5. The Call of Elisha

The Call of Elisha

"And [Elisha] 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? 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." (1 Kings 19:20-21)

Elisha immediately knew what this act of Elijah involved; it meant he was being called to the service of God. I suppose Elijah’s mantle would be the hairy garment that he wore that was indicative of his being a prophet of God. This was the way Elijah was identified. ’What kind of man was he?’ said the king. ’He was a man with a hairy garment’ was the reply. ’Ah,’ said the king, ’It is Elijah the Tishbite. That was the man of God. That was the prophet of God’ (2 Kings 1:7-8). This mantle was thrown upon Elisha and immediately he knew that he was called of God. There was no reluctance or hesitation. He said he was prepared to forsake his father and mother, prepared to forsake his secular calling and he was ready to follow Elijah, and he did. Now I think this is a very wonderful attitude. How easy it is to reason, how easy it is to say ’Well, I am not qualified for this kind of thing. I have no credentials to give me the right to take up this service.’ It is very easy to turn away; maybe too the sense of sacrifice is too great. But Elisha showed no hesitation. This is a wonderful picture of this man. It does not mean that he set his father an mother aside, oh no, the Scriptures are plain that we are to honour our father and mother, we are to respect those natural ties (Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:1-2). God honours them and we ought to honour them also. That is not the point. Here was a claim that God was placing upon him that was far greater than any earthly tie. God was virtually saying to Elisha ’Now, Elisha, I want your time, I want your service, I want you and if my claim comes along with a claim from your parents, my claim is paramount, my claim is first’. Elisha is prepared to face that. God also said ’Elisha, you are not going to have any time to spend on anything else I want all your time to spend in this service that I have called you for’. And Elisha is prepared to do that so he killed the oxen and he burned the implements of service. In other words, as we say, he ’burned his boats’. His old life was finished, at an end. A new life was starting for him and that life involved his time, his talents and everything about him and he is now thoroughly devoted to the interests of the Lord.

So, dear brethren, we have to ask ourselves, is this our attitude to the service of the Lord? We are not all called upon to leave our secular calling, we are not even called upon to actually leave our parents, but we are called upon to answer to the claims of the Lord when He makes a claim upon us. When there is some particular call for some particular service then it is right that this should be listened to and we should serve Him accordingly, and do it without any hesitation or reluctance. I know it is easy to say that, but it is a right thing to say because the Lord Himself indicated this in Luke 14:1-35, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (v.26). Again, it does not mean that we forsake our mother and father and do not show them the respect that we ought to show them, it does not mean that at all, the Lord is simply saying ’My claims come first’. Oh, dear brethren, what a wonderful position it is to be in at all times and to say ’I have the things of God at heart and His things come first in my life, and my whole life is geared to this, the plans I make, what I do, what I say, where I go, my whole outlook in life is governed by this that I belong to God’. I am perfectly sure that we would all be in a healthy condition spiritually if this were true of us in every day of our lives. So Elisha showed how ready he was to answer to God’s claims, "he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him". We might have said, ’Well, Elisha has been called by God to fill Elijah’s place and now we find Elisha is ministering to Elijah! If I were called to fill his place I am going to start right now.’ ’No,’ says God, ’first there are a few lessons to be learned. You have some experiences to go through, and there is no-one better to teach you than Elijah. Just you go along with Elijah’. So Elisha went along and ministered to him. He was in the place of a subordinate servant, and he was prepared to accept this place. We find this attitude with the young men all through the Scriptures, Joshua along with Moses (Exodus 24:13), Timothy along with Paul (1 Timothy 1:2, 2 Timothy 1:2), and we could quote other cases where the young go along with the old and they learn from them in their spiritual experience and in spiritual maturity. Now this is a great challenge for us who are older. Do we in any way influence the young in the right direction? That is a very solemn thing. We should have sufficient spiritual maturity and power to influence the younger brethren into a pathway of devotedness to God. The truth is, dear brethren, if we are not in it ourselves we cannot influence others to be in that pathway. We have to have the power and the spiritual influence to direct others. Nobody could doubt that Elijah was such a one. How courageous, how faithful, and how obedient he had been, and in times of trial and stress and danger he had represented God and had followed God faithfully. Such a man was spiritually qualified to help this young man. So Elisha went along with Elijah. I do not know what they talked about when they were together. I am sure that Elisha would have plied him with some questions as to the great experiences that he had had on mount Carmel, and with Ahab and Jezebel, and all sort of things of that character, and talking with this man of God he would learn many things that would stand him in good stead when he was in the place of responsibility and representation.