2 Kings 2:8-14 KJV And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground. [9] And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. [10] And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. [11] And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. [12] And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. [13] He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan; [14] And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.
I. INTRODUCTION—THE PROPHET ELIJAH
-Elijah shows up at a very dark time in Israel’s history. Ahab provoked God more than any other king.
1 Kings 16:33 KJV And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.
-He was not so much a wicked man as he was a very weak man. He became the pawn of a very crafty, unscrupulous, cruel woman.
-He fell under the wicked sway of Jezebel’s spirit. After Ahab married this woman of Phonecian descent, she immediately set about to work to destroy Israel.
• She built a temple to Astarte in Jezreel.
• She built a commune that supported 450 priests of Baal.
• She built a temple in Samaria.
• She tore down the altars of Jehovah at Carmel and replaced them with shrines and groves.
• She begins to persecute the priests and prophets of Jehovah throughout the land with a fury possessed by hell.
-But here comes Elijah!
-In 1 Kings 17-19, Elijah encounters some of the most exciting things that would take place in the history of Israel. But after he had been serving for 5-10 years, he picks up a young man and God has ordained that this young man is work with him.
-He would spend somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-10 years with Elisha (907-896 B.C.). A whole lot of learning can be accomplished during this time frame.
-Elisha is a diligent student and takes careful notes of everything that Elijah does. In the course of time, Elijah is to be taken away from Elisha. That was a portion of the text that we read.
-Influence is a very powerful tool. We all have it and use it every day. Those who are around us are being shaped by whatever actions and deposits we are placing in their lives.
-I am the same today that I will be in five years except for the people I meet and the books I read. Great people and great books help you grow!
• Hang around with thinkers and you will be a better thinker.
• Hang around with spiritually hungry people and you will get hungrier for God.
• Hang around with positive people and you will be more positive.
• Hang around with people who are accomplishing something with their lives and you will too.
• Hang around with winners and you will be a better winner.
• Conversely, hang around with a bunch of complaining, griping, whining boneheads and you will get better at that too.
-Elisha got the most out of his relationship with Elijah and it would pay great dividends to him in the future.
II. PRINCIPLES FOR A JORDAN RIVER CROSSING
A. You May Have to Go Alone
2 Kings 2:12 KJV . . . And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.
-After Elijah had left, Elisha is now alone. He is facing a Jordan river that had been crossed just a few hours earlier. But the difference is now that Elisha is all alone.
-But he had remembered a lesson from his mentor that would help him. Elijah had conveyed to Elisha that there will be times when you will be all by yourself. God’s vision, mission, and burden will be only be accomplished in the solitary places.
-He could almost hear Elijah telling him not to let the loneliness rattle him. Elijah was God’s man.
• He would face Ahab in the royal courts. . . alone.
• He would watch a brook at Cherith dry up. . . alone.
• He would have to ask the widow at Zarephath for her last meal. . . alone.
• He would face death and pray for the dead child. . . alone.
• He would openly rebuke the king Ahab. . . alone.
• He would face the wicked priests of Baal. . . alone.
• He would mock Baal and the priests. . . alone.
• He would have to repair the broken down altar. . . alone.
• He would have to pray for a downpour of fire. . . alone.
• He would have to marshal the people to destroy the prophets of Baal. . . alone.
• He would have to pray for rain. . . alone.
• He would have to face the doubt of a servant who saw through faithless eyes. . . alone.
• He would run seventeen miles to Jezreel while Ahab rode in a chariot. . . alone.
• He would battle depression under a juniper tree. . . alone.
• He would be ministered to by angels and the voice of God’s direction. . . alone.
-No matter how you look at it, there must be some times in your life when you are willing to face down the calamities of life. . . alone.
• This is why private prayer is so important. . .
• This is why that wrestling in prayer is so important. . .
• This is why that fasting for a breakthrough is so important. . .
• This is why that meditation on the Word is so important. . .
-Because all of these avenues are generally hidden away somewhere from the prying eyes of the unsanctified. It is in these times that we find great dependence on God.
-But it just proves one thing: One man can make a difference! In a family. . . In a school. . . In a church. . . In a world. . . In all of eternity.
-Don’t ever get backed up into a corner and think that just because you are alone that God cannot still prevail.
-When you get weary, exhausted, worn-out, just remember that when Jesus took that little bit of fish and bread, there were twelve baskets left over. None of us amount to much but when God starts breaking us up, there is more than enough for the miraculous.
B. The Importance of Trade-Offs
-So if Elisha has learned that you will have to go alone sometimes, he also will learn the importance of trade-offs.
-Elisha did not get to this place in his life just because he could think of it in his mind. He had to decide to do something about getting somewhere. There had been some trade-offs he was willing to make in his life.
-We find the calling of Elisha in 1 Kings 19:19-21:
1 Kings 19:19-21 KJV 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.
When I was a young man, Charles Billingsley would sing a very powerful song entitled, “The Marks of the Mission.” It goes like this:
It wasn't that far from where your life began
To where you laid it down
A man on a mission what we couldn't see then
We can see it now
I can only imagine the look in Your Father's eyes
When you came back home
And said look at the scars in my hands and my side
I just wanted you to know
CHORUS—These are the marks of the mission
These are the proof of all I've been through
The evidence of sin forgiven
All that I have I offer to you
I followed the call wherever it led me
It was worth every step of the way
I've come through the dark
Bearing the marks of the mission
No, I wasn't there to see them drive the nails
But yet I still believe
The blood of redemption He so willingly shed
Was enough for me
Lord I know when You see me
You look past the pain that I've caused
To a heart that's changed
If I asked You if my sins were worth what it cost
I know just what You will say
BRIDGE—Someday I'll walk down golden streets
And I'll talk with the saints whose faith inspired me
Then maybe I will understand
We are the reason for the scars in your hands
CHORUS II—We are the marks of the mission
We are the proof of all you've been through
The evidence of sin forgiven
All that we have we offer to you
We followed the call wherever it led us
It was worth every step of the way
We've come through the dark
Bearing the marks of the mission
-Elisha was exposed to the marks of a mission. His day was no different than what our day is. A backslidden nation with the religious systems totally devoid and bankrupt of spiritual power. Jehovah worship mixed with Baal worship. A corrupt king and queen. A priesthood that had allowed Israel to be swept up in paganism.
-But when you hear the marks of the mission, there suddenly becomes a call that is higher than this life.
• He left the farm.
• He left his family.
-He had a mantle that was cast about him. He was the only one who could make a determination as to how valuable that the mantle was going to be to him.
-If things have a great value, you will leave the farm, the family, the oxen will be sacrificed and the yoke will be burned. Elisha turned his back on everything for the call.
-There were some trade-offs he was willing to make:
• Anointing instead of acceptance.
• Ostracism instead of inclusion.
• The miraculous for the mundane.
• The prophetic over the popular.
• The dangerous for the comfortable.
• Sacrifice instead of ease.
• God instead of self.
-Elisha was willing to trade everything he had for a double-portion anointing.
-There is something that you need to know about trade-offs; when you make them you won’t know the value of it until well into the campaign. But you need to go ahead and make the trade; God has incredible amounts of purpose and anointing that will never be grasped and realized until you make the trade.
Philippians 2:5 KJV Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
C. Resist the Urge to Quit
-The Jordan River crossing principles tell us that we will have to work alone, that we will have to make some trade-offs, and that we have to resist the urge to give up and quit.
-Whatever you have to do to resist the temptation to give in. . . Do It!!!!
-Just because you have a mantle, have made some trade-offs, and have been taught a course by one of God’s greatest prophets, does not grant you immunity from the obstacles.
• Rivers will still confront you.
• Skeptics will still laugh at you.
• Enemies will still mock you.
• Your own moods and whims will still try to destroy you.
-Get beyond the fact of throwing in the towel. Stand up like a man and persist!
Samuel Johnson—Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
Helen Keller—We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough.
Charles Spurgeon—By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
Some years ago there was a flight from Portland, Maine, to Boston. The pilot, Henry Dempsey, heard and unusual noise near the rear of the small aircraft. He turned the controls to his co-pilot and went back to investigate.
As he reached the tail section, the plane hit an air pocket, and Dempsey was tossed against the rear door. He quickly discovered the source of the mysterious noise. The rear door had not been properly latched prior to takeoff, and if flew open. He was instantly sucked out of the jet.
The co-pilot, seeing the red light that indicated an open door, radioed the nearest airport requesting permission to make an emergency landing and he requested a helicopter search of that area of the ocean.
After the plane landed, they found Henry Dempsey—holding onto the outdoor ladder of the aircraft. Somehow he had caught the ladder, held on for ten minutes as the plane flew 200 miles per hour at an altitude of 4000 feet and then at landing, kept his head from hitting the runway. It took airport personnel several minutes to pry Dempsey’s fingers from the ladder. Things may feel turbulent and you may not feel like holding on. But have you considered the alternative?
(NOTE: THIS IS A TRUE STORY TAKING PLACE SEPT. 1987. GOOGLE SEARCH TURNS UP MULTIPLE NEWS ITEMS VERIFYING TRUTH OF THE STORY.)
-What if Elisha would have thrown in the towel and given the thought of quitting? There are seventeen miracles that would have never taken place! The miracles are summed up:
• The Jordan River Crossing.
• The Salt-healed waters.
• Two avenging bears.
• A valley of ditches.
• A pot of oil.
• A great woman.
• A resurrected child.
• Meal-healed pottage.
• Twenty-loaves of barley.
• Namaan, the man who was a leper.
• A wayward servant.
• A floating axe-head.
• Eyes that could suddenly see.
• Sightless eyes.
• A great famine and four lepers.
• The Shunnamite returns.
• The death of a king.
-There are too many miracles ahead of you for you to give up now!
D. Keep Your Grip on the Mantle
-The last Jordan River crossing principle means you will have to keep a grip on your mantle. That mantle is tied to the prophetic and to the past.
-The Past and the Prophetic will always be entwined in the righteous linen of the mantle. If we ever forsake our past we will forfeit the prophetic.
-There was so much wrapped up in that mantle. It was one of those graphic, life-changing moments.
• One of devotion to Elijah.
• One of separation.
• One of hardship and peril.
• One of great victory and nobility.
• One of special privilege and power.
-Look back to places in your life where the mantle fell on you and called you out to serve, to worship, to prayer, to conversion and to sacrifice. It cannot be something that is just handled carelessly but it must be treasured with great care.
-We have to take that mantle that has been extended to us down through the ages. If you haven’t read the biography of Lewis and Sallie Morley who became missionaries to Venezuela and Colombia in the late 1950’s, you will read of a man and woman who literally gave everything they had to the message—including their health.
-Take that mantle that God has given to you and use it to the capacity that He has called you to.
Philip Harrelson
February 20, 2011
