Passing the mandate
- Elijah – Prophet of fire – performed five spectacular miracles over less than 10 years.
- Elisha – Prophet of water – performed twelve relatively smaller miracles over 55 years.
Elisha’s calling (1 King 19:19-21)
1 Kings 19:19-21 So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him. He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” So he returned from following him, and took the pair of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and ministered to him.
- Elisha was wealthy to own twelve pairs of oxen, and strong enough to handle these oxen
- This shows that he was an extremely successful farmer with big plot of land
- It was not easy for Elisha to give up his family business to follow Elijah be a prophet
- Elisha was also a very filial son, who kissed his father and mother before following Elijah
- It can be seen that Elisha was serious about following God
- Elisha even killed his oxen to feed the people, he was very generous
- He was extremely humble – He gave up everything to become a servant
Deuteronomy 11:1-3 (NASB) “You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm, and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land
- We must have both love and His commandments, without love it is incomplete
- How can we show that we love God? – Serve one another, be generous, exercise forgiveness
- Inspire with history and not be historical – E.g. Ten plaques, parting of the red sea, Moses
Deuteronomy 11:9-12 (NASB) so that you may prolong your days on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden. But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.
Application
- It starts with me!
- Share the history of bible, the church and inspire the people too follow
- Share the benefit of following
Romans 12:1-2 (NASB) Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.