The Call Of Elisha - "Fully Surrendered” Part 2 Of 2 Series

THE CALL OF ELISHA - “FULLY SURRENDERED” PART 2 OF 2

SERIES – MESSAGES ON ELISHA – HIS LIFE AND MINISTRY Number 2

We continue the account of the call of Elisha as he succeeded Elijah. This is Part 2.

2Kings 2 v 4 [[Elijah said to him, “Elisha, please stay here, for the LORD has sent me to Jericho,” but he said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you,” so they came to Jericho.]]

[C]. JERICHO. (The Walk of Triumphant Faith). Jericho was the first victory in the land of Canaan, and it was the next move for Israel after the nation was circumcised at Gilgal. Jericho shouts of two lessons - that of obedience and faith. Everything God commanded, Joshua and the nation did obediently in accordance with the expressed will of God as we read in Joshua 6 v 3-4 – [[“And you shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. Then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.” Verse 16 gives us the execution of that faith - Josh. 6 v 16 and it came about at the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city.”]] To the natural man and to humanistic reasoning, carrying a box around the city walls and blowing rams’ horns, was a dumb thing to do, but the servant of God works by different values, and each step was in obedience to the word of the Lord, and it was faith that carried it out. The additional example of “Jericho faith”, was seen in Rahab also. We will see that in this account - Joshua 2 v 8 [[Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof Josh 2:9 and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you, Josh 2:10 for we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. Josh 2:11 When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you, for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Josh 2:12 Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth, Josh 2:13 and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” Josh 2:14 The men said to her, “Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours, and it shall come about when the LORD gives us the land that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”]] This Gentile found faith based in the works of God, and the promise of her deliverance was believed, and acted on as we follow in Joshua 6 v 22-23 [[Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the harlot’s house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her,” Josh 6:23 so the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had. They also brought out all her relatives, and placed them outside the camp of Israel.]] That was faith from a totally unexpected quarter in Jericho, and God honoured that faith, so much so, that Rahab became the great-grandmother of King David.

Elisha stood at Jericho and he knew what Jericho meant. He knew it demanded obedience and faith to follow on, and grow in the Lord, to be sold out to the will of God, walking by faith and not by sight. That is why Elijah told him to remain in Bethel, for the next move was not a step taken lightly, but Elisha was a fully committed prophet to God, and would not give up in his walk with Jehovah. He would go on with God, and so the two of them went on to Jericho. Where do you stand today - at Gilgal, at Bethel, at Jericho? Are we at Gilgal, not willing to go any further than an initial decision for Christ; not willing for a deeper communion with God? Are we content to remain at Bethel, not willing to walk in full surrender in a life of obedience and faith?