Can We Too Have A Double Helping?
Good Morning Friends,
There is a lot we can learn about God’s call to being and God’s call to doing set forth in the stories in the Bible about Elisha. Elisha was for many years Elijah’s personal servant before taking over the role of lead prophet. Maybe God intended for the miracles of Elisha to be a preview of the miracles of Jesus. Elisha feed a hungry group of men with twenty barley loaves and a few ears of corn….Jesus fed 5,000 with a few fish and loaves. Elisha cured one man of leprosy and Jesus cured ten. Elisha made an iron axe head float and Jesus walked on water. Maybe the miracles were to show that Jesus was the prophet of prophets. But the Elisha story that is the most amazing is when Elisha sees Elijah taken up in a whirlwind. And here it is interesting what Elisha asks for as Elijah is about to be taken up in a chariot of fire.
I doubt most people realize the relevance of what he was asking, and that it was a requirement Elisha see the way Elijah leaves before his request is granted and blessed. And so today’s question. Can We Too Have A Double Helping?
Scripture: So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was ploughing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, ‘Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.’ Then Elijah said to him, ‘Go back again; for what have I done to you?’ He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant.
1 Kings 19:19-21
Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.’ Elisha said, ‘Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.’ He responded, ‘You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not.’ As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching and crying out, ‘Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!’ But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, ‘Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?’ When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.
2 Kings 2:8-14 (NRSV)
For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Ephesians 2:10 (NRSV)
If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 (NRSV)
A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
Mark 1:40- 42 (NRSV)
He must acknowledge as firstborn the son of the one who is disliked, giving him a double portion of all that he has; since he is the first issue of his virility, the right of the firstborn is his.
Deuteronomy 21:17 (NRSV)
Message: If we want to experience the double portion of God’s power and anointing, if we want to claim the right of the firstborn,
we should follow the example of Elisha. In today’s scripture Elisha, the student of Elijah, is determined to get God’s best for his life. He was willing to stay the course until God distributes Elijah’s estate. He was willing to pay the price of being a true prophet, walking in God’s perfect will, and not taking the easy road. He was dedicated to a higher cause, living for a higher purpose and absolutely committed. We know next to nothing about Elisha’s early life until sometime around the year 856 BC, when he was probably in his twenties. He appears to have come from a wealthy land owning family, given the number of oxen they had for ploughing. His response to his call was immediate. Elijah made it clear that it was up to Elisha whether or not Elisha responded to God’s call. When Elisha asked permission to say farewell to his parents Elijah bluntly tells Elisha that this is a commitment between you and God…as if to say, “why are you asking me?” Elisha demonstrates his determination to follow Elijah by dramatically severing his links to his past life by slaughtering the pair of oxen he was ploughing with and cooked their meat over the wood of his plough and gave it to his friends and relatives. He had a party. Scripture tells us that he then left and became Elijah’s attendant or servant in similar way, perhaps, to that in which Joshua had served Moses. We hear nothing more of Elisha for at least the next four years to perhaps as many as eighteen years, but we can assume that he faithfully served during that period and learned from Elijah. Knowing that the Lord was about to take him Elijah tested his servant’s devotion by asking him three times to remain while he went on in turn to Bethel, Jericho and then over the Jordan. Elisha and the other prophets of the Lord were well aware of what was about to happen. Elisha refused to leave his master. When they reached the far side of the Jordan, Elijah asked him what it was that he wanted and Elisha replied: “…a double share of your spirit”, indicating that he wished to succeed him in his prophetic office. Given the number of miracles that Elisha performed during his lifetime it is possible that he was also asking for an even greater ministry. But I think he just wanted to be an equal. Now, as I have said before, it is instructive for us to know that the double helping was contingent on Elisha seeing Elijah taken away. Only then was Elisha to receive what he had asked for. So what was so important? What did it look like? Friends, we might sing about a sweet chariot but this was a stormy and frightening event. The chariot was an instrument of death. Tornadoes are deadly. But in it also was the Shekinah Glory with the power to be and to transform. And this reminds me of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection and ascension and those who witnessed it. So friends, if you want to take up the mantle, be ready to strike the waters of the Jordan and parted them. If you are willing to take up your cross, know that the community will continue to search for Elijah even though they will not find him. Know the story within the story is always about Jesus.
Pray God shows us how to answer the call. Pray God shows us how to speak and to experience the call. Pray we are able to understand the meaning of chariots as both instruments of judgement and of mercy.
Pray we realize that if we are going to follow God sometimes it will not be easy. Pray we realize there is a price to pay. Pray we are willing to study, listen, learn, meditate, pray and seek God’s will constantly. Pray we have a life of self-discipline, self-denial and complete obedience to the leading of the Spirit. Pray we have a calling in life greater than the selfishness of our own hearts.
Pray we see Jesus in the chariot. Pray we see God’s justice and mercy both pushing and pulling us to heaven. Pray we live with the Glory of God. Pray we see the justice of God on our side. Pray God’s workmanship gives us a double portion in this life and the next.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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