Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. "Let me kiss my father and mother good-by," he said, "and then I will come with you."
"Go back," Elijah replied. "What have I done to you?"
So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the 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.
1 Kings 19:19-21
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Would you be willing to leave everything behind to go where the Lord commanded?
I have often wondered if I could but then I looked at my years in the Navy and the Lord spoke to me saying, “You never had any problem leaving your family to serve your Navy and nation. Why would you have a problem surrendering everything for Me?” And my only appropriate reply was, as it always is, “You’re absolutely right Lord.”
Well, in today’s passage we are introduced to Elisha, a man who was settled into a comfortable and secure lifestyle as a farmer. We read where he had “twelve yoke of oxen” and was plowing…what must have been an ordinary day in his life…in the field and tending his crops. He had no reason to believe this day would carry with it anything different when he awoke…but as we can see, this day was far from ordinary.
For as Elisha was plowing, Elijah, God’s faithful prophet and servant who had been tasked with seeking him out and finding him, “went up to him (Elisha) and “threw his cloak around him” before walking off. Imagine yourself as Elisha at that moment. What would have been running through your mind? Maybe you would be thinking…”Who is this man and what is he doing?”…”Why would he want me to follow him and be his successor…and what duties does he carry that I am expected to assume?”
Yes…there had to be many questions as Elisha had been found by Elijah. And I couldn’t help but wonder about the number of questions that raced through my mind when the Lord found me in my life. “Why does the Lord want me of all people?”…”What is He choosing me for?”…”What does He expect me to do?” Maybe you can relate to these and more.
So how did Elisha respond to being found by Elijah?
Well, we read where he “left his oxen” and “ran after Elijah”. In other words, Elijah chose to respond.
And what was interesting about that response is that Elisha never questioned why he had been chosen by Elijah. I think I would have been asking. But there had to be some sense of purpose already placed In Elisha’s heart by God…a sense of purpose that made him know that leaving everything behind and following Elijah to wherever he was going was somehow the right thing to do.
We know Elisha knew he was to leave everything behind because he asked Elijah, “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by…and then I will come with you” with Elijah’s reply basically saying, “Go and do what you need to do, why are you asking me?”…a statement that further revealed Elijah knowing that God was in control of what was happening, not him.
So Elijah had been found by God through Elijah and he responded to the call.
How well do we do that? How well do we respond to God when He finds us with a specific purpose in mind…a specific purpose which always encompasses His will being carried out through us? These are points this passage asks us to ponder.
So Elisha was responding to God’s call and was ready to follow Elijah but he had a few loose ends to tie up first, In other words, he had to prepare to leave everything behind in order to carry out what the Lord had in store.
Scripture tells us Elisha “went back,…took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them” before burning all his plowing equipment to use it to cook the oxen meat to serve the people who ate it. Already, we sense Elisha feeling an obligation to serve. It’s interesting that nothing went to waste as he closed his worldly chapter in life to pursue the chapters God was getting set to write. He used the plowing equipment to cook the slaughtered oxen and then fed his people with the cooked meat. And with everything now wrapped up…with the past left behind…Elisha was now ready to “set out to follow Elijah” to become his attendant, without distraction from anything he may have left behind.
That was the last step in the process Elisha went through…he left what he had…what he was behind…to go and be the man God wanted him to be.
What an awesome lesson for us all today!
For God seeks and finds those He wishes to fulfill His will and purpose. And as we are found, we can only hope that we could be just like Elisha…ready to respond, prepare and then leave behind what we have…boldly willing to step out of our comfort zone in trust and faith, knowing that God would never leave us anywhere that He wouldn’t use us for His glory to make a difference in His kingdom here on earth.
Friends, truly we serve an awesome God!
Alleluia! Amen!
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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