The Prodigal Son and Biblical Concepts of Federal Headship and Inheritance

Something that isn't often drawn out from the parable of the Prodigal Son is how the sons are interacting with their father's authority and household.

In the story, the younger son is seen as unfaithful to the father, but it is often missed by the modern reader as to why that is other than his activity once he leaves. However, the ancient audience would have seen the younger son as unfaithful from the very start by demanding his inheritance so that he could leave his father's household, not to be married in order to extend or invest in his father's household, but to spend it on himself.

The idea of federal headship and concepts of inheritance in the Bible are important here. Inheritances are given precisely because the sons are united to their father. They are receiving it because they are continually united to the father, and therefore, what belongs to him also belongs to them.

If a son leaves his father's household in a way that is in rebellion toward his father and does not seek to honor his father and his authority, the son has divorced himself from his father, and likewise, his inheritance.

Hence, it is an evil for the son to even ask for this inheritance for the reasons he does. His father still gives it to him, but the son then betrays him with it. Rather than using it as an investment for the household via a dowry or to obtain a good marriage, the son blows it on prostitutes.

The evil and betrayal involved, therefore, is far greater than most modern readers realize, since they assume the autonomy the younger son is after to be normal.

Now, the son repents, but his repentance is in returning to the household of the father. The father embraces him in a great analogy between God and the sinner who has betrayed him by leaving His loving domain to be his own god elsewhere.

In contrast to this, the older son becomes jealous, not because he didn't get to lay with a bunch of prostitutes, but because his father honors the younger son in his repentance even though "he had not disobeyed any commandment" from his father, staying in the household the entire time.

Notice, these are clearly grown sons, not little children. What is also interesting is that all that he has is said to belong to the older son, i.e., his household is his son's household.

The inheritance of Christ as the Son plays off of these ideas. The Son is joined to the Father, expanding His kingdom upon the earth. To honor the Son is to honor the Father. They are not seen as independent from one another. Christ leaves His Father's side to expand His kingdom, sits at His Father's side while He gathers it, and then leaves again to join His kingdom to His Father's.

Likewise, God must adopt us in order for us to inherit His kingdom/household. We must be in and of His household as His sons to receive the inheritance. We go out to expand it, not to start something disconnected from it.

Hence, even when young men went out to war, they were still extensions of the household. Jesse's sons go out to fight the Philistines, and their father sends David to bring them food; but it is clear that even though they are grown enough to all fight in a war, they remain in their father's household as good sons (when Samuel comes to visit earlier they are all still in the household, yet look old enough to be kings--likewise, it would not be likely that it would be the father sending food to them if they were married and outside the household).

Most sons, even when married, stayed either in their father's household or at least on their estate. Job's children all seem to be on his land. Certainly, Isaac remained in Abraham's camp even after married. However, the idea simply seems to be that a faithful son, even though he leaves to cleave to his wife, leaves not for self-fulfillment, but to continue the responsible work of family through fatherhood that continues to be obedient to the creation mandate of the image.

The father does not suddenly lose his federal connection to the son, but the son continues his allegiance to his father unless one is wicked and one is righteous and they both part because of this unfortunately circumstance.