Introducing Elisha and The God-who does not give up

Well friends, I'm very grateful to be with you and what a beautiful place this is.

I've never been here before.

I mean, I've been around Lake Macquarie before, but I haven't been to this particular spot.

It really is lovely, isn't it?

I'm looking forward to seeing it in the morning.

And congratulations on getting here.

It's very difficult on a Friday afternoon, Friday evening to get to places in particular.

Congratulations to anyone who's come with children.

I always admire very much parents with young kids who manage to get away to weekends like this.

It's really, really hard work.

You probably won't get any sleep tonight if you're in that category.

They'll sleep tomorrow night.

They'll be absolutely exhausted.

But well done for coming because it really is worthwhile and a great contribution to everyone else that you make the effort to be here.

I'm sure that a number of people in that category will have understandably decided to come tomorrow.

They're the wimps, of course.

But that's understandable.

We look forward to welcoming them.

Friends, this weekend I'm doing something I haven't done before and I warn you of that.

I'm not sure it's going to work all that well.

So you're the guinea pigs.

I want to look with you a little bit at this extraordinary, extraordinary man in the pages of the Bible by the name of Elisha.

We'll only be having some glimpses.

And particularly tonight I'm going to be just really talking around introducing the subject, looking at why we're looking at this subject, trying to set some sort of context for it.

And we will before we get to the end, at least that's my plan, we will actually meet Elisha briefly tonight.

And then we'll be dipping into just a few little points in his life.

The story is a big story, a really, really important story for reasons that I hope will become clear.

But it's a strange thing to be doing.

Elisha lived round about 850 years before the birth of Jesus.

So we're going back a long, long way.

He was living in Israel, that part of the world that always seems to be turbulent.

And it was turbulent in his days.

But you could be forgiven if you start wondering, come on, of all the things we could be doing this weekend, of all the things we could be thinking about in our troubled world,

if all the things we could be putting our minds to, you're going to take us back 2,000 plus 850 years to look at a man way back then?

Yes, that's what we're going to do.

And I hope that you will see that it really is a very, very important thing that we're doing.

So before we introduce him, I want to spend a few minutes thinking about why we're doing this.

The Bible is remarkable.

Now I think if you're a Christian person you know that.

But I wonder whether we appreciate just how remarkable.

I've been reminded recently of the dimensions of how remarkable the Bible is.

I've been reading what I think is quite an important new book by a highly respected historian by the name of Tom Holland.

He's not a Christian believer.

That's important to remember.

He's not a Christian believer.

But he demonstrates in this major book, it's a big book, and it's been very widely read and it's very widely respected.

And he demonstrates that it was the Bible that introduced to the world ideas like human rights, equality, freedom, tolerance,

and quite a number of other really important values that are recognised and valued by almost everyone in a country like Australia.

We have debates around them, of course.

But there are not that many people in Australia who want to dismiss those ideas as not valuable ideas.

And what he demonstrates is that apart from the influence of the Bible, societies and cultures have not developed those important concepts.

And he has come to understand that almost everything that he loves in today's world, although he himself is not a Christian believer,

has come from the influence of the Bible.

He has this really intriguing question.

He asks, this is one of many questions.

He asks, how did the human race ever learn, listen to this one, how did the human race ever learn that it is more noble to suffer than to inflict suffering?

Now, I think if you talk to almost anyone in Australia today, they'd agree with that proposition as a generalisation.

Okay?

That it's more noble to suffer than to inflict suffering.

Tom Holland points out that no ancient society believed that.

And it was the suffering of Jesus on the cross and the impact of the gospel message about the death of Jesus on the world where that message has gone

that taught us, that was unheard of in the world before.

Or in the world uninfluenced by Jesus, that is, by the Bible.

I found the Tom Holland story quite fascinating.

I still can't quite work out why he isn't a Christian, but he's not.

And he's quite emphatic that he's not.

That's another story.

But he's a man who, in his youth, in his childhood, did go to Sunday school and learnt the Sunday school stories.

And he tells the story of how, in those days, he found that he was much more interested by all the bad people in the Bible.

He was fascinated by the Egyptians and the Romans and the Babylonians and the Assyrians.

And he grew up to become a historical scholar.

And he's written major books, major scholarly books on those groups of people.

But he came to a point about something like 15, 20 years ago, when he said,

I'm fascinated by the Assyrians, the Babylonians and the Egyptians and the Romans, but I don't love them.

I love the culture that I have been brought up in, and I love lots of things about it, but I don't love any of these cultures.

And so he set out on a scholarly exercise, and it took about 15 years, and only last year this book was published,

where he came to the conclusion, and it's being widely accepted, it is being debated, but it's being widely accepted.

I'm quite sure he's right.

He's right on the money and the conclusions he's come to.

But he's come to the conclusion that all of those things that he loves, like respect for human rights,

like the equality of human beings, like it's more noble to suffer than to inflict suffering,

the things that he sees as quite distinctive have all come from the Bible.

However, it's more than that.

And I'm not sure that Tom Holland actually grasps this bit.

Because the Bible has had this powerful impact on the world, and so much of the world,

as a side effect of its main purpose.

See, the Bible's own claim is that in this book, God himself addresses the human race.

That's what the Bible claims.

It is not primarily a book about human rights, and equality, and freedom, and tolerance, and suffering, and so on.

It's a book about the God who created all things, and who has done so purposefully,

and is committed to bringing his good purposes for all things to completion.

The Bible tells us the story that makes sense of the world and of human life.

True sense.

As we read and learn from the Bible, we're learning from God himself, from our Creator.

The Bible is what God wants humans to know, as they live the lives that he has given them in the world that he has made.

If that's what the Bible is, and Tom Holland doesn't get this,

but if that's what the Bible is, it's no surprise that it's had a huge impact,

and that the impact has been so very, very largely for good,

indisputably for good,

on the societies and cultures into which the Bible has come,

and been heard, and had an impact.

But that is a side effect of the purpose of the Bible,

which is summed up in the words, I'll just take the words of 2 Timothy 3, verse 15,

2 Timothy 3:15

if you're taking notes, which describes the Bible like this,

the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Now friends, that's what God wants us to know.

That's how our lives connect to God's purpose for the whole of his creation.

As we listen to the Bible, any and every part of the Bible,

we can learn lots of things.

We can learn about human rights and equality and freedom and so on.

That's fine.

But God's purpose for the Bible, that he has given us,

is that we will be drawn to Jesus Christ,

and that we'll learn to trust him,

and so be saved.

Now let's remember that,

as we travel back in time,

to the 850s BC,

to meet the remarkable man whose story we'll be glancing at together.

We'll just be dipping into his story.

We'll start in a few moments.

We're going to leave an awful lot of his story untouched,

but that's all right.

That's the limited time we have.

The man's name, as I've mentioned,

is Elisha,

and his story starts in the passage that was read to us a few moments ago

at the end of 1 Kings 19.

His story continues into the book of 2 Kings,

and since my guess is that these books,

1 and 2 Kings,

are not exactly the most familiar books in the Bible,

I want to take a few moments now to sketch what 1 and 2 Kings are about.

Okay, we're doing a lot of introductory work tonight.

Sorry we're doing that on a Friday night when everybody's a bit weary,

but just see if you can bear with me.

Stand up and walk around if it helps,

whatever you want to do.

But I want to sketch what these books of 1 and 2 Kings are about,

and we're going to think,

well, what's the significance of the story they tell

before we come back and look at this particular character?

1 Kings,

and the notes might help you just to follow what I'm saying here.

1 Kings begins with who?

Tell me who's at the beginning of 1 Kings.

Who's the big guy at the beginning of 1 Kings?

Solomon, yes.

Solomon.

Solomon, the son of?

The great King David.

And at the beginning of 1 Kings,

Solomon becomes king.

King of God's Old Testament people, Israel.

And what a king he was.

I don't know whether you've read the story of Solomon's kingdom recently.

I have.

You may remember that God had made a promise to David,

Solomon's father,

that a son of David would one day reign over a kingdom

that would never end.

That promise is back in 2 Samuel chapter 7.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

Christians know that the son of David

who fulfills that promise really is Jesus.

But long, long before Jesus,

there was David's son Solomon.

And for a short time,

it would have been possible to think

that Solomon's kingdom was the promised kingdom

because it was so good.

It was a kingdom of peace.

There was no war.

There was no conflict.

There were no external threats.

It was a kingdom of prosperity.

The economy went really, really well

in King Solomon's kingdom.

And Solomon himself was a good king.

A wise king.

And I reckon,

if you'd been there,

then,

you may well have thought,

this is it.

We've arrived.

This is not only what God promised David,

it's what God promised Abraham

centuries earlier again.

That the descendants of Abraham

would enjoy God's blessing

and they would be a blessing to the world.

That's what Solomon's kingdom felt like.

It felt like we'd arrived.

It was so, so good.

One of the things that Solomon did,

perhaps the most important thing he did,

was to build a magnificent building in Jerusalem.

We often call it the temple.

The Bible doesn't actually call it the temple.

Sorry, in 1 and 2 Kings,

it's not called the temple.

It's called the house for the name of the Lord.

We're not going into any more details of Solomon here,

but life in Solomon's kingdom

could be summed up by the words

of 1 Kings 4, verse 20.

1 Kings 4:20

It goes like this,

Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea.

They ate and they drank and they were happy.

Good days.

No bushfires.

No coronavirus.

None of the troubles of our world.

It was a great, great time.

It was, in fact, an anticipation,

a kind of foretaste, if you like,

a kind of picture of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We can now see that looking back.

The kingdom that Jesus will finally bring.

And as such, Solomon's kingdom was the high point

of the whole Old Testament story.

But, as I'm sure you know,

Solomon's kingdom did not last.

Indeed, one of the lessons of the story of Solomon's kingdom

is this,

that Solomon,

great and good though he was,

was not great or good enough.

And indeed, in his old age,

he lost the plot badly.

He got involved with a whole lot of foreign women

who, we're told in 1 Kings chapter 11,

1 Kings 11 · chapter mention

turned away his heart after other gods

and his heart was not wholly true

to the Lord his God.

And he introduced the worship

of these other gods into Israel.

And with them,

the corruption that always goes

with having gods that are not God.

And to cut a long story short,

Solomon's great kingdom collapsed.

After he died,

it split into two inferior kingdoms.

That's 1 Kings chapter 12.

1 Kings 12 · chapter mention

In the north,

was the kingdom that retained the name Israel.

To the south,

there was a smaller kingdom

that was known as Judah.

Judah had Jerusalem.

Judah had the house for the name of the Lord

that Solomon had built.

The throne in Judah

was passed on generation after generation

to descendants of David and Solomon.

But in Israel,

the northern bit,

the northern breakaway kingdom,

the throne kept changing hands,

very often by an assassination

or a coup of some kind.

The kings in the north consistently adopted

and maintained policies

to keep their people away from Jerusalem,

away from the house for the name of the Lord,

away from the son of David

who was reigning down there,

away from any possibility of them hearing

the promises that God had made to his people,

promises that they may well hear

if they went to Jerusalem.

Well, eventually,

a king came to power

in the north

who was the worst king Israel had ever known.

He was the seventh king

up there in the north

in the first 50 years

of the breakaway kingdom of Israel

and his name was Ahab.

He married a foreign pagan wife.

His name has become quite famous.

She was Queen Jezebel.

Jezebel was a fanatical worshipper

of the pagan god Baal.

All this is at the end of 1 Kings chapter 16.

1 Kings 16 · chapter mention

And these were very dark days in Israel.

Jezebel, I tell you,

she was one powerful lady.

Ahab was weak, really.

And the worship of Baal,

which Jezebel was so keen on,

was pushed and promoted

while the worshippers of the Lord

were persecuted.

Many of them, in fact, were killed.

Well, it's in these days,

King Ahab, Queen Jezebel,

it's in these days

that an utterly extraordinary man

suddenly appears in the story.

You're not given much background.

He just sort of appears.

His name was Elijah.

Not Elisha yet.

Elijah.

And the meaning of Elijah's name

is my God is Yahweh.

Are you familiar with Yahweh?

Yahweh is the name of God

in the Old Testament.

It's represented in our Bibles

when they put L-O-R-D in capital letters.

Behind that is the Hebrew name Yahweh.

My name is Yahweh.

My name is the Lord.

I sort of imagine Elijah coming in.

You've got to remember that

in the Hebrew language,

the names, the meanings of names

are very obvious.

If you're a speaker of the language.

And so Elijah would have come in

and said,

Hello, Your Majesty.

My God is Yahweh.

He was sort of introducing himself,

but he was making a statement

at the same time.

And Elijah,

giant of a man that he was,

made a huge impact

on Ahab

and on the people

of the Northern Kingdom.

I'm sure you can remember

the most famous event

in which that happened.

That was on Mount Carmel

when Elijah confronted

the 450 prophets of Baal

and demonstrated

who really is God

in no uncertain terms.

That's 1 Kings chapter 18.

1 Kings 18 · chapter mention

Well, it was not long after

that spectacular event

that Elisha

enters the story.

We're going to come back

to that moment

very shortly.

1 Kings ends, however,

with the death of Ahab

and his son Ahaziah

comes to the throne in Israel.

But Ahaziah was no better

than his dad.

And you turn the page

and you come to 2 Kings.

Ahaziah's still on the throne,

at least for the first chapter.

Elijah's still around,

but not for long.

And when Elijah departs

from this world

in a rather unusual way

in 2 Kings chapter 2,

2 Kings 2 · chapter mention

which we'll look at

tomorrow morning,

Elisha's story

begins in earnest

and continues through

to 2 Kings chapter 13.

2 Kings 13 · chapter mention

And then the rest

of 2 Kings,

I can sum up fairly quickly,

the rest of 2 Kings

tells the story

of the continued decline

of that northern kingdom

until eventually

it was just utterly destroyed

and wiped off

the face of the earth

by the Assyrians.

That's 2 Kings 17.

The year is about

722 BC by now.

And then we're told

for the rest of the book

how the southern kingdom

of Judah,

you don't hear all that much

about the southern kingdom

of Judah up to this point,

but now we turn our attention

to the southern kingdom

of Judah.

It followed the ways

that had been introduced

in Israel in the north.

And by the end

of 2 Kings,

the surviving inhabitants

of Judah

have been taken off

into exile

by the Babylonians

to Babylonia,

while the city

of Jerusalem

and the house

for the name

of the Lord

were flattened,

destroyed,

demolished.

The story

of 2 Kings

is not a happy one.

Now,

I hope you're still awake.

I can see some of you

still are.

I won't worry about

those of you

who dropped off.

I've sketched this

rather long story

because we need to see

Elisha's story

in its historical context.

But we do need

to ask the question,

what is this story

about?

What is this history

of this people

of Israel

really about?

What are we meant

to learn

from this sad story

of a failed state

so long ago

and so far away?

It was so wonderful

at the beginning

in Solomon's day

and gradually

it just crumpled away

and in the end

death and destruction

everywhere.

Well, it seems to me

that as we follow

the decline and fall

of this people,

as they and their kings

turned their backs

on the God

who had given them

so much,

it is frankly depressing.

I find 2 Kings

a terribly depressing book.

I'm supposed to be

doing some work

on the book of 2 Kings

and I've started it.

It's hard to write

a little commentary

on the book of 2 Kings

and I get so depressed

every time I open it.

I haven't written

anything for months.

It's a very depressing book

so some of you

can come and encourage me

and tell me

it's not all that bad.

But I think

what is particularly depressing

about the book of 2 Kings

is that Israel

and Judah

are so like

the world

in which we live.

Israel's miserable history,

Judah's miserable history

is too much like

the miserable history

of our world.

That's why

when you get into it

and start to take it seriously

I think it really is

so depressing.

The story of Israel,

and I say Israel

because originally

the whole nation

is Israel

and then you've got

the two nations

Israel and Judah

but by Israel

I mean the whole lot.

The story of Israel

is a kind of

small scale version

of the story

of our world.

If you think about it,

think of Solomon's kingdom

there

and how it all ended up.

God gave us

so much.

The beginning of the world

as the Bible presents it to us

was sort of like

Solomon's kingdom

and indeed

as you read through

1 Kings 1 to 11

and if you do that

in your own time

over the coming weeks

you might like to look out

for this.

You hear all sorts of

echoes and reminders

of Genesis 1 and 2

and as we follow

the kings

and the people

turning away from God

refusing to live lives

of thankfulness to God

refusing to trust God

refusing to obey God

it's sort of like

a rerun of the

Genesis 3 story

and so it is like

the world we now

find ourselves in

and as Israel

and Judah

collapse

we're quite right

to see a reflection

like in a mirror

of the disintegration

of our world

at so many levels

and in so many ways.

The history of Israel

in the pages

of the Old Testament

is like a kind of

representation

in miniature

of the history

of the world.

That's a cheery thought

isn't it

for this time

on a Friday night?

But

the history of Israel

in 1 and 2 Kings

raises

the question

that the history

of our world

raises

namely

what hope

is there?

I don't know

whether you think

about these sort of

things seriously

most of us do

at certain times

of life

and I think

I've got to a stage

of life

where I find myself

thinking about

these things a lot.

You could very easily

think,

couldn't you?

as you look at

the world we're in

at the moment

you could very easily

think that God

has given up

on our world

and I'll tell you

what,

you could easily

think that he was

fully justified

in doing so.

a friend of mine

a Christian leader

up in

New England

I'll leave his name

out because

when I'm telling

a story about him

it's a good story

but I was driving

with him

round Armidale

way at one

stage

and he

just turned to me

and said

you know

I wouldn't be

surprised if God

never sent rain

on this land again.

he was thinking

just of the

godlessness

of Australia

and the

well

it's not too much

to say

is it

the hatred

of Christianity

that is starting

to permeate

our public life

that's not true

of every individual

of course it's not

but of the national

life

the public life

you could easily

think

couldn't you

that if God

has given up

on us

he'd be justified

in doing so

how we humans

have messed up

God's good world

it's quite difficult

if you take seriously

the state of the world

at the moment

and the state

of how things are going

it's so difficult

to imagine

the story of our world

ending well

don't you think

in our own day

we find ourselves

in a world

that is busy

at its own destruction

it seems clear

to me

in so many ways

at so many levels

and so many issues

and you say

what hope is there

we're so determined

to destroy ourselves

we're so determined

to abandon God

what hope is there

and as you read

one and two kings

you could very easily

think

that God

had given up

on Israel

look what happened

that story

didn't end well

by the time

you get to the end

of two kings

you could sigh

and say

well what a sad

sad story

it ended

so badly

except for one thing

except for one thing

if you had been

paying careful attention

as you read

the history of Israel

through one and two kings

and I'm hoping

you'll get inspired

to read the story

of one and two kings

all the way through

over the coming weeks

and months

and when you get

to two kings

get in touch with me

and tell me

why it's not all

that depressing

after all

but if you do

read carefully through

you will notice

that there are

some very clear

indications

that God

does not

give up

that's not what

the God

who really is there

is like

he doesn't

give up

yes

the history of Israel

is terrible

and tragic

like the history

of our world

but it is not

hopeless

well friends

I think that's

a good point

at which we

introduce Elisha

can you cope

with just a few

more minutes

yeah

you're not allowed

to say no

are you

you're getting

into trouble

please turn

to one kings

19

I said we're

only going to

get a quick

glimpse of him

to start with

tonight

I'm going to

leave you

again

you might like

to do this

tonight

before you

go to sleep

if you're

able to stay

awake for long

enough

or tomorrow

morning or

something

to read the

dramatic story

of one kings

18

the Mount

Carmel story

about Elijah

and his

momentous

confrontation

with the

prophets of

Baal on

Mount Carmel

that was a

moment of

hope

that really

was a

moment of

hope

even King

Ahab

apparently

joined the

people

and at that

moment at

least

no it didn't

last

but at that

moment

they turned

back to the

Lord with

with a bit

of prompting

from Elijah

and the

climax of the

story in

one kings

18 we

see the

people

falling on

their faces

and crying

out the

Lord he

is God

the Lord

he is

God

that's

chapter 18

verse 39

but that

didn't last

and in

one kings

19

Queen Jezebel

laughed out

and threatened

to kill

Elijah

again I'll

lead you to

read the

story of

Elijah's

escape

through the

first part

of one

kings

19

suffice to

say that

Elijah fled

for his

life and

he fled a

long long

long way

south far

out beyond

Jezebel's

reach and

he came to

a mountain

a famous

mountain has

two names

Mount Horeb

or Mount

Sinai same

mountain two

names you

remember the

story of

Mount Sinai

and there at

Mount Sinai

Mount Horeb he

had a remarkable

encounter with

God in

which to cut

long story

short God

told Elijah to

get back to

work because

God had not

given up

God had not

given up on

Israel even

if Elijah

thought he

had and

this is what

God said to

Elijah I'm

picking it up

at chapter

19 verse 15

the Lord said

to him go

Elijah return

on your way

to the

wilderness of

Damascus and

when you

arrive you

shall anoint

Hazael to

be king over

Syria and

Jehu the

son of

Nimshi

you shall

appoint to

be king

over Israel

and

Elisha

the son

of Shaphat

of Abel

Mahola

you shall

anoint to

be prophet

in your

place

and the

one who

escapes from

the sword

of Hazael

shall Jehu

put to

death and

the one

who escapes

from the

sword of

Jehu

shall

Elisha

put to

death

yet I

will leave

7,000 in

Israel

all the

knees that

have not

bowed to

Baal

and every

mouth that

has not

kissed him

we're not

going to

pause on

the details

here

just notice

that Elisha

was to be

Elijah's

successor

you will have

noticed and you

probably noticed

from Sunday

school days that

the names are

strikingly similar

Elijah and

Elisha

said earlier that

in Hebrew names

very often

almost always

actually have

meanings

the Eli

bit

Eli

and you

come across

that E-L-I

in a number

of names

that means

my God

L is the

word for

God

the I

is the

word for

my

my God

the JAR

bit in

Elijah

is that

name

Yahweh

so my

God is

Yahweh

is Elijah's

name

which summed

up his

message

Ahab and

Jezebel

their God

is Baal

and they

were confronted

with a man

called my

God is

Yahweh

the SHA

in Elisha

means

saves

so my

God is

Yahweh

is going to

have a

successor

called my

God

saves

see already

just a little

bit of a

hint

God does

not give

up

my God

is Yahweh

my God

saves

let's see

what happened

when Elijah

found

Elisha

very quickly

verse 19

so 1 Kings

1 Kings 19:19

19

verse 19

so he

that's

Elijah

I'm reading

from the ESV

departed

from there

that was

way down

south at

Mount Sinai

Mount Horeb

way outside

the borders

of Israel

and he

found

Elisha

the son

of Shaphat

he'd gone

all the way

back to

Ahab's

territory

in a

farming

town

in the

Jordan

Valley

Elisha

who was

ploughing

with 12

yoke of

oxen

in front

of him

and he

was with

the 12th

it sounds

as though

Elisha

was from

a rather

well-to-do

farming

family

and Elijah

passed by

him and

cast his

cloak

upon him

this was

Elijah's

hairy

cloak

it was part

of his

rather well-known

distinctive

dress

we'll hear more

about that

cloak

but here

Elijah threw

his cloak

onto the

unsuspecting

farm boy

and Elijah

said nothing

but just

kept walking

verse 20

and he

this is

Elisha

left the

oxen

and ran

after Elijah

and said

let me kiss

my father

and my

mother

and then

I will

follow you

he'd got

the message

and his

eagerness

to follow

Elijah

is remarkable

his request

to kiss

his mum

and dad

goodbye

no coronavirus

in those

days

he was

allowed to

kiss

his mum

and dad

goodbye

emphasises

of course

his readiness

to leave

home

for who

knows

what

and verse

20

Elijah

said to

him

to

Elisha

go back

again

for what

have I

done

to you

it's a

rather

strange

way of

putting it

but I

think he's

saying

go and

say your

goodbyes

but don't

forget

what I've

just done

to you

which you've

understood

you've got

it's

significance

verse 21

and he

Elisha

returned

from following

him

and took

the yoke

of oxen

and sacrificed

them

and boiled

their flesh

with the

yokes

of the

oxen

and gave

it to the

people

and they

ate

and then

he arose

and went

after Elijah

and assisted

him

try and imagine

the scene

it's described

very briefly

but we mustn't

miss what was

happening

Elisha

was putting

on a

farewell

party

for the

people of

his

community

and they

ate

the

oxen

there

would

be no

going

back

to the

ploughing

you see

you could

call this

a decisive

break

with his

former

life

don't you

think

Elisha

left

everything

he had

known

to follow

Elijah

and to

be his

off-sider

and we

know

from what

we read

a few

lines

earlier

that

Elisha

will

become

Elijah's

successor

there was

something

here

more

important

than

the

farm

there

was

something

here

for

Elisha

more

important

than

the

family

there

was

something

here

more

important

than

the

community

Elisha

left

everything

he had

known

to

follow

Elijah

finish

off

with two

points

first

if

we'd

been

reading

the

whole

history

and

we'd

been

starting

to

get

a bit

depressed

about

how

things

were

going

to

end

in

Israel

as

Elijah

had

indeed

been

a little

bit

earlier

can

you

see

how

the

call

of

Elisha

is

a

pretty

sure

sign

that

God

had

not

given

up

God

was

still

dealing

with

Israel

God's

word

would

still

come

to

Israel

God

was

still

God

in

Israel

my

God

saves

will

succeed

my

God

is

Yahweh

and

with

Elisha

leaving

everything

for

who knows

what

don't

you get

the

impression

that

whatever

this

is

about

it

was

more

important

than

anything

it

sort

of

symbolically

represented

to us

in

Elisha

walking

away

from

everything

he'd

known

in

life

to

follow

Elijah

there

is

something

very

very

important

going

on

now

we

will

follow

Elisha

and

see

a little

bit

of

what

happens

but

at

this

early

stage

we

can

see

that

it

will

be

very

important

if

you

want

to

know

and

you

want

to

see

how

God

had

not

given

up

on

Israel

watch

Elisha

second

many years

later

there was

a similar

scene

listen to

this

account

of it

from

Matthew

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

chapter

4

I

think

the

reference

is

on

your

notes

while

walking

by the

sea

of

Galilee

Jesus

saw

two

brothers

Simon

who is

called

Peter

and

Andrew

his

brother

casting

a net

into

the

sea

for

they

were

fishermen

and

he

said

to

them

follow

me

and

I

will

make

you

fishers

of

men

and

immediately

they

left

their

nets

and

followed

him

and

going

on

from

there

he

saw

two

other

brothers

James

the

son

of

Zebedee

and

John

his

brother

in the

boat

with

Zebedee

their

father

mending

their

nets

and

he

called

them

and

immediately

they

left

their

boat

and

their

father

and

followed

him

and

this

friends

is the

first

of a

number

of

places

where

we're

going

to see

similarities

between

the

life

of

Elisha

and

the

story

of

Jesus

in

the

New

Testament

Gospels

in

this

case

Jesus

was

acting

rather

like

Elijah

he

called

Peter

and

Andrew

and

James

and

John

in

a way

that

reminds

us

of

Elijah

calling

Elisha

and

here

I

just

want

to

suggest

that

the

parallel

might

get

us

thinking

Peter

Andrew

James

and

John

left

everything

they

had

known

to

follow

Jesus

this

time

it

was

fishing

nets

instead

of

oxen

they

left

their

father

but

it's

a

picture

worth

taking

in

something

important

was

happening

and

if

you

like

me

are

getting

depressed

about

how

things

are

going

in

the

world

look

at

Jesus

and

the

call

of

these

disciples

God

has

not

given

up

on

his

world

what

these

men

left

everything

for

is

more

important

than

anything

God

has

not

given

up

on

his

world

just

as

he

had

not

given

up

on

Israel

and

if

we

want

to

see

how

God

has

not

given

up

on

the

world

we've

got

to

watch

Jesus

and

his

disciples

in

an

important

way

in

Jesus

God

was

doing

again

something

that

he'd

done

before

in

Elisha

just

go back

to

Elisha

for one

final

moment

in the

pages

that

follow

1

Kings

19

right

through

to

the

end

of

the

book

of

1

Kings

there

are

some

pretty

exciting

stories

involving

Elijah

and

King

Ahab

Elisha

is

not

mentioned

again

in

the

rest

of

1

Kings

but

we

can

assume

that

he

was

there

he

was

Elijah's

assistant

the

next

time

we

hear

of

Elisha

is

at

the

beginning

of

2

2 Kings 2 · chapter mention

Kings

chapter

2

where

Elijah's

time

on

earth

was

coming

to

an

end

and

the

time

for

Elisha

to

fill

Elijah's

shoes

so to

speak

or

actually

to fill

his

cloak

is

what

he

did

had

come