The return of the prodigal son, Efrayim : Forgetting his past errant ways.

This parable according to Luke 15 was not a mere story nor a mere parable. It actually depictes the two Houses of Ishrael, Efrayim and Yehudah, after the whole House of Ishrael was divided due to king Shelomoh's flagrant sins. The son who stayed depicts the House of Yehudah, the southern kingdom/Yerushalem, and the son who left the house depicts the House of Efrayim, the northern kingdom.

The father depicts Elohei Ishrael, YHVH Elohim, Who dearly expected the return of the two houses to make them One again as in the days of old. Surely, after he saw the prodigal son leaving the house, he found himself very anxious, and certainly asked to himself if he will see again his would-be lost son.

---) The woman at the well

The restoration of the northern kingdom, was an integral part of Yehoshua HaMashiach's Ministry. According to His Father's Plan, He started this restoration through the story of the woman at the well in Sychar in Samaria to whom He revealed Himself as The Long-awaited HaMashiach of Ishrael.

---) Sha'ul the former pharisee's amazing testimonies concerning his transformation, his strong belief in The One he had once denied and persecuted

Sha'ul, the former pharisee, who had once persecuted his Jewish brothers and sisters who believed that The Long-awaited HaMashiach was Yehoshua of Natzaret, plainly proclaimed through his various Letters, after his conversion from the religion of the Jews/Judaism to The Way of YHVH his Elohim, that This Yehoshua of Natzaret Who he vehemently and actively denied was indeed HaMashiach and Son of Elohim. Let us recall :

► Letter to the Philippians

He harshly denounced his former spiritual ways, the religion of the Jews/Judaism (Galatians 1 : 13-14 refer to it), and described them as nothing else but rubbish and through them did gain nothing except a loss. He wrote :

Philippians 3 : 7-8 ; 13-14 : « But whatever gain I had, I have counted loss because of HaMashiach. Yes, indeed, for I count everything to be a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing HaMashiacn Yehoshua Adoni, because of Whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain HaMashiach. ... Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own ; but one thing I do : forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the Sign that I may gain the Prize of the upward Calling of YHVH Elohim in HaMashiach Yehoshua ».

 

What was his loss, and what was rubbish ? What did he mean exactly ?

-- His spiritual education was rubbish and a loss.

-- All the years he had spent at the feet of his rabbi Gamaliel was rabbish and a loss.

-- The letter he was asking for to go to Dasmascus to arrest his brothers Yehudim who left Judaism and who became Followers of Yehoshua as HaMashiach and believed in His Teachings, Teachings solely based on the written Torah of Moshe was rubbish and a loss.

-- His title as a pharisee was rubbish and a loss.

-- And he concluded that the only thing he had to do, after his huge loss, was to forget his past errant ways.

► Letter to the Corinthians

He openly proclaimed the following to the Kehillah in Corinth in order to move forward, after his conversion. Again, his conversion was from Judaism/the religion of the Jews to the True Way of YHVH Elohim based on the written Torah of Moshe. Scripturally his new spiritual life took place after the chapter 9 of Acts.

a/ 1 Corinthians 2 : 2 : « « For I determined not to know anything else while I was with you except Yehoshua HaMashiach, He Who had been crucified ».

b/ 2 Corinthians. 5 : 17 : « Therefore if anyone is in HaMashiach, he is a new creation ; for the old things have passed away, behold, they are become new ».

« To the old things » : he referred to his religious belief system, to his false and deceitful spiritual ways of Judaism. And then he became a new man and proudly had proclaimed, according to Romans 6 : 33 : « Who will accuse the Elect of YHVH Elohim ? YHVH Elohim justifies him ».

 

► Letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians

The former pharisee became more zealous than ever, and urged the members of the Kehillot in Ephesus and in Colossea to stay away from darkness, to be set-apart, to be mindful, denouncing every evil and false spiritual ways of life :

Ephesians 2: 1-2 ; 11-13 : « And you were made alive once, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the custom of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. ... vs.11-13 : Therefore remember that formerly you who are gentiles in the flesh and called by the circumcised by hands uncircumcised, yes, at that time you did not have HaMashiach, for you were aliens from the commonwealth of Ishrael and strangers to the Covenants of Promise, having no hope and without YHVH Elohim in the world, but now in HaMashiach Yehoshua, you who once were far away have been brought near through the Blood of HaMashiach ».

 

« To remember » is a mental capacity that we need to constantly keep effective, that is to say, we need to unceasingly stay alert because our memory is the best offensive strategy used by the enemy to make us rebellious against YHVH Elohim our Creator Who commanded His people, you remember ? « To remember ».

 

Ephesians 4 : 27, 31-32 : « Do not give place to the devil ... vs. 31-32 : Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander and all rancor be put away from you, and be kind one to another, compassionate, forgiving each other as YHVH Elohim has forgiven your trespasses in HaMashiach ».

Ephesians 5 : 8 : « For you were once darkness, but now you are light in HaAdon. Walk as children of light ! ».

Colossians 3 : 7-10 ; 12-13: « By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in them. But now you must put all such things all away : anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is to be renewed in good knowledge according to the Image of its Creator. Therefore, as the Elect of YHVH Elohim, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with mercy and compassion, meekness, humility, gentleness, patience. Bear with one another and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone ; as HaAdon has forgiven you, so also you have to forgive ».

 

Every vain worship is to be abolished

The religion of the Jews and its belief system were and still are based on oral traditions, on the laws of their ancestors, on man-made laws.

Yehochanan 5 : 45-47 : « Do not think that I will be The One Who will accuse you before The Father. Your accuser is Moshe in whom you trust. For if you believed Moshe, you would believe Me ; because he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how can you believe what I say ? »
Yehochanan 7 : 19 : « Was it not Moshe who gave you The Law ? Yet none of you obeys The Law. Why do you seek to kill Me ? »
Matthew 15 : 6-9 : « Thus you nullify the Word of YHVH Elohim for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites, Ieshayah rightly prophesied about you, saying : These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. Thus, they worship Me in vain if they teach the commandments of men as doctrine ».
Yehochanan 8 : 24b : « For if you do not believe that I am The One, you will die in your sins ».

 

How about you and me ?

Like them, we also were and perhaps still are.

Being, « Born of YHVH Elohim » - according to Yehochanan 1 : 13 - the beautiful and the appropriate status of the non-native who are called to love Him, to follow Him and to obey Him, do not also these words to the Kehillah in Ephesus of Sha'ul, the former pharisee who claimed to be « For we are YHVH Elohim's fellow workers - 1 Corinthians 3 : 9 », according to Ephesians 2 : 3-10, concern us, our spiritual walk ? Should we not be involved in what he wrote to them, too ? Let us take to heart :
« Among them we all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, too, thus were doing the things willed of the flesh and the mind, and by nature we were children of wrath as the others were also. But YHVH Elohim Who is rich in Mercy, because of His Great Love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with HaMashiach —by Grace you have been saved— and He had raised us up together and made us sit together in heaven in Yehoshua HaMashiach, that He might show in the ages to come the exceeding riches of His Grace in His Kindness toward us Yehoshua HaMashiach. For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves but as a Gift from YHVH Elohim, not by works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His creation, created in Yehoshua HaMashiach to do good works which YHVH Elohim prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them ».

21 centuries later, and at our respective age today, did you realize that we are still given the great blessing to read Sha'ul's Letter to the Kehillah in Ephesus too, so that, based on this passage, we keep on fleeing the Wrath of YHVH Elohim through seeking what He hates and what He likes and be considered as Children of Light, not children of wrath anymore ?

So, If you have not done it yet, what you need to do is to join YHVH Elohim Who formed Ishrael and exiled Ishrael among the nations in order to give the people of the nations the possibility to seek Him and to join to Him. We have to leave our wild tree and to join the natural « Olive tree of Ishrael ».

We read, according to Ieshayah 49 : 5- 6. Referring to His Anointed One, His Beloved Son, Yehoshua : « And now says YHVH, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Yaakov back to Him again and to gather Ishrael to Him (for I am honored in the Sight of YHVH, and Eli is My Strength). And He says : It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Yaakov and to restore the protected remnant of Ishrael. For I will also make You as a Light of the nations that My Salvation may reach to the end of the earth ».

In other words, He had scattered His people to the four corners of the earth, among strange people who do not know Him, to allow them to repent from having profaned His Land through idolatry and spiritual adultery, and to repent and to seek Him from their lands of captivity. That way, their dwelling among the people of the nations might incite the latter to also seek their Elohim, YHVH Elohim.
To this effect, and once more, how to join Him ?
Ieshayah 56 : 6 : « And the foreigners who join themselves to YHVH to serve Him and to love the Name of YHVH to be His Servants, those who keep the Shabbat without profaning it and take hold of My Covenant ... for My House will be called a House of Prayer for all nations ».

 

Do we have then to keep the Shabbat, the Shabbat He created on day 7 ? No, but only if :
→ Only if we join ourselves to YHVH Elohim, The Creator of the universe, our Creator, and serve Him, to be His Servants.
→ Only if we love His Name, and keep His Shabbat without profaning if, and take hold of His Covenant.

 

Do we have to keep His Commandments ? No. Only if we love Him, as it is written.

Yehochanan 14 : 15 : « If you love Me, then you will observe My Commandments »
1 Yehochanan 5 : 3 : « For this is the Love of YHVH Elohim, for us to keep His Commandments ; and His Commandments are not burdensome ».
2 Yehochanan 1 : 6 : « And this is Love, that we walk according to His Commandments. This is the Commandment as you have heard from the beginning, that you are to walk in it ».

 

If the direct descendants of Abraham, of Itzhak and of Yaakov/Ishrael have also to return, through sincere teshuvah (repentance) to YHVH Elohim, their Elohim, in order to be saved, they still have a lot to do in order to receive Eternal Life through the Redemptive Blood of His Beloved Son and HaMashiach, Yehoshua.
How much more concerning the non-native people, perhaps someone like me and you, have to and do have to ? You surely are familiar with the story of Ruth and Orpah ? What is the connection ? Keep on moving and be like Ruth.

Let us take careful note, once more, that The New Covenant that YHVH Elohim had spoken through Yirmeyah HaNavi His Servant, according to Yirmeyah 31 : 31-34, was strictly the Covenant His Beloved Son and HaMashiach had cut through His Shed Blood for the sake of the House of Ishrael and the House of Yehudah. This New Covenant intended to write His Word/His Torah on their heart, within them, as we were also so familiar with :

v.33 : « For this is the Covenant that I will make with the descendants of Ishrael after those days says YHVH : I will put My Law in their minds and will write it in their heart. And I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My People ».

The Love of YHVH Elohim is a purely Torah-based Love !

« And The Word became flesh and dwelt among us »

Let your eyes see and your ears hear !

« Then the dragon raged against the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, those who keep the Commandments of YHVH Elohim and have the testimony of Yehoshua ».

March 6^th , 2026