9. The Service of Elisha to God

The Service of Elisha to God

"And king Jehoram..... sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab hath rebelled against me: wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle? And he said, I will go up: I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses. And he said, Which way shall we go up? And he answered, The way through the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah went, and the king of Edom: and they fetched a compass of seven days’ journey: and there was no water for the host, and for the cattle that followed them." (2 Kings 3:6-10)

2 Kings chapter 3 is a very sad and solemn chapter. We find here a very unholy alliance between the king of Edom, the king of Israel and the king of Judah. The king of Israel was already identified with the king of Edom, that should have been a loud, loud voice to Jehoshaphat. Imagine someone belonging to the nation of Israel, who recognised God as the only true God, and yet for his own personal advantage identifying himself with a man who was an idolater and who represented one of the great enemies of Israel. Then the king of Israel said ’Ah, we will get help; we will send for the king of Judah’. So he sent word to the king of Judah, and the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, said "I will go up: I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses". Basically, it is perfectly true, they were both of the nation of Israel, they belonged to the same nation and in this sense they could trace their genealogy back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but there was something that was being ignored, the nation of Israel was divided. The ten northern tribes formed the northern kingdom, the two southern tribes occupied Jerusalem; and God was with the two tribes. The ten tribes went into idolatry and got worse and worse and from Dan to Beer-sheba there was the evidence of idolatry, a hateful thing to God. Here was something that at this particular moment was being ignored. It was all right to say ’Yes, we are all the same, we all belong to the same nation’, that was true, but there was something being ignored that was very significant. The ten tribes had revolted, had forsaken the true centre Jerusalem and had set up golden calves and worshipped them. Here was something that they could not possibly overlook. For Jehoshaphat to say ’We are all the same’ was very, very wrong, they were not the same because a division had taken place and there were things that had to be adjusted and until they were adjusted it was utterly wrong for Jehoshaphat to be connected with the king of Israel.

"Jehoshaphat said, Is there not a prophet of the Lord that we may inquire of the Lord by him? And one of the king of Israel’s servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him." (2 Kings 3:11-12 a)

Jehoshaphat had to acknowledge that the word of God was with Elisha, and when the king of Israel spoke to the prophet Elisha said "What have I to do with thee? Get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mother...... As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, I would not look towards thee, nor see thee" (vv.13-14). Then he says "Fetch me a minstrel" (v.15). I would like to give a word on that sometime, if the Lord will help me. That sounds very, very attractive; it is something to lift our hearts up, something to set us rejoicing. When the minstrel came and played, the hand of the Lord was upon Elisha and he was able to make a prophecy that indicated that there might be a temporary victory (3:18) but in the end it would be disaster (8:12); and it was. What I feel this lesson indicates to us, dear brethren, is that it might be very easy to take a stand and say ’Well, we are all Christians; we all belong to the Lord Jesus. ’That might be very true in one sense, but what are we going on with, what do we represent? I think it is a very sad thing today that we have to take account of this fact that there is much connected with the name of Jesus that is an abomination to His glory and we cannot possibly in truth and in faithfulness be identified with it. In a daily newspaper a few months ago I read the account of an evangelical conference. In that conference (remember we are talking about persons who claim to be Christians) the largest proportion of them were in favour of Sunday entertainment - drinking, and all sorts of earthly amusements. This was a report (if I am speaking wrongly, then the paper is wrong), and a large proportion of the clergy were also in favour of these things. Would we be in favour of this, dear brethren, to be occupied with Sunday entertainment? Would we be in favour of alcohol? Would we be in favour of these things? Surely not. We are all Christians, but surely we would desire to be separate from these things. And if these persons avowedly say ’This is the way we want to travel’, we would have to reply ’If you want to travel that way you cannot take me with you; I am not going. I do not want to walk that way’. I believe this is the lesson that this thing would indicate to us. The king of Judah, the king of Israel and the king of Edom, all together on the same ground and ignoring the rights of God. I am sure that this is the lesson that 2 Timothy would also teach us, that if there are real Christians (we are not denying the fact that they are real Christians) who hold doctrines and practices that are a dishonour to the Lord we must separate from them. This is what 2 Timothy says. If we want to be vessels to honour, to be meet for the Master’s use, we cannot walk together with such.

I believe Elisha, in his faithfulness to the Lord, indicated that as far as he was concerned he had no time for the course of the king of Israel. He was concerned for the truth of God as it was represented in the king of Judah, but he was far beneath the level. So I find that here is the uncompromising attitude of Elisha that was seen in Elijah coming to light when there were those (oh, what a sad thing) professing Israelites falling down to Baal. Elijah stood out against them and stood for his Lord and what a wonderful victory he acquired. So here we find Elisha in the spirit of Elisha making the same stand. I believe this faithfulness is what is required of us too, dear brethren, faithfulness to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. May it be so for His name’s sake.