A prophets mantle

1st kings 19:9-21

13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

14 He replied again, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

15 Then the Lord told him, “Go back the same way you came, and travel to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive there, anoint Hazael to be king of Aram. 16 Then anoint Jehu grandson of Nimshi[a] to be king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from the town of Abel-meholah to replace you as my prophet. 17 Anyone who escapes from Hazael will be killed by Jehu, and those who escape Jehu will be killed by Elisha!18 Yet I will preserve 7,000 others in Israel who have never bowed down to Baal or kissed him!”

The Call of Elisha

19 So Elijah went and found Elisha son of Shaphat plowing a field. There were twelve teams of oxen in the field, and Elisha was plowing with the twelfth team. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak across his shoulders and then walked away. 20 Elisha left the oxen standing there, ran after Elijah, and said to him, “First let me go and kiss my father and mother good-bye, and then I will go with you!”

Elijah replied, “Go on back, but think about what I have done to you.”

21 So Elisha returned to his oxen and slaughtered them. He used the wood from the plow to build a fire to roast their flesh. He passed around the meat to the townspeople, and they all ate. Then he went with Elijah as his assistant. NLT

9-14 welcome

15-18 first song

19-21 jake second song

13-21 recap different translation A prophet's mantle

Intro: In one of the greatest sitcoms of all time the office, Andy the current manager of the branch, has decided to leave the company and pursue his dreams of being an actor, singer, and danger on the world's stage. So he walks into the room with the CEO and declares he is quitting to pursue his dreams, and that he has to quit in order to give everything he has to seek out his dream.

Unbeknownst to him, he was actually about to be fired for being a terrible manager and taking a three month boat trip anyways. So, the CEO gladly accepts his resignation. Less paperwork than firing him anyways. 

Andy, though, does this against everyone else's advice who is telling him to not do this, that this is a terrible idea. So he finally goes back to the office with his boss to beg for his job back. And before he can even speak a word the CEO says, you can come back as a salesman, not the manager, and Andy accepts. 

But, Andy being Andy, realizes he can not have a way back. As long as he has a fallback he will never make it. He has to pursue his dreams with everything he has, and leave nothing to come back too. He talks about Cortez who burned all the boats of his men so they could not return home and had to conquer the aztecs in order to have somewhere to live.

He decides to do that himself. 

So, he goes to Toby, the resident Hr rep, and tells him to put in his file he was fired for theft and sexual harassment. Not knowing if that was really enough, he goes to the CEO and starts telling him all the biggest mistakes he made as a manager and starts cursing out his boss, flipping him off, and makes…. A mess of his car in order to make sure he has no boats or bridged back to this job ever again. 

This is the equivalent, with less harassment and cursing of course, that we see Elisha take when Elijah calls him to follow him. He spontaneously takes the two oxen he was pushing and cooks them. Using the literal equipment he had used to guide them.

So not only has he randomly decided to burn two prized animals needed to farm his family's land, but he has burned the equipment as well. To make matters worse, he even gives all the food from the bulls away, for FREE! 

Can you imagine what your response would be to your children if they drained your bank account and started handing out hundred dollars bills to whoever wanted it just to follow a traveling salesman? Or even a worse, a religious nutcase who sat in a cave for three years being fed by birds?

But before we can understand his reasoning for this, before we can get an understanding for why he does what he does, we have to go back to Elijah and why he shows up in the first place.

Next week John is going to preach and teach on Elijah's story up to this point. Elijah has been in a years-long feud with Ahab and his wife Jezebel because they have led Israel to great idolatry. God has orchestrated a years long drought to punish Israel for their sin, and just a few days before this Elijah challenges the prophets of BAAL to a test and kills them all. 

Probably the single greatest moment of prophetic ministry ever recorded in the Bible, and within 24 hours Elijah is cowering under a tree, begging God to kill him because he is alone and Jezebel is earnestly seeking his head on a platter. 

So God takes him up to a mountain. And there God asks him the simple question, Elijah, why are you here? What are you doing? And Elijah, terrified, depressed, and lonely, says “I have been zealous for you. I have served you perfectly. I have done all that you asked, but look, 

SLIDE 

“the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” 1st kings 19:10

Even just reading these words it is easy to just melt away in his pain. To be lost in his agony. We naturally feel for him, the only home he has had for three years was a cave, and the only fellowship he had was from ravens who would bring him scraps of good. 

You do this incredible miracle showing God to be the only God in the world, but it seems to make no difference. Who among us would not feel the same weight of despair? 

Have you ever put your all into something, every ounce of strength, but now you feel burned out, alone, and pricked by the idea that all that you did made no difference at all/ 

You got up at midnight to go to that friends house and try to get them home safely. You drove across the state to help that family member get out of that dangerous situation they put themselves in. You loved and cared for them over and over and they just ended up doing the same thing again and again. 

Or maybe, you have spent years trying to find the joy that is supposed to be found in Jesus, but you continue to find only misery and loneliness. I remember back to after I graduated highschool but could not find a way to get to college. I could not afford. I earnestly, even angrily, prayed that God did not hold up his end of the bargain. 

I was faithful, I had followed him this far, but where was he now? Would I dare follow him any further if this was my life after dedicating all of my time and energy to him and his empire? 

So what does God do? In these times what is God’s response to our pain and misery? We expect more Mt. Carmel miracles. Maybe Ekilah will grab a sword and best Ahabs entire army by himself like Samson. Maybe he will be told to sneak into the throne room and set it ablaze and stick a dagger in the idolatrous kings stomach like the Ehud. 

Who knows, but it must be something even bigger than what he had already just done right? As the story goes God calls him out onto this ledge, there is an earthquake that shakes the very ground he stands on, an inferno rivaling the heat of the sun, and a powerful wind that breaks the very rocks he leans his weary body up against. 

And yet, God is not in any of those things. It is in this small, tiny, whisper that he hears the voice of God. And God says to him again. 

Oh Elijah, My great and honorable prophet, why are you here? And Elijah responds with the same thing as before, look, look my God at the evil that surrounds us? Is there anyone left but your servant? Is there even a single person left who has not taken up idolatry and disavowed you as their God?

And God responds to him not with condemnation for his doubts. Not with sternness for his lack of faith. Not with anger in response to his anger. God’s response is Elijah open your eyes. Fellowship awaits. 

Instead of miracles he provides him with fellowship. Instead of encouragement he tells him about the faithful who remain. Instead of a sword he says, go anoint another who follow you, disciple under you, and eventually fill your place. The answer to Elijah's depression and doubts was like minded community and mentorship.

Elijah leaves the fire, the wind, the storms, and the earthquakes to go be with the ordinary man plowing with oxen. Elijah does not preach a sermon, he does not call him to the altar, resembling the same message Jesus would preach years later he throws a cloak over him and says, Follow me. 

Elijah gives no other instructions, he gives no other thoughts, he explains nothing. He never even stops walking.  This is why when he finally figures out what is happening Elisha has to run after him. And we read Elisha says to him, let me go say goodbye to my family. And the Hebrew is really hard to understand, but what it seems elijah says back is, “who am I to you? Who is stopping you from doing that? But know and understand what I have called you too and make your decision.” And Elisha acknowledges that by burning the boats of his former life.

God answers two prayers at the same time. Elijah prayers for comfort, and renewal, and Elisha prays for a greater calling, a purpose in life, a desire to serve God. 

And both are given the same answer, find fellowship. 

Imagine a girl named Rebecca who's in the 10th grade, her dad is in the military and has forced her to move and uproot her life 5 times in 5 years. At school she feels lost and alone because she has not had time to make friends. Every year she has to make connections with new teachers, new churches, new neighbors. She feels alone and forgotten. She is contemplating self harm, doubting if God is real, and if he or anyone actually loves her. 

If she came to you looking for advice, help, what would you say? You would not prescribe her a sermon, a track, or yet another self help book. You would not tell her to pick herself up and dust herself off right? She does not need more free time, more money, or more fame. 

There is only one thing she needs, there is only one thing almost all of us need, God answers Elijah's prayer the same way he would answer Rebeccas,

go find fellowship.

People never did anything alone in the book of Acts and for good reason. Maybe we are blinded by our country's love for independence, this idea, this value, so told and bestowed upon our way of thinking that many of us have come to think what we are to do, spiritual or otherwise, is meant to be done alone

But Jesus did nothing alone but pray. The disciples were sent out two by two. Peter had john, Paul had baranabas, timothy and titus. They all had people to stand beside them. The first thing God tells Paul to do in Acts 9 when he has his conversion moment on that lonely Damascus road is, go find Ananias. Go find a community.

Elijah felt lost because he was doing it alone. He felt that he failed because he had failed to make disciples. What if our jobs as Christians is not so much focused on getting people to church, but about helping the people around us look like the church?

Philosopher and theologian Dallas Willard says this SLIDE 

“ministers pay far too much attention to people who do not come to services. Those people should, generally, be given exactly that disregard by the pastor that they gave Christ. The Christian leader has something much more important to do than pursue the godless. The leader’s task is to equip saints until they are like Christ (Eph 4:12), and history and the God of history waits for him to do this job.”

The goal of the Christian life is to love God and love others. Pursue a relationship with God and a relationship with others. It is the answer to everything wrong in the world. 

If you are lonely, seek community in the church. If you need to grow in your relationships with God, seek a mentor. If you want to change the world, start with just one person. If you want to be transformed, seek someone who has already been transformed. 

SLIDE 

A Christian without a church is as much an oxymoron as a turtle without a shell, or a bee without a hive, they won’t last very long. 

John Wesley The great minister and founder of the Wesleyan movement that we consider ourselves descendents of once had a huge revival and decades of preaching in a specific city in Wales. After returning and seeing what had happened to the people there who had chosen to be baptized because of the revival wrote this, 

SLIDE 

“I was more convinced than ever that preaching like an Apostle, without joining together those that are awakened and training them up in the ways of God, is only begetting children for the murderer. How much preaching has there been for these twenty years all over Pembrokeshire! But no regular societies, no discipline, no order or connection: and the consequence is that nine in ten of the once-awakened are now faster asleep than ever.” (Wesley, The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, 156.

He says if there are no disciplines, no churches, no community, no life group equivalents, all this preaching and teaching is in complete vain. If there is no one and nothing to help them continue their march towards Jesus their salvation prayer and their baptism confession is about as useful as a nail without a hammer. A paintbrush without paint.

Elijah's prayer was to raise up a generation of God fearers in Israel. Elisha's prayer was to follow God faithfully. The answer to solving both of their equations is fellowship with one another. 

The reason Elisha was willing to burn every bridge, the reason he was willing to literally kill and cook the very animals that have been making him money his entire life, was because someone called him to follow. Called him to something greater. Modeling Jesus Elijah tells him, “follow me”. But the call to follow Jesus is never a call to follow him alone. 

Let me do one last thing that came to me this week. We are going to get a little psychology going on okay. I want you to close your eyes, everyone close your eyes. Now find in your body your pain, your discomfort. where is it? Where is you worry, your anxiety? You lonliness, your fear? Do you see all of that, sitting there in your back, in your chest, in your jaw, do you feel all of this negative energy? I want you to now put out your hands, palms up, and I want you to force all of that pain, fear, anxiety, stress, and worry into a ball and put it in your hands.

Do you it in your mind that ball of pain and misery that eats at your every day resting your hands? Now, you know, when you try to get rid of it, when you try to remove it, it does not work. It is sticky, it is stuck, it can not leave your hand.

Now I want you to imagine a person at this church, you think of them, a friend, a staff member, a volunteer. Now imagine they walk up. And immediately they grab the ball from your hands and take the burden from you. That is fellowship. That is community. That is doing Christ together. open your eyes.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Glatians 6:2

Thinking of this very verse the german theologian Bonhoeffer says this “The burden of men was so heavy for God Himself that He had to endure the Cross. God truly bore the burden of men in the body of Jesus Christ. But He bore them as a mother carries her child, as a shepherd enfolds the lost lamb that has been found. God took men upon Himself and they weighed Him down, but God remained with them and they with God. In bearing with men, God maintained fellowship with them. It is the law of Christ that was fulfilled on the Cross. And Christians must share in this law. They must suffer their brethren, but, more importantly, now that the law of Christ has been fulfilled, they can bear with their brethren.”

So this week, invite someone out for lunch, invite a young, or an old person over to your house for dinner, grab coffee and just ask someone who is more mature in their faith questions about how they got here. Just one person. And see if it changes your life and theirs. 

prophets mantle

The answer to Elijah's depression and doubts was likeminded community and mentorship.

seems to be telling him, who am i to you? go back and keep ploughing if that is what you want

the only home elijah has had was in a cave, and the only fellowship was birds who brought him food. Elijsha must know what following him will mean. there is no coming back. (son of man has no where to lay his head.

the job of the mentor is to work yourself out of your job.

many of you have worked and retired and given up to sit at home, but God is calling you to more still. The movement can not continue to move with you.

kills the oxen, gives it to people. burned his bridges. (andy office story).

gave up job, 24 oxen needed to plow is a very big inheritance

Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered What Is a Mantle in the Bible?

Prophets were known for wearing mantles as a sign of their calling from God (

people in your life, community, and church, have been waiting to cast everything off just to hear the call to follow you

certinaly has enough people and work to not do the work, but he chooses to antwyas

questions: for what have i done for yo.