Sermon Tone Analysis

Elijah and Elisha9.

Can we please turn again to ; [P] I hope you will excuse me for not moving on; but the thing is, I have a problem!

It is a peculiar thing about our church culture, that some bloke stands up the front and talks and it is assumed that he is the fount of all knowledge – but it ain’t so!

He is a human being like those sitting in the congregation; he has the same Book that they have and they have the same Holy Spirit that he has to interpret it.

O.K., he has prepared, done a bit of homework (or we hope he has); but he doesn’t have all the answers – well, at least, this one doesn’t!

And I have a problem with the passage before us – I have prayed much about it, thought and meditated; but I don’t have the answer.

So, today, instead of me coming up with the answers I am going to present before you my problem and you can come up with the answer.

But the problem is going to take a little bit of explaining; I need to set the background and context before the problem becomes evident – so stick with me.

First let’s read the passage: [ When Elijah heard it, (that is the sound of a gentle blowing – he discerned the presence of the Holy Spirit) he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.

And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Then he said, “I have been very zealous for יהוה, the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword.

And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

יהוה said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram; (there’s number one) and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; (there’s number two) and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.

(there is number three – three commands, commands to anoint 3 men on Divine orders!

יהוה has spoken!) “It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death.

“Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”]

There is the passage; יהוה commanded Elijah to 1/ go to Damascus and anoint Hazael king over Aram; 2/ to anoint Jehu king over Israel; 3/ to anoint Elisha as prophet in his place, or under him.

Three things for Elijah to do; the rest were things that יהוה Himself would do – He would leave a remnant for Himself.

Last time we looked at what יהוה would do in preserving a remnant; today I want to look at the issue of what Elijah was to do.

But first, let us recall what we have seen of the man of God, Elijah.

Right at the beginning of this series I spoke about “Elijah the man of God” – do you remember?

The characteristics of the man of God were: he hears God’s word; he speaks God’s word; He lives in accordance with God’s Word – He obeys implicitly [P] – that is he lives by God’s word.

Obedience to יהוה was Elijah’s life.

He was zealous for יהוה!

Let’s have a little review over what we have seen of the life of Elijah: Elijah, the man of God, eminently lived by God’s word: 1/ [ The word of יהוה came to him, saying, “Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.

“It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.”

So he went and did according to the word of יהוה, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.]

יהוה told him to go to the brook Cherith; so, Elijah went to Brook Cherith.

He did according to the word of יהוה, he OBEYED.

2/ [ Then the word of יהוה came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”

So, he arose and went to Zarephath, (יהוה gave the order and Elijah obeyed.

He lived according to the word of יהוה) and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.”]

יהוה told Elijah to go to Zarephath; and so, he went to Zarephath, he went to widow, just as יהוה told him to.

Elijah OBEYED.

3/ [ Now it happened after many days that the word of יהוה came to Elijah in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth.”

(יהוה said “go, show yourself to Ahab”) So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab.] יהוה told him to go to the king, and so he did; he went to Ahab all at the word of יהוה.

Elijah OBEYED.

4/ But then there was all that grandstanding with the prophets of Baal, putting on a dramatic show, taunting them; surely this was Elijah ad-libbing – no, no: [ At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O יהוה, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word.]

Elijah wasn’t doing his own thing by putting on this dramatic display – no: “Know that I did all this at Your word” 5/ Elijah went south into the wilderness [ He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat.”

Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water.

So he ate and drank and lay down again.]

God told him to eat and so he ate; [ The angel of יהוה came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.”

So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.]

The angel said, “Arise and eat.”; so, what did Elijah do?

He arose and ate.

Elijah OBEYED 6/ Then arriving at mount Horeb יהוה said: [ “Go forth and stand on the mountain before יהוה.”]

What did Elijah do? [ When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.]

– Yet again, he OBEYED – he did as יהוה commanded him.

He did what יהוה said.

He OBEYED.

7/ Later on in the life of Elijah we read in: [ Then the word of יהוה came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth where he has gone down to take possession of it.

You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says יהוה, “Have you murdered and also taken possession?”

And you shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says יהוה, “In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth the dogs will lick up your blood, even yours.”]

יהוה told Elijah to go to Ahab and told him what to say.

What did Elijah do?

He went to Ahab and said: [ “The one belonging to Ahab, who dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and the one who dies in the field the birds of heaven will eat.”]

He did just what יהוה told him to do and said what יהוה told him to say.

Elijah OBEYED.

8/ Later still: [ The angel of יהוה said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.”

So, he arose and went down with him to the king.]

Elijah OBEYED.

Just what he was told to do, that is what he did.

Elijah heard from God and obeyed – in an earlier message I made the point that this is what marked him out as a man of God.

He did what he heard יהוה tell him.

I belabour the point that I have previously made because you have to see that this was characteristic of Elijah.

OBEYING יהוה was his life and breath.

Everyone else was doing their own thing but he was zealous for יהוה and was submitted to doing His will, only acting according to His word.

This had become his way of life.

You have to see this context, understand the man; before you can see what’s going on in the passage we looked at earlier.

יהוה told him to 1/ anoint Hazael king of Aram, 2/ to anoint Jehu of Israel, and 3/ to anoint Elisha in his place.

etc.

But who anointed Hazael king of Aram? [P] Who anointed Jehu son of Nimshi?

Who anointed Elisha?

First thing Elijah was to do was go to Damascus, the capital of country of Aram/Syria, just to the north and anoint Hazael.

But what is the very next thing we read?

[ So he departed from there (where?

From Mount Horeb.

Elijah went straight from there …) and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while he was ploughing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth.

And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him.

(Elijah indicated that Elisha was to take on his position after him, not that he anointed him with oil as he was told to do).

He left the oxen and ran after Elijah (Elisha responded to the call) and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you.”

And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” So, he returned from following him, and took the pair of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave it to the people and they ate.

Then he arose and followed Elijah and ministered to him.]

From that time on Elisha was Elijah’s protégé; the one who was going to become prophet in his place.

But even in this Elijah seemed to ad-lib – he set up a school of prophets, trained a whole team of prophets.

I don’t know, perhaps he was trying to help fulfil the bit that יהוה said He would do, by preserving a remnant who were faithful to יהוה.

So, Elijah didn’t go to Damascus and anoint Hazael.

The next thing he did was appoint Elisha as his successor – we have no record of him anointing him, but he may have.

If he did, this is where he stopped in regard to those commands יהוה gave him to do – and that is what he was supposed to do last, not first.

So who did anoint Hazael?: [ Then Elisha (who?

Not Elijah, but Elisha.

Elijah was no longer around) came to Damascus.

(that is what Elijah was supposed to do) Now Ben-hadad king of Aram was sick, and it was told him, saying, “The man of God has come here.”

The king said to Hazael, (he was at that time a high official in Ben-Hadad’s court) “Take a gift in your hand and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of יהוה by him, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

So Hazael went to meet him and took a gift in his hand, even every kind of good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ loads; and he came and stood before him and said, “Your son Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

Then Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You will surely recover,’ but יהוה has shown me that he will certainly die.”

He fixed his gaze steadily on him until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept.

Hazael said, “Why does my lord weep?” Then he answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword, (remember that is what יהוה told Elijah he would do, he was appointed by יהוה for this role) and their little ones you will dash in pieces, and their women with child you will rip up.”

Then Hazael said, “But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” (he was not of the royal dynasty, he had no inkling that he was going to be king, Elijah hadn’t anointed him, this was the first that he had heard of it!)

And Elisha answered, “יהוה has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”