Page 51 - SABBATH

bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this son of mine was
dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.' And they began
to be merry.”

The prodigal’s realization of his status was correct. Mankind is no longer worthy to be
called sons of God, yet the Father is still willing to consider us sons. The son goes back to
his father with the intent of willingly submitting himself to be a servant. He knows that the
righteous thing is for him to live to do the will of his father.
When the saints of Yahweh realize that they too have taken the inheritance given to
them and they have spent it as they pleased, according to their own will and desire, they will
see that it also leads to a spiritual famine. It is quite possible to gain all that our soul desires
and yet to remain destitute spiritually. Like the Laodicean church, we can appear wealthy
and lacking in nothing, yet a true appraisal reveals that we are wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked.
The father’s words upon greeting the son hold much meaning; “For this son of mine
was dead, and has come to life again.” When we are living according to our own initiative,
our own will and desires, we are dead. When we are being guided by the innate soulish
sense of good and evil we are dead. The story of the prodigal son goes all the way back to the
Garden of Eden for it is a retelling of the fall of man and an unveiling of the nature of the
two trees that are named in the Garden.
The scriptures are full of contrasts: darkness and light; good and evil; rich and poor;
love and hate, etc.. In the opening chapters of Genesis we see many contrasts. The light is
separated from the darkness. The dry land is separated from the water. Should we not
expect that there should be a distinct contrast between the only two trees named in the
Garden of Eden?

Genesis 2:9
And out of the ground Yahweh God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the
sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil.

At first appearance these trees may not appear as opposites, but they are. One tree is
called the tree of life, and we have this report concerning the other tree.

Genesis 2:17
“but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day
that you eat from it you shall surely die."

One tree is named the tree of life. The other tree brings forth death. These trees are
truly opposites set in contrast to one another. By knowing this we can identify the nature
of the trees.
We know that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents man living
independent of Yahweh and His rule. This tree brings man to a place where he attempts to
govern himself independently of His Creator. By eating of this fruit Adam and Eve had
birthed in them an ability to determine right and wrong, good and evil within their own
beings. But in gaining this ability they became separated from Yahweh.
The tree of life represents the exact opposite of the tree of the knowledge of good and