Good
Morning! We will continue today with our
series on the prophet Elisha. Last week,
Carl set the stage for us with an overview of Old Testament history from the
time of King David through the first part of ministry of the prophet Elijah, a
period of about 150 years. Yes, we
really heard about 150 years of history from David until Elijah. Actually, it is only about 100 years from
David’s death until the beginning of Elijah’s ministry; literally, a drop in
the bucket of time. I think for me I
expect it to be far removed because that century span begins with the pinnacle
moment of the temple of God being completed at Jerusalem united kingdom of the twelve tribes of Israel has been divided into two nations, Israel in the north and Judah Israel Israel to Samaria
Before
we go further, let’s take a moment and pray.
Lord
God, I thank You that You are always at work.
You are continually advancing Your Kingdom. It is Your desire to bring about the maximum
good amidst the sinfulness of man. I
thank You that You are a magnificent conductor weaving our lives and
experiences in such a way that we would “seek You, reach out to You, and find
You.” Speak to us now from the life of
Elisha. By studying his life, may we be
better able to follow and serve You. We
pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
We
concluded last week with Elijah putting his cloak or mantle on Elisha. At the time, Elisha was plowing at his
family’s farm. Elisha proceeded to make
a sacrifice to God of his oxen and uses the wood of the plow for the fire. Then, Elisha sets out to follow Elijah and be
his servant.
Even
after Elijah was taken to be with the Lord, it appears that Elisha was regarded
by some as a servant. In II Kings 3:11,
“An officer of the king of Israel
During
their time together, Elijah confronted King Ahab over the treachery that Ahab
and Jezebel committed to steal Naboth’s vineyard. There is also a confrontation between Elijah
and Ahab’s son King Ahaziah where Elijah foretells the kings death. These are the only specific situations that
we have recorded during their time together, and Elisha is not mentioned
specifically in either case. It makes me
curious to know what else happened in those days. It does not seem like there was some kind of
dynamic duo where they worked together as equals in ministry, prophecy, or
performing miracles.
This
is an interesting consideration for how it would be best to go about training
for doing a job or even a ministry. In
our culture, it is most common to train by going to school. You go there and get information and some
basic practice. Then, you pass a test or
complete a certain number of hours, graduate, and then you are expected to “do
the job.” This can be true for a wide
range of “careers” including some missions and full-time pastorates. In other places, apprenticeships are a key
method to train someone. You are
assigned to a specific person or group, and you work with them doing the same
kinds of things they do. You do the easy
jobs first, and then as you master a skill, the mentor gives you something more
challenging to work on. You learn by
doing and there is continuous feedback on whether or not you are able to do the
job.
Elisha’s
experience appears that it may have been a bit different. Based on what is written, I just see Elisha
serving Elijah, “pouring water on his hands.”
It is not clear exactly how long Elijah and Elisha were together. It was at least 4 or 5 years. During this time, Elisha was with Elijah
continually, following, helping, serving.
Keep in mind, Elijah first came to Elisha at God’s command to anoint him
to succeed Elijah as prophet. He didn’t
go to anoint him to be his servant. It’s
like when Samuel anointed David as king, but then David went back to tend
sheep. There is no record of
junior-sized miracles by Elisha. No
record of any other special activity. Obviously,
this is not the only way to train at something, but I feel like the paradigm is
so different from what we do today, that I wanted to stop and point it
out. Both in the case of Elisha and in
the case of David, I think they had great humility and great patience.
My
whole life, I was in a terrible hurry. I
was in a hurry to grow up. I was in a
hurry to move away from home. I was in a
hurry to get more than a stone’s throw away from my parents. I was in a hurry to graduate. I was in a hurry to get married. I was in a hurry to be successful in a
job. I was in a hurry to start a
family. I’m not saying any of those
things were wrong or bad. In fact, God
has blessed me in all those areas more than I could have imagined. He has been so gracious to me, way more than
I deserve. I just think that a lot of
the time, I did not rest in the Lord. I
had almost a competitive sense in my spirit, like I was going to “win” at
life. Do you guys remember the board
game Life? That game was all about
whoever gets the most money. There are
other things that can become our goals in life.
If I just do this one thing, I will be better than someone else or I’ll
be satisfied or happy with myself. I
hope this is not a struggle for you, and you can just walk away scratching your
head and say, man John is one weird guy.
But if this does resonate with you, if you relate to what I’m saying, I
encourage you to be willing to rest in the Lord. Seek Him and His ways. Don’t be in a hurry to do it “all by
yourself.” Wait on the Lord to renew
your strength and to give you the desires of your heart.
That
brings us to the end of Elisha’s time together with Elijah. Let’s go to II Kings 2:1:
When the LORD was about to take Elijah up
to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the LORD
has sent me to Bethel Bethel
It
is now time for Elijah to depart. It
sounds as if they are already on the way, at least they were packed and ready
for the journey. Suddenly, it seems that
Elijah turns to Elisha, “Stay here.”
Some commentators suggest that Elijah is testing Elisha’s devotion. Will he really stay with me until the
end? Others suggest that Elijah just
wants to be out of the spotlight.
Perhaps he knows the miraculous nature of his impending departure, and
he does not want to draw attention to himself.
Regardless, Elisha will not be parted from Elijah, and they journey on.
The company of the prophets at Bethel Jericho Jericho
So,
not only does Elijah know. Elisha knows
and the company of the prophets knows.
They are not trying to discourage Elisha, but make sure that he knows, too. Elisha likely doesn’t want to burden Elijah
and asks not to make a big deal about what is happening. Again, Elisha refuses to be left behind.
The company of the prophets at Jericho Jordan
And he replied, “As surely as the LORD
lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them walked
on. II Kings 2:5-6
We
see again a repeat of what has gone before.
Elijah is making a last visit to those who have been his followers. At a minimum, there are three “schools” or
locations of these companies of the prophets.
Literally, the Hebrew says they are the “sons of the prophets.” The locations are Gilgal, Jericho ,
and Bethel Bethel as this is the
one of the two cities where Jeroboam set up the calf idols to turn the people
of Israel
At
this time, King Ahab has died, but Elijah’s adversary Jezebel is still
living. I find that remarkable. Last week, we talked about how Elijah was on
the run for his life. He thought that he
was the only prophet of God left. Now,
he has three schools of prophets. The do
not appear to be in hiding or taking any special precautions. God has worked mightily to establish a group
of prophets to support those Israelites “whose knees have not bowed down to
Baal.” (I Kings 19:18)
Elisha
refuses to depart from Elijah. He will
continue with him until they are separated.
It is a good example for us in devotion to the Lord. We should not allow ourselves to be
separated. We should continue to walk on
with Him.
Fifty men from the company of the prophets
went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had
stopped at the Jordan
Not
only has Elisha continued on with Elijah, they are accompanied by a group of
the company of the prophets. Perhaps,
they knew that Elijah was headed for the Jordan River . Jericho is
less than 5 miles from the Jordan
Do
you try to visualize these scenes in the Bible?
I wonder funny things like, “How did Elijah roll up his cloak?” When I was looking for a background for the
Power Point, I saw one drawing where it looked like Elijah was working some
kind of Kung Fu on the Jordan River . Apparently, it was a firm and swift
action. Even if you knew someone had
performed miracles, if God had performed a miracle through someone you knew, I
think it still must have been a shock to see the Jordan
River open up like dry land.
Elijah
is often mentioned together with Moses.
They appeared together with Jesus.
Moses performed miracles with his rod or staff. With Elijah, the symbol of God’s power in him
is his cloak or mantle. It was
apparently a kind of hairy or furry coat.
When
the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they came the other way, from west to
east. Now, Elijah goes from east to west
not very far from the spot where the Israelites had entered. He is leaving the earthly Promised Land for
the heavenly one.
When they had crossed, Elijah said to
Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me
inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah
said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise,
it will not.” II Kings 2:9-10
This
one question from Elijah has some pretty significant doctrinal
ramifications. Elijah says plainly,
“what can I do for you before I am taken?”
In other words, ask before I go, don’t ask when I am gone. Elijah is not going to heaven to serve as an
intermediary or go between for Elisha.
If there is something that Elijah can do for Elisha, he must do it
before he departs.
It’s
also cool that Elijah is still about the work of service. He’s still available and desires to help
Elisha. He’s not self-absorbed nor is he
focused only on heaven.
I
have often thought that Elisha was pretty bold in asking that he would have
twice the spirit of Elijah. It may not
be exactly right to say that Elisha was asking to be twice as important or
effective or filled with the Spirit.
Deuteronomy 21:17 talks about the first born son’s portion of the
inheritance being a double portion.
Elisha’s request may be better understood as, “I want the share of the
first born son. As your successor, I
want to have your spirit in me more than anyone else.” Having Elijah’s Spirit is a kind of
qualification for service. It renders
Elisha able to do the work of a prophet.
When
Solomon first became king, he asked God for wisdom, and God was pleased. God gave him wisdom and wealth and
honor. And yet, Solomon could and did
turn away from following the wisdom.
Elisha on the other hand asks for spirit. It is better to be filled with the Spirit of
God than with wisdom, wealth, or honor.
It
is interesting that although Elisha was likely not asking to be twice as much
as Elijah, commentators have counted out that Elisha did perform double the
miracles of Elijah. God hears our
requests and answers them. He does not
miss or forget a single word.
As they were walking along and talking
together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated
the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. II Kings 2:11
I
wonder, what did they talk about? Their
time was almost gone, and yet they continued walking and talking. This can also be a good reminder for us. Our time with one another is limited. We should make the most of our time with one
another to gain as much as we can. The
apostle Peter wrote, “I will make every effort to see that after my departure
you will always be able to remember these things.” (II Peter 1:15) What things?
The things that “confirm your calling and election.” In other words, the assurance of your
salvation. In addition, Hebrews 10:24
says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good
deeds.”
Isn’t
it interesting that Elijah who asked God to take his life does not die? (I
Kings 19:4) Instead, Elijah is translated to a heaven bodily. I find that a strong representation of God’s
grace. The man who wanted death for
relief does not have to cross over to eternal life in that way.
You
can also contrast Elijah’s departure with King Ahaziah’s death at the end of II
Kings 1. There, we see a man who had
rejected God and had sent messengers to consult one of the Baal’s about whether
or not he would recover from his injury.
He dies at the word of Elijah because he rejected God. Here we see Elijah who courageously followed
the Lord at the risk of his own life, standing before kings and testifying to
the Lord in the face of hundreds and even thousands who rejected God. This man is taken up to God as only one other
before him.
I
used to spend time being puzzled over why Enoch and Elijah were singled out for
this translation of their bodies into heaven, but preparing for this message I
realized there will be a whole bunch more people who will experience this
death-less “crossing over.” All
Christians alive at Christ’s return will be changed in the twinkling of an
eye. (I Corinthians 15:52) Maybe you and maybe me, if Jesus does not
tarry long.
Another
what if? It doesn’t do much good to
posit what it would have been like without the fall, because you can’t take it
away. But maybe this is what it would
have been like without the fall? You
would have lived on the earth until it was your time to go to heaven. Then, you would just be taken up without
dying.
Jesus
did both. He experienced death, but
after his body was resurrected, he was translated to be with God. He went to the Father on Easter morning, and
then He ascended into heaven at the Mount of Olives .
God
is always working on multiple levels, like a master composer of music. This being taken up was not only a blessing
for Elijah. It was also for Elisha’s
faith and the sons of the prophets, too.
They could look and see that there was no body. Elijah was taken to heaven, he was no
more. Elisha saw it. He saw Elijah go up to heaven. What confidence that must have given to
him. And that confidence was needed for
the challenges which would lie ahead.
Another
question I had, but didn’t have time to look into. I wonder what the Sadducees would say about
this passage. They did not believe in
the resurrection of the dead, so where did Elijah go? Therefore, in addition to Elisha and the sons
of the prophets, we too can draw confidence and comfort in Elijah’s ascension
as another proof of eternal life.
Elisha saw this and cried out, "My
father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel Jordan
I’m
not sure if Elisha is crying out to Elijah about what he has seen, the chariot
and horses of fire? Or whether Elisha is
describing Elijah as the chariots and horsemen of Israel
Here,
Elisha displays his grief by tearing his clothes. He takes up Elijah’s cloak, his mantle. As we see next, he doesn’t take it as a kind
of artifact. He doesn’t take it as an
object to be preserved as a relic. He
uses it, and likely, he wears it.
He took the cloak that had fallen from
Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the LORD, the God of
Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the
left, and he crossed over. II Kings 2:14
Elisha
repeats exactly what he saw Elijah do.
His question is not, “Where is Elijah?”
He knows where Elijah is.
Instead, he asks, “Where is the Lord?” in anticipation. Will God continue to work in the same way as
when Elijah was here? As far as we know,
this was the first miracle of Elisha.
He’s on his own. “Where now is
the LORD?” He is here just like he has
always been for the Lord does not change.
(Psalm 55:19, James 1:17, Numbers 23:19, I Samuel 15:29)
Elisha
did see Elijah when he was taken which fulfilled what Elijah had spoken as
confirmation. Now we have proof
displayed of God’s spirit resting on Elisha.
This proof confirms it both for him and the sons of the prophets waiting
across the Jordan
The company of the prophets from Jericho
They
show Elisha respect. He is confirmed to
them as Elijah’s successor. He is not a
farmer or a lowly servant to them. God’s
spirit is not a spirit of confusion, just as God himself is not a God of
confusion (I Corinthians 14:33). Rather,
He is a God of peace and order. Elisha
is revealed as God’s chosen one.
“Look,” they said, “we your servants have
fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the
LORD has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.” “No,”
Elisha replied, “do not send them.” But they persisted until he was too
embarrassed to refuse. So he said, “Send them.” And they sent fifty men, who
searched for three days but did not find him.
When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho
I’ll
just note here that sometimes it is not necessary to push back indefinitely
when someone is set in their mind and pushing the issue serves only to bring
about an argument or injure someone. In
this case, no harm is done except wasting the time of the fifty men. Perhaps they needed to complete this work to
assure themselves that Elijah wasn’t sitting on a hill somewhere waiting for
them. We don’t know if the company of
the prophets saw anything of Elijah’s departure. Obviously, they didn’t see him go into
heaven. The may have seen nothing of it
at all. They didn’t find Elijah either,
just as Elisha had said.
Elisha
continues to stay in Jericho
The people of the city said to Elisha,
“Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is
bad and the land is unproductive.” II
Kings 2:19
Do
you remember that there was curse placed on the city of Jericho
The
city of Jericho
The
city is on the plain of the Jordan Jericho
was known as the “City of Palms Jerusalem
toward Jericho
This
situation is yet another demonstration of God’s grace. The Lord’s intent was that the ruins of Jericho Jericho
“Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put
salt in it.” So they brought it to him.
II Kings 2:20
So,
a new bowl full of salt doesn’t have any power to clean a water supply. However, this action on behalf of the people
is an opportunity for them to demonstrate faith. The work of God is not brought about by
something we do. We can’t calculate a
formula for God and conjure him up on a whim.
However, the work of God is enabled by our faith and obedience.
Then he went out to the spring and threw
the salt into it, saying, “This is what the LORD says: ‘I have healed this
water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’ ” And
the water has remained pure to this day, according to the word Elisha had
spoken. II Kings 2:21-22
This
miracle also has the effect of giving credibility to Elisha. If Elisha can help in God’s name, he can also
teach and lead (reprove, admonish, command) in God’s name.
Making
the water clean is a kind of precursor, forerunner of Christ. Elisha makes bad water good. Jesus gives us living water instead of liquid
water. The bad water at Jericho
When
God heals something, it’s healed.
Ecclesiastes 3:14 says, “I know
that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and
nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.”
I
want to close with a quote from the Bible commentator Matthew Henry and a
story. Matthew Henry wrote, “Prophets
should endeavor to make every place they come to, some way or other, the better
for them, endeavoring to sweeten bitter spirits, and to make barren souls
fruitful, by the due application of the word of God.”
Last
week, Carl defined a prophet in this way:
“One who calls people around them to repentance and to return to the
worship of the true God.” When he said
that, I thought, who wouldn’t want to be a prophet?
I
had an interesting and unexpected situation come up on Friday. I’ll try and make a long story short. We have problem investigation reports that
get graded. They can be graded at
different levels of the organization.
Well, we had a report that wasn’t finished and didn’t get graded by
anyone below the division level. It
would be like someone taking one piece of your homework at random without your
knowledge and turning it in to the professor.
Then, the grade on that one piece of homework was your grade in the
course for the semester.
To
make matters worse, the information came back to us in a very accusatory
style. This was our fault because we
didn’t check it properly, we didn’t pre-grade it as we should, we can do much
better. The comments on the grading
mentioned that we had left out a piece of documentation which we had definitely
completed. The brunt of this
disappointment and chastisement fell on our quality engineer. To me it was disappointing, but I could tell
he was totally frustrated.
We
untangled what actually had happened, and the accusation turned out to be
unfounded and incorrect. I asked the
person who made the initial accusation to apologize publicly to the quality
engineer since this had been carried out in public, but even this went awry. The supposed apology was no apology at all. The situation was simply reiterated that we
should do better. No grace, no truth, no
life.
At
the same time the “not” apology came out, I was writing this:
Life
is a far more complicated thing than we realize most of the time. There are many things going on in all of our
lives. God sees everything, and He is
directing our circumstances as a magnificent conductor. I think we are not able to conceive that
anyone, even God, can work in nearly 7 billion people’s lives simultaneously to
bring about the maximum good. I do not
claim to understand this, only that as more and more time goes by I know it to
be true.
In
regard to today’s … grading confusion, I think it is important for you to know
that there are circumstances in my own life over the past month or so where it
is needful for me right now to get a failing grade.
Circumstances
beyond either of our control] resulted in me getting a “FAIL!” on my 8D
assignment. You have no idea how
comforting that will be in my situation outside of work.
I tell
you this because I appreciate you bearing up under this imposition. In order for me to get a “FAIL!” you had to
get one, too. As time goes by, I am
increasingly drawn to the fact that a few people carry the weaknesses of a
greater number of people. When things
happen to me that have a tendency to bend me out of shape, I often comfort
myself with the fact that by doing the right thing or the kind thing, I can
help carry someone’s weaknesses. Why is
that important?
Well,
if I ever got graded by the True Standard-bearer, the Holy and Perfect God, I
would surely get a “FAIL!” I won’t
though, because His Son Jesus carries my weaknesses, my sins. If my Christ carried my weaknesses all the
way to the cross, then surely I can carry the daily challenges I face even
though someone else may have ultimately been responsible for it.
I
also appreciate that you help carry the weaknesses here at work. You do not cover our weaknesses over rather
you help carry them while working diligently to bring us out of the mire and
onto the high road.
Thanks
for all you do,
John
I
sent it out, and went home. Three or
four hours later, I got a text from our quality engineer. “Your words were like a cool drink of water
on a hot day. Very timely and much
appreciated.” Because it was after 9pm
at night, I don’t even know for sure if his comment “very timely” is with
respect to work or to some situation in his life. It wouldn’t surprise me though because that’s
just how God works. He arranges
circumstances to draw us to Him and minister to others through us.
I
share all that as a practical example hoping to spur you on to love and good
deeds. As prophets of the living God,
may we “endeavor to make every place we come to, some way or other, the better
for us, endeavoring to sweeten bitter spirits, and to make barren souls
fruitful, by the due application of the word of God.”
Let’s
pray.
Lord
Jesus, thank You for the testimony and faithfulness of Your servants. I pray that You would help us find ways to
apply Your truth in our lives and in our circumstances. Give us big picture vision, eternity
vision. Help us to see with Your eyes
that we may pour living water into our relationships with our family, our
friends, our fellow students, our co-workers and even strangers we may meet
along the way. Give us the courage and
strength to take up our mantle, our cross, each day and a follow You. Glorify Your Name in us and through us we
pray. Amen.
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