Prepared by P. R. Reid, a Bondservant of Yeshua HaMashiach
Article Eighteen, Part One
May 7, 2024
Counting the Omer
ברוך אתה יהוה אלהינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו
במצותיו וצונו על ספירת העומר
Baruch ata YaHaVah Elohenu melech haolam, asher
kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al sefirat ha Omer.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.
Today is the 36th day of the counting of the Omer.
The parable of the prodigal son
Part One
- Luke 15:11 – 32: “Then He said: ‘a certain man had two sons.’ And the younger of them said to his father, ‘father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
- But when he came to himself, he said, ‘how many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!’ I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.’ And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here 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.’ And they began to be merry. Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.. And he said to him, ‘your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’ But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
- And he said to him, ‘son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”
- There is, of course, more to this parable. In this weeks lesson we will unpack this beautiful story.
- The parable begins with the following statement: “a certain man had two sons.”
- The certain man is the Father who represents YaHaVah and the two sons are Judah and Ephraim.
Judah
- Since the narrative is speaking to Judah and Ephraim then we are really speaking about the divided kingdom. Judah is the Southern Kingdom and Ephraim is the Northern Kingdom.
- Judah is the fourth son of Jacob. Ge. 29:35: “And she ( Leah) conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘now I will praise the LORD’ Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she stopped bearing.”
- This is the birth order of the twelve sons of Jacob:
- The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:
- The name Judah ( יְהוּדָה ) means praised. The letters used to comprise this name include the tetragrammaton used in the Hebrew Scriptures for the name of Yah, י ה ו ה with the addition of the fourth letter of the Aleph Bet, the Dalet, ד , which means to enter or pathway which is indicative of Yeshua.
- The numerical value of Judah is 30. The number three provides a relationship with the third day of creation and the pure seed, Yeshua.
- In its ancient Hebrew form, Judah would read; “The one who throws the good grain will be revealed while we secure ourselves to Him and enter into The Way where we will behold Him.”
- The name Judah ( יְהוּדָה ) means praised. The letters used to comprise this name include the tetragrammaton used in the Hebrew Scriptures for the name of Yah, י ה ו ה with the addition of the fourth letter of the Aleph Bet, the Dalet, ד , which means to enter or pathway which is indicative of Yeshua.
- The numerical value of Judah is 30. The number three provides a relationship with the third day of creation and the pure seed, Yeshua.
- In its ancient Hebrew form, Judah would read; “The one who throws the good grain will be revealed while we secure ourselves to Him and enter into The Way where we will behold Him.”
- Judah receives one-half of the birthright blessing, its national kingship.
- In Ge. 49:8 – 10: “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people.”
- Recall the blessing of the firstborn in middle eastern custom is the kingship and priesthood of the tribe. The tribe of Levi will receive the priesthood portion of this blessing after they redeem themselves at the golden calf incident.
Ephraim
- Ge. 41:52: “And the name of the second he called Ephraim: For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
- Ephraim is the second born son of Joseph. Ephraim is among many second sons that were given primacy over the physical firstborn son.
The name Ephraim (אֶפְרָיִם ) means “doubly fruitful. On an aside, the root word for his name is אֶפְרָת. This is the burial location for his paternal grandmother, Rachel.
- The numerical value for Ephraim is 331; 3 + 3 + 1 = 7. Seven is the number for completion and speaks to the seventh day Shabbat, the Shemitah, the Jubilee and the seventh millennia, to name a few.
- In its ancient form Ephraim would read: “The leader will speak and be the head of the work to lead them out of the chaos.”
- Ephraim is elevated to the status of the firstborn son of Jacob in Ge. 48:5: “And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.” **Ephraim is now the firstborn son of Jacob.
- As I said, the two sons in question are Judah and Ephraim. The twelve sons of Jacob are spiritually united when Joshua takes them into the land of promise. Sadly, they don’t remain united for very long.
- Under the rulership of Kind David, Israel the land remains, for the most part, united. It was not until the death of Solomon that “the land” was divided into the Southern Kingdom and the Northern Kingdom.
- 1 Kings 11:11: “Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, ‘because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.’”
- YaHaVah passed judgment on Solomon for his spiritual adultery. See 1 Kings 11:6 – 10 for context.
- 1Ki. 11:33 – 40: “…because they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David. However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, because I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of My servant David, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes.
- But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and give it to you—(Jeroboam ) ten tribes. And to his son I will give one tribe, that My servant David may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for Myself, to put My name there. So I will take you, and you shall reign over all your heart desires, and you shall be king over Israel (the Northern Kingdom). Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build for you an enduring house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you. And I will afflict the descendants of David because of this, but not forever.’ Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.”
Jeroboams’ Spiritual Adultery and the divided kingdom
- 1 Ki. 12:20: “Now it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was none who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah ( the Southern Kingdom) only.”
- 1 Ki. 12:25 – 33: “Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also he went out from there and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, ‘now the kingdom may return to the house of David:
- If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem ( the three pilgrimage feasts), then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah. Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, ‘it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. He made shrines on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
- Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.”
- 1 Ki. 12:24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘you shall not go up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel. Let every man return to his house, for this thing is from Me. Therefore they obeyed the word of the LORD, and turned back, according to the word of the LORD.” **I believe YaHaVah caused the kingdom division to make a way for the Goy and the native born Israelites to be grafted into the House of Israel, through Ephraim/Israel.
- Israel/Ephraim’s spiritual adultery was such an abomination to Yah that He divorced the Northern Kingdom. Jer. 3:8: “Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.”
- FYI: The Northern Kingdom was taken into captivity by Assyria in 721 B.C. Assyria swept out of the north, captured the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and took the ten tribes into captivity. From there they became lost to history. This event is called the diaspora. We are still in the diaspora until the restoration of all things!
- Now we know that the two sons mentioned in the Parable of the Prodigal Son are Judah, the Southern Kingdom and Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom.
The portion of goods…
- The “portion of goods” is an equivalent expression for “inheritance.” The younger son, believing that his inheritance consisted of silver and gold, ask his father for an early release.. When his father obliged, he went on his way, as the parable tells us. He traveled to a far off land, he is in the diaspora. Through his experience out in the world, he learns a valuable lesson. His true “inheritance” is a covenant relationship with YaHaVah, The Father!
- All that glitters is not gold. He soon learns that silver and gold do not bring happiness or contentment and are quickly spent. Left penniless, he takes a job feeding swine.
Severe Famine
- There was a severe famine in the land. The younger son, having spent his inheritance, was experiencing extreme hunger. What was he hungry for?
- Amos 8:11: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.”
- Ephraim, the younger son, was so far removed to covenant values, he was literally starving for Yahs word, His Torah.
- Ez. 5:17 list the four altar judgments: “So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.
- The altar judgment of famine was imposed on the younger son for his spiritual adultery. It was the famine of not hearing the Word of Yah that really got his attention. He no doubt received the same spiritual training from his father that his older brother did. Just like Esau and Jacob. Esau was a hunter while Jacob spent his time “in the tent” with his father, Jacob. “In the tent” is an idiom for studying Torah.
The swine
- Swine isn’t an animal suited for the House of Israel, either for food or herd.
- The first mention of the word “swine” is found in Lev. 11:7: “…and the swine ( אֶת־הַחֲזִיר ), though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.”
- Ephraim, the younger son in our parable, having been raised in a “kosher” home, was given the unsavory of task of tending the unclean swine for a living.
- The Hebrew word for swine is “hazir,” חֲזִיר. The numerical value of “hazir” is 225; 2 + 2 + 5 = 9. The ninth letter of the Hebrew Aleph Bet is the Tet which is a picture of a basket or container. This word can mean to surround or contain.
- This will make more sense when we look at one of the definitions for “hazir” which can mean a “foe of Israel.” In its ancient form, “hazir” would mean: “The people divided themselves from Yah and the cut covenant. They rejected the outstretched arm of Yah, Yeshua, from the beginning.” The Aleph Tav being connected to this word only means that that the “Strength of the Covenant” was rejected. These people refused to be surrounded by covenant values.
In conclusion, the different aspects of our parable have been identified
- That certain man, the Father, is YaHaVah.
- The Two Sons represent Judah and Ephraim, the divided kingdom.
- The “portion of goods” is really speaking to The Torah, our inheritance.
- The far off country speaks to the diaspora.
- Famine speaks to the absence of Yahs Word.
- Swine, speaks to the foes of Israel.