Trusting God in really challenging times in your personal life is really difficult to do. When marriages break up, finances fail, and good friends desert you, God’s seeming absence is really difficult to bear. When you are going through a foggy time in life, you want to see God’s bright light to guide your way. When God seemingly fails to provide that light that He’s promised, you are left depressed and despondent.
I want to introduce to you a man of extraordinary faith who lived when few people had faith in the living God. His name is Elisha, and he is the successor in ministry to Elijah. Elisha was a bright light in the darkest of skies. Let me say this at the outset… if you’re like me, it’s hard to distinguish your pronunciation of Elisha from Elijah.
Elisha was the son of a wealthy landowner and farmer. He would go on to be the spiritual leader of Israel for 50 years during some of the darkest days for God’s people.
I invite you to find 1 Kings 19 and put a bookmark there as I ask you to find 2 Kings 2, pages 355 and 362 in your Pew Bibles.
Elisha’s name means “My God Saves.” Elisha is a spiritual light for God’s people in really dark days. When times were the bleakest and hope was the rarest, God put forth Elisha. If you want God to teach us by Elisha’s life, then we learn what it means to provide spiritual and moral light during dark days.
Today’s Scripture
“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. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. 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?’ 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” (1 Kings 19:19-21).
“Then Elijah took his cloak and rolled it up and struck the water, and the water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground.
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.’ And he said, ‘You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.’ And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, ‘My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!’ And he saw him no more.
Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. And he took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, ‘Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?’ And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over” (2 Kings 2:8-14).
There is around an 18-year timespan between the two passages we just read together. Elisha “with an s” was Elijah’s “with a j” apprentice for some 18 years. Now, Elijah deserves his own sermon series but that’s for another time.
For the young person who senses you are one of the only believers on your team or in your class, Elisha is a bright light in the darkest of night skies. For the man or woman who clocks into work where there are few other believers and fewer still of anyone with moral convictions, Elisha is a bright light in the darkest of night skies.
1. A Flicker of Light in Dark Times
“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. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him” (1 Kings 19:19).
You’re reading about how God calls Elisha into His service. It’s how God moves Elisha from a farmer to a prophet. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me rewind a minute.
When we first meet Elisha “with an s,” it’s because Elijah “with a j” is in despair.
Earlier in verse 4, Elijah asks the Lord to take his life. He had been hiding in a cave for fear of the evil queen, Jezebel. His fight to be the spiritual light in dark times has taken a tremendous toll on him. Now, God tells Elijah “with a j” to go find his successor.
1.1 Spiritually Dark Times
It is a really dark time for God’s people when Elisha lives. Elisha was around 850 to 800 years before Jesus Christ. The nation of Israel had been created as a way to display God’s greatness. Yet, very few people of Israel were actually following God, obeying God. How do you enthusiastically live for Christ when living for your pleasure is so widespread? How do you remain a light for Christ in the darkest of times?
1.1.1 Baal
Most were following a false god named Baal. To get a sense of how bad things were, you need to know a little about this false god. Baal was lord of the vine and god of fertility so he seemed like more fun than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.1 And it’s easy to see why. To worship this false god, you would drink until you were drunk because he was the lord of the vine. And to worship this false god, you would engage in sexual intercourse with prostitutes in order to promote fertility because he was the god of fertility. Imagine coming to “church” and engaging in some kind of sexual act as an act of so-called worship, and you get the idea. I am not trying to preach an X-rated sermon but simply to show how badly things had gotten off-track.
When seemingly everyone is doing wrong, it’s really easy to throw your hands up in the air and say, “What’s the use?”
Have you ever worked in some place where people acted so terribly and spoke so filthy that you just felt dirty? I had a job just like that in my college days, where everyone made loud jokes about sex. There was only one other genuine believer that I could find at the place. Maybe you are the one believer in your family, and everyone else has abandoned any real thought of God. Perhaps your family is filled with apathetic people who claim Christ, but their spiritual zeal is asleep.
Things were really dark in Elisha’s day – really discouraging. Elisha will show us what it’s like to be a spiritual light for others in dark days.
1.1.2 Israel’s Purpose
Again, Israel was created to show how great God is and how wonderful He treated the people who followed Him. All the other nations surrounding Israel followed Baal. Israel was alone as God’s people – they were to be the shining example. Israel was alone as the worshipper of the real God. But they had compromised and followed the gods of the surrounding nations. To follow this false god, Baal, you have to drink heavily and sleep with anyone and everything around you.
1.2 You
In times of spiritual darkness, you need a stabilizer for your faith. You need fresh hope that God is present and He is active despite His seeming silence. Now, the Bible will go on to call Elisha a “man of God” (2 Kings 5:8). If God were still writing books of the Bible, would you be called a “woman of God”? If God still had people penning revelation, would He include you as a “man of God”? Elisha will turn out to be a tremendous prophet, but he is none of these things when Elijah “with a j” finds him. He is simply the son of a wealthy landowner plowing his fields.
1.3 Pilot Crashes Lands on “Big Rig”
Some things you just don’t see coming.
Howard Hamer had just taken off in his homemade plane from the airfield in the high desert town in Oregon. Almost immediately, the single-engine plane lost power, and the pilot decided to attempt an emergency landing on northbound route U.S. 97. Filiberto Corona Ambriz was minding his own business this particular Thursday as he was driving his rig, a flatbed truck north on the same highway. Unknowingly, he drove his flatbed truck under Hamer’s plane at the very moment when the pilot was attempting to settle his craft down on the highway. Hamer, the pilot, never saw the truck since he was watching out for southbound traffic and trying to keep the plane’s nose up. The truck driver would later say he knew nothing of the plane until he felt a bump and heard a loud bang. The propeller caught on the truck’s sleeper, and the plane’s nose remained there while the tail dropped down on the flatbed trailer. The ‘landing’ was successful, and neither man was injured.2
Most truck drivers don’t have a plane crash land on their flatbed as they are driving along the highway. And most farmer boys don’t get appointed to be Israel’s spiritual caretaker. But that’s exactly what happened to Elisha.
1.4 The Cloak
Elijah throws his cloak over the farm boy, Elisha. This thing was a garment of hair, and it was a distinctive piece of clothing for Elijah “with a j.” When Elijah throws his cloak, or mantle, upon Elisha, this is a symbolic way of transferring the prophetic power from one man to the next (1 Kings 19:19). Now, remember the elder Elijah was depressed because so few people believed in the real God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even fewer still cared to do anything about it.
God tells the veteran prophet to throw the cloak on this farm boy. The cloak is the symbolic token of Elijah’s spiritual power. So, when our Elisha receives this, it shows something is afoot. God is calling him out to a new level of faith and service.
1.4.1 Elisha’s Wealth
Now, we know our Elisha is a man of means, someone of wealth. His father’s farm has 12 teams of oxen at work. Our Elisa is driving the 12th team of two, so there are another 11 teams plowing ahead of him. That’s 24 oxen. A middle-class family might have a couple, but he has 24 oxen. So not only does his family own 12 teams of oxen but they have at least 11 servants to go along with them. In fact, the town where Elisha lives, named in verse 16, is translated as the “meadow of dancing” and is located in the breadbasket of North Israel.3
He lived in the Silicon Valley of his day. This area is still known as an extremely fertile valley, and many of you have visited it with me on our trips to Israel.
1.4.2 Leaving the Good Life
Our friend Elisha has a good life. You may not want to plow a field with oxen, but this is his day’s version of driving a G-wagon. Elisha is being called from a life of luxury to a life of service to Almighty God. How would he respond?
1.4.3 How Would You Respond
How would you respond? What if God called you to foster children when you’re living the good life? What if God throws his mantle on you for missions and ministry when you’re surrounded by servants? What if God taps you on the shoulder and asks you to sacrifice your lifestyle to give to a missionary couple? What will you do when God calls?
1. A Flicker of Light in Dark Times
2. Burn Your Plows
“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” (1 Kings 19:21).
Elisha is simply plowing his father’s field. We don’t if the two spoke to one another. But what Elisha does after the mantle is thrown on his next is telling. He slaughters the oxen and burns the yokes.
2.1 Burn the Ships
Author Mark Batterson tells a moving story of no retreat and no surrender closer to modern times, the story of Hernán Cortés. On February 19, 1519, the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés set sail for Mexico from Spain with an entourage of 11 ships, 16 horses, 110 sailors, and 508 soldiers. The indigenous population upon his arrival was approximately five million. From a purely mathematical standpoint, the odds were stacked against him by a ratio of more than 7,500 to 1.
Two previous expeditions had failed to even establish a settlement in the New World, yet Cortes conquered much of the South American continent. I am not saying let’s all follow Cortés’ example. He did all this to seek his fortune, good old-fashioned greed was his motive. Cortés mixed his economic greed with a desire to convert numerous people to the Catholic faith. He sought to conquer the Aztecs and it is thought he killed hundreds of thousands of people in the process. What Cortes is reported to have done after landing is an epic tale of mythic proportions. He issued an order to … burn the ships. As his crew watched their fleet of ships burn and sink, they came to terms with the fact that retreat was not an option.4
2.2 Elisha Burns the Ships
Elisha turns his wood plow into kindling and barbeques the oxen for all to eat. Burning the plowing equipment was Elisha’s way of burning the ships. He couldn’t go back to his old way of life because he destroyed the time machine that would take him back. It was the end of Elisha the farmer. It was the beginning of Elisha the prophet.5
In a time when few people followed God, Elisha burned the ships so to speak. He literally cooked and ate his old way of life. Some items are really difficult to find.
2.3 Missing F-35 Jet
The F-35 Lightning II is meant to be the crown jewel of America’s airborne fleet. Each of these next-generation fighter jets has a price tag that runs upward of $80 million, even before factoring in costs like maintenance. Each of these plans has some of the most expensive weapon systems ever developed.6 So, when one of the planes went down this past week, it was really shocking to see a Facebook ad by the Joint Base Charleston as the Marines were looking for their plane! Shouldn’t this thing have an Apple Airtag on it to track it at the very least? Everyone is grateful that the pilot was not hurt though the whole ordeal is a “scratch your head” kind of story. I guess some things are hard to find.
You may be hunting for a Himalayan Mountain Goat or you may be in search of a Rhodes Scholar from MIT for your business. But one thing that is even more difficult to find is someone like our friend Elisha who so quickly surrenders to the will the Father.
2.4 The Way Up Is the Way Down
Within seconds, Elisha decides to leave all of his wealth and family to follow this radical prophet. Elisha went from the CEO of Elisha Farms to being Elijah’s apprentice. He went from inheriting a fortune to making copies and getting coffee for the prophet.7
And Elisha did this for 18 years before he was the prophet. Remember in God’s economy, the way up is the way down. Jesus said, “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him” (John 12:26).
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34b).
1. A Flicker of Light in Dark Times
2. Burn Your Plows
3. A Double Portion
“When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me’” (2 Kings 2:9).
18 years have gone by since Elisha has been in training. Everywhere Elijah went, Elisha went with us. These two people were “peas in a pod,” peanut butter and jelly, and Batman and Robin. But the moment has come when Elisha is to be separated from his beloved father in the faith.
3.1 Why a Double Portion?
Finally, the day has come 18 years later. Elijah and Elisha are walking along. Our Elisha says to his mentor, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.” Right away that sounds like he is saying, “I want to be twice as good as you.” That sounds a little bit arrogant, but that’s not what he is asking. The double portion was the part of the inheritance that went to the oldest.8 In a culture in which the laws of primogeniture were so important, remember that in Israel the eldest son received a double portion of his father’s inheritance (Deuteronomy 21:17). What Elisha is really saying is, “I want to be considered your true successor and your true heir of Elijah.
3.2 Miracles
When Elisha asks for a double portion, God grants him his request.
Elisha went onto to heal the waters of Jericho (2 Kings 2:19–22); He provided endless oil for a widow so she can pay her debts (2 Kings 4:1–7); he resurrected the son of a woman from Shunam (2 Kings 4:18–37); he purified a poisonous stew and multiplying bread and grain for the sons of the prophets (2 Kings 4:38–44); and he heal Naaman, commander of the army of Syria, of leprosy (2 Kings 5:1–14). Our friend Elisha lives a life of service to the Lord. In the darkest of times, he was a light against the night sky of apathetic faith.
In the cold times of faith, you could find encouragement from the campfire of Elisha’s faith. Be Elisha to your family and speak words of encouragement to live for Christ. Be Elisha in your workplace so that others are encouraged by your walk with the Lord in a dark place. Be an Elisha in your neighborhood by living a faithful life for the Lord.
3.4 Invitation Time
Repent – ask the Holy Spirit to help you make a u-turn
Believe – put all your faith in Jesus Christ
Receive – the last thing you need to do is to call upon the name of the Lord.
Would you bow your head as we pray?
Endnotes
1 William Sanford La Sor, David Allan Hubbard, and Frederic William Bush, Old Testament Survey: The Message, Form, and Background of the Old Testament, 2nd ed (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996), 202.
2 Dale Ralph Davis, 1 Kings: The Wisdom and the Folly, Focus on the Bible Commentary (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), 272. See also, https://www.morningjournal.com/2000/08/12/homemade-plane-lands-on-top-of-truck/; accessed September 19, 2023.
3 Willis J. Beecher, “Abel-Meholah” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, edited by James Orr, John L. Nuelsen, Edgar Y. Mullins, and Morris O. Evans. Vol. 1–5 (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), 1:6.
4 https://www.markbatterson.com/burn-the-ships/; accessed September 19, 2023.
5 https://www.markbatterson.com/burn-the-ships/; accessed September 19, 2023.
6 https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/missing-f-35-fighter-jet-south-carolina-cost-rcna105603; accessed September 19, 2023.
7 J. D. Greear, “Burn the Plows: The Call of Elisha: 1 Kings 19:19–21; 2 Kings 2:1–14,” in J. D. Greear Sermon Archive. Durham, NC: The Summit Church, 2017.
8 Roger Ellsworth, Apostasy, Destruction and Hope: 2 Kings Simply Explained, Welwyn Commentary Series (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, 2002), 31.
