Study In1 Kings

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Passing On The Baton

Chapter 19v19-21

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IntroductionValentine's day is one of the busiest days in the florist's calendar. And the phrase 'Say it with flowers', receives increasing prominence. Many actions do not need words to interpret them for they are invested with a richness of meaning and often an intensity of emotion. Those dozen red roses say it all! Now, our attention is taken up with a quite different symbolical activity. Picture the rural scene; farm labourer's along with their master are busily ploughing up a field in preparation for sowing, when into that field steps Elijah. He had made history on Mt. Carmel. His face would have been instantly recognisable on the front page of the “Samarian Herald”.

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IntroductionElijah had defeated the prophets of Baal in one of the most exciting dramas imaginable! He had summoned fire from heaven and to the astonishment of the crowd and the chagrin of his opponents he had received an instant reply. Most people stood in awe of him but not all. Certainly not Queen Jezebel, who was a chief shareholder and chairperson of 'Religious Imports Ltd'. Her company had prospered until Elijah came on the scene. Since Mt Carmel her company’s share prices had fallen. In desperation Jezebel had put out a contract on Elijah's life.

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IntroductionBut now Elijah was rubbing shoulders with labourers in the field. Suddenly he removes his cloak and drapes it over their master. The labourers were stunned. The meaning was clear. Elijah was calling Elisha, their master, to become his colleague and successor. He was passing on the baton in the relay race of kingdom development.In Elisha’s shoes how would you have responded? God continues to call men and women to himself and to his service. Perhaps not as dramatically or by using this kind of symbolism nevertheless these verses have important lessons to teach.

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A Man PreparedThe immediacy of Elisha's response suggests that there had previously been years of preparation by God in this man's heart. Had he some secret intimation from God that he had been marked out for service? In the way that Moses clearly knew that he was destined to be the deliverer of his people even before God formally called him to that task.

Elisha may have belonged to those who had cried to God to deliver the nation from the stranglehold of idolatry. Did he also long to be involved in God's service and to advance his work in some way? There is a sense in which every Christian has to a greater or lesser extent an awareness that God has something for them to do, some field of service in which he wants them to be engaged.

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A Man PreparedIt will not always be in fulltime ministry though that will be the path for some. This preparation of our hearts, this sense of destiny in the purpose of God is something that God himself produces. Indeed, this intimation that God has designs upon our lives is something that some experience even before they come to faith in Christ. A sense that they are meant for more than simply to exist on the merry-go-round of everyday life. There is a deep that calls to deep, so that when they are presented with the gospel offer they reply, 'This is what I seem to have been waiting for all my life'. This ‘falling into place’ can be as true of our conversion as it is of a call from God to a particular sphere of service.

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A Man PreparedBut notice too, where Elisha was when he was called. He was in the field ploughing. Despite the inner conviction that God would one day use him, Elisha is waiting patiently and continuing with his regular daily tasks. Here is a man who refused to run ahead of God. This you will remember had been Moses’ failing. He anticipated God and with misdirected zeal sought to become the deliverer of his people his way! We can be thoroughly sincere in our desire to serve, our motives can be pure and yet we can be ensnared by impatience, thinking God is taking forever to show us what we should be doing and how we should be serving.

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A Man PreparedElisha did not despise the ordinary and mundane and sit with his arms folded, waiting until God's call into exciting and fulfilling service. He contented himself with work on the family farm. He continued to do his duty diligently and not half heartedly. John Newton had a clear approach to Christian service, he said that “if a Christian happens to be a shoeblack he ought to be the best shoeblack in the community”. Is that our ambition for now? Do we aim to be the best at what we are doing for God now, rather than a Christian dreamer who spends his time and energy thinking of what he might one day be and do.

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A Man TestedWhen God's call did come Elisha would have been keenly aware of the cost of obedience. There are three areas where his life was clearly challenged.

The first concerned the surrender of his earthly possessions and comforts. Elisha came from a wealthy and comfortable home, there were 11 servants ploughing with him in this field! He had material security, regular warm meals on the table, and a comfortable bed at night. But now he was called to join Elijah who was constantly on the move, a man whose life was regularly in danger. Elisha took this costly surrender in his stride.

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A Man TestedOthers have not always responded so readily when put to the test. Paul writes of Demas who forsook Christ and his service because the love of this world and its attractions had captured his heart. [2Tim.4.10]

There are those who want the blessings of God but who at the same time go through life with a grasping hand. Jesus words to the rich young ruler 'sell what you have and give to the poor‘ Matt.19.21, were spoken in order to expose his grasping hand. He had made wealth his idol. He worshipped at the shrine of wealth and trusted it instead of God for his security. He would not surrender that area of his life to God's Lordship.

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A Man TestedNow it is the principle of surrender that is in view here. Of saying to God that he is more important than all our earthly possessions and, comforts, of realising that they are his gifts and that we are stewards to use them as he directs.

This is quite different from the approach of many religious cults whose aim seems is to produce a sense of guilt among their membership. If they possess anything of worth the leadership insists that it be surrendered 'for the benefit of the whole'. In practice the leadership is saying, 'It is wrong for you to have a grasping hand but its OK for us to grasp as much as we can from you’.

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A Man Tested

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Secondly, Elisha knew he was taking on a great burden of responsibility. We can understand any reluctance to step into Elijah's shoes. Many when called to serve God are conscious of their own insufficiency. Moses response to God’s call was, 'Not me Lord I can't speak ... !' John Knox, the Scottish Reformer, refused repeated invitations to preach in St Andrews. And even when he was publicly presented with a call in the name of God to the preacher's office he burst into tears and retired to his bedroom. For days his face told the story of a man in great anguish of heart not that he was reluctant to devote himself to God's service but his sensitive soul shrunk from assuming the burden of a high and holy trust from God. It was responsibility of this magnitude that was being thrust on Elisha's shoulders. He accepted that burden as one that had been placed there by God.

A Man TestedThirdly, this call involved laying to one side the tender domestic ties that bound him to his family home. The ministry to which God called him would mean leaving his father's house and just how keenly he felt that parting is evident from the text. The one request he made before taking up his call was to kiss his parents farewell. Elijah's response has met with a number of interpretations. 'Go back. What have I done to you’. Is Elijah being purposefully gruff to test the young man's resolve to follow? Or, is he saying 'Go home for he who hesitates is not fit to serve God’. Or, does he imply, and this to me seems the more likely, 'Go and say farewell, God's call does not dehumanise us and cause us to behave without tenderness and sensitivity to the members of our family'.

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A Man Tested

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Cf. Lk. 8v62 where a would be disciple of Jesus also asked to go back home and say farewell to his family. Indeed, Jesus’ reply appears to allude to this incident in the life of Elijah ; 'No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom’. But the circumstances, of the two men are only superficially similar. Elisha was going back to bid his parents and his former way of life a final farewell. But Jesus’ would disciple had a different inner attitude of heart. Indeed, his heart was not wholly yielded to the Lord. He could so easily be talked out of taking God and his service too seriously. The daughter of a church elder felt called to missionary service. Her mother was furious that she would take God that seriously and put increasing pressure upon her to reconsider. As a result her commitment to God cooled. For those whose resolve is not steady, looking back is often the first step to going back. But Elisha was a man of firm resolve no matter the cost.

A Man RespondingThe brevity of the narrative suggests that Elisha lost no time in saying farewell to his family and friends but he did so in a manner that invested his departure with real significance. There is an obvious symbolism associated with the slaying of the oxen and the burning of the plough and the goad. He was indicating his complete renunciation of his former life. He was burning his bridges. He was removing any temptation that might cause him to turn back when he came under pressure in the work of God. He refused to employ the ‘hedging of one’s bet’ mentality which so many indulge in. 'God has called me to do this but I am keeping my options open just in case things don't work out'.

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A Man RespondingHistory tells us that when Caesar's Roman legions landed in Britain he burned the boats that brought them in order that his troops might know that there was for them no retreat. Elisha was burning his boats. He was saying, ‘for me there is no way back. Once I put my hand on the plough of God's service, I will not allow the attraction of my former way of life to cause me to turn my head’. Here is a man who is wholehearted in the business of consecration and that is a wholeheartedness that God can use and bless. All of his energy was to be channelled into the work of God. The application of this truth is obvious.

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A Man RespondingWhatever the nature of God's call are we ready to give the total surrender of our lives to God along with the measure of obedience which that involves? Or, are we loathe to abandon and set fire to our former way of life? When God calls a man to faith the call requires a letting go of and a turning of his back upon his past self-centred sinful lifestyle. There are boats to be burned, doors to be closed and baggage to be thrown out of our lives that would hinder our progress in the Christian life. cf. Col. 3. 1-10... Elisha's commitment took place within the context of a family party. He included them perhaps to encourage their support but also to demonstrate that his calling had not diminished his love for them. This is something many new Christians could learn from. Presentation 09

A Man RespondingH. R. McIntosh a Scottish Theologian once addressed his students in this way:

“Gentlemen after a man is converted, he has sometimes to he made into a human being again and sometimes it takes a year or two for that to happen. Sometimes when a person has undergone a deep religious experience, in the enthusiasm and wholeheartedness of their first response, and intent upon expressing the radical nature of the change that has taken place in them they can go to extremes of rigour and self-discipline and are tempted to act inhumanly and unnaturally where there is no need”.

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A Man RespondingHow many young folk have needlessly grieved their parents and friends by distancing themselves from them. In our attempt to cut evil things out of our lives we can sometimes appear to cut good things out as well. We can display a lack of humanity.However, we must not loose sight of the fact that God calls us not only to faith but to service. When we become aware that God has entrusted us with a particular task then it requires a similar thoroughness of consecration. If we are to make any progress in Christian service then it must be with disentangled hearts and singleness of mind.

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ConclusionDo we renounce all that might hinder our service of God with an ungrudging and undivided heart? Does God find an eagerness within us to be involved in the work to which he has called us? Do we pick up the baton that has been placed in our hand and run on with it, focussing on God’s finishing line? Or, do we belong to that company of people whose service is constantly characterised by looking back?

Remember that looking back is only a small step away from turning back. May God help us each one purposefully to press on in our service with a spring in our step and a warmth of humanity in our heart.

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