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Answering the call


This is a continuation of the post Seeing beyond circumstances posted earlier based around 1Kings and the prophet Elijah. As I continued to read 1Kings chapter 19 its interesting to see God sending Elijah on a final mission soon after saying he was only the only prophet left. He instructs him to anoint Hazael King over Aram, Jehu King over Israel, and Elisha to succeed him as prophet (vv. 15-16). Elijah obeys God’s instructions and finds Elisha ploughing a field.

He throws his cloak, a symbol of the anointing, around Elisha and calls him to follow him. Elisha immediately leaves his oxen and plough and runs after Elijah. Then, however, he asks the prophet for permission to kiss his family good-bye. I think for a moment, Elijah must have questioned whether God had sent him to the right person, for no-one who puts his hand to [God’s] plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). Hence his reply, “Go back. What have I done to you?” (v.20)

Little did Elijah know that Elisha’s reason for going back was to burn his bridges: he went to kill the oxen with which he had been ploughing with and cooked them over a fire made with his ploughing equipment. He had heard God’s call and was willing to leave everything to answer that call. And not only that he was willing to follow on God’s terms and not on his own.

He actually faithfully served Elijah until the day when his master was taken up to heaven and the cloak of God’s anointing finally passed on to him (2Kings2).

God is never anxious about His purpose but I think its us who do sometimes. He never loses the plot. He alone has the overall picture. He knows what He is doing, and He will always find someone who is willing to leave what they are doing to answer His call and to be faithful to his purpose.

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