My text this morning is taken from the Old Testament reading: 2 Kings 2:1-12
It is the well-known story of Elijah and Elisha and how God took Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind and Elisha was left behind on his own.
This morning, I would to look at Elisha, and see how he dealt with the loss of his friend.
God had called Elisha to be a prophet. He had trained for a long time with Elijah and now God was taking Elijah away.
If I had been Elisha, how would I have reacted? Would I have blamed God for taking my friend away. Or would I have been able to see that the time of appenticeship was over and God was now releasing me to fulfill the call that he had for my life on my own.
The challenge to us this morning is:
How singleminded am I in God’s service?
What do we know about Elisha?
He was a businessman - in fact a farmer. Judging by the fact that he had "twelve yoke of oxen" (1 Ki 19:19), he was pretty successful.
Yet when the call of God came to him, he left that all behind to become Elijah’s pupil. We read that
"...He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burnt his plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant."
By the time of this morning’s reading, Elisha had spent a lot of time with Elijah.
The master-pupil relationship had probably developed into a father-son relationship.
Elisha had developed his own relationship with God and his prophetic gifts had been growing.
But Elijah was always there to lean on.
As long as Elijah was around, Elisha could not fully develop into the prophet God had called him to be.
The day had to come when God would release Elisha to be on his own. He would now have to depend on God more directly than ever before.
And so I wonder what was going on through Elisha’s mind as he walked on the road from Gilgal to Bethel and from Bethel to Jericho.
1. He was losing a very close friend
2. Although he had given up his old life to trust God in his new life, he was losing the security that Elijah had brought to his new life.
3. He would have no option if he wanted to take over from Elijah as the prophet in Israel to look to God and God alone.
4. Was he tempted to look back and ask himself if he had made a mistake in leaving the farm to follow Elijah.
We can see a little of Elisha’s touchiness in his reply to the prophets in Bethel and the prophets in Jericho.
When they tell him that Elijah is going to leave, he says: "I know but just belt up will you". (v.4)
Story:
I remember the day that my father died. Even though I had left home some eight years and was living in Switzerland, I was married and had three boys - yet when Dad died I felt a deep sense of loss. Dad was gone.
I am sure many of you know what it feels like.
There is a time when God takes away someone close on whom we depend and we ask: Why Lord?
I think similar thoughts were going through Elisha’s mind.
I did when Dad died.
Yet it is in these very circumstances that God releases you into your own ministry. Painful as it may feel.
That was the case for me when Dad died.
He was such a powerful character, that I could not step out into my calling as long as he was alive
Back to the story:
Elisha and Elijah arrive in Jericho and then move on from there down to the Jordan river.
As Elijah comes to the Jordan, he strikes the river and the water divides to allow them to pass.
They cross and when they get to the other side, Elijah asks: What can I do for your before I am taken up from you?
I wonder how I would have answered the question.
I know my wife, Maddy would probably have asked for a nice little farm with horses and goats up in East Yorkshire!!
Others might have asked for a nice husband or wife and family to support them in their ministry.
Elisha knew what God had called him to do.
He had made a commitment to it when he slaughtered the oxen and had burnt the ploughs.
So Elisha asked for what was necessary to fulfil the task God had called him to.
So he asked Elijah for "a double portion of his Spirit". (v.9)
Elijah replies: "If you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours - otherwise not"
Elisha realised that the key to Elijah’s ministry was the Spirit in Elijah and he knew that he needed that.
So he asked for a double portion of Elijah’s Spirit"
At first, Elijah’s reply seems hard.
But working for God is not a part-time business. This was a test of Elisha’s single-mindedness.
He had to keep his focus on Elijah all the time. He could not afford to look away, for fear of missing Elijah’s departure.
I believe that this was a part of God’s training.
If Elisha was to take over the mantle of God’s prophet - he had to be a man totally dedicated to God.
Elisha did see Elijah taken up to heaven and he went on to have a powerful prophetic ministry, due to his single minded commitment to God.
And I would like to ask the question "How would we have reacted in such a time of crisis?".
Story:
D.L.Moody was a simple country boy with no formal education. He was a shoe salesman.
One evening, Moody was at a prayer meeting in London and an unknown greengrocer stood up and said:
"The world has not seen what God cannot do with a man totally dedicated to Himself."
Moody walked out of that meeting and said: "By God’s Grace I’ll be that man".
God used Moody greatly and he reached millions in America and in England with the Good News of Jesus Christ. You might say that Moody was the "Billy Graham of the nineteenth Century".
God was able to use this simple farmboy with little formal education because of his single-minded commitment to God.
I wonder if that Greengrocer ever knew how wonderfully God had used his words and his concerns for God’s kingdom.
God is looking for single-minded men like Elisha and Moody.
It is never too late to be used by God.
Moses was eighty when God called him He had been retired 25 years when God called him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.
Story:
In my old church - Holy Trinity, Claygate, a retired civil servant, Stephen Lowe became a Christian just after he retired.
He became so committed to the work of the church that he and his wife were instrumental in setting up the House Groups in that church - which later became the key to the church’s growth.
Stephen died about 5 years later but what a legacy.
Jesus told us not to store up riches on earth but to store up riches in heaven. (Mt. 6:19)
I wonder what God might be calling us to do?
- to run a prayer group?
- to visit people?
- to start a house group?
- to train younger Christians
- to be a father or mother to a lost
generation?
God’s call may have a cost to you
Jim Eliot was a missionary who was killed in the Andes in the late 50’s and he said these immortal words:
He is no fool who gives up / that which he cannot keep/ to gain that which he cannot lose.
In a time of crisis, Elisha had a decision to make. Was he going to be crippled by the loss of his friend and mentor Elijah or was he going to go forward in the calling that God had for him.
Elisha was single-minded - Moody was singleminded
Jesus is looking for men and women who "do not know what God cannot do with a man or woman totally dedicated to Himself"
Are we as Christians ready to be such a man or woman, totally dedicated to God?
If you are expect exciting things to happen.
