God calls Elisha

King James Version (WordSearch Edition) Chapter 19

Elisha takes leave of his friends, and follows Elijah

19 So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. 20 And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? 21 And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.

Elijah leaves Mt. Sinai after hearing from God.

He begins to immediately enact the plan that God laid out for him in last week’s message.

There are three men that he must find and anoint.

Hazael of Syria

Jehu of Israel

Elisha the son of Shaphat.

The first person he goes to find is Elisha.

Elisha, whose name means, “God his salvation.” was the son of a man named Shaphat.

Shaphat means judge and could have possible been a title.

When Elijah finds Elisha, he is out in the field plowing.

The Bible tells us that there were 12 teams our in the field that day.

After the famine over the last 3 years, the farmers were back at work.

They were so excited to be back at it.

Elisha was with one, there were eleven others also.

There a few things we can possibly surmise from this detail.

First, most probably, Elisha’s family owned a lot of land.

The Germans standardized the amount of land that a team of oxen could plow in a day as 1.5 acres.

That means Elisha and his teams could have possibly plowed 18 acres a day.

You don’t outfit and pay for 12 teams of oxen and drivers unless you have a lot more than 20 acres to plow.

Which leads me to our second assumption.

If you can afford 12 yoke of oxen and the men to work them, you are probably pretty well off.

The point of this detail is to give us a glimpse as to who Elisha was before God called him.

He was privileged.

His family was settled for the future.

There is one final point that we can pull from this first half of verse 19.

Though he was privileged, Elisha was not lazy or entitled.

He is not in the house while 11 teams of ploughmen worked.

He is out with them laboring in the field.

This tells us a lot about Elisha’s character and his future.

If you will recall, Elisha was the same no matter if things were going well or if things were going poorly.

Having found his target, Elijah approaches.

He comes alongside Elisha, and as he passes him, he casts his mantle upon him.

This seems like a strange thing to do.

It was a common ceremony in their culture.

It represented the transference of authority and office from one individual to another.

The passing of the mantle could be done on a large or small scale.

It could be a political figure passing his authority on to his successor.

It could be a father passing on his position to his son.

In this case, it represented what God had ordained, the eventual passing of the prophetic role from Elijah to Elisha.

Elisha immediately responds to what Elijah has done.

He understands what has just taken place.

He leaves the oxen and runs to catch Elijah.

When he catches up to the prophet, he has a special request for him.

Let me tell my parents good bye.

I will then follow you.

Elijah’s answer is another foreign sounding response to us.

Go back again, for what have i done to thee,” almost sounds rude.

As if Elisha has failed some secret test he didn’t even know he was taking.

That is not at all what is happening.

Elijah’s words were a common idiom for “do as you please.”

Another way this could be understood is, “what have I done to stop you?”

Having received permission and approval from his new master/teacher, Elisha goes back and completes his abandonment of his old life.

He slaughters the oxen.

He cooks them over a fire that he built using the plowing instruments that he had been using.

He gave the meat to unto the people.

This is a celebration and show of commitment.

It was an honor for Elisha to be chosen by God to serve.

Everyone got in on this celebration.

Family

Friends

Employees

Servants

It was also a sign of Elisha’s seriousness.

He killed his oxen and destroyed his ploughing instruments.

This was to signify the reality that there was no turning back from what God had called him to do.

Elisha was going to obey the Lord, and therefore no longer needed the tools of his former life.

He didn’t even want them waiting for him in his father’s barns should he change his mind.

After the celebration and the goodbyes, Elisha sets out with Elijah.

I’m sure that Elisha had heard the stories of Elijah by then.

The prophet that faced Ahab and declared a drought.

The prophet that called down fire from heaven.

…slaughtered the prophets of Baal...

…and outran a chariot!

What kind of adventures would Elisha get to be a part of?

What kind of special role would he play in the prophet’s ministry?

According to verse 21, Elisha had the very exciting job of serving as Elijah’s minister.

In other words, his servant.

Elisha, the man who just left a wealthy family to follow God, winds up the servant of Elijah the prophet.

Minister/servant is exactly what you think it might be.

If Elijah needed something, Elisha got it for him.

If Elijah didn’t want to do something, Elisha got to do it for him.

Elisha did not leave his wealthy family for a position of notoriety, instead it was a position of anonymity.

We will not hear from Elisha again until 2 Kings 2.

All that time , though, Elisha was learning and developing.

One day Elisha would be known throughout all of Israel, but it wouldn’t start out that way.

Elisha never did turn back though, he remained faithful to his master until it was his time.

Elisha was called to receive Elijah’s mantle, but not before serving as Elijah’s minister.

If God calls you to minister, will you go?

Can you leave the life you have built or received in order to follow God?

Can you leave and not look back?

Can you minister even if it means no one notices?