What is the conflict of the prodigal son?

Answer 1

The parable is the story of a young man who asks his father for his inheritance and then he goes off to a foreign land and wastes his money on 'riotous' living. When the young man has exhausted all his money he has to work on a pig farm and he is so hungry he eats the pig food. After a while he decides to go back to his father and work for his father because his father's servants lives better than him. So he goes back to his father, his father sees him coming and welcomes his son at the gate. The father is so please his lost son has returned he calls for a calf to be killed and they have a welcome party for the lost son.

The father in the parable represents God. The youngest son represents Israel and the oldest son represents the Pharisees and the scribes.

Answer 2

The conflict in the parable of the prodigal son is mainly internal within the son who leaves home, squanders his inheritance, and then eventually returns home seeking forgiveness and reconciliation with his father. The conflict arises from his feelings of guilt, shame, and the fear of not being accepted back by his father after his reckless behavior.

Answer 3

In the parable:

The father represents God.

The older son represents the scribes and pharisees.

The youngest son represents the lost of Israel.

Israel turned away from God. Jesus came to call them to repent. The scribes and pharisees resented Jesus talking to the poor and down trodden. They thought they had served God faithfully, had never transgressed His commandments.

Answer 4

A father has two sons the youngest asks for his inheritance and goes to a foreign country. In the foreign country the youngest son wastes all his money and ends up feeding pigs for a job. He sees that the pigs have better food than him and decides to return to his father and ask for forgiveness.

He returns to his father and his father forgives him and has a celebration because his lost son has returned. The oldest son is not happy about this and complains.

Answer 5

The parable of the Lost Son is about the nation of Israel. In the parable the father represents God, the lost son represents Israel and the oldest son represents the scribes and the pharisees of Jesus' day.

The parable was told as a rebuke to the scribes and pharisees who resented Jesus speaking to the lost people of Israel.

Like the prodigal son in the parable (he left his father and had gone into the world), Israel had left their relationship with God and were a worldly nation not a godly nation. Jesus came to call the nation of Israel back to their relationship with God, but the scribes and Pharisees thought Jesus should not be associating with sinners/the common people. The scribes and Pharisees were behaving just like the oldest son did when the prodigal son returned.

But Israel did not accept Jesus as Messiah so Israel was not accepted back into a family relationship with God and there were no festivities

Answer 6

Not sure if this can be called his role but in the parable the Father (God) is waiting to welcome His lost son (Israel) back into his family.

Answer 7

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