Section 5 Building Your Relationship With God - 18 Clarification Of Bilblical Stories
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God then led me to the second part of the Parable of the Prodigal Son:

Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’” (Luke 15:11-32)

Note the similarity with the Parable of the Laborer, where the older son is like those who worked longest and complained why they were compensated the same as the ones who worked the shortest.

Question: Are you telling me that whoever made-up the Parable of the Laborers got the idea from this second part of the Parable of the Prodigal Son?

God’s answer:

Patterned after

Question: I’m getting that this story is different from the Parable of the Laborers because in the made-up parable, there was unfairness. The only reason why the landowner paid everyone equal was because he was feeling generous. Whereas here, the Father explains to the older son why --- and shows the older son that that truly he received more than the younger son. So, there’s no unfairness in the situation. Is this correct?

God’s answer:

No comparison
He did his time
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Question: Can you please explain why you said the younger son “did his time”?

God’s answer:

Hard labor
His life was not easy. He learned his lesson the hard way.

Question: Please confirm

God’s answer:

He earned it.

Question: When you told this parable you were addressing the Pharisees and scribes who were criticizing you for eating with sinners? So what is the lesson/message of this second part of the Parable?

God’s answer:

Brotherly love
Do not begrudge each other.

Begrudge means “to think that someone does not deserve something: to regard (something) as not being earned or deserved: to give or allow (something) in a reluctant or unwilling way.”36

Question: Please confirm.

God’s answer:

Don’t be a killjoy
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