THE CALL OF ELISHA
THE CALL OF ELISHA
Sunday, January 19, 2014, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
This message today in dedicated in memory of Prophet Stanley Rankin who passed to Glory, January 1, 2014, the Year of Our Lord.
1 Kings 19: 15-17: “The Lord said to Elijah, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when you get there, anoint Hazael to king over Syria; Jehu the son of Nimshi anoint to be king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah anoint to succeed you as prophet. It shall come to pass, that him that escapes the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay; and him that escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay… (Vs. 19) Elijah departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and Elisha with the twelfth; Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him.”
Elijah had just complained to the Lord, “The children of Israel have forsaken your covenant. They have thrown down your altars and slain your people with the sword. I, even I only, am left.”
In answer to the first two complaints, we have Elijah’s God coming forth as a God of judgment; ---responding in the wind and the earthquake and the fire. But there is a third reply. It is the God of the “still small voice” that tells Elijah to “Go” and anoint Elisha to succeed him. His work on earth will continue.
- Hazael is to be the rod of God’s anger against apostate Israel. He will teach them, by terrible things in righteousness.
- Jehu is to be the minister of vengeance against the royal house of Ahab and Jezebel.
- Elijah when your voice is silent, I will have a faithful messenger and guide for my people. This elect Israelite, Elisha will be a friend to you during the remainder of your years, and shall take your place at your departure.
(Paraphrased)
Elijah is equipped to leave the cave of his retreat with the anointing to commission three swords gleaming before him:
- Hazael’s sword of war.
- Jehu’s sword of justice.
- Elisha’s sword of truth ---the sword that wounds only to heal.
God is sovereign in His Kingdom and the kingdoms of the world. By Him kings reign and princes decrees justice. He has manifold arrows in His quiver. He can carry on His work at by a Hazael or a Jehu at the same time ---fierce, unrelenting, unsparing soldiers and by Elisha, a man of love and peace.
Three divine declarations!
He reverses the order and speeds first to find the son of Shaphat. There is not a word said in the narrative about the long journey by which, all alone, he retraced his steps to the north-east of Palestine.
He finds Elisha plowing ---It is a picture of domestic sunshine. Twelve plows and teams of oxen are busy in early spring preparing the ground for the seed; ---and the last of the twelve is guided by the hand of an only son. In the midst of this busy scene, the toil-worn Prophet of Carmel and Horeb presents himself. The presence of the stalwart figure of the prophet would have caused quite a surprise with the son of Shaphat and his eleven plow-men. For years Elijah’s name had been a house-hold word associated with mingled feelings of reverence, terror, awe and wonder!
This is the first spring after the 3-1/2 years of drought. The furrows for the first time in 3-1/2 years invite the seed. Nature is about to burst from her grave, rejoicing in the spring rains.
The visit was equally strange, unique and dramatic. In silence, ---without uttering a word, --- Elijah takes off his well-known prophet’s mantle---casts it on the shoulders of the young farmer---and then passes on.
God has given him the first pledge of “the remnant church (hidden) church”. He has discovered one family at least of the seven thousand who have not bowed their knee to Baal or kissed his image.
He must have felt as if an oppressive load were lifted off his spirit, and as if his own special mission of wind, earthquake and fire were now to be superseded by a gentler ambassador.
As sudden and startling as the whole transaction was, Elisha knows exactly the meaning of the symbolism. This ceremony has always been considered by Eastern people as an indispensable part of the consecration to the sacred office. Elisha knew well, when he felt the garment touching his shoulders, that if formed the token of the investiture into the sacred office and of his adoption as son of the Tishbite.
We know there had to be a rush of conflicting emotions. The sower of perishable seeds is to go forth scattering the imperishable! “He that goes forth and weeps, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
1 Kings 19: 19-20: “Elisha deserted the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please! Let me kiss my father and mother good-bye---then I’ll follow you.’ ‘Go ahead,’ said Elijah, ‘but mind you, don’t forget what I’ve just done to you.’” (Message)
Elisha –understand well what just happened! You are from this hour the accredited messenger of God, the consecrated seer of Israel!
In a brief hour, the destiny of a whole life is changed.
The Prophet-elect assembles for the last time around the domestic hearth. Father, mother, son, and servants, seat themselves around a farewell meal. In connection with the feast there occurs symbolism of another significant act. Elisha’s agricultural labors are to be renounced for ever. He is to put his hand to a different plow, and never more to look back. There must be some expressive outward token of that abandonment.
1 Kings 19:20: “Elisha returned back from Elijah, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they did eat. Then he arose and went after Elijah, and ministered to him.”
The animals which he had driven before him in plow and harrow are slain. The harness and tackling are thrown into the fire, to complete the symbol of entire and unqualified renunciation.
The feast is over. The father’s blessing is received. Elisha then goes forth the ordained Prophet on his predestined mission. He begins his lowly office of ministering to the prophet.
This is an example of the variety of character among God’s servants. Never were two individual more opposite than these two lights of this age in Israel.
Elijah ----the rough child of the desert, without recorded parents or lineage; His homes was the wilds of Cherith---the thunder-gloom of Carmel---the shade of the wilderness juniper---the cliffs of Sinai; ---a direct messenger of wrath from heaven---The Prophet of fire. Like Jesus, he laid the axe to the root of the trees ---making the crowds tremble and cower under words of doom. Elijah’s name means “The strength of God,” or “the strong Lord; ---strength, the lion-symbol, being especially associated with the deeds of Elijah.
Elisha ---trained and nurtured under the roof of a Godly home, loving and beloved. He had no ambitions beyond his family land; and tending his parents in their old age. Even his physical appearance is in striking contrast with that of the older. Elisha is a reflection of the Baptist’s description of Jesus who would not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Elisha’s name means, “God my Savior,” or, “God my salvation.”
The two were raised up for different Kingdom assignments. This is why we are to never compare ministers or ministries.
Elijah was a destroyer. His task was to overturn the false deity of Baal and show by startling miracle and judgment that power belongs unto God.
Elisha was the healer; ---he healed the waters at Jericho, and broke off the curse of barrenness.
Ministers are raised up by the power of God for the seasons of God. He adapts us for his varied positions and posts of usefulness in His church. He has servants whose assignment is to assault the enemies’ works by word and deed. He has others whose vocations is neither pulpit nor platform, but the quiet duties of the study or the closet; men who are thinking and praying while others are acting.
We have brought forth three generations of ministers who covet the glamour of the platform; but have no comprehension of the study in the closet or the labor needed to build the platform.
The Lord desires for the church of the 21st century to come together in unity in diversity and diversity in unity. In the building of the temple of old, the rough mountaineers of Lebanon were as much needed to hew down the cedar trees as those cunning workmen who carved the delicate interlacing of gold.
Though the men were in contrast from social and economic backgrounds, there was a tender bond of friendship and love that united them.
Elisha is found at his plow---driving before him his team of oxen. This is a reiterated lesson in Scripture as to the dignity and sacredness of labor, and the divine recognition of it.
Moses was called to his high commission while in charge of the flocks of his father-in-law.
Gideon was called to overthrow the gigantic power of Midian while threshing wheat.
The announcement of The Savior’s birth was made to the shepherds of Bethlehem while tending their flocks.
Matthew was called working as a tax collector.
Peter, John and Andrew were fishermen called to become fishers of men.
Our worldly livelihood should not interfere with the service of God in the heart and life. Neither should we be idle waiting for the “call”. We should be busy at good work making our own living.
Whatever you are doing to earn your living, God is able to find you there and establish you in your Kingdom calling.
Undoubtedly, great was the honor of becoming the consecrated prophet of God!
Elisha was the heir of an ancestral inheritance of land, servants at his command and at least twelve oxen. In answering the call, he was placing himself in circumstances of danger. He was abandoning a sphere of quiet seclusion, for the arena of public life.
In a moment, the most cherished objects, thoughts, and hopes of life are surrendered; and he prepares to set out on his arduous calling.
I wish I could say that I have the honor of making that decision so quickly. Once the call came, it took me some time to “get there”!
He not only kills the oxen; but ropes and tackle, plow and harrow are cast into the flames. Like his true apostolic successors, he leaves all to consecrate himself to God. He denies himself, takes up his cross and follows Christ.
“Verily I say unto you, there Is no man who has left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time; and in the world to come life everlasting.”
I can promise you after I counted all of my costs, the Lord has restored back to me abundantly with love from my family.
In a moment, --- in the twinkling of an eye, ---the parents are informed that the unexpected blow is impending; ---that one plow less is hereafter to be seen on the farm. Another voice has called for a son; and henceforth, the quiet scenes of the Jordan valley are to be exchanged for the toil and anxiety of an exalted station.
It is the voice of God calling their loved one to a glorious honored work.
The call of God requires a surrender of our worldly ease, and pleasures.
“Do you love me enough to leave everything and follow me?”
Elisha did without uttering a word of self-sacrifice, moping, gainsaying, boastings of grandeur, demands for an offering or platform.
Let oxen, implements, tackling, all go and burn in the flames, if they rob our hearts of Christ, or Christ of our hearts!
Matthew locked the door of his tax office behind him.
The magicians of Ephesus burned their magical books.
Some of us may be worn from the years of putting our shoulder to the plow, speaking and declaring the Word of the Lord in a world that has rejected, scorned, mocked and cursed the name of the Jesus and the Holy Word of God. There is no regard for Holiness or Holy living. The prophets today are preaching a message of “easy-believism”, “If it feels good, do it”.
The Lord’s Word has not changed: “Isa. 19:18: “I have left Me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him”. There is a remnant church in every nation and in many nations a hidden church.
The Lord will again release the anointing of the swords of “war”, “justice” and “truth”. The Elijah’s who were fathers of the prophetic movement stood and continue to stand as stalwarts of truth confronting and exhorting. Many of these great warriors are now in their 70’s and 80’s. Others have gone on to Glory to receive their great reward. A new generation is coming forth in the prophetic.
Who will receive the mantle of Prophets to nations? Some claim it. Others try to usurp it for their own glory and gainsaying. For many it is about what they perceive to be glamour and glamorous.
I am blessed to have in my life true prophets of the Lord who stand in this office.
One of those who stood in the Office of Prophet in the spirit and power of Elijah was Stanley Rankin. Prophet Rankin went to be with Jesus on January 1, 2014, the Year of Our Lord.
“I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘who shall I send, and who will go for us’? Then said I, Here am I send me.” The Lord said, “Go and tell this people, hear you indeed, but understand not; and see you indeed, but perceive not.” Isaiah 6:8
We are Christians indeed, the disciples and followers of the Lord Jesus; ---a greater than Elijah has “passed by” and thrown the cloak of consecration around us; ---as ‘priests unto God’ ---
Let us say, “Yes, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord’.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of “The Prophet of Fire” by John Ross MacDuff. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Prophet MacDuff.