( Luke 15 )
I don't know why I hadn't seen this before
The prodigal son asks for his share of the "estate" (NIV)
But this word actually means "essence" or "substance"
In other words, what he believed was due to be his when his Father was dead.
The Father must have known that his son's thinking was small, muted, distorted.
(The clue to this actually rests with his older, angry brother).
So off to the far country goes the son with that portion of his Father's substance that he thought was his.
And, as we know, he blew it all.
When he came home, and after a little while,
He may have realised something.
That he had not gone off with his actual inheritance
He had just gone off with what, in the smallness of his mind, he believed was his inheritance.
The Father said to the older brother
"All I have is yours"
The younger brother didn?t understand this either.
Until he came home.
His real inheritance was back there all the time, with the Father.
Waiting to give the son "all that I have"
And, "have" is "ta ema" which means "My or mine" (It seems that this deeply personal expression of ownership is only used once - here)
You could say that it means "All that is me"..
Both sons made the same mistake - neither of them realised the quality of their true inheritance
And the quantity was far beyond a bag or two of gold.