O Israel Return to Your Father

“I 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. And he arose, and came to his father…. (Luke 15: 18-20)

What a beautiful picture this is of the repentant son returning to his father. His father had given him his inheritance and he had gone out into the world and squandered it with “riotous living”. Is that not what we are doing today? We have been given so many blessings, among them the wonderful knowledge of our Salvation in the Death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We too have squandered our inheritance. We have been so blessed that we have taken it all for granted. We said to our Father, give us all of our blessings now, and then we forgot Him and have been living as we please.

Just as the prodigal son lost everything and found himself in need, we too will lose everything. Our Israel lands are in a state of decay. We are worshipping other gods and think that we have it all. The focus of our lives is our physical needs and we have lost our spirit. We are constantly looking for something new to stimulate us and we never find enough. Our hearts and minds are so far away from our Father in heaven that we are doomed to fall. Isn’t it strange that the one thing that can give us peace and happiness is the very thing that we resist the most? We are indeed a very stiff-necked people. Our Father is waiting for us to return to Him. He knows that we will fail. Look what is happening to us. The sin in our lands is out of control. Our minds have been so conditioned to think that we deserve everything that we think we can have it all. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:….” (Prov. 23:7). The sin in our lives is preventing us from having an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. We don’t realize that we had it all and we have given it away. We have abandoned our inheritance, but where there is an abundance of sin there is also an abundance of grace.

We must develop a spirit of repentance and trust in the Lord. Our Father is waiting for our Israel lands to come back to Him but He knows that we must become a broken and humbled people before that can happen. Right now our egos are still preventing us from admitting that we need Him but that will soon change as the world around us tumbles and falls. We are now being controlled by the forces of darkness. The heathen who do not know our Lord Jesus Christ are ruling over us. This will eventually break us, but like the prodigal son it will also lead us back to our Lord. “Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.” (Joel 2:17-18). Our Father will have mercy upon us when we repent and call upon Him. He will know our hearts before we even call on Him. He is waiting to bring us back to Him. “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” (Isa. 65: 24). I find this verse so comforting. He has not forgotten us. He is waiting for us and wants to help us. I believe this time is very soon. We will recognize that we have squandered our inheritance. We will realize that we have not appreciated the wonderful blessings that were bestowed upon us by a loving Father. Once this happens to us our hearts and minds will cry out to Him for forgiveness. He will receive us with open arms.

“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.” (Luke 15: 20).