October 30, 2020
A Successor for Elijah
I Kings 19:19
There were scores of men in Israel who would have jumped at a chance to have been Elijah’s successor. Obadiah had a cave full of them. The school of the prophets had some more of them, The Spirit of God, however, passed over all of them. He already had his man in mind, one Elisha, a man with no theological training or prophetic experience at all.
There are three things to note about Elisha. First, he was a successful farmer. When Elijah found him, he was at work. He had twelve yoke of oxen, harnessed to a plow and was driving straight furrows across the face of a field. Elijah’s heart warmed to him at once. Mere was a man who had learned how to follow a plow, how to put his hand to the plow and never look back, a man fit, by the Lord’s own standard, to inherit the kingdom of God. Elijah threw his mantle on him. Within the hour, Elisha had taken his plow and chopped it up for firewood. He had taken his two prize oxen and made a burnt offering of them. He had called a hasty good-bye to his family and had run as fast as he could to catch up with the master. He never looked back.
Now we look at the submissive disciple. He learned many things from the master while running his errands, observing his ways and sitting at his feet. He studied him. Here was a man unimpressed by the political establishment. Elijah had taken the measure of the Ahabs and Jezebels of this world and knew of what stuff they were made. Here was a man, moreover, totally unimpressed by the military establishment. Time and again whole companies of soldiers were sent to arrest him. He simply called down fire from on high to consume them. And he was equally unimpressed by the religious establishment. He exposed its error, deception, and weakness. Outwardly it seemed powerful, evil, and dangerous because it had the backing of the throne. Elijah exposed it as empty and devoid of spiritual power. As for the school of the prophets, Elijah long since ceased to hope for much from that source, Elijah’s hopes and affections were all fixed on things above. Elisha sat at the master’s feet and absorbed these things.
Finally, we see the spiritual heir. At length the time came for Elijah to be translated from earth to heaven (2 Kings 2). He took his journey from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, and from Jericho to the Jordan—the reverse route to that taken by Israel long years ago in its conquest of Canaan. At each stage of the journey, Elijah put his disciple to the test. Each place they came to offered an opportunity and a place of ministry. Again and again, the Master gave his disciple an opportunity to settle down, to settle for less. Each time Elisha said, “No!” He was a man trained to follow the plow, to never take his eye off the goal. And what Elisha wanted was a double portion of the master’s spirit—at all costs. He had not given ten years of his life sitting at Elijah’s feet in order fo compromise now.
And that is what he received—a double portion of the master’s spirit. Elijah performed eight miracles, Elisha performed sixteen. He was Elijah s spiritual heir. Henceforth there was to be a man in heaven and a man on earth. The man in heaven had once lived on earth. He had trodden the path of obedience down here. He was now seated on high. The man on earth received a double portion of the Spirit of the man now in heaven. The master went up, the Spirit came down. Henceforth the man on earth would tread the same path of obedience once trodden on earth by the man now in heaven.
The whole scene was a foreview of Christ in heaven and Christians on earth. As we live down here the life of the man up there, we too know something of the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon us. “He that believeth on me, Jesus said, “the works chat I do shall he do also; and greater works than these’ (John 14:12).