Israel
BANNED
Yes. He did. He resented the Father's goodness so much he "got in his face" about it, came clean about his view of things, thought he was wronged deeply.I'm reminded of the parable of the prodigal son. It shows us who God excepts. The brother who stayed and obeyed? He resented his Father's mercy.
This is as much as message about this brother as the returning brother. He actually resented his Father's mercy.
But we would be wrong (would we not?) to condemn the "good" brother, for the father didn't. Who are we to judge another man's servant?
But here's a point we dare not miss in the father's non-rebuke of that brother, who bore enough rebuke in finding out he has been all wrong about his view in everything, at least relationship wise. He got to find out in his being "all wrong" just how much better things have always been, though he didn't know it.
"All I have is yours..." This brother didn't ever even have to ask for a kid, or a fatted calf, or any of the things he thought were "not his" that he labored for. He could have partied with his friends at any time...and the only thing keeping him from that...was himself. His view. His own understanding...of both who and what his father was like, and his relationship in that.
We could ask "had the prodigal never gone away, been returned to such reception of mercy, would the "good" son ever have been able to come to this?" It seems he needed something to so shock his sensibilities that he would confront his father to learn the truth.
Mercy is shocking. Who "gets" it...who is a candidate for it, and what it is displayed...against. I think that the "good" son, when seeing how wrong he has been might have learned the need for his prodigal brother, the allowance for him, so that he could be brought to his right senses. And there he might find...he was no less "wrong" than this brother whose actions he condemned.
I am fairly sure he had an affection for thinking he was the "better" son. God only knows how much this "affection" was a wrong motivation. The prodigal's motivation "I just can't bear being this miserable any longer...but, in my father's house..." was equally askew. But he had the temerity to come home and ask (though he never got the chance) to just live as a servant.
Yeah, Daddy waits. We all have our questions.