Herald Of Faith, Inc.   www.heraldoffaith.com
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1 Elisha: Leaving

Elijah the prophet was in despair because of the state of his nation. Idolatry dominated. He had just finished the great event of his life on Mount Carmel, where he confronted the worshippers of Baal. 450 prophets of Baal were killed, and their leader, Jezebel, vowed vengeance on Elijah. “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like one of them,” she said to Elijah.

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. This shrew, who had arranged for false witnesses to condemn the innocent Naboth to death so they could get his vineyard. This woman was now after Elijah. Great man of faith that he was, he ran away into the desert. He sat under a broom tree for a little shade, and said, “I’ve had it, Lord. take my life. I’m no better than my Tishbite ancestors.” Then he lay down and fell sound asleep.

An angel woke him up and gave him food. Then he escaped into sleep again. A second time the angel woke him up and fed him. Dessert maybe, angel food cake, with raspberries and whipped cream. And on the strength of that divine cuisine, Elijah traveled 40 days and 40 nights, until he reached Horeb, where he spent the night in a cave.

Then God’s word came to him. “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Yes, God knows his name.

“I have been zealous, but the people have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and killed your prophets. I’m all alone in this business, and they are after me too.”

The Lord says, “My presence is about to pass by. Go stand on the mountain.”

Elijah stands inside the mouth of the cave, and the wind picks up, faster and faster. It begins to organize, and soon it’s a whirlwind, a great tornado. Rocks are lifted up and shattered against the side of the mountain. It’s fearsome and it’s terrible, but it’s not God. The Lord was not in the whirlwind, even though, given the warning, you might expect Him to be.

Then comes an earthquake. The ground shakes, and Elijah shakes. Landslides start coming down the mountain. This is no safe place to be; he can easily be trapped in the cave, and since he is in hiding, nobody will even know where to look for him. We know from Psalm 29 that when God speaks there can be earthquakes, but God was not in this earthquake. Elijah waits for the word of the Lord.

And then fire. Trees and grass are consumed. The fire, pushed by wind, races up the mountain. The prophet chokes and sputters and wonders if he will survive the oxygen depletion. Surely this must be a theophany. This seems Pentecostal. Fire. But the Lord was not in this fire. Elijah doesn’t run from it, though. He has been told to wait on the mountain until the presence of the Lord passes by.

Finally it comes. Not like the previous fireworks. It is a gentle whisper, a still small voice. When he hears it, Elijah goes out and stands at the mouth of the cave. Once again the Lord says, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Once again he replies, “I have been zealous, but the people have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and killed your prophets. I’m all alone in this business, and they are trying to kill me too.”

Tell me, have you ever been in that cave? You think God is playing games with you because of all the noisy activity around you that makes everybody go rah rah rah? But you know God isn’t in all that noise. And you doubt yourself and you doubt God. You wonder if all the years of your devoted service have done any good. You’re frustrated, even in the face of miracles God has done at your own hand. Producing a drought of 3 years, bringing fire from heaven, wiping out the leadership of idol worship in the land. Outrunning the horses of King Ahab’s chariot in the rain. Still the people aren’t converted; still they continue in their old ways. Still they fail to recognize God’s man among them. You’re a voice crying in the wilderness, preaching to the coyotes.

Psalm 66 says “He turned the sea into dry land.” Israel crossed the Red Sea on foot. When God opened the sea, it wasn’t muddy; it was dry at the bottom, and they walked through. It is often so when you are learning the deep things of God; it seems like you are in a dry place, and that there is no fruit in your life. That’s how Elijah felt on this day. None of the miracles mattered, because he still hadn’t seen a change of heart in his people.

I mean, it’s not like you have been calling fire from heaven or anything. But week after week you have prepared carefully for a Sunday school class of five or six small children. Sometimes you have felt divine energy in the teaching, but nobody knows it, and the children just absorb it, but they don’t tell anybody about it. Or you have prayed, fervently but privately, and only God knows what’s happened in those moments. All alone. You and God, that’s all. And then some self-righteous hussy criticizes you! It can be hard to praise God, eh?

There were objective reasons for Elijah to be depressed. It seemed like God was just stringing him along--a revelation here, a miracle there. But still, nobody would really listen. God, let me die. Gather me to my ancestors. I’m no better than they were.

God doesn’t give much comfort either. He doesn’t say, “Lo, I am with you always.” He doesn’t sing about every cloud having a silver lining. In fact, God seems consistently preoccupied with being God, and not at all with the life of this dean of the Old Testament prophets.

He says, “Go back to Damascus. Anoint Hazael king over Aram and Jehu king over Israel. And anoint Elisha as your successor.” The spiritual retreat is over. Oh, and by the way, I have 7000 who haven’t adopted Baal worship. Quit your blubbering. That’s 7000, in case you didn’t hear right. True, it’s not many when you compare it to the 6 million or so in Israel. But still, 7000 isn’t peanuts.

God still has work for him. Anoint two kings and a prophet. This old soldier isn’t going to fade away; he’s going to prepare Israel for the coming revival.

You think you’re old and worn out and beat up and not useful to God, but God doesn’t think that way. He has a master plan to prepare the next generation for ministry, and you are an important part of it. The Amish have a saying, “We don’t inherit the land from our parents; we borrow it from our children.” Look ahead; there’s hope.

That’s the setting of the call of Elisha, Elijah’s successor. (You don’t have to get these two prophets confused. Put them in alphabetical order, Elijah comes first, and then Elisha.) Actually, anointing Elisha is the only one of the 3 tasks that Elijah does himself. It falls to Elisha to anoint Hazael and Jehu. Some of Elijah’s work is done through the one he prepares.

So Israel is backslidden, caught up in idol worship. But there is a remnant of 7000 righteous believers. The rains have returned after a drought of 3 years, so there is economic hope in the air. The ground is soft, and they can plow and plant.

Elisha is working the fields along with 11 servants and 12 yoke of oxen, all of them plowing. This is no small farm. I’m going to digress here, because it reminds me of Harvey Mackay’s story about the mule and the ox. It seems that a mule and an ox were hitched together for plowing, but one morning the ox was tired and had a headache, so he decided to stay in the barn. The farmer pampered him, and brought him food and water. At the end of the day, the ox asked the mule how the day went. “All right,” said the mule, “But we didn’t get as much done as we could have.” The ox kind of liked the barn lifestyle, so the next day he called in sick as well. When the mule came back, he asked how the day went. “All right, but we didn’t get as much done as we could have.” “Did the farmer miss me?” “I don’t know, but he had a long talk with the butcher on the way home.”

Elisha isn’t praying when Elijah comes; he’s working. My guess is that Elisha was part of the school of the prophets, and that Elijah has been watching him. He waits at the end of the furrow, and when Elisha stops to greet him, he suddenly throws his prophet’s coat over his shoulders, probably a sheepskin with the wool still on it. Elisha immediately understands what it means--something goes Amen inside him. All his life has been in preparation for this moment. It seems like he was expecting it.

He knew about Elijah, and had probably watched him in action. Here was a man dedicated to stamping out idolatry and restoring the high ethic that characterizes the Jewish people. He sort of came from another era, a time of nomadic shepherds, while Elisha was more up to date in living a settled lifestyle on the farm. But farmer or shepherd; none of that matters to God when he chooses to use someone. 

Did Elisha ever wonder how spiritual renewal would ever get done now that Elijah was getting up in years? Certainly he must have realized that it would take even more than what Elijah had, because later he says he needs a double portion of the spirit that is on Elijah. Elisha doesn’t say, “Out with the old; in with the new.” His approach isn’t revolutionary, but evolutionary. He builds on what Elijah has already done. Elijah is a man of faith; so is Elisha.

Have you ever met someone with great faith? You can travel the world over just to be near them. You watch them, and you begin to realize that God has a new paradigm for your own life. You get outside the box of your previous thinking. Here is your opportunity; Seize the day, Elisha. 

So he says, “Let me say good-bye to my parents.” I appreciate the farm, but I’m leaving. I’m stepping into a new realm of faith, because God has spoken.

Well, I hope his parents were cooperative. We know they were part of the 7000 righteous, because of the name they put on their son. Elisha means God is salvation. But even righteous parents can’t fully understand the call of God in their children. It comes to the individual. We can only respect it, and at times we stand in awe of it.

The call of God is like that, awesome. It calls for a step of faith that usually flies in the face of worldly logic. It calls for a radical change in lifestyle. The faith life doesn’t baptize mediocrity. It insists that God be in absolute first place, not second. We don’t serve God in our spare time, but at His call and command.

Elisha makes the decision firm and obvious. He kills the oxen he is plowing with, burns the yoke, and throws a barbecue to commemorate his new calling. Elisha is leaving to serve the old prophet Elijah. In serving, he will also be mentored, and will learn how to function in the power of God. The prophet’s cloak that is on his shoulders now will be gradually internalized, so that down the road they will say, “the Spirit that was on Elijah is on Elisha.”

It seems confusing when you see Elijah’s reaction. He responds to his request to say good-bye to his parents with the words, “What do I have to do with you?” It seems so abrupt and uncaring, so impersonal. So you’re going into ministry. Big deal. Do you want me to kiss your ring?

But you see, Elijah isn’t acting on his own authority. He understands that the calling and motivation come not from him, but from God Himself. It is not Elijah who chooses and prepares the successor prophet, but God. 1 Corinthians 12:11 tells us that the gifts and ministries are not imparted by men, but by the Holy Spirit as He chooses.

I get to watch young preachers develop. The process usually works like this. First they are given menial tasks to do: shovel snow, clean the bathrooms, rake the leaves. There’s an assistant pastor’s job description that says, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, What the pastor won’t do, the assistant must.” We want to be sure these young guys don’t think manual labor is a guy from Mexico. We want to see them ready to work in humble and humbling tasks. Sometimes we deliberately put them in unpleasant situations to see how they react.

When they have proven themselves faithful in the small things, we watch how God gives greater things to do.

In Patagonia, Sergio and I went to Senguer. A lady there leads the Alliance church. They heat and cook with wood, and when they showed us around, Sergio saw the woodshed. Immediately he picked up the axe and split a pile of wood for the woman. Then he brought in water from the pump. Energy, manifested in service. Sergio is the leader of the pastors’ council in their big city, Comodoro Rivadavia. It made me proud. I thought of what my Mom said. When my Dad was an evangelist on the west coast of Sweden before they got sweet on each other, he would stay in their home in Kungshamn. He always managed to cut wood and haul water for the family. My Mom noticed that. I wonder if maybe that had something to do with her becoming my Mom.

Christian service appreciates that Mexican guy, doesn’t it? Manual Labor.

Now look at this. On the farm Elisha was used to giving orders to the servants. He told them when and where and how to plow. He oversaw the care of the oxen. He served as Lord of the harvest when the crops came in, deciding how they should be stored, when they should be sold, and so forth. But now he is no longer the guy in charge. Elijah decides where they will go, how long they will stay, and what they will eat. It’s tough to give up control once you’ve had it. I mean, the hardest instrument in the orchestra is second fiddle.

Do you think it was easy to get along with the old prophet? Do you think he was gentle and reaffirming with Elisha? Huh. Elijah wasn’t known much for small talk. At times I want to call him manic-depressive, but let me be quick to add that the prophets were the sanest people in Israel. They were the only ones who saw things clearly as God revealed them. But nevertheless, there’s this upsy/downsy human behavior. There’s great victory on Mount Carmel one day, and running away from Jezebel to hide in the desert the next.

And the older prophet kept telling the younger prophet to turn back. Look at them when Elijah was going to be taken to heaven in the chariot of fire. First they come to Gilgal, where 12 stones were placed as an altar to remind Israel that they had crossed the Jordan river on dry land. It was a wonderful reminder that their time in the desert was finished, and that now they were entering the Promised Land. “Stay here, Elisha,” Elijah says, while I go down to Bethel “As the Lord lives, and as my soul lives, I will not leave you,” responds the younger man. So they come to Bethel, the house of God, where Jacob met God. Certainly this place speaks of intimacy with God, special individual revelation. “Stay here, while I go on to Jericho.” “As the Lord lives, and as my soul lives, I will not leave you,” Elisha says again. They come to Jericho, the place of the first great victory in the Promised Land. Israel had marched around the city for 7 days, and then they shouted and the walls fell in. Jericho was wonderful; it showed God’s power over every force that might oppose them. “Stay here, Elisha.” “As the Lord lives, and as my soul lives, I will not leave you.” A small field trip through Israel’s history, remembering those important places, and Elijah keeps telling him to stay back there. But Elisha refuses to pitch his tent on the historical blessings. Elisha determines to move forward with God’s man to whatever God has in store for them. There might be opportunity to go off and make a name for himself, but he is called to be with Elijah, and he stays with him. Elisha doesn’t want yesterday’s revival. And as the end draws near, he makes his great request of the prophet, “I want a double portion of the spirit that is on you.” When the end comes, Elijah leaves that same mantle behind, and Elisha takes it a second time and continues the prophetic ministry.

But he didn’t get it until he had served well. To really rise in spiritual power, we have to leave our self-sufficiency and be persistent in humble service. Not just the stuff we like to do, not just the visible stuff, but also the stuff for which there seems to be no reward. Maybe working with people we don’t like. Not at our own convenience, but at God’s disposal.

Serving God is not serving ourselves, though we have confidence that God looks after our interests, and blesses us. “Trust me,” He says, “and I’ll take care of you.” The first requirement in receiving the double portion of the Spirit is to leave your trust in the things this world considers to be security.

What does it mean to leave in order to serve God? I know there are people who feel defeated today because somehow you feel they missed God’s perfect plan. You feel like you are traveling coach class in the kingdom. You’re responsible, but you think maybe you missed it. Maybe I can help bring you some comfort.

If we look in Genesis 37, Jacob tells Joseph to go and see how his brothers are doing. But it isn’t time to go yet. After a while, Jacob says to Joseph again, “Now go and see if it is well with your brothers.” The order comes twice; Joseph has been prepared internally for his mission. I think that is fairly common in the call to ministry. God speaks to our hearts, and we prepare ourselves. Sometimes that first speaking is a bit of a test to see if we are willing, but it isn’t the final word in the call of God in our lives. God leads us one step at a time, and He knows where He is bringing us.

In 1975, I was sure we would be full-time professional missionaries in southern Sudan. I let people know our intention, and. I even planned a reconnaissance trip, leaving on Friday, May 20, at 4 PM. But at noon that day, the whole thing closed down, and our lives took an entirely different direction. It has always been a great question, but I have never doubted that we made the right decision to not force the issue. Only now, 25 years later, do I see the door opening to work with people from southern Sudan, and I am planning to build a teaching center in northern Uganda to serve them.

Just because I feel spiritual goosebumps, or even have prophetic and circumstantial confirmation, like I did regarding Sudan, doesn’t mean I need to take off tomorrow. God still has a process, and He still knows how to speak so we understand clearly.

Often what seems like an initial call to ministry is basically a test of willingness. We are indeed called to ministry, all of us are in one way or another. But often it is a lay ministry, and God gives secular work to support that ministry. We rejoice in the calling, and serve there gladly and without guilt or sense of inferiority.

But doesn’t that request for the double portion get your blood moving? We know that the younger prophet did twice as many miracles as the older one did. That’s because the more Spirit you have, the more power you have. The others in the schools of the prophets had teaching and intelligence and knowledge and even revelations. But gaining the power of the Spirit requires something more and something different than the university and the seminary can give. God, give me more of your Spirit! I can’t rely on the tricks this world uses; I have to have the power of God.

Well, times flies, for me, at least. I expect to return to Elisha a couple more times in this series. But remember that leaving the stuff that stands in the way of your service to God is the key to increasing faith. My Dad told of a woman who resisted a call to be a missionary because she had heard that they had to eat rats in some parts of the world. For a long time she just cringed at the thought. Finally she caught a rat, fixed it, and ate it. And then she went on the mission field, where she never had to do such a thing again.

Leaving. It can be hard to fight through the smoke screens the devil throws up. But suppose you had a personal consultant who understood the principles of life and could see through those smoke screens. Suppose he did an objective analysis and came back with a short list of recommendations that would give you increased spiritual power. Not instant solutions, but time and experience tested principles. What would you quit doing, and what would you start doing? What would you leave, and where would you go?

Well, I hope you’ll talk with the consultant every day. Let him talk with you. Read his book. Pay his fee--it’s still only 10%, a real bargain. If you do what he tells you, there’s no telling what heavy burden you’ll end up leaving behind. No telling where you’ll end up going.



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