Elisha 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21 May 22, 2012 Travis Collins Elisha was in the field farming with his oxen. The famous prophet, Elijah, walked up to Elisha and threw his own mantle around him. A mantle was a blanket, usually an animal hide, worn across a man s shoulders and large enough to provide cover while sleeping. The act of throwing his mantle on Elisha was symbolic of transferring the office of prophet from Elijah to Elisha. Like the fishermen who immediately left their nets and followed Jesus, Elisha left his livelihood to follow Elijah. He killed the oxen, grilled them over a fire that he built with his farming equipment, treated his neighbors to a giant barbecue, and served under Elijah until Elijah graduated from earth to Heaven. Elijah was one of the most beloved heroes in the Old Testament. And his name shows up a number of times in the story of Jesus. Jesus asked his disciples, Who do people say I am? His disciples answered, Some think you re the reincarnation of Elijah. On the mountain when Jesus was transfigured, when his body shone like light, they saw Jesus speaking with Moses and Elijah. When Jesus was dying and crying to the Father, some said, He s crying to Elijah; let s see if Elijah comes and saves him. Elijah s name appears 29 times in the New Testament. Elisha s name appears exactly once. It s not easy to follow a popular predecessor. I know. I ve been there. During the first semester of my freshman year in college I became the part-time minister of music at the Helena Baptist Church. I was there for two years and spent both those years in the shadow of Walter, the fellow who preceded me. Walter was talented and friendly and funny and, though the people were warm and wonderful, I never felt like I measured up. In fact, I d been gone for more than a year from that church when I met Walter s mom at a wedding. You know what her first words to me were? They never loved you like they did Walter. Nice to meet you, too! Walter is a close friend of mine now. He is a pastor in St. Petersburg, Florida, and we are in a pastor s group together. We meet twice a year for discussions about best practices. We ve laughed over his mom s innocent comment but we both know she was right. Elisha was an ordinary guy who never quite attained the renown of his predecessor. And yet he lived a really extraordinary story. This is the most difficult ordinary person with an extraordinary story that I ve had to cover to this point. First, there is the sheer volume of material. The story of Elisha covers almost fifty 1
years and six kings. He served more years than Paul Honaker, and outlasted more kings than Paul has pastors! It s also hard to get an accurate chronology of the events in Elisha s life. Because of that, and because of the volume of material, I m going to have to pick and choose stories and try to group them together. 1) Miracles Again, this is a sampling. First there is Naaman. A few weeks ago we talked about Naaman, and it was Elisha who sent that leprous-skinned Syrian official named Naaman to dip in the Jordan river where Naaman was healed. And there was the water without rain. 2 Kings 3 shows us the army of the people of God in desert of Edom en route to their attack on Moab. In the desert, however, they ran out of water. They found themselves in a terrible predicament. So they called on Elisha for help. God spoke to Elisha about what Elisha should tell the kings. And Elisha declared, The Lord said you should dig a bunch of ditches out here in the desert. Now, you won t see any rain, but those ditches will fill up with water for you. Then Elisha made a wonderful statement: This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord. The next morning the trenches were flowing with cool, crystal H2O. Another miracle. Elisha ran a School of the Prophets, and one day his seminary class was on a field trip. They were cutting down trees on the banks of the Jordan rive when the ax head used by one of the students flew off its handle and into the water. The student cried out, "Oh no! And I borrowed this ax! The owner is going to kill me!" Elisha, however, cut a small stick, threw it into the water at the spot where the ax head sunk... and the ax head floated to the surface from where the student retrieved it. I like the way R. G. Lee explained the floating ax head. Long ago he wrote, Now if a man can take the iron ore which the Almighty put into the bowels of the earth when he made the earth and change that ore into iron ships one sixth of a mile in length and make that ship go across oceans (the oceans God made) propelled by steam coming from water created by God, water heated by fire created by God or driven along by the winds of God, God can, through the power of his prophet and the stick which the prophet cut with a prophet's knife, make one little ax-head to swim. Then the widow of one of Elisha's former School of the Prophets students had debts she could not pay. Her two sons who would soon be taken as debt slaves. Elisha said, I'd like to help. What do you have in your house that you could sell and make some money? Nothing except a little olive oil, answered the frightened young widow. 2
Go to your neighbors and tell them to bring their empty pots, Elisha instructed the widow. When you get the pots start pouring your oil into them. Her neighbors brought their pots and she starting pouring. And her half-full pot of oil filled up an entire pot. And another. And another. Until all the pots were full. Elisha said, Now go and sell that oil and use the money to pay your debts. Students of the Bible have noted that spectacular miracles are dominant in certain periods of biblical history: 1) the period of the exodus from Egypt; 2) the ministries of Elisha and his predecessor, Elijah; 3) the ministry of Jesus; and 4) the early days of the church. Elisha was part of the story when miracles were center stage. And though the sensational, dramatic, humanly unexplainable acts of God might not be so prevalent in your life or mine as they were in the life of Elisha, I believe He still performs what we call miracles. And so when you pray, remember those words of Elisha from the miracle of water in the desert: This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord. 2) Disappointing / Confusing Stores I cannot gloss over the ugly details the really disappointing and/or confusing details of these Bible stories. So here goes. First thing, 2 Kings 9 tells us that Elisha was part of a plot to overthrow Joram, King of Israel. Elisha was behind a coup that eventually resulted in the killing of the king. That s disappointing and confusing. But the story of the coup is child s play compared to this next story, found in 2 Kings 2. Elisha was walking up toward Bethel one day when some young guys came out of the town and began to make fun of him. Called him baldhead! And Elisha s response is shocking. We would expect a holy man to answer, Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. But here is what happened: He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. (2 Kings 2:24). Not surprisingly, this story has generated as much criticism of the Bible as perhaps any other story. Now, I ve looked this story up in my books that attempt to explain the difficult sayings and hardto-swallow events in the Bible. And I ve not found a satisfactory explanation. For those who like things wrapped up I sincerely apologize. I have no acceptable explanation. But I do have this to say. This week a black bear was spotted near Virginia Beach. And I personally saw a black bear ambling across the road in Cumberland County last summer. I ve got you surrounded. So, if I were you, I wouldn t make fun of my receding hairline. 3
3) The Unseen World My favorite event in the life of Elisha is recorded in 2 Kings 6 and took place near the city of Dothan. Aramean armies had surrounded the city on the orders of king Ben-hadad. Ben-hadad was after Elisha, for the king knew that the prophet Elisha was the power behind Israel s throne. Enormous firepower was amassed, just to take down one man Elisha. Elisha s servant awoke one morning and crawled out of his tent. What he saw when he looked to the mountains set his heart to racing. He saw a spine-chilling sea of enemy horses, chariots, and soldiers. Ben-hadad and his army had caught up with them. Get out here, Boss! cried the servant. Elisha crawled out of the tent and calmly surveyed the situation. What are we going to do? the servant cried. Elisha calmly answered, Don't be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them. I m certain the servant had a you re kidding me look on his face. Elisha must have smiled patiently as he prayed, O Lord, open his eyes so he may see. And God opened the servant's eyes so that, for a moment, the servant got a glimpse into the unseen world. He saw that the armies surrounding them were themselves surrounded. Surrounded by horses and chariots of fire symbols of God s powerful, protective, eternal presence. Elisha s servant got a glimpse into that unseen world. He got a glimpse into the world you and I cannot see. And, to make a long story short, Elisha and his servant were fine. In his book, Rumors of Another World, Philip Yancey quotes from an old Spanish novel about a blind little boy. His mother, in an effort to shield him from pain and embarrassment, decreed that all those surrounding her blind son should never speak of such things as light, color, and sight. She didn't want him to know what he was missing. So the little boy grew up unaware that he was blind and that most everybody else could see until a new girl who apparently didn t know of the rule against speaking of sight met him and spoke the forbidden words. She spoke of seeing things. The blind young man was shattered by the new realization that there was a great deal he was missing and simply unaware of a world he could not see Followers of Jesus know of another world an unseen world beyond this one. Yet we sometimes appear to be intimidated, or embarrassed, to speak of it. Maybe it s time we acknowledged anew that unseen world. Colossians 1:16 tells us, For by Him all things were created visible and invisible. Scripture speaks of the unseen world in places like Hebrews 12:1, that reads, We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Ephesians 6:12 says, Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. In the translation called the Amplified Bible that phrase heavenly realms is called the supernatural sphere. The Contemporary English Version translates it the spiritual world. The forces of God and Evil live and do battle in that unseen, spiritual world. 4
But there is only a thin veil between that world and this one. And the inhabitants of that world are active in ours. The Evil One and his forces who inhabit that unseen world torment us. The Bible speaks of angels from that unseen world who protect us. And the mysterious power of God, like the wind unseen by human eye, is available to us. We live with realities we cannot see. It s a bit like that scene in the Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade, in which Indiana Jones is separated by a great chasm from the cave in which the holy grail the cup from which Jesus drank during the Last Supper is being kept. There is no way across. No rope. No bridge. Just a chasm. But the map he has clearly shows a bridge across that great cavern. So, following the instructions on his map, he steps. Into thin air. In faith. And when he steps, not before, a rock bridge that had been unseen suddenly appears and his foot steps onto that solid walkway. He follows a bridge across the chasm a bridge that was not visible until he stepped out in faith. Thomas Merton said, We do not first see, then act; we act, then see And that is why the man who waits to see clearly, before he will believe, never starts on the journey. i So, if Merton is right (and I believe he is) and you believe you ve sensed the promptings of God s Spirit, then step out in faith. You ll have to act before you see. When you discern that God s Spirit is prompting you when by all means available to you, you confirm that God is calling you and you step then God calls on the resources from that unseen world to meet your needs. For the one who is still struggling with faith in Jesus, remember that the one who waits to see clearly before he will believe never starts on the journey. You have to believe before you see. From the extraordinary story of an ordinary man named Elisha, we remember the truths later stated 2 Corinthians 4:18: So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen Corinthians 5:7, We walk by faith, not by sight. And Hebrews 11:1, Faith is being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we cannot see. i Reaching For Invisible God, 90 5