Thoughts in Worship

Message Magazine's Online Devotional for Sunday, July 19, 2015

Based Upon 1 Kings 19:17-19

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“And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. 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 by him, and cast his mantle upon him.”

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The Lord had manifested incredible miracles through the prophet Elijah. He had given warning after warning to His wayward people as well as His enemies. Then the chiefest manifestation of God’s holiness and sovereignty was demonstrated when hundreds of false prophets were all arrayed on Mount Carmel to have a showdown against the God of heaven. All that was necessary was there to prove once and for all, who was the true and living God; Yahweh or Baal. Once Yahweh stifled all deception and allowed the false prophets to exhaust themselves in futile attempts to make fire come from heaven, His man, Elijah prepared a special sacrifice, on an altar with water all around, and prayed a simple prayer that Yahweh would make Himself known to the witnessing crowd—and that He did. Through an unmistakable show of holy power, Yahweh rained live fire from heaven, completely consuming the sacrifice and the water set to magnify His power. God’s name was vindicated, the wicked prophets were destroyed, and God’s people had a decision to make: Would they choose to serve Yahweh, or Baal?

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When the wicked Queen Jezebel heard about this, she vowed that she would destroy God’s servant for this, but clearly, she did not get the memo. Her pride blinded her eyes to the fact that God does not take kindly to people who do evil against His anointed. As one must expect, Yahweh took care of business, and destroyed her.

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Prior to Yahweh’s judgment against Jezebel, Elijah hid from her wrath. Although He served Yahweh, he allowed fear and dejection to rule him for a short while. In compassion, the Lord sternly dealt with His son, and tipped His hand with information concerning His plan to deal with Jezebel, her people and His own wayward king. In the midst, of all of this was hidden God’s plan to keep the prophecies alive following Elijah’s departure. God planned that soon after this whole ordeal, He was going to take Elijah to heaven without ever tasting death, but the work on earth must continue. And Elijah was to pass this mantle of faithful testimony to Elisha, the son of Shaphat.

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In our theme text we get a glimpse of the passing of the mantle. Elisha was faithfully performing his daily duties, the more experienced prophet passed by and dropped the mantle upon Elisha, and immediately he knew that he must leave the mundane duties he faithfully performed, for his higher calling; and that he did. Elisha bid his family farewell, swiftly handled some business, and ministered to Elijah as a part of his ministry to Yahweh.

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In this, our first installment on the life of the prophet Elisha, I would like to highlight a critical lesson all we who profess to follow the Lord must get, if ever we will be obedient to Him: As in the case of Elisha, God calls us to diligent work day in and day out. We are to represent our King at work, play, school, the bus stop, at the market, and ever other place or vocation in which we find ourselves. And there are often times that He will give us a special calling that will transition us from our mundane duties, which He was pleased for us to perform like every other disciple He has commissioned in the past. The question is: “Will you leave that which is familiar to you in order to serve the Lord for a higher calling?” This, we all need to consider, but with the God of Elisha, anointing our lives, all that comes next will be nothing short of...