The Messiah's Secret - The Prodigal Son

 "For God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:17. 
When I was a teenager I had a horse an ex-steeplechaser 'Cherry Brandy', and my friend with her ex-race horse we occasionally had races in a field galloping alongside the buses on the road. There was no prizes for the winner, it was just good fun.

One of my Bible concordances the author has worked out the odds on prophesies fulfilled.  

In Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible page 731 he worked out the odds concerning prophecy:”Each detail of a prophecy doubles the chances of the prediction not coming to pass. For instance, a prophecy with one detail has one chance in two of fulfilment – it will be fulfilled or not fulfilled.  A prediction with two details has one chance in four of coming to pass. This shows how impossible it would be for many of the lengthy prophecies of Scripture to be fulfilled apart from divine power. The following table of progression to determine the chances of fulfilment of each prophecy, comparing the number of details with a like number in the first row of figures.

One prophecy may contain a number of details.

This prophecy below has 9 details one in 512 chances of being fulfilled.

 “For unto us a child is born,(1) a son is given;(2) and the government shall be upon his shoulder,(3) and his name will be called “Wonderful Counsellor,(4) Mighty God, (5)Everlasting Father,(6) Prince of Peace.(7) Of the increase of his government there shall be no end,(8) upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore.(9) The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” Isaiah 9: 6, 7.                                                     

1 . .in . 2  chances of being fulfilled  

2 . .      4                                         

3 . . . . .8  

4 . . . . 16   

5 . . . . 32 

6 . . . . 64 

7 . . . . 128
8 . . . . 256
9 . . . . 512

6 fulfilled by Jesus :  Luke 1: 31. 2:7

    2.  Luke 2: 21

    3.   Matthew 2: 2

    4. John 15: 26. 16: 12-15

    5.  John 5: 19-24

    6. John 20: 21

    7.  Revelation 1: 8            (future) 

    8. Revelation 19: 15, 16.     "

    9. Revelation 11: 15           "

  Gambling for money can be a terrible addiction.

  Slavery to addiction

A Slave - A person who is the property of another.   

A person becomes the property of the addiction – gambling.   

Someone who is addicted to gambling will soon find out that they have lost the ability to stop gambling. When the supply of funds dries up and their debts increase, all their dignity, self worth diminishes also and in most cases their immediate family and friends distance themselves from them.   

In the Bible the parable of the ‘Prodigal Son’  
Jesus put emphasis on the son who gambled away his inheritance of money before his father’s death. He cut himself off from his family to lead a life of loose living, we read he squandered all his money. He probably did what many would do today, spending money on clothes, cars, treating his new friends with gifts and parties and probably would gamble and drink too much. He would frequent the arcade with its slot machines, and gambling at the casino. 

When he had spent all he had, his friends left him, and he had nowhere to go. 
In present day circumstances he ended up broke, he couldn’t afford to rent a room, and he found himself going hungry. His situation grew worse and he was too ashamed to beg on the streets.  

Jesus said that he remembered his father and his brother at home. He came to his senses, he saw his error and so that what united them as a family, the love of the father, he decided to return home. Luke 15: 11-17 

When a person with an addiction decides for themselves to get help, that is when the journey to being set free from addiction begins. Gamblers Anonymous will help people to see a way forward and give them the help that is available: debt counsellors, marriage guidance, group therapy etc.  

Jesus setting a person free from their addiction.   

The Roman soldiers gambled with dice as to who would have Jesus’ garment. This garment was made out of one piece of cloth that was too good and difficult to divide up between them, so they gambled for it. John 19: 23, 24.  

Wearing a garment a covering for sin 

In the Book of Genesis Moses inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote of Adam and Eve disobeying God when they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a result Adam and Eve covered their flesh with fig leaf aprons. In the story God saw what they had done, so he provided clothing to cover Adam and Eve’s naked bodies with the skin of animals. Animals lives were taken by God to cover their sin. 
From that time human beings have been addicted to continue knowingly to sin, and like any addiction, will power alone or keeping a set of rules cannot stop an addiction. 
Paul's words typify addiction in his letter to the Romans. “So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me . . . . . for I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” Romans 7: 17, 19.                                                                                             

The journey to the cross begins, it’s a journey of faith. Reaching out to God the Father through Jesus' teaching, his parable teaches us that God is an understanding Father, very often he has to wait to we come to the end of ourselves and as we do God hears our cry for help. Jesus has borne our addiction on the cross, believe it, have faith in him, many have and as a result received the Father’s love in forgiveness and have been able to turn away from the addiction, as it had no longer the hold over them.

Scriptures that speak of Jesus humanity and divinity

“Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2: 7.

“If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6: 8-11

The journey of recovery needs the practical help along with caring friends and family. It is a hard road where temptations come and have to be dealt with. A man overcoming gambling at cards took a different look at a pack of cards after he heard this story:

 “A young soldier was in his bunkhouse all alone one Sunday morning in the desert. It was quiet that day; the guns and the land mines for some reason hadn’t made a noise. The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week. As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them across his bunk. 

Just then an army sergeant came in and said, “Why aren’t you with the rest of the platoon?” The soldier replied, “I thought that I would spend some time with the Lord.” The sergeant said, “Looks like you’re going to play cards.” The soldier said, “No sir, you see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country, I’ve decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards.” 

The sergeant asked in disbelief, “How will you do that?” 

                                                       
“You see: “The Ace reminds me that there is only one God. The Two represents the two parts of the Bible: Old and New Testaments. “The Three represents the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. “The Four stands for the four apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. “The Five is the five bridesmaids that had enough oil in their lamps. “The Six is for the six days it took God to create the heavens and the earth. “The Seventh is for the day God rested after working the six days. “The Eight is for the eight day, the day the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples. “The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy but who didn’t say ‘thank you’. “The Ten represents the Ten Commandments. “The Jack is a reminder of Satan – an angel who rebelled and now is the nave of hell. “The Queen stands for the Bride of Christ, the church. “The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of Kings. “When we count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year. “There is a total of 52 cards in a deck; each is a week, the 52 weeks of the year. “The Four suits represents the four seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter, ordained by God. “Each suit has thirteen cards; there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter. 

“So when I want to talk to God, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for.”

Overcomers
Christians are not immune to addictions, often when we are venerable, in a moment of weakness temptations come to us, but with the Lord’s help we are overcomers, as we bring it to the cross and leave it there. We are on the victory side of the cross in our resurrection with the risen Lord, so we pray for Christ’s victory over addiction of any sort, we are the redeemed, set free by faith in Jesus that he is able to do above all we ask or think and by his grace which is undeserved giving from God in his love for us will set us free. Also true Christian friends coming alongside praying and giving practical support will make us overcomers.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” John 3: 16,17. 

Garments of Salvation and Praise. 
Isaiah prophesied salvation, deliverance in the form of a robe of righteousness. Isaiah 61: 10
In the parable the lost son after being greeted by his father he was given a robe to wear. How gracious our Lord God is in honouring his returning son. No malice or punishment just pure holy love. Luke 15: 22

Prayer. 

Help me Lord to say sorry to you and the people that I have hurt and the people that I blame for my addiction. I turn to Christ my redeemer and Saviour to set me free from its grip and hold over me. I have no strength of my own to conquer it, so I look to you Jesus who has borne it for me on the cross and in death redeemed me from it. I thank you Jesus with all my heart. In Jesus’ name. Amen