a community of believers ready to receive him •The Father put on him the best robe — signifying his restoration to sonship •Placed the ring on his hand — signifying his authority as heir •Put shoes on his feet — signifying his freedom, no longer a slave to Babylon Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 18 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The prodigal son has been restored — and now bears all the marks of restoration to the home and heart of the Father. YAHWEH did not wait for scattered Israel to complete the journey home before He began preparing the welcome. The Father saw him afar off — He watched the whole journey — He prepared the isles, the church, the Bible, the awakening — before the son's foot even reached the door. But the Son Is Still Coming Home. The restoration is not yet complete. Even in this hour, once again Ephraim is nearing a new danger — for lack of knowledge — because Israel has failed to educate and train the current generation in the God of their fathers. The awakening remnant of this hour is the deepest phase of the coming home. The Two- House gospel, the Sabbath recovery, the feast Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 19 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel recovery, the Sacred Names, the Torah study — these are the son coming still closer to the Father, not merely as a Christian, but as a covenant Israelite fully awakened to his true identity. The Prodigal Son of the parable is coming home in stages. Christianity was the first embrace at the gate. The Two-House awakening is the deeper embrace at the Father's table. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 20 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel VII. THE FEAST OF WELCOME Bring Hither the Fatted Calf. "Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." The feast of the parable is not yet celebrated in its fullness. •The feast is called after the lost son is found •He was thought to be dead and buried in the far country, as Ezekiel pictures him in the valley of dry bones •He is the "Lost sheep of the House of Israel" to whom YAHSHUA was sent (Matthew 15:24) •In the opinion of many of the Father's servants, he is still lost •We cannot see that the feast of the parable is spread until AFTER the finding of the Israel nation They are to be recognized as Israel. The world will know that the prodigal son is found and restored. The feast is surely the same as the marriage feast Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 21 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel celebrated after the cleansing of Israel and the return of her Lord to reign. We cannot yet hear the whole nation and Church rejoice, saying, "He was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." Paul says that the whole creation awaits the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19). Ezekiel (chapter 39) says it will take place following YAHWEH's victory for Israel over the forces of Gog and Magog. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 22 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel VIII. THE ELDER BROTHER — JUDAH REFUSES TO COME IN And the Elder Son Was Angry. "Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing... And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him." The elder brother is Judah — the House that stayed home in profession, though not always in performance. •The Jews are of the opinion that they have remained at home and have not wasted the Father's substance •They are not pleased at the reception given by the Father to that portion of Israel which has become Christian •They do not agree that repentance and faith in Messiah should bring a great reconciliation to the Father •The elder brother is not pleased at the reception of prodigal Israel Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 23 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel •When the feast is called to celebrate the finding of lost Israel, the Jew will still stand outside grumbling and refuse to come in Very many teach that at YAHSHUA's coming the Jews will accept Him as their Messiah, and will come into His Kingdom. We hope they may — but we cannot find any indication in Messiah's own teaching that this will be so. In fact, YAHSHUA plainly stated they could not (John 5:38; 8:37). The elder brother in the parable ends the story standing outside. The Father goes out to entreat him — but the parable does not tell us he ever comes in. That silence is prophetic. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 24 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel IX. TODAY'S JEWS — THE UNREPENTANT ELDER BROTHER The Elder Brother's Complaint. "Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends." This was the attitude of the Pharisees in YAHSHUA's day, and is the opinion of many Jews today. They have preserved the law and the traditions of their fathers, and do not feel they need a Redeemer and Savior from sin. The speech of the elder son agrees perfectly with the claims of the unrepentant Jews at the end of this age. But Here Is a Truth Most Teachers Miss. The believing House of Judah has already believed in Messiah — joined Israel in the new place to live — and are NOT known as Jews at all! Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 25 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel •The good-fig portion of Judah went with the exile •They were gathered up with Israel in the long dispersion •They believed Messiah when He came •They are now indistinguishable from the regathered Israel in the appointed places •They are Christians, saints, awakening Two-House believers — not Jews It is the "bad figs" of Judah — the Edomites, the mixed and proselyte Jews — that reject Messiah and will do so, in significant part, until the divine correction of the age brings them, too, to reconciliation. Jeremiah 24:2, 8 "One basket had very good figs... and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad... so will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem." The good figs went with Israel and were saved. The bad figs remained and carried the name Jew while Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 26 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel rejecting Messiah. That is the elder brother of the parable in his historical form. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 27 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel X. UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION — EVEN THE ELDER BROTHER WILL BE GATHERED But YAHWEH Is the Father of Both Sons. Do not misread the elder brother's stubbornness as YAHWEH's abandonment. The Father in the parable goes OUT to entreat him. •The Father does not condemn the elder son •The Father does not disinherit him •The Father does not shut the door •The Father says, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine" The Father's love for the elder brother is not diminished by the elder brother's refusal to come in. The Father simply waits, entreats, and holds the door open. And the End of the Age Will See Both Sons at the Table. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 28 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The Universal Reconciliation of all things means that the sickle of cleansing eventually falls on every soul — not to annihilate, but to refine. •The wheat is gathered. •The chaff is burned to release the wheat. •Every son of Adam eventually passes through the refiner's fire. •Every rebellion is finally purified. •Every Judah — bad-fig and good-fig alike — will eventually be reconciled to the Father. The elder brother of the parable is left standing outside at the end of the story — but the story is not over. The Father is still entreating. And when the full age of correction has run its course, even the elder brother will finally come in to the feast — perhaps refined by fire, perhaps humbled by loss, but reconciled at last. The sharpness of the doctrinal identification does not cancel the pastoral hope of the reconciliation. We Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 29 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel speak the truth about the second son's failure — while praying for his eventual gathering. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 30 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel XI. THE PATTERN OF THE PARABLE Let Us Draw It All Together. •The Father — YAHWEH, the covenant Father of both houses. •The younger son — Ephraim-Israel, the ten tribes, the birthright-holder who demanded his portion in 975 BC. •The far country — Assyria, then the long dispersion through the isles and appointed places. •The riotous living — the idolatry and spiritual wandering of the scattered ones. •The pigpen and husks — the deepest phase of gentilization and covenant starvation. •The coming to himself — the Reformation, Wesley Revival, and Two-House awakening. •The return home — Christianity received in the appointed places, then the deeper covenant recovery in our own hour. •The Father's welcome — the best robe, the ring, the shoes — full restoration to sonship and inheritance. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 31 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel •The feast — the coming marriage-feast of the King, celebrated after the full finding of Israel. •The elder brother — unrepentant Judah, the Edomite-mixed remnant, standing outside the feast. •The Father's entreaty — YAHWEH going out even to the elder brother, holding the door open. This is the three-thousand-year prophetic biography of the covenant family — from the division of the Kingdom in 975 BC to the coming marriage-feast of the Lamb — told by YAHSHUA in a single parable. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 32 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel REFLECTION QUESTIONS Four Questions for Tonight's Class: 1. If the younger son represents Ephraim-Israel across three thousand years of scattering and return — where do I find my own family history inside that story? Do I trace ancestry to the isles where the covenant seed was planted? Am I part of the returning son? 2. If the pigpen represents the deepest phase of gentilization — what are the husks I am still trying to fill up on, that will never satisfy the covenant hunger? 3. If Christianity was the first embrace at the gate and the Two-House awakening is the deeper embrace at the table — how much further into the Father's house am I willing to walk? Am I content to remain a Christian at the gate, or am I coming all the way home to Torah, Sabbath, feasts, and the Sacred Names? Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 33 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel 4. If the elder brother is left standing outside at the end of the story — how do I hold BOTH the truth of the unrepentant Judah's present refusal AND the hope of his eventual reconciliation under the mercy of the Father who continues to entreat? Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 34 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel CLOSING WORD The Prodigal Son is the fullest Two-House parable in the Bible. The younger son is Ephraim — who demanded his portion, went into the far country of Assyria, wandered the earth for twenty-five centuries, came to himself in the Reformation, and is now walking home into the deeper covenant recovery of our own generation. > The Father is YAHWEH — who saw him afar off, ran to meet him, and prepared the isles, the church, the Bible, and the awakening long before the son's foot ever reached the door. > Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 35 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The elder brother is unrepentant Judah — standing outside the feast, grumbling, refusing to come in — but not forgotten by the Father who still goes out to entreat him. > And the feast is the coming marriage- feast of the Lamb — spread after the full finding of Israel — celebrated when the Kingdom of YAHWEH is finally established over all the earth. Beloved — we are the younger son coming home. •Do not stop at the gate. •Do not stop at the outer courts. •Come all the way in. •Take the robe, the ring, and the shoes. •Sit down at the Father's table. •And do not envy the elder brother's grumbling — pray for him. Pray that the door Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 36 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel remains open long enough for him to come in too. The Father has been running to meet Ephraim for six hundred years. He is not finished running. And the day is coming when even the elder brother will finally hear the music and come inside — not because he was forced, but because the Father never stopped entreating him. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 37 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Next in the Series — Part Fifteen: The Rich Man and Lazarus — and we will see how YAHSHUA closed the Two-House trilogy with the sharpest of the three parables — the rich man clothed in purple and fine linen representing Judah with all covenant privileges, and Lazarus the beggar at the gate representing scattered Israel reduced to poverty and full of sores — and how the great reversal at their death vindicates the scattered while exposing the false confidence of the religious. And we will see clearly that it is NOT a parable about hell. Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 38 THE PRODIGAL SON — Part Fourteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel ✦✦✦ Rev. John Shane Vaughn First Harvest Ministries International The Parables and the Lost Tribes — Part Fourteen: The Prodigal Son Rev. John Shane Vaughn | First Harvest Ministries International | Page 39