The Call of Elisha

INTRO

If you have your Bible this morning you can turn to 1 Kings 19 where we will finish this chapter with the call of Elisha. If you were not with us last week, we met a dark side of Elijah that was inward focused, self righteous, unresponsive to God and His word, and really just a pouting prophet. Yet God was merciful and kind and even tender with Elijah in his selfishness by speaking in a still small voice. But now today we meet Elijah’s young padawan, Elisha, who God told him to anoint. And while there are only three verses here today, there is a lot in this story of the calling of Elisha. There is a lot we can learn from this story too that can help us to live supernaturally in a complacent culture. That being, culture outside, or the culture of our heart that wants to be apathetic, self righteous, and complacent like Elijah is acting.

BODY

19 So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth.

So even though this seems like not any exciting information, there is! And as I promised last week we are going to learn some more about this new character that we meet names Elisha.

INFORMATION ABOUT ELISHA

Elisha’s name means “my God saves” (eli = “my God”; sha = “saves”

Elijah’s name meant “The Lord is my God” which he showed through a majority of his life in scripture. But now after Elijah is being replaced by Elisha, in the big storyline of the Bible, this Elisha is an interesting character because not only does he mean my God saves, but he is the son of Shaphat! No one is excited about that? Okay, that’s fine, I’ll tell you why that is kind of exciting.

Elisha is a son of Shaphat, who was a descendant of king David.

If you are still not excited about that is okay. I’ll explain because not only was Eve promised that from her would be a messiah descendant, a savior. But also through king David there was a promised descendant who would reign as king. But Elisha is a prophet, not a king. Or will he be? The drama unfolds! But if you know Elisha’s story, he does not become king nor does he fulfill that role as messiah. However, there is one more thing that is interesting about Elisha that should be interesting, comforting and even encouraging to most of us today.

Elisha was an everyday farmer when God called Him through Elijah.

You read that, right? He was just plowing with 12 oxen, so a somewhat wealthy farmer too. What color were these oxen? :)

But this is important because this is like Elijah, just an unknown person, an everyday farmer, he wasn’t in the temple, sitting there studying, a temple assistant, but just an everyday person that God knew he could work with. We will talk more about that and how it helps us in our lives in a little bit, but let’s keep reading this story.

Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him.

Okay, I know we are going through this at a snails pace, but I think it is worth pointing this out. Back in verse 16 God told Elijah to anoint Elisha. But what do we see her? He casts his cloak on him like he is some kind of coat rack. The tossing of the cloak was a call to be Elijah’s disciple, but God already called Elisha the new prophet. Elijah is still in a pouty mood here, and even though Elijah ends well, this is not his best moment. If God is calling is calling us to do something, we should be fully obedient, not just what we think is best.

Is God calling you to something but instead of anointing we are just casting a cloak? Are we being obedient to that still small voice? I lay this before you again like last week because it is of great importance. It is the key to trust, obedience, following Jesus.

Yet, even with this half hearted obedience, look at Elisha’s response. This is so inspiring.

20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” 21 And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.

Wow! This is a wild and courageous response. He gets a cloak thrown on him, probably looks at who is doing this, realizes it is Elijah, what this means for himself and Elijah seems to keep walking, like he doesn’t care about his coat. Yet Elisha catches up to him and says I’m in! But let me do one more thing! Elijah the curmudgeon says okay whatever, and then Elisha takes all of his oxen kills then and throws a feast! Oxen tacos for everyone! He throws a party and this is what is so crazy, he is doing two really important things here.

Elisha is leaving his past life for his new life.

To put this in todays world, if you were a farmer and you were called into ministry, you are burning all your equipment, selling your farm, and never looking back. Not only that, you are taking the money you just got for selling your stuff and throwing a party for your family telling them you are done with them. Which is wild in this culture where family is everything. It wasn’t dishonoring thing for Elisha, but he was just communicating to them, hey I’m not longer part of this family trade, I’m going to be a prophet and study under Elijah. Which leads me to the next interesting thing about this response.

Elisha is becoming a prophet in a difficult time.

Remember that there is still Baal worship going on, Jezebel still wants Elijah to be killed and any other prophets of the Lord to be dead. This was not Elisha being called to be a part of a successful ministry with great pay and good benefits. Yet this guys was pumped! He didn’t moan and groan for a different option. Even despite losing family, and despite the grim outlook, he was fired up to not just follow Elijah but the Lord. Which, after looking at this text today and the call of Elisha, I think there are things that we can learn, remember and apply to our own life today.

Application

The first thing that I think it would be good to remind our hearts today is

God calls anyone to follow Him

Elisha was an everyday farmer that was just doing his job faithfully when God called him. We don’t know much more of his background, if he was studying the torah everyday, if he knew all the 10 commandments by heart. But what we do know, is that there are many people in the Bible that God chooses that we would not. Yet he sees hearts more than he sees talent.

And I think this is important to remind ourselves because in a time and age where celebrity Christianity is celebrated almost as an idol, God is still looking for the farmers. Celebrity Christianity is where the people with the most likes on social media, have the platforms, or are somehow more loud than just everyday people are looked to more than they should be.

Christianity has always been about the nobody’s, the underground, the ones who no one would expect to rise up. Jesus calls tax collectors, fishermen, and a Zelot. He is saying the same for every person here. You were created in a specific way and it is different than any other person.

And God is calling you to follow him so that you can live supernatural in a complacent culture. He is calling you to follow him and he is not making sure you check all the boxes, he wants you more in a place of dependency and trust than in a place of swagger and pride.

I’m talking to believers and unbelievers here today. Believers, if you think that you are still needing to get something in line until you are all in on God, forget that lie. He wants you because he called you, not because what you can bring. We are jars of clay, vessels in the potters hands. If you are not a believer here and you are resistant to following Jesus as your lord, know that he is inviting you today. All of you. All your mess, all your complicated life and he is not upset about what you have been. He invites you out of that into a new life. But like Elisha, when God calls us, it also requires a transformation. Which leads me to the second thing to remember today.

2. God calls us to leave our old life behind when we follow Him.

I want to read to you a similar text of what happened with Elijah and Elisha but a different response from Jesus.

English Standard Version Chapter 9

61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

So people are coming up to Jesus and saying, I want to follow you, but… I have this I want to hold onto or need to do first. And that means it could take up to 5-10 years before I actually start following you. And Jesus doesn’t give the apathetic response that Elijah gave, does he? No, he is straight forward in saying, you follow me now and no one looks back after they follow me. They have counted the cost and understand that what they are leaving behind not even in comparison to what they are getting in Jesus.

Is there something in your old life that you are holding onto that you have not let go of in order to follow Jesus more wholehearted? Picture it this way, Elisha went back and burned 11 oxen and kept one more to bring along. Well that could be helpful Josh for later on. But does it show trust? Does it show an abandoning to what God is calling him to? Or does it remind you of self preservation, a hand on this world and a hand on eternity.

Some of you have grown up in the church, some of you this is the first church you have experienced and so what an “old life” may look different for everyone here so I want to summarize it this way. Your old life is anything that is holding you back rom following the Lord wholehearted. Is there anything that is keeping you from burning the bridges or oxen, so to speak, so that you can follow the call of what Jesus is asking you.

This is not legalistic in saying do this or don’t do that, it is more an understanding that what Jesus offers you is better. It is better than the unforgivenness that you are not burning up, the bitterness that you are not burning up, the bad mindsets, bad relationship, bad habits that need to be burned up so that you can follow Jesus wholehearted so that you can live supernatural in this complacent culture.

3. God wants us excited in following him even with the unknown before us.

Do you see the contrast of Elijah and Elisha? Elijah is being disobedient and probably walking sluggishly. Elisha runs after Elijah, burns all his oxen, throws a party and follows Elijah with everything he has. This guys is fired up, excited, a little happy about the opportunity ahead of him even with the unknown future.

I wholeheartedly believe this should be a picture of us believers today. There should be a little excitement in our step because we follow Jesus, the resurrected king. We follow Jesus, the one who is all powerful, all knowing, and all sufficient to help us in every are of our life. If we have apathy in our life towards following the Lord, we may be following a little bit of what was happening with Elijah. A little self righteousness and thinking, I’m the only one who loves God. No, not true. And if you think you are the ultimate Christian, as yourself, if I am the model of what a christian should be, what would happen if all Christians became like me? Would there still be evangelism? Would there still be passionate worship? Would there be faithful prayer? Would there be the poor and widows taken care of? Would there be faithful Bible reading and obedience? Are we really that self centered to think that we have it all together?

I think the way to stay out of that is to be like Elisha and see that we have an unknown/known future ahead of us. God has given us purpose in Him. He has given us the body to be a part of. If you are feeling dry and burnt out like Elijah, find yourself an Elisha, someone pumped up in the Lord and wanting to follow Him. I promise you it will either convict you of your apathy and stir you up to follow the Lord more, or it will just make you realize how much more there is in the Lord and start following the Lord more. It is a win win situation.

Do you remember when God first called you? Do you remember the passion you had for him? Do you remember how the future was wide open because God was there and you knew he was going with you?

To be supernatural in this complacent culture, there is a need to remember these things today. To remember God calls us as we are, that he tells us to leave the old behind, and that we can have a little excitement and joy about following the Lord.