The School of Elijah - Gerald Birky

Good morning. I wish to greet you all in Jesus name. This morning

has been said, it's it's a privilege to be here, to be here,

to be provoked. His brother Jason just stated another way to translate that

word be more down the line of stimulated caused cause. Yeah, something would

happen to to cause cause a bit of an effect. That's why, that's

why we're here. I well, I guess I raised my hand on the

on the on the bullet and errors, and I guess I guess I could

apologize for that. But I've been told that if you if you indeed are

sorry for something, then you won't do that. Do that again. I

don't. I'll try, but I guess the fact of the matter is kind

of it shows a it shows a oh maybe maybe a level of caring.

I don't. I don't know. Anyway, I will, I will make

an attempt to get the dates right and the offerings. You missed that correction

anyway, Dan caught that one for us. You can turn in your Bibles

to an Old Testament section First Kings, sorry, Second Kings, chapter one,

And I want to share with you just a little bit of a little

bit of my personal experience with this. My thoughts had been going down this

this line to the first two chapters of Second Kings kind of a transitionary period

of that or else the two these two actors were just put simply put together

and for a title, just to get this out of the way, the

School of Elijah and the School of Elijah, Second King's chapters one and two

give Chapter one talks about Elijah. Chapter two the transition to Elisha. And

we're going to end up looking at looking at some of the connections or some

of the some of the relationships and what happened between Elisha and Elijah teacher and

student. And I'd like you to think about that, Elisha as the senior,

as the teacher, Elisha as the student learning, and then moving your

mind into on into Jesus Christ the teacher you or either student. And so

I had put I had put a fair amount of thought into these first two

chapters, and on my on my computer, on on my the word processor,

the introduction was just I mean, how I actually was stressing about it.

How do how do you introduce a subject that by verse by verse nine

or ten, you've got just over the top political violence going on people getting

killed. Well, I got to the end and I finally closed the laptop

and drove away, went drove go think about something else for a while,

drove to Eugene, sat down my uncle Ernest at the Eugene livestock auction with

this thing of how do you introduce political violence to in a sermon? And

and and and which kingdom is that from? After a while, Uncle Ernest

said, well, I'm going home. He left ten minutes later, do

we hoe for? On the road down below is swiping his phone and I

see it. I see a picture of a bloody ear and he shows one

guy and after a while Steve Christensen pretty much interrupted him from buying cattle to

show him this on his phone. I pulled out my phone out, look

at some headlines, and how I see that? Must that bloody picture must

to be this, This is the current issues. And about that I lost

my interest in the price of calves and got up, walked out as well.

Driving back home, two two specific verses, two specific statements were in

my mind. I could not I could not rid them. One phrase was

this we have no king but Caesar. That that came that came In Christ's

trial, John Knight teen. Verse fifteen is where we find that Pilot asked

the question of the Jews, Well, what should we do? They said,

away with Christ? We have no king but Caesar. And so that's

the religious you could call it the religious right, not wanting anything to do,

not being completely okay with taking out taking out this political problem. Jesus

Christ. A little bit later, no, or actually it would have been

just before that Christ, Jesus was talking to Pilot. Pilot asked the question,

and Jesus made this statement, Well, back back up a step.

Let me just tell you a little bit more of the story, Jesus Garden

of a gussemone, just these details. When Christ went to the Garden of

Gets. Before he left the upper room, he made sure they had a

sword. Do you have any weapons? Yeah, two swords. That'll be

enough. Garden of gsemone. The arrest happens. Peter ask Christ, do

we strike with the sword. He didn't wait for the answer. He took

the ear off. Christ said stop, take the sword. You die by

the sword. My kingdom doesn't work like that. Later, and this is

the verse that came to me, Jesus stated this to Pilot, My kingdom

is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then

would my servants fight that I should not be delivered under the Jews. But

now is my kingdom not from hence. You see, political violence and what

people do to each other has been going on for a long time, Jesus

Kingdom, not from hence. In the US we have political parties, one

claiming to be the right, one claiming to be the left, one claiming

to be the conservative, one claiming to be the liberal, care for the

poor people. Both of those parties have as their head, as their leader,

the Commander in chief of the US military, whose job it is to

take out the political opposition. That's been the that's been, that's been going

on for a long time. You know of the introduction. I'd like you

to move your mind with me now to the School of Elijah, Second Kings,

Chapters one and two. Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of

Ahab, and Ahaziah fell down through Alattus in his upper chamber that was in

Samaria, and was sick. And he sent messengers and said, hum to

them, go inquire of bales above the God of Ecron, whether I shall

recover of this disease. So we have a king here with a problem.

He's sick. He wants to know, and he he a king, sent

mes sent people to go get this message, go get the reply for me.

I need to know. I want to know. And he's so he

was. He was asking, but asking apparently of the wrong sources. He

had a burning question, shall will I recover? Am? I? Am?

I? Whether I shall recover of this disease? Verse two, verse

three kind of jumps you to a different scene. He says, But the

Lord, the Angel of the Lord, said to Elijah the Tishbite. Now

who is the angel of the Lord? What was that? Is that equivalent

today of the Holy Spirit? I'm I don't know. I don't claim to

understand all of these the nuances in the spirit world. Understanding that we are

both flash and spirit. We have a connection with the spiritual world. We

can go into the dark side, we can follow God in the light.

So who this angel was, I'm not sure. But Eli, Elijah the

Tishbite was told, arise, go up to meet the messengers of the King

of Samaria. And he was given the words to say to them, or

kind of a challenge, a question. And in my words verse three.

What you're headed down there because you don't think there's a god in Israel?

Is that what's going on here? Is is it not because there is not

a god in Israel? Or is that what you're thinking? The challenge?

Why are you going to ask of this other God? Now? Therefore thus

saith the Lord. Verse four, thou shalt not come down from that bed

on which thou art gone up, but shall surely die. And Elijah departed.

So Elijah just gave them the challenge. No, don't go over there

to ask. I'll give you the answer. He gave them the answer,

an answer that the king wanted nothing to do with. And I find that

very intriguing, just that the last sentence of verse four, and Elijah departed,

he was sent God sent him, made him get up from where he

was. The Angel of the Lord said go give these men this message,

and so he was put directly into harm's way the king. You understand that

this Elijah, I mean this, this this a Haziah. Is I believe

if I if I've got my facts straight, is son of Ahab, the

king that had Elijah on the run, where the jed or his wife did

Jezebel previously there was reason for Elijah to actually be afraid at this point.

But Elijah, I'll point out, was it was in communion with his spirit

of Spear of the Lord to such a level that the seemingly ridiculous, dangerous,

uncomfortable job of just go tell these go tell these these officials from the

f c C, I mean, the highest level of communications in the country.

Just go tell them that. No, you're headed for the wrong place.

Here's the answer. What about us? What about you? Do we

hear the Spirit of the Lord speak? Can he speak to us? Does

he have your ear at that on that level? Move your eyes down to

second Kings one nine? Or where do we find Elijah? Next? We

said he departed verse four, verse nine. Behold he sat on the top

of a hill. So when Elijah departed, he went to a location.

I don't know if he was told to go there, if that was where

he normally went and sat. That's kind of how we we do things,

go back, go back to life as usual. So we have Elijah,

you could say, minding his own business. But he had turned he had

turned around this this envoy and sent them back Verse seven. What manner of

the king asked these folks that came back to him. He said, unto

them, what manner of man was he which came up to meet you and

told you these words? And they answered him he was an hairy man,

girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he the king said,

it is Elijah, the tishbite. And then the king sent unto him

a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him and

said, no, went up to him, and behold, he sat on

the top of the hill, and he's spoken to him, thou man of

God. The King has said, come down. This was by some writers

an arrest. This was the king sending out his men to take control of

this problem man who just gave me some really bad news. In fact,

he didn't even let my guys go get the news I wanted. Arrest him,

go bring him. The king said, come down, verse ten.

And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, if I be a

man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume thee and

thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven and consumed him in his

fifty. Now it doesn't sound so bad. But in the cycle of in

the news cycle, this would have caught the attention. And if you think

back to in Elijah's life, think back to when he was on Mount Carmel,

he prayed, and I mean this man, either before or after this,

I tend to think it was before just I didn't look into all those

the timelines. But Elijah prayed and fire a light I'll just call it lightning,

because that's what makes sense in my mind. But a lightning bolt of

mag to take out oxen offering water water in a ditch. He had seen

that before, and he said, well, fire, fire can come from

heaven. Lightning can come out of almost thin air. And so if I'm

a man of God, and if not not, you'll come. You'll come

arrest me. The wishes of God, the wishes of Jehovah, prevailed that

I would like you to remember that that in these in these matters, in

these political matters, the wishes of Jehovah prevail. Poof fifty one men did.

Probably an important thing is to see if you can well. Finally,

finally, the wishes of Jehovah, God's wishes, God's will pay attention to

that verse eleven, the next military detachment. Whether this was the next day,

whether this was thirty minutes later, I don't know. I tend to

think it probably wasn't just real fast. There's not there's not usually another another

fifty men ready to move. He sent him. The King sent unto this,

this, this prophet on a hill. He sent unto him another captain

of fifty with his fifty He answered and said, unto him, O man

of God the King. Thus hath the King said, not just come down,

but come down quickly. And in another translation it moves that from the

request conjugation of verbs to the command conjugation. Other was not just come,

but get down here or else. So the pressures ramped up. Elijah responded

the same way, Well God has something in this. I'll either come or

I won't, depending on whether or not you survive. And they didn't.

Side note there the devil cares very little about collateral damage. Just remember that

the kingdom of the world. The commanders in chief cannot be commander in chief

of an army and care about collateral damage. They're there to get their job

done. Verse thirteen. The third the third man, the third captain with

his fifty climb the hill. And this man, I don't know if he

knew what tone of voice the previous two used or not, but he didn't

make any demands Verse thirteen. And the third captain of fifty went up and

came and fell on his knees before Elijah and besought him and said, unto

him, Oh Man of God, I pray thee let my life and the

life of these fifty servants be precious in thy sight. And he told Elijah

what Elijah was fully new. Behold, there came fire down from heaven and

burnt up two captains of the former fifties with their fifties. Therefore, let

my life now be precious in thy sight. And again the Angel of the

Lord said, unto Elijah, go down with him, be not afraid of

him. And he arose and went down. This third man, he just

simply went to Elijah and said, look, I am in a jam.

I am literally caught between two forces that I don't know what to do with.

I'm I was told to go do something. My life is probably on

the line if I don't do it. But count my life precious in your

sight. He put it out a plea for himself and the fifty that were

with him. God said, the Angel said, fine, go with him,

go and speak. It will be fine. Elijah did that. But

now before we go into into that, I like you to jump back to

verse eight and think for just a little bit about this. Some characteristics here,

Elijah, this prophet of God was very recognizable. You see when he

first met this group of men coming, Apparently there weren't introductions. Apparently Aja

didn't say who he was. The king asked what did he look like?

Who was this guy? What did he look like? Oh, Harry Mann

girt with a girdle of leather. The king knew, given that speaks to

some consistency. Apparently the guy didn't have the latest and the greatest, He

didn't have the new car heart coat. He was wearing the same leather girdle.

He looked about like the king and everybody else expected him to. Look.

Does your appearance matter? Elijah? This prophet was ready, was willing

and ready to work. Verse fifteen, we have him there getting up,

going down, and delivering in person this message to the king. Now I

just point something out there. He didn't need three fleeces or two fleeces.

I thought, about the fleeces of Samson. This indicates that Elijah just simply

got up and got going. He didn't he didn't need the multiple fleeces.

He didn't say he would and wouldn't. Jesus think about this verse in Matthew.

This is one of the New Testament verses I'm going to read as well.

Jesus said this, but what think ye? He was putting this kind

of a riddle out to the people. What think ye? If certain man

had two sons, and he came to the first and said, son,

go work today in my vineyard, he answered and said I will not.

But afterward he repented and went came to the second and said, likewise the

same thing, go work in my vineyard. And he answered and said I

go, sir, and went not. Whether of them twain did the will

of the Father? They said a name the first in the words, he

actually went and did it. But Elijah was moving, was willing to move.

We all know the difference between flapping lips the people who say they were

willing and actually being willing and obedient. Another thing, I think Elijah,

this prophet, understood that he was actually doing more than just one thing.

He was doing more than just what God was telling him to do. Next

chapter, chapter two, we have him at the schools of the prophets.

He was yes, he was confronting dangerous kings and dangerous king's men, but

he was simultaneously mentoring the younger prophets. Verse seventeen, Verse sixteen, he

gives the formal the formal statement, nopec because you were going to go that

direction. God is ending your life here. You won't. You will not

recover chapter two the next chapter, and as we go through, I really

wanted to read this chapter as well. Well, I think I will.

It's almost faster for me to read it than to try to explain it.

Let's read the chapter two Second King's Chapter two twenty five verses approximately. And

it came to pass when the Lord would or was going to wanted to take

up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal,

and Elijah said into Elisha, terry, here I pray THEE, for the

Lord has sent me to Bethel. And Elishah said, unto him, as

the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.

So they went down to Bethel, and the sons of the prophets that were

at Bethel came forth to Elisha and said, unto him, knowest thou that

the Lord will take away thy master from thy head or from over you today?

And he said, yeay, I know it, I know it.

Hold your peace. Elijah said unto him, Elishah, terry, here,

I pray THEE for the Lord that sent me to Jericho. And he replied,

Elisha did, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I

will not leave thee. So they went to Jericho, and the scene repeated

same thing. They get there, they get there, the people there already

know that this is the end of the trail. For Elijah not sure how.

But on the other hand, they were prophets. They were studying to

be prophets. They get to the Jordan verse six, and Elijah said unto

him, Terry, I pray THEE here, for the Lord has sent me

to Jordan. And he said, as the Lord liveth, and as thy

soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And the two went on,

and fifty of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar Off,

and they too stood by Jordan Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together

and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that

they too went over on dragging ground. And it came to pass when they

were gone over that Elijah said unto Elisha, ask what I shall do for

THEE before I be taken away from THEE. And Elishah said, I pray

thee lety double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said,

thou hast asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if thou see me when I

am taken from THEE, it shall be so unto THEE. But if not,

it shall not be so. And it came to pass as they still

went on and talked that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses

of fire, and parted them both asunder. And Elijah went up by a

whirlwind into heaven. And Elishah saw it, and he cried, my father,

my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And

he saw him no more, and he took hold of his own clothes and

rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle Elijah that fell

from him, and went back and stood by the bank of Jordan. And

he took the mantel of Elijah that fell from him and smote the waters,

and said, where is the Lord God of Elijah. And when he also

had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over.

And when the sons of the prophets, which were to view at Jericho,

saw him, they said, the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.

And they came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him,

and they said, unto him, behold, now there be with thy

servants fifty strong men. Let them go, we pray thee and seek thy

master, lest peradventure. The spirit of the Lord hath taken him up and

cast him in upon some mountain or into some valley. And he said,

ye shall not send. And when they urged him till he was ashamed,

he said send. They sent there for fifty men, and they sought him

three days, but found him not. And when they came again to him,

for he tarried at Jericho is Elisha. He said, unto them,

did I not send to you? Go not? We'll stop stop reading there.

Let's look at this. Look at these moving your mind to the relationship

of teacher and student. Note the closeness of the student the teacher. I

am sure he had more students, but for some reason Elisha was trying to

stay close to him. Verse two. Elisha's statement, I will as thy

soul liveth I will not leave thee. And he repeated that in verse two,

verse four, and verse six three times three different locations. I will

not leave thee verse eight. So they too went over in other words,

at the Jordan river, and they're still together. The student did not want

to leave the teacher or allow the teacher to leave either. One look closely

at your teacher, who or what influences in your life? Do you not

want to leave? What are you not willing to give up? Look close

at who you were following? Who are you learning from? This is rather

important. Paul. In one Corinthians eleven told the people be followers of me,

even as all as I also am of Christ verse eleven of chapter two.

This is after they after they had crossed the Jordan After after the the

apprentice, the youngster watched Elijah do something with his mantle to the Jordan river,

and they crossed on dry land verse eleven, And it came to pass

as they still went on and talked. They were still walking, they were

still moving, They were walking and talking with whom do you walk and talk?

You see when you see two people walking and talking, two people in

conversation, moving down a street, you immediately assume some things. And it's

not always this way, but generally, when you see to see two people

walking and talking, they're usually comfortable in each other's presence. They're usually willing

to assist the other person in their needs. They're usually not fighting fighting.

People aren't walking and talking. When you're walking with someone and talking, it's

going on while you're walking. When you're fighting with someone that tends to be

a face to face there's a good chance that those two people are friends.

You can see that they're going in the same direction. Closeness and this is

a this is a this is a concept or a statement that I'm borrowing for

someone else. But closeness or distance between people is measured when two ways is

measured like this, how we look at the person and how we speak to

the person. You can think about that one a while, write it down

and mull over it. I disagreed with it right at first, and then

I later decided to know that maybe maybe that is right. Closeness or distance

with other people is measured like this one, how we look at the person

and how we speak to the person. Number two, Verse twelve, Elisha,

we get a little hint of this at the departure of the teacher.

When he saw it, he cried, it says, now, whether that

means no, it's not, doesn't mean shout. He yeah, it was

with his voice. But he said, my father, my father, the

chariot of Israel, and the horseman thereof I mean he was, He was

rattled. It was things weren't working out. Elisha, at this point did

not appreciate this change. He tore his clothes, took hold of his own

clothes and rent them in two pieces, the respectful thing to do in that

culture. His next move he took up the mantle. He took up the

mantle of Elijah. He preserved what he could of his teacher, of his

mentor Verse fourteen. He took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him,

and smote the waters and said, where's the Lord? Got to Elijah?

And when he had also smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither and

uses the same verbiage as for when Elijah did it. In fact, another

translation says he took the mantle and smote it in the same manner, the

same way Elisha used used the methods of his mentor. In your life in

my life, are we willing to use the methods of our mentors or are

we just individualistic or just independent enough to want to do it our own way?

Think about that. Think about who your mentor is, who you are

following, who you are trying to kind of live like. Elijah got back

to Jericho alone and the fifty boys. The fifty men were the fifty strapping

young fellas is who I saw them. As said, what he's gone?

You said, the spirit the Lord took him up a while. He may

have dropped him somewhere. We're going to go. Look, Elisha said,

don't bother. They said, no, we're off going. We're going to

They went. Three days later they got back and Elijah, in our verbiage,

said, yeah, see, I told you so, that is what

happened. God took him. He went up in a whirlwind, and he

was ready to turn the page. But he got to work. Elisha got

to work. Verse nineteen to twenty two. And the men of the city

said, unto Elisha, behold, I pray thee the situation of this city

is pleasant, as my lord seeth. But the water is not in the

ground baron, And he said, bring me a new cruise and put salter

in. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the

spring of waters and cast the salt in there, and said, thus,

saith the Lord, I have healed these waters. There shall not be from

thence anymore death or barren land. So the waters were healed, and to

this day, according to the saying of Elisha, which he spake, Elisha

got to work. He did what he could. Doesn't say here's explicitly that

God told him what to do, But I believe he was operating, operating

with knowing, probably putting in, probably bringing up in his mind what Elijah

would do in this situation. And he moved forward. He looked to God.

He fixed the water. The irrigation system was happy. They could they

could irrigate, They could, they could, They could fix a crop instead

of kill a crop with the water. Elisha went on from there. Then

the next the next two verses, or just that little blip Elisha left and

he faced opposition. There were there were a batch of youngsters came out of

the city. We don't know how big or old they were, but they

mocked him. The mocking in the name of the Lord. He told them

to stop, said, he cursed them. You see, you see,

the Lord has the ability to make things stop. And when you hear an

angry American yell, God, damn it at something, it's a little bit

the same thing that Elisha did here, God make it stop. He cursed

these children in the name of the Lord. I think he kept walking and

God took care of it. That phrase is used in the US at a

at an appalling level, kind of making fun of what God's power actually is

and can be. So think of these two kingdoms in closing here, remember

the Remember the old man Elijah and his understanding of God's kingdom versus the kingdoms

of the world. Elijah, old man Elijah willing to get in harm's way

at God's direction. He was willing to sit on a mountain and wait.

He was willing to resume and deliver the bad message to the king. That's

after the after the after the rumpus. He was also willing to go on

being teacher and mentor these various cities where there was schools of prophets. He

was. He was willing to take Elisha with him. Points from Elisha's life.

He wanted to be close to the teacher. He walked and talked with

the teacher. He cried over the departure of the teacher. But he took

up the mantle and used it. M He worked for the Lord, and

he let the Lord deal with the opposition. I think there's some I think

there's some points in there for us. One more, little, one more

little look at at the at the at Elijah the prophet. First, he

was the son of the prophet. He sat at his feet. He was

taught by the prophet. He became his successor when when the whirlwind took him,

he was the successor standing there. He was the next man standing when

the prophet left. In the third place, he inherited the spirit of Elijah,

and that was recognizable when he got when he got back to town.

In kind of a stretched out way, we are the sons of the prophet.

We have the ability to sit at the feet of Jesus when Jesus left.

Since Jesus left here we are. He's not here physically, but we're

still standing. But we can inherit, we can assume his spirit. And

one of those one of those things that in Jesus' spirit is this clear picture

of the two kingdoms, the Kingdom of the world, the kingdom of the

world that deals with fixes its problems with violence, as opposed to the Kingdom

of Christ. It's a kingdom of love and of mercy. Let's have a

closing song.