Substance of the Call of Elisha

Reading of Scripture and Introduction to Elisha's Call

0:04 There are two portions of the Word of God that I should like to read in your hearing as we continue our studies in the life and ministry of the prophet Elisha. The first passage is taken from the first chapter of 2 Kings, 2 Kings chapter 1, and the reason for reading this passage will become evident when once we get into the message itself. And I shall read the first eight verses of 2 Kings chapter 1.

1:05 Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it because there is no God in Israel that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Now therefore, saith the Lord, thou shalt not come down from the bed whither thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed. And the messengers returned.

1:36 And Elijah departed. And they said unto him, Why is it that ye are returned? And they said unto him, There came up a man to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again to the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, is it because there is no God in Israel that thou sendest to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore thou shalt not come down from the bed whither thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.

2:09 And he said unto them, What manner of man was he that came up to meet you, and told you these words? And they answered him, He was a hairy man, or as the marginal reading has it, a man with a garment of hair, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite. And now back to 1 Kings chapter 19.

2:37 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings chapter 19.

2:41 This man, whose presence was obviously very, very visible. He did not live and minister with a low profile.

2:52 We read of him in verse 19 of 1 Kings 19. So he, that is Elijah, departed thence, and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed. And Elijah passed over unto him, and cast his mantle upon him.

3:15 And he 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 from following him, and took the yoke of oxen, and slew them, and broiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, 129. gave unto the people, and they did eat.

3:43 Then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered unto him. As we come to this, our third study in the life and ministry of the prophet Elisha, I would simply remind you of what has preceded in our study. We have sought to understand something of the significance of the life and ministry of Elisha in that great drama of redemption, God's mighty work of saving for himself a people. And then last Lord's Day evening, we considered the circumstances in which the call of God came to this man Elisha.

4:28 And we focused our attention upon that which the passage gives to us concerning the parentage of this man and concerning his occupation at the time of his call. And sought to derive some, what I trust were profitable lessons from the circumstances of his call. Now this evening, we want to concentrate our attention upon what I have called the substance of the call of Elisha. And the substance of his call divides itself very naturally into two major categories in the record that has been read in your hearing.

The Symbolic Action of Elijah: Casting the Mantle

5:05 We have first of all the symbolic action of the prophet Elisha. We have first of all the symbolic action of the prophet Elijah given to us in verse 19 and then in verses 20 and 21 we have the response of Elisha to the symbolic action of the prophet Elijah. First of all then, consider with me the substance of the call of the man of God Elisha in terms of this symbolic action of the prophet Elijah. We read in verse 19,

5:39 So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed over unto him, and cast his mantle upon him. Now try to take yourself back by the feet of your own sanctified imagination and relive something of this tremendously moving scene that is recorded in such simple and artless narrative here in this portion of the word of God.

6:17 Here the man Elisha is out sometime during the work day of an Israelite plowing in this very fertile valley that is just a little bit west of the Jordan River, a valley that apparently was so fertile that it was named Valley of the Dance, probably an illusion to the fact that each harvest time, there was dancing with great joy as the harvest was brought in. And over the brow or the knoll of a hill comes a man whose reputation has gone throughout all Israel. A man who by his very appearance can never, can never be simply another person in a crowd.

7:01 For we read in the second king's passage that this king was able to identify this messenger simply by a brief description, he was a man with a hairy mantle and with a leather girdle about his loins. And the king says, we know who it is, there's only one such character that has those marks upon him, and who speaks in the name of Jehovah, it must be Elijah the Tishbite. Now remember, not only were the peculiarities of his dress, what we might call his social oddities well known, but this is the man you remember whose reputation as a man of God, but this is the man you remember whose reputation as a man of God, but this is the man you remember whose reputation as a man of God, has gone throughout all Israel. This is the man whose prayers lock up heaven.

7:45 The man who stuck the key as it were in his own pocket and said until I pray again and my word comes from Jehovah, the heavens are locked according to my word. This is the man you remember who had by his own hands slain hundreds of false prophets. So you don't receive a man like this as any ordinary man.

8:12 Thank you christians who have stricthay and this world week mortgage on secrets now. The make the request to ruin the world. But we fit to turn this around in order to get here someplace in your, any place that God and neighbor, And as Elijah is out doing his work in the course of obedience to his Father, and in the obedience to its God, who said six days I shall tell labor, this man, whom everyone in Israel would recognize and know whose reputation had gone before him, not as a promotional technique of Madison Avenue, but simply as the report of what he was as a man before God. over the brow of the hill. I wish I could have been somewhere behind a tree that day.

8:47 To see the reaction, first of all, of the eleven other plowmen, because the narrative seems to indicate that the prophet had to walk by them to get to Elisha, for it says in verse 19 that he was plowing with the twelfth, and Elijah passed over unto him. Can you imagine something of the thoughts that may have gone through the minds of the eleven plowmen? Here is the man they would instantly recognize as the representative of Jehovah in Israel, the man who in a very real sense stood as the only public mouthpiece to declare that Baal was not God, and that Jehovah

9:30 was indeed Israel's God, and that Jehovah in a very real sense was not only the husband, but the owner of Israel. This man comes over the knoll of the hill. He walks by the first eleven plowers, and I personally, though the text does not tell us, I cannot imagine that they simply went on plowing, that they went on talking to one another and speaking about the weather. I can just picture the whole scene at the moment they recognize this man with his mantle of hair and his leather girdle. The moment he comes into view, they freeze in an awesome silence.

10:08 Here comes the man who in a sense carries God with him, the man who prays and the heavens are shut, the man who prays and the heavens are opened, the man who in the name of the God of Israel slays false prophets. Then he passes over and comes into the physical proximity of Elisha, and suddenly he stops, and he takes off this rough outer garment which was probably simply the skin of animals with the hair left on it and some holes cut out so he could stick his hands through it like an armless smock, sort of like the painter's smock or the cooking smock that your mother may wear.

10:49 Only difference being this was a rough, leather, natural skin smock with the hair upon it. And he takes it off and without any explanation he simply casts it over the shoulders of the young man Elisha. And that's all the text tells us that he does. And yet in this symbolic action God was saying something very significant to Elisha.

11:18 And Elisha understood that message. What was the meaning of this symbolic action? Well, it's very clear from the reaction of Elisha as recorded in verses 20 and 21 that though the prophet Elijah spoke no words audibly, he did not say a word. He did not say a word.

11:37 He spoke a powerful word symbolically. And in this object lesson and that Elisha understood as clearly the word of God through this symbolic action as though God himself had spoken verbally through the prophet Elijah. And in essence this is what God was saying when the prophet whom Elisha immediately recognized stood before him not as an individual fellow Israelite but you must say, you must remember the prophet was the representative of Jehovah to Israel. And as he stands as Jehovah's representative and takes that which had become the very symbol of his office 2 Kings chapter 1

12:21 who has spoken this word? The man with the hairy garment. This you see was the identity of Elijah as the mouthpiece of Jehovah God of Israel. And when he takes that which had become as it were the symbol of his office and he lays it upon the shoulders of the young man God is saying through that action Jehovah, the God of the covenant Elisha, your God this God is appointing you to be my successor and his representative and mouthpiece in Israel.

13:00 For you will remember that earlier one of the tasks that was given to Elijah in verse 6 16 of the same chapter was that Elijah would anoint Elisha to be prophet in his room. But he was not to be set apart by a formal anointing. That which anointing symbolizes is actually conferred by this casting of this hairy, rough, warm outer garment upon the shoulders of the man of God.

13:34 Now, as a man who understood his times this meant that Jehovah was saying to Elisha My son, my redeemed one I am laying my hand upon you to follow in the train of the man of God, Elijah in a day of apostasy in a day of decline in a day when there is still much Baal worship and much opposition to the pure worship of God I am exerting my sovereign prerogatives in appointing you to be my representative and my mouthpiece in Israel. There is no discussion there is no arbitration

14:17 there is no negotiation or consultation there is sheer, unadorned sovereign prerogative exercised by Jehovah the God of the covenant.

Elisha's Response: Unreserved Submission

14:31 That's the symbolic action of the casting of the mantle upon the shoulders of the young man, Elisha. Now notice in verses 20 and 21 the response of Elisha to that symbolic action. And that response likewise breaks down into two categories in the text. First of all, it's a response of unreserved submission to the demands of Jehovah and then secondly an unmistakable expression of that submission.

15:05 In other words, we are given the record of the inwardness of his response and then the outward expression of that inward response. First of all, we understand from the text that the response of Elisha was one of unreserved submission to the demands of Jehovah. Notice verse 20. And he left the oxen.

15:32 No sooner does the mantle touch his shoulder with its attendant message but that he, in response to that message, turns his back upon his oxen and does not shuffle, he does not meander, but the text says he runs after Elisha. You see, the implication is that Elisha came and when he got close enough to perform his symbolic action simply cast his mantle, no word of explanation, turned on his heel and started to walk out over the knoll from which he came. And after Elisha, Elisha is able for a few moments to compose himself and to let the message

16:16 of that symbolic action sink into his soul and then with holy abandonment to say, O Jehovah, great God of covenant mercy, if thou hast chosen to lay thy hand upon the likes of me, I am thine, I am yours, I am your purchased possession and he manifests that response by running and running after the prophet Elijah as he leaves his yoke of oxen.

16:49 And as he runs, he then makes a very simple request and says, let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother and then I will follow thee. His action of running expresses the unreserved submission to Jehovah and then you see he actually confesses that submission. I will follow thee and that, it was no empty confession is indicated in the last word of the paragraph. Then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered unto him.

17:25 But what about this request? I desire to go and kiss my father and my mother. What was he saying? Well, I believe the essence of what he is saying is this.

17:38 He's saying, Elijah, I have sought by the grace of Jehovah on the basis of his forgiving mercy to me and by the power of his spirit working in me to live in obedience to the first commandment. I have sought to be a true worshipper of Jehovah in the midst of idolatry and I make no god of my ambition, my business, nor my parents. But Elijah, all I ask is permission to fulfill the duty of the fifth commandment while I continue to comply with the first commandment. Allow me to go and give an honorable kiss, that is, an honorable goodbye to my parents as I then commit myself

18:22 to the task to which Jehovah has called me and that this was obviously the spirit of his request and not an equivocation or a waffling on the matter of Jehovah's rights is indicated by the response of the man of God for he says, he said unto him, Go back again for what have I done to thee? In other words, of course you may comply with the fifth commandment. I have simply by my action indicated that Jehovah who demands obedience to the full spectrum of his revealed will has unfolded a new dimension of what it means to love him and serve him with all your heart and he will never call upon you

19:06 to fulfill that dimension of his law at the expense of an honorable fulfillment of the fifth commandment of course you may go back and kiss them goodbye and then come to follow me for I have not come to call you to disobey the law of God I have simply come to indicate a more precise dimension of the will of Jehovah the God of Israel and so there is this unreserved submission to the demands of Jehovah if Jehovah will lay claim to me in this symbolic action then I will not be able to do it there is but one response consistent with what I profess to be and that is to give myself to the task

Manifestations of Submission: Kiss of Separation

19:51 to which he has called me now that we are not reading in more than is warranted is clearly evidenced in the following verse in which there is given to us the unmistakable expressions of that submission he adds to this confession of unreserved submission actions that are in the language of the Lord in the language of the New Testament fruits meet for repentance that is there is activity that expresses the inward disposition and there are three activities that are set before us the first is the kiss of separation to which we have already alluded he says bid me I pray

20:35 kiss my father and my mother and then I will follow thee and in that kiss Elisha was saying mom dad I respect and I love you for all that you've done to bring me to see and to know the rights of Jehovah the God of Israel I want to express my gratitude for all you've done to mold and shape me into the man that is usable in the cause of Jehovah at this strategic hour but he goes with no intention whatsoever of putting himself as it were in a demilitarized zone a no man's land a neutral zone

21:19 where he can perhaps consider whether or not he's prepared to follow the claims of Jehovah he is not asking to go back to kiss them as a halfway house to cling to the business that would no doubt fall to him as the oldest son or the only son he is not going back in order to give second thoughts to the claims of Jehovah no it was indeed a kiss that was a kiss of separation I will kiss them and then I will follow thee and in the light of the subsequent narrative concerning this man Elisha who was a very human man a very pastoral man

22:04 unlike his predecessor Elijah who was somewhat anti-social and a recluse even as he typified one of his same ilk John the Baptist who was in the middle of the night in the wilderness till he's showing forth to Israel the pictures we receive of Elisha are domestic pictures again and again and again and usually a man who's at home with the domestic sphere with children and who wears well with people over a long time is a tender man and I cannot believe that this kiss was made with a wooden histrionic formality it was no doubt made with tears

22:48 and with a measure of pain and no doubt with some apprehension on the part both of Elisha and of his parents for they were not ignorant of the situation in Israel and when he comes back to kiss them and they say kiss us goodbye for what and he tells them of the activity of Elijah and the mantle that had rested upon his shoulders and perhaps was even at that very point resting upon him so that no word need be spoken the thought that they might be giving up their son to the wrath and anger and the blind satanic zeal of these Baal worshippers for the news of the activities of that wicked woman Jezebel

23:32 who was still alive had also gone through all of Israel she's the one who kills dozens of the prophets of Jehovah they were realists and no doubt there was pain as they felt the kiss of their son upon their cheeks and no doubt he felt pain if he was the only son or the eldest and the setting seems to indicate one or the other then the concern to provide for his parents to care for them in their old age and all of these things were no doubt matters of burning concern for again he's revealed as a very practical man in the subsequent history and all of that didn't just get dumped in him with the mantle these are character traits of the man upon whom

Manifestations of Submission: Fire of Renunciation

24:17 the mantle rested and yet he manifests that the claims of Jehovah are supreme and that there was unreserved abandonment to those claims first of all in this kiss of separation but then the second manifestation of that submission is the fire of renunciation in verse 21 look at it and he returned from following him that is following Elijah and took him and took him and took him and took the yoke of oxen and slew them and broiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen now it's quite unlikely

25:00 that Elisha's yoke was the only available firewood in that area the reason for taking the yoke and breaking it into pieces and with it making a fire was not that there was no other firewood and surely there is no indication in this that there was no firewood that there was any lack of meat you see this too was symbolic action when he took the yoke from off the oxen and either himself or asked one of the servants to split the thing into pieces that would be suitable for burning and then the indication is that he himself performed the act of execution

25:45 he took the yoke of oxen and slew them and he took the yoke when they see him going to these oxen who served him so well perhaps for days or years and you who know anything about farms know the deep attachment between a farmer and his animals my brother-in-law is a dairy farmer and not only does he have a name for every cow it's an interesting thing every cow has its own personality and if you know anything about dairy farming a dairy farmer not only knows every cow by name and all of its quirks but a cow's udder you know is divided into four sections from which she's milked and they know even which section milks out first and they take the milker off that section first I've been amazed

26:30 as I've watched my brother-in-law work with his cows and he knows that this one by such and such a name that she milks out very very quickly in the front left quarter and so he's not going to have the milker pumping on a dry udder that's not good for the cow there's an intimate relationship and again this was a human man this was a man who had great sense of humor and great sensitivities can you imagine what it was like for him to go to these oxen that had served him so well for months or possibly years and to slip their throats to spill out and to see the death twitch it says he slew them and didn't tranquilize them first and he didn't go plug into the 220 volt and give them a voltage and give them an electric shock

27:14 in the head first so they were numbed this was the old fashioned way where the living animal becomes a dead animal by degrees as his blood is spilt out he said that's gory no that's what the text says he slew them then he begins to hew them into pieces as a butcher and you ask yourself what in the world is he doing I say he is preparing a fire of renunciation by the breaking up of the yoke and by the burning of the oxen Elisha is saying in essence that these things the yoke and the oxen which hitherto were the oxen who have been

27:59 the symbols of my obedience to Jehovah as I've walked in the light of his revealed will to be a plow boy has been my God appointed task and as a diligent plow boy in Israel I have sought to glorify Jehovah but now Jehovah has said plow boy your plowing days are done and he says in essence alright Jehovah if my plowing days are done then they're going to be done from now on the yoke and the oxen are no longer symbols of my loving obedience but they will be symbols of disobedience therefore I'll destroy those symbols in our language he says

28:43 I'm going to burn my bridges behind me you see he didn't take the yoke and put it in storage or mothballs in case things got a little bit too hot out there in the prophetic business he didn't take his oxen and put them in a stall somewhere and tell the other servants keep them fed and exercise them you know if things don't work out too well and I'm not too much of a success in my new role I'll be back again no no the knife is in the throat the death twitches seize upon the oxen and it isn't long before they're eating them I say this was the fire of renunciation here was a man who is saying regardless of what

29:28 the implications of following Jehovah's will may be I have to accept my face will not be moved and so there is this fire even that which I have called the fire of renunciation as one has said so beautifully for the next fifty years Elisha is to be a spiritual plowman in the Lord's meadows which are the hearts and lives of the men of Israel no longer the meadow of the dance in Ebal Meholah but all throughout Israel in the he will be God's plowman

Manifestations of Submission: Feast of Confession

30:11 in the hearts of the people of God but then the third expression of this submission is what I'm calling the feast of confession there was not only expressive of this submission the kiss of separation the fire of renunciation but the feast of confession verse twenty one having broken up the yoke and slaying the oxen it says he broiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen and gave unto the people and they did eat here is a feast and I suggest that this feast is confessional in nature

30:55 it says he gave unto the people now who were these people well in the context it would seem to indicate they were all his peers who used to be plowboys with him it's interesting that he wants his peers to know there's going to be an empty place in the twelve yoke of oxen from here on and no doubt his parents were included and in the tight knit families of eastern countries no doubt cousins second cousins aunts uncles whoever comprised that family in that immediate situation they are gathered together and you can imagine as the news goes out and says

31:39 Elisha's prepared a feast he will come and say oh that's nice smelling meat what kind of roast is that he says that's roast ox oh one of the oxen getting old no no he says that was one of my best workers well you've gone loco what's the matter with you Elisha what's happened that's a roaring fire what kind of hardwood you've got that's yoke wood yoke wood yeah that's yoke wood and the question would go through the group and they wonder what's the rationale for this and in the explanation you see Elisha is enabled to make confession both to the new dimensions of the revealed will of God and of his

32:24 unqualified unreserved commitment to that revelation of the will of God and so in a very real sense this is the Old Testament parallel to the feast of Levi the publican in the New Testament do you remember what happened when the Lord called him as recorded in Luke chapter 5 in Luke chapter 5 and he said I'm going to the Lord Jesus comes and passes by this man Levi we read in verse 27 of Luke 5 after these things he went forth and beheld the publican named Levi sitting at the place of toll and said unto him follow me and he left all

33:08 and rose up and followed him and Levi made him a great feast in his house and there was a great multitude of publicans all of them all his peers in the Palestinian mafia who operated the tax ring he got them all together why well he wanted to confess his new relationship to the Savior and here in the passage before us from 1st Kings is Elisha gathering all his peers together he's not shriveling off in a corner somewhere hoping that no one will ask him and he'll sneak out to follow Elisha nothing of the same nothing of the same none of that shriveling

33:52 unmanly kind of sneaking around the issue he's honored to declare that Jehovah the God of Israel for reasons known only to him locked up in his own infinite love and wisdom has chosen to put his hand upon me to succeed Elijah the prophet and as one who loves him I can only demonstrate my love by obedience to his revealed will well I suggest that this is the substance of the call of the prophet Elisha there is the symbolic action of Elijah then there is the response to that call in two directions the unreserved submission of the heart

Application: God's Redemptive Claims on All Believers

34:37 and then the manifestation of that submission in the kiss of separation the fire of renunciation and the feast of confession well you see that's very interesting that's very moving that's very touching that's very moving now let's fold up our Bibles and go home no no my friend for this has a word to us and it's here you see that the fundamental interpretive principle to which I pointed you last week is so vital for though there are things peculiar to Elisha's call that are nowhere recorded of the call of any other prophet and though there are things peculiar to the call of every prophet that have no parallel in God's dealings

35:21 with the ordinary believer at this point in redemptive history when we boil down to the inner essence what this call was we find ourselves standing on exactly the same footing with Elisha for essentially this call when stripped of the peculiarities that attach themselves to Elisha as an individual and to Elisha as a prophet in particular we find nothing more or less than Jehovah the Redeemer of the world his people exercising his redemptive rights over one of his redeemed ones it is the Redeemer of Elisha saying I have bought you with a price

36:06 you are mine this is my will for you and Elisha says in essence in the language of the New Testament O Lord I gladly acknowledge that I am not my own that I have been bought with a price and I will therefore glorify you in my body this body that has marled hands from glorifying you as a plowboy this body that has become hardened to the discipline of labor under the Palestinian son body and soul mind and spirit O Jehovah great God of the covenant I am yours here I am

36:47 well you see if that's the essence of his response then he's on the same ground with us and we with him and I want to speak a word in particular in drawing out then that great principle first of all to you parents can you say that you're holding your Elishas with an open hand to put it more pointedly are you not only prepared but are you even praying for the kiss of separation are you praying that the day may come when you might experience the blissful pain

37:32 of the kiss of separation you say pastor you're mixing the wrong words how can pain be bliss well put yourself in the house of Shaphat your soul burns with righteous anger as you see the Baal worship all around you so when your first son is born what do you name him you name him Jehovah his salvation so that wherever you go amongst these wicked Baal worshipers and they say oh you've got a cute little boy there what's his name they could say with burning conviction Elisha Jehovah his salvation and then they pray for him they seek to rear him into the man that under the blessing of God he became

38:16 and then the time comes when God does something they never expected God in the person of his representative says you're to be my mouthpiece you're to be the successor of Elijah whose name means Jehovah is God and as God he alone is Savior well you see what could bring you greater joy than to see the very thing for which you brought a son into the world actually realize to have him come and say mom and dad Jehovah's claims have been revealed I must obey him or all that I say about loving him will be negated by my equivocation

39:00 what could bring you greater joy as a parent than to see the very thing for which you prayed before your child was ever conceived and when he was developing in the womb and from his infancy to see it come to the flames of Jehovah I say that would be bliss indeed but oh it would be painful because to serve Jehovah as a prophet in that day was riskiness it meant you had to dash all your sanctified hopes about passing on the business for the next three generations and keeping it in the family you had to begin to change your will as to who would

39:44 be heir legitimate to all of the business when you were gone it would mean pain but blissful pain to the heart of a parent who does not hold to his children with idolatrous affection and I fear that there are parents in this building this night that need in some secret place alone with God to raise an Abraham's knife to your because you would not be prepared for that kind of pain there would be some Elishas some men some women and here I move very quickly now into a word

40:29 of application to you young men and women the sons and daughters of the Shaphats the Mr. and Mrs. Shaphats of our own assembly and I must ask you are you seriously seriously assessing the needs of the kingdom of Christ at this point in the history of redemption are you pleading with the Lord Jesus that he would make known to you how you may best serve him and be a monumental testimony in life and service to his own claims over the hearts of men notice I did not say are you praying that God would make you a missionary or God would make you a preacher no what I'm saying is are you pleading with God to make known how you may best

41:14 seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness that's a command to all believers seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness that's not just to preachers that's not just to missionaries are you like Elisha in your present sphere of God revealed calling are you hitched up to your plow or is your heart hitched to your plow as well and I could not help but think of the contrast between two young would-be preachers

41:57 imagine one hour before Elijah comes if we could get the man to Hazi and Elisha and stand them up together for a little interview maybe channel 5 is going to do a little interview or channel 2 or some other channel so we're going to interview these two men now you remember Gehazi was the man who later on became Elisha's servant and he's that rascal that after the Lord had healed Naaman the Syrian Naaman the Syrian I got it backwards Naaman the Syrian and Elisha would not take any money for it you remember he ran after him he was covetous he loved things and he was he said oh well my master's got some poor preacher boys back there and they need a little something to sort of meet the bills for the next month

42:41 so you give me some and I'll take it back to him well he was a liar a scoundrel and he thought he could get away with this business and you remember what happened he comes back and Elisha says did not my heart go with thee I know what you've done and he was smitten with leprosy to the end of his days but now externally get the contrast if you were to come by an hour before the call of Elisha and you were to interview him and say now tell me sir what's your business well I'm a foreman over this these eleven servants of my father oh your father has a good bit of assets does he not oh yes he's a rather wealthy man God has blessed us in the business and you're the eldest son yes that's right and all of this business will become yours yes he had his own yoke of oxen no doubt had other indications

43:26 of relative wealth in Israel you see externally it would appear that the materialist was Elisha when you would interview Gehazi who are you Gehazi oh I'm just a poor preacher boy I'm following my master Elisha but I don't own anything I've just got a few pieces of garment to take with me you see he would have all the indications of being a sold out self denying sacrificing servant of Jehovah but you see it only took a matter of time to show that in reality the reverse was true the real materialist was Gehazi though he didn't have the shekels he had the shekels he had the shekels he had him

44:08 he would lie he would risk the honor of Jehovah he had anything to get a pocket full of gold and silver whereas Elisha who had all that when Jehovah says leave it he says goodbye and he leaves it you see he showed that though he had the things the things didn't have him though he had his hand on a plow he didn't have his heart entwined with his plow and that's the question I'm asking you sitting here tonight what is your present sphere of occupation what are you preparing to be in your occupation and I want to press the question home very closely

44:52 I'm not asking you is your hand to the plow of some legitimate calling in life I'm asking is your heart entwined with that calling that's the issue if it is that calling is your idol and God says thou shalt have no other gods before me my little children keep yourselves from idols are you fulfilling that calling because in terms of present light as with Elisha you're convinced that that is the calling within which you can bring the most honor to the God of Israel in the midst of abounding Baal worship or are you yourself a Baal worshipper in that calling

45:35 and Baal worship was basically the worship of materialism the worship of things it's a searching question isn't it but you better ask it because you see Jehovah Jesus has as unqualified wrote writes over all his redeemed as Jehovah the God of the covenant did with his ancient people he didn't have to dicker he didn't have to negotiate he didn't have to come to terms with Elisha he says by the cast mantle I'm exercising sovereign yet gracious prerogatives and he says the same to you you are not your own

Application: Total Abandonment for Aspiring Ministers

46:19 you are bought with a price some of you sit there say man if that's what it is to be a Christian that's not for me my friend at least be honest because that's what it means to be a Christian and anything less is not biblical Christianity I would remind you of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in this regard remember what he said in Luke 14 26 he that renounces not all that he hath cannot be my disciple he didn't say he that renounces not all that he hath cannot get a lot of rewards or cannot be a spiritual Christian he says you can't be my disciple you don't even enroll in the kindergarten of true Christianity until you've come to the posture of Elisha

47:04 I remind you of our Lord's words to that man who said oh yes Lord you're calling me but bid me go back and bury my father you say wasn't that terrible the Lord didn't go back and bury his father no if the father had died that day he'd already been buried there in Israel they buried him the same day what he's saying is let me go back and live with my dad long enough until he dies you've heard people say I'm going to go live with so and so until I bury my father he's not yet dead what they mean is I'm going to live with them until they die well this man was saying in Luke 9 there is some other thing that occupies my mind and I'll hide behind an apparent obedience to the fifth commandment to avoid the rigorous claims

47:47 of Jesus Christ over me and we're masters of doing that just like the Pharisees remember the Lord said honor thy father and thy mother so they had a destitute father and mother and they'd walk by him and say here mom see that hundred dollars that'd buy a lot of food wouldn't it and the poor destitute mom would say yes they'd say well I'm sorry I can't give it to you it's dedicated to God I'm going to take it up to the temple Jesus said you hypocrites you make void the word of God by your traditions and we're masters of that we rationalize that we're pursuing this career and that ambition to glorify God when down underneath we're like the man who says I've got my own plans and I'm going to cast over it a semblance of regard for the word of God when in our heart of hearts we know we know

48:32 as God knows it's only shall oh I plead with you young men and women tonight pray that you'll have such a sight of the glory of Christ that you'll have the heart of an Elisha you may hold to your plow for another ten, twenty years you may go to your grave with your hand upon your present plow but oh my friend go to your grave with your heart not entwined with your plow but with the great concerns of Jehovah the God of his people and then I would say a final word of application having addressed myself to the parents to sons and daughters in general I would speak to you men who have some aspirations

49:15 to the work of the ministry if the hand of God is upon you that is the gifts and graces for the work of the ministry have been evident and confirmed by some discerning body of God's people then oh my friend I would say oh my friend some of you better have a fire and a feast lest you ultimately become a demon perhaps some of you have got a yoke in mothballs somewhere nobody knows it but you and God my friend you better get it out of the mothballs and put a match to it when I see men who've served God apparently for years in the ministry quitting and hanging it in panging it up packing it in

50:00 I wonder I wonder I wonder what yoke was in mothballs for how many years what oxen were in a stall somewhere and taken out to be exercised some of you were old enough to remember this and some of us will date ourselves by even reminiscing on this remember in the second world war an awful lot was made of the strategic importance of paratroopers you remember when a man would go out into his plane he would have his main chute but he'd always have a backup chute in case that main chute didn't open he wasn't going to go bouncing on the deck he had a backup chute well you know when God calls us he doesn't give us any backup chute

50:43 we bail out and either in the good providence of God we float down or we hit the deck and that's what Elisha was prepared for he was prepared to hit the deck burned his yoke ate his oxen turned his back upon everything and pursued the call of God now in the pursuit of that call God may bring us into strange circumstances where for a while we may have to put our hand to a plow again but it's not because our hearts were there all the time and our hand is going back where our heart is it's just that our heart is still in the same place but for other reasons our hand may have to go back

51:28 to the plow but the issue is not where your hand may be in the providence of God it's where your heart is it's where your heart is and if you men who aspire to the ministry have you settled this business in secret with God that you've got no yokes in mothballs anywhere now if the call of God is not clear if that's yet an unsettled that's another issue you've got to keep your options before you you've got to provide for yourself for your wife for your children if you're a family man I'm not speaking of a reckless pietistic subjectivism I'm called of God therefore I'm going to burn everything and throw my insurance policies to the no no no no no I'm not talking about that someone will always take the most

52:12 well intentioned application and run off half crazy with it no no no no no I'm not talking about that at all but I'm talking about an inward disposition don't legalize it into specifics for everyone I'm asking you who have some indications to believe that God's hand is upon you ruminate and daydream what if I don't make it in the ministry what my friend don't think such if the hand of God is upon you you must make it making it may be apparent failure for a time perhaps even a lengthy time some of us can remember in much leaner days when we wrestled with God

52:56 on our knees and solemnly said oh God we must live and labor our own generation to sow some seeds of holiness and biblical religion for an unborn generation we're prepared to live to labor and to die

53:22 failures in the eyes of men and I'm not being dramatic or poetic the truth is those words have been uttered in solemn secret places and I've had people say to me it's a shame you're wasting your talents in the ministry when I contemplated giving myself to this holy task as an 18 year old boy I had teachers shake their head what a shame such potential that could be used in this and that and the other and I've had preachers when we were just a little handful sit in our little cracker box

54:06 and then make comments to fellow preachers whom they did not know knew me well enough to carry their message back to me and when it was just 40 people there was no lesser ardor in preaching and carefulness in preparation to have them say what a waste what a waste that man could be preaching to far more people if only he'd trim a little here and cut a little here and not be quite so persnickety about this what a waste my friend you better be prepared for that kind of language and if you're a man it doesn't just roll off your back you feel it but when you go looking in your closet for your yoke it ain't there

54:50 it's been burned and when you go looking around in the field for your ox he's gone he's been eaten and so you go back on your face and say oh God we had a feast of confession there was a fire of renunciation of confession Lord you've said he that putteth his hand to this plow and looks back is not fit for what not just service he's not fit for the kingdom of God oh may God grant that we shall learn these vital lessons particularly as we now come

55:35 in a few moments to the Lord's table what a wonderful opportunity to proclaim again Jesus Master whose I am purchased purchased by alone to be what a wonderful place to have sealed again to our hearts our holy vows to be his only his his in time his forever oh thank God for the grace that worked in Elisha and my friend that grace is available in Christ for any who wanted bad enough to seek it from him

Closing Prayer and Lord's Supper Invitation

56:19 you say I could never do that no neither could Elisha of himself but it was grace that worked this in him and that grace is available in Christ for all who wanted bad enough to seek it from him ask and he even you shall receive let us pray our gracious Father how can we ever thank you enough for the scriptures this blessed book which is a lamp unto our

57:04 feet and a light to our pathway how we bless you for its perennial freshness we thank you oh God that it is a living word speaking to us in our present circumstances oh may we feel its grip may we heal to its pressure may we find joy in the new embrace of all that is revealed to us as your will oh God seal to our hearts the word studied the word preached the word applied may it bear its holy fruits as was prayed earlier in this service oh may it bear

57:49 the fruit of practical holiness to the end that the name of our blessed Savior may be praised and his kingdom advanced in the earth in our generation hear our cry be with those who will leave us be with your people who remain to take these solemn reminders of the dying love of the Savior into our hands and into our mouths oh may we by faith find it our joy to feed upon him who loved us and gave himself for us hear us as we make our approach to you in his name alone Amen