Humble Service to a Sovereign God

2 Kings 2:9-10 ESV

9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” 10 And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.”

If I were to ask you today, “what is your greatest desire in life?” what would your answer be?

Actually, let me put it to you a different way; you know how every year on our birthday, at least when we were kids, mom and dad would bring out the birthday cake with lit candles singing happy birthday.

Then once they were done singing, they would say “now close your eyes and make a wish” then after you made your wish if you blew out all of your candles in one blow, they would say that your wish would come true.

Now of course, when we become adults, we know that it doesn’t really work that way. But what if this year on your birthday, you were told that it actually would work? What if you were told that whatever you wished for, your wish would absolutely come true on this birthday, and this birthday only? If that happened, what would you wish for?

Would you wish for health? For happiness? For wealth? For blessings to come to your family?

Well, as we continue working through our series of messages here this morning concerning Elijah’s departure and Elisha’s succession, we will see something similar to what I just described happening. And when the question was put to the man as to what it is that he would receive, his answer may surprise you.

As we’ve been working through this narrative, we’ve saw that God had made plain to Elijah that His will concerning him was that he was to be taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. This meant the end of Elijah’s earthly ministry, it meant the end of his earthly existence, it literally meant the end of everything that he had ever known and been familiar with.

But though Elijah knew that this was indeed the case, he still pressed forward, going to that place that God commanded him to go, the place on the other side of the Jordan River, the place where Elijah knew he was going to be translated into heaven.

Elijah probably could have made a hundred excuses as to why he shouldn’t obey God in this circumstance, but his mind was set on the things of God, therefore he went to where God told him to go, knowing that when he got there, he would be taken away.

But it wasn’t just Elijah who went, his protégé, Elisha went with him as well. As we said in the first sermon of this series, both Elijah and the sons of the prophets, or the school of the prophets tried to stop Elisha from following his master, but he would have none of it, as he was determined to follow his master Elijah to the ends of the earth if necessary.

Now, last week we saw Elijah and Elisha doing something extremely remarkable when it is written that Elijah rolled up his cloak and struck the water of the Jordan River thus making the waters part so that the two of them could cross over to the other side on dry ground.

Now, once they reached the other side of the river, Elijah tells his protégé the following:

2 Kings 2:9a

9a …“Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.”…

Elijah knows that very shortly he will be taken from the world and carried to heaven, and once he is carried to heaven, he won’t be able to do any more favors for anyone, so here, he essentially asks his protégé, “I can do you one last favor while I am still here. So, as long as what you ask me is within my means, I’ll do it for you. So, what is one last thing that I can do for you?”

Now, I’m sure that there are several things that Elisha could have asked for here, but let’s take a look at what he asks of his master here at the end of this verse, where we read Elisha saying:

2 Kings 2:9b ESV

9b “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.”

Now, this is most certainly a strange request, so why would he make it? And furthermore, what exactly was it that Elisha was asking for here anyway?

First, we must look at the kind of language that is being used here. Elisha asks Elijah that he receive a “double portion”.

Now, if we read other parts of the Bible, we will see that the term double portion is almost always used in relation to an inheritance that a firstborn son receives when his father passes away.

A father may have several sons, and when the father passes away, each of his sons receive a share of what his father had. But the firstborn son would receive twice as much, or double of what the rest of his brothers receive.

So, when Elisha asks Elijah to leave him a double portion, what he is asking him is to make it possible for him to receive an inheritance from Elijah after he is taken away.

Well, if we know anything about Elijah, we know that he possessed very little to no material possessions whatsoever. By the world’s standards, Elijah was a poor, extremely destitute man, owning essentially nothing.

So, if that is the case, then what kind of inheritance could Elisha hope to receive from his master?

Look again at this part of this verse. “Let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” What Elisha asked for here was to receive Elijah’s spirit.

Now, what exactly could that possibly mean? Well, what office did Elijah hold? He held the prophetic office. He was chosen by God to be His prophet and thus speak the Word of God to whom God commanded him to speak it to.

That’s what Elijah done. He spoke the Word of God when God told him to speak it, where God told him to speak it, and to whom God told him to speak it to.

Now, this certainly didn’t result in a glamorous life for Elijah. Like I said, he owned basically nothing, he was scoffed at and ridiculed by almost everyone he prophesied to, and he was often on the run from those who desired to shut him up for good.

And it’s not as though Elisha was unaware of this either. He experienced many obstacles as he followed Elijah. In fact, when Elijah first called Elisha to follow him, Elijah was on the run as Queen Jezebel was seeking to kill him.

So, Elisha sees that following in the footsteps of his master certainly won’t gain him any kind of worldly renown whatsoever, in fact, he sees that the only thing it will likely gain him in this world are enemies and hardships.

But just like his master realized, so did Elisha realize that this world is passing away, therefore the rewards and the comforts of the world are also passing away. He sees that all that matters is what is eternal. And the Word of God, that is eternal. Therefore, when Elijah asks Elisha what he can do for him before he is taken from him, Elisha says, “I want to keep speaking the Word of God, just like you!”.

What Elisha essentially says is, “Let the world keep its glitter and glamour and prestige! None of that compares to the God of heaven and earth! What I want is to be faithful to this God and carry out His command! What I want, Elijah, is to boldly proclaim the Word of God just like you!”.

Wow! What a request! What an extremely God-honoring request! You know, I just wonder if we were given the same opportunity if we would make the same choice?

I mean, I would like to believe that I would, but I also know that I am a man who is sometimes weak due to my flesh and sin nature and therefore I sometimes desire what my flesh desires.

So, you know, I think that the only way that someone would sincerely make this choice is if God worked within that person and compelled him, almost against his own will to do so. It would be a case of our born-again nature soundly defeating our fleshly, sin nature, and God ensuring the choice that we make.

But at any rate, what we see is that Elisha did indeed make this choice. But Elijah’s reply to this request is quite interesting and actually says a lot about who Elijah is as well.

Let’s look at Elijah’s response to Elisha in verse 10, where we read:

2 Kings 2:10 ESV

10 And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.”

He says, “You have asked a hard thing”. In other words, what Elijah is saying here is that what Elisha has asked of him, he cannotgive to him.

You see, it is not Elijah, or you, or me, or anyone else who decides who God is going to use and in what way. That is God’s sovereign decision to make alone.

Humbly and reverently, Elijah recognized that. He did not fill his protégé with false hope, rather, he said, “If it be the Lord’s will, what you have asked will indeed come to pass.”

But though Elijah did not fully know if God was going to use Elisha to continue his prophetic ministry, what he did know because God had obviously revealed it to him was that the answer to Elisha’s request would be revealed when the Lord took Elijah away.

Elijah said that if Elisha visibly saw him being taken away from the world by God, then yes, Elisha would continue Elijah’s prophetic ministry when he left the world. But he also said that if Elisha did not visibly see him being taken away from the world by God, then no, he would not continue Elijah’s prophetic ministry.

But at any rate, what we see here in our reading for today is the godly desire of Elisha to want to speak the Word of God for the glory of God. And we also see the humble recognition of who he is and Who God is on Elijah’s part when he said, “That’s not up to me. God sovereignly chooses who His prophets will be.”

Beloved, what I want us to take away from this message today is twofold.

One, like Elisha, when we are faced with the choice of the glitter and glamour of the world and the extremely humble service and obedience to our God, true service to our God, I want us to soberly weigh out our options and choose that which we are confident will manifest itself in an eternal, spiritual reward.

Will the fleeting pleasures of the world be a sufficient reward? Or will the promise of heavenly riches be what you prefer?

The one who sincerely and fully holds to the truth at all costs lives a lonely and pitiful existence according to the world’s standards. It doesn’t promise us all of these earthly rewards. A lot of people will misunderstand us. We’ll offer them spiritual gold and more times than not they’ll treat it like it is trash. But while we miss out on the fleeting riches of the world, we inherit the eternal riches of heaven!

And what I want us to also take away from this message today is that our God is sovereign. Absolutely, fully sovereign over every last thing that there is.

And because our God is sovereign over everything, because we can’t even speak a word or think a thought without His divine permission, then might we humbly say, “If it be the will of the Lord, it shall be so. And if it be not the will of the Lord, it shall not be so.” And may we humbly accept whatsoever the Lord’s will may be.

Beloved, fully take in the fact today that we truly have an awesome God!

Amen?