I’m fascinated by the prophet Elisha in the Bible. Pastor Levi Lusko of Fresh Life Church in Montana preached a great sermon on Elisha a few years back. He pointed out that Elisha wasn’t walking away from a small life.
Elijah left there and found Elisha son of Shaphat as he was plowing. Twelve teams of oxen were in front of him, and he was with the twelfth team. Elijah walked by him and threw his mantle over him. (1 Kings 19:19, CSB)
Elisha was with the twelfth team of oxen. In ancient times, this meant Elisha’s family was wealthy if they could own twelve teams of oxen.
Elisha left the oxen, ran to follow Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow you.” “Go on back,” he replied, “for what have I done to you?” So he turned back from following him, took the team of oxen, and slaughtered them. With the oxen’s wooden yoke and plow, he cooked the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he left, followed Elijah, and served him. (1 Kings 19:20-21, CSB)
Pastor Lusko points out that Elisha was following Elijah into the unknown and often stressful and frightening life of a prophet. On top of that, Elisha wasn’t leaving to immediately become a prophet himself. No, he was leaving to serve Elijah. What a major career move to make on faith!
When we turn our work decisions over to God, we can feel out of control and anxious. If we just take up residence in that space, we can miss out on opportunities when they appear. Either we won’t see them at all, or we will talk ourselves out of them. I’m learning to trust God with everything from the smallest to the biggest requests because I just make a mess of things on my own.
Sometimes an answer to a prayer will look different than we expected, but when we’re trusting God, we can identify those windows of opportunity that pop up when we least expect it. I’m working my way through a career change, and over the last year, I’ve realized that writing is an integral part of who I am and what I want to do professionally. However, I’ve learned something else. Opportunities to write will look different according to each situation. Elisha had no idea what following Elijah would look like, but he took the chance and went anyway.
Recently, I’ve been offered a freelance opportunity to teach basic computer skills, and the opportunity came through wonderful people I knew from my previous work experience. I will write my own lessons guided by their suggestions of the topics. Yes, it looks different from what I eventually want to do, but it provides me an opportunity to flex my skills. Also, it pays, and we all know how important that is.
This reminds me of the final interactions between Elijah and Elisha before the elder prophet was taken into heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha knows Elijah will be leaving, and the younger man continues to faithfully follow his teacher. Just before his departure, Elijah asks the younger man a question.
When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken from you.” So Elisha answered, “Please, let me inherit two shares of your spirit.” Elijah replied, “You have asked for something difficult. If you see me being taken from you, you will have it. If not, you won’t.” As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire with horses of fire suddenly appeared and separated the two of them. Then Elijah went up into heaven in the whirlwind. As Elisha watched, he kept crying out, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!” (2 Kings 2:9-12, CSB)
Elisha knew what to ask for when Elijah offered. Elisha saw an opportunity, and he took a faith filled leap. Sometimes we will have smooth paths, and other times we will have curvy, hilly, bumpy paths to travel professionally and personally. When we look for those windows of opportunity, we will spot them even when they appear different from our plans. Whatever we may be experiencing right now, we should keep an eye out for those unique opportunities that may come our way, and be ready to act. We never know when a new opportunity is the door we’ve been looking for all along.
At our homecoming revival this year, one of the visiting pastors told us of Elisha, “If you’re going to ask, you better be ready for what follows” (paraphrased). We need to be more like Elisha, ready to ask, accept, and follow through.
When he could see him no longer, he took hold of his own clothes, tore them in two, picked up the mantle that had fallen off Elijah, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the mantle Elijah had dropped, and he struck the water. “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” he asked. He struck the water himself, and it parted to the right and the left, and Elisha crossed over. When the sons of the prophets from Jericho who were observing saw him, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” They came to meet him and bowed down to the ground in front of him. (2 Kings 2:12-15, CSB)
Reference:
Lusko, Levi. (May 4, 2019). In the Absence of a Crisis. (Transcription of sermon.) https://sermons.love/levi-lusko/4199-levi-lusko-in-the-absence-of-a-crisis.html (also see the original sermon via the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/LeviLusko–InTheAbsenceOfACrisis_201905)
All Things Subject to Change 