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Thank you for your kind invitation to come and lead your studies on four occasions. For those four occasions, I am proposing to think with you, uh, again about the life and ministry of the prophet Elisha. I do not thereby imagine that I shall be telling you anything new. But I have in mind the fact that in a few weeks' time, when these studies end, we shall as a church beginning- be beginning our gospel mission. I thought, therefore, it might encourage our hearts if together we thought once more about the life and ministry of Elisha the prophet, that much loved prophet.
Loved because of the wonderful miracles of grace that God did in spectacular fashion through him, bringing life and healing and new hope to people who are almost dead, and some of them quite dead, and others despairing. I thought that in studying him, we shall be reminded of the resources that are available for us in the discharge of our common duties, and more particularly in those special duties and responsibilities that will come upon us as a church in the weeks now soon to arrive.
If in any way our spirits have been flagging, or our hopes have been drooping, who knows that God might use this study of his word to revive us again. The first thing, therefore, we ought to do in thinking of the life and ministry of Elisha the prophet is to study the background, uh, of that man's ministry. And let's begin to do that by reading in the First Book of Kings and chapter nineteen. First Book of Kings, chapter nineteen. First Book of Kings and chapter nineteen, verse five.
And he, that is Elijah, lay down and slept under a juniper tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake bacon on the coals and a cruise of water. And he did eat and drink and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. And he came thither unto a cave and lodged there.
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword. And I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And he said, go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. The Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still small voice. And it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering in of the cave. And behold, there came a voice unto him and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword.
And I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away. The Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when thou comest, thou shalt anoint Hazael to be king over Syria, and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass that him that escapeth from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.
Yet will I leave me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, every mouth which hath not kissed him. So he departed thence and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elijah passed over unto him and cast his mantle upon him, and he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again, for what have I done to thee? And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and slew them and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen and gave unto the people, and they did eat.
Then he arose and went after Eli- Elijah and ministered to him. And if you like to keep your thumb in that place, for the Book of Kings can be difficult to find on times, just let's read a New Testament passage that will help us in our understanding of the Old Testament story. That passage comes from the Epistle to the Romans and chapter eleven. I say then, did God cast off his people?
God forbid. For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God did not cast off his people, which he foreknew. For watch ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah, how he pleadeth with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. But if it is by grace, it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more. What then? That which Israel seeketh for, that he obtained not, but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened. According as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, until this very day. And David saith, let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them.
Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow thou down their back all way. I say then, did they stumble that they might fall? God forbid. But by their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now, if their fall is the riches of the world, how much more their fullness? God give us good understanding of his holy word. The first thing, then, that we ought to do if we are to study the life and ministry of the Prophet Elisha is to consider the historical background, the actual situation in which he lived and worked.
All of us are aware that the ministry of Elisha was marked by a most delightful and happy outcrop of God's miracles of grace, as people were restored to life and rediscovered the great resources that they had, as Israel were blessed and delivered from their enemies, and as even Gentiles were brought under the grace of God through the ministry of Elisha. But in order to put that period of grace and blessing into its proper context and background, we shall tonight have to consider some exceedingly gloomy scriptures.
And that won't be my fault, so please do not blame me, but we must be realists and face the conditions under which Elisha was called to minister for God. That is why we read from one Kings chapter nineteen about the appointment of Elisha, where Elijah was commanded by God to go and anoint three lots of people, to anoint Je- Hazael to be king over Syria, Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Is- uh, to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat to be prophet in thy room.
The first we hear of Elisha, then his appointment, his anointment at the command of God by Elijah the prophet. It will not have escaped you how solemn an occasion that occasion was. As Elijah stood on Mount Horeb, and as the New Testament reminds us, was a pro- a man of like passions as we are, but a man marked supremely by his prayer.
When Elijah stood on Mount Carmel and prayed for Israel, there followed a remarkable revival. But when Elijah stood on Mount Horeb and pleaded against Israel, God uttered a most solemn sentence and judgment. Let us therefore notice very carefully, try and correct any false impressions we have of this solemn occasion. Let us notice exactly what the still small voice said to Elijah when Elijah came to the mouth of the cave.
It's commonly said by some expositors that when Elijah stood at the mouth of the cave to hear the still small voice, that first of all God came by in the storm with its tremendous roaring, and then in the earthquake, and then in the whirlwind, and in the fire. Great exhibitions of God's wrath and judgment. Say the expositors, but God wasn't in any of those things. God, in all his grace, was not in the earthquake, nor in the fire, nor in the tumult. God was to be heard in the calm, still, small voice.
Yes, but pray let's understand what was happening. What it was that the still small voice said. Elijah wrapped his face in the mantle and went out to listen to God. The still small voice announced a judgment so sweeping in its terms. Israel hadn't seen the like of it for centuries. Go and anoint Hatzail to be king over Syria. That same Hatzail began the revival of the Aramaic nation and cut Israel exceedingly short.
Go and anoint Jehu to be king of Israel, and that same Jehu, when at last he came, rose up and slaughtered the house of Israel to a man, till there wasn't any left of the house of Ahab, and piled their heads in baskets. That same Jehu announced a feast to Baal, congregated all the worshippers of Baal in one of Baal's temple, and when they were all inside, he shut the door and set the whole thing alight and burned it on their heads. There had not been such a severe and such a sweeping judgment in Israel for centuries, and it was that judgment that the still small voice announced.
God wasn't in the whirlwind, God wasn't in the earthquake, God wasn't in the fire. They were but the outriders of his divine majesty. If God was coming in his condescension to the mouth of this cave to speak to Elijah, then first would come the outriders and the postilions of the divine presence, and the fire and the earthquake and the thunder and the wind came with suitable majesty to conduct God Almighty, to make Elijah aware of the solemnity of the occasion.
There came a still small voice. It came to announce, as I say, the most sweeping judgment that Israel had ever thus far seen. It was a still small voice, because when God utters judgment, he doesn't lose his temper. He doesn't shout and rave like we do when we fly off the handle, annoyed at something. When God Almighty rises up to judge, he speaks calmly in a still small voice. Go and anoint Hatziel, king over Sittah.
Go and anoint Jehu, king over Israel, and between them they cut Israel to mincemeat. But you will notice again that the judgment that God commanded in that still small voice and announced the appointment of the executors of his wrath against Israel, that judgment that God announced did not fall at once. You will have to turn many ba- pages of the Old Testament history until at long length you come to the actual appointment of Hazael king over Syria.
You won't find that until you come to two Kings chapter eight, and you'll still have to turn another page to two Kings chapter nine before you read of the appointment of Jehu to be king over Israel. So what is in fact happening is this, that God is announcing the coming judgment to Elijah as he stands on Carmel. The judgment at length will fall, but in between time, there is an interval, a respite, and it was precisely in that interval of time between the announcement of the judgment and the falling of the judgment that Eli- Elisha was appointed to perform his ministry.
We shall have to notice presently that when Elisha was appointed to perform his ministry, it was described like this: Him that escapes of the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. And I give notice of a question, or if you like to do some homework, uh, then I, I, I suggest a little homework. Elisha, as you see, is appointed to slay people. And you might care in the intervening weeks to read up the story and to ask yourselves, how many people did Elisha actually slay?
And what did God mean when he had Elisha appointed to slay those that escaped of the sword of Jehu? But leave that for a moment. We've got our number one point. Elisha ministered in the interval between an announcement of coming judgment and the actual falling of that judgment. You say, Mr. Preacher, you know, come to think about it, that isn't altogether unlike us in this Christian age. You say, before the Lord Jesus went, he announced a coming judgment.
Seated on the Mount of Olives, he solemnly declared that there would come a day of severe and unparalleled judgment on the Jewish nation. When whirlwind and fire and earthquake should eventually presage and introduce an unparalleled judgment that precedes the coming of the Lord Jesus in power and great glory. And you say he announced it before he went, but it hasn't come yet. We are privileged ourselves to be living in a time between the announcement of that coming judgment and the actual falling of that judgment upon men.
Living in an interval of grace and mercy, while God is calling men to repent in view of the fact that judgment has been announced, and one of these days must fall. Well, if you think like that, perhaps, um, you may take some encouragement from Saint- Saint Paul the Apostle himself. He thought like that too, didn't he? In fact, if you noticed in Romans chapter eleven, we read Paul quoting the very words of Elijah on Mount, uh, Horeb, and God's answer to Elijah on Mount Horeb. And Paul is to be heard saying in Romans chapter eleven, you know, my dear brethren, that just what happened to Elijah on Mount Horeb is nowadays happening to us Jews in Palestine and elsewhere around the Roman world.
Exactly what happened with Israel and Elijah on Mount Horeb is happening to the Jewish nation in our own day. So we shouldn't be altogether fanciful, should we, if we began to think like that? And where does the parallel lie? Well, God was announcing judgment, and Elijah, as he stands upon the mountain, is complaining to God, Israel have forsaken thy covenant, they've cast down your altars, they're with- are for murdering your prophets, Lord, and I only am left alone. What are you going to do about it, God? Guilty Israel, murdering the prophets that were sent to her, rejecting God's mercy messages of grace.
Till now, Elijah himself has had to run for his life. What will God do about him? Says God to Elijah, I shall bring judgment upon this nation, Elijah. That's what I shall do. But Elijah, though I'm going to bring sweeping judgment on this nation, yet have I left me seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to burn. Do you know, says Paul, it's just like that now, isn't it? For not only has Elijah come with his message of grace, but God's own son has come into our world.
Messiah himself has come, and Israel had rejected Messiah, and God has cast them off. But even so, not completely. For even now, there is a remnant according to grace, says Paul. Don't you remember what God said to Elijah? Yet have I left me seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal? Well, it's like that now. There are a- a- an election of grace from Israel. I am proud to be one of them, says Paul. One rescued out of that guilty nation of Israel that has rejected their Messiah, and I form part of that election according to grace.
So we are to think of this Old Testament situation, one of those early foreshadowings of what would happen to Israel when they rejected Elijah. It is but a fore picture of what happened when Israel at last rejected Jesus Christ as Son of God and Messiah, and God's wrath fell on them. In the fact that there was left a remnant under Elijah of faithful men, a prototype of the fact that in this age, when Israel rejected her Messiah, there would be left a remnant from Israel loyal to Messiah and believing still in God.
Harbinger and promise of greater things when at last Israel would be restored. And meanwhile, God in his mercy waiting, and God in his mercy sending out the gospel message so that Gentiles, who hitherto had not been favored as the people of God, could have a chance to hear the gospel and enter into salvation and be blessed of God in a singular fashion. Then, if you've been reading your Kings just recently, you'll say, oh yes, ah, just sent you that. And God's wrath fell upon Israel because of their rejection of Elijah.
And there was that interval, and then the final judgment fell upon Israel's nation. You'll say to me, yes, why, it was during that interval, wasn't it? During that interval that Naaman got healed. Yes, you say, that's so, Naaman got healed, but what's there so special about that? Oh, well, don't you remember what our Lord said? Standing amidst his fellow Jews and countrymen and townsmen in the synagogue of Nazareth, as they curled their lip against him and got ready to deny and reject his gospel, he said to his fellow townsmen, you know, there were many lepers in Israel, weren't there, in the times of Elisha the prophet, but none of them got healed, except Naaman the Syrian.
Hm. Or in that interval of time in the Old Testament, uh, God's mercies began to expand, and the Gentile Syrian Naaman was brought in and was cleansed and converted to the worship of the God of Israel. You say one swallow doesn't make a summer. No, I know, but one swallow will do, uh, as principle, and Naaman the Gentile brought into blessing and brought to faith in Israel's God in that ancient interval of time between the announcement of judgment and its falling upon the nation. We stand in just such a position, only thank God, instead of one Naaman, there are millions and millions of Naamans who, in this time of grace, this interval while between judgments being announced and judgments falling upon Israel and upon the world at large, have had the chance to hear the gospel, and Israel's rejection of it has meant that riches have come to the likes of us.
Elisha then began his ministry and finished it in that interval of grace against the dark backcloth of judgment. Unpleasant as it may be to have to do it, we must do it for God, God's word requires it of us. We have a glorious message to preach of new life, of new power, of forgiveness, of new strength, of new resources. We shall not see the significance of what we preach in all its fullness unless we are prepared honestly to face the background against which God would have us preach it.
What urgency is there to our gospel? Why should I bother about the coming mission? What really does the gospel do for anybody anyway? You say it makes them feel good. Who's I hope it does? There's something more. For whether men realize it or no, whether men feel very gloomy and have the blues, or whether they're feeling on top of the world and enjoying themselves very much, thank you, and feeling no need of salvation, the fact is that men are living in that interval between the announcement of the biggest judgment, this world has ever seen, and the falling of that judgment at the end of this age.
If only more Israelites had heard what God said in Elijah's ear up that mountain. If only more Israelites had heard what, uh, God said about those coming judgments upon Israel, I tell you, Israelites would have been queuing up to be saved. But I didn't know. And I didn't believe it. And an odd leper Gentile like Naaman, because he was ill and in great need, was moved to come all the way down to seek the prophet and to seek cleansing.
Uh, many a respectable Israelite, uh, didn't bother, didn't feel any urgency, didn't know that there was a coming judgment, and the sentence had already gone out. In their indifference, perished. Can happen to some of us sometimes, can't it, as believers? We lose the sense of urgency. Because we interpret the gospel as merely meeting our own emotional needs and bringing us satisfaction, and God be thanked, there is endless satisfaction in the gospel, and we forget that it's not just satisfaction we need, but first and foremost, deliverance from the wrath of God.
Let's spend some time together then thinking about this matter of God's wrath. Why must it come? Why said Elijah to God, it will have to come, God? Because they have rejected your prophets, and now they seek my life. And what was the significance of it? Well, Elijah had not always stood on Mount Horeb pleading against Israel. Earlier, he had stood on Mount Carmel pleading for Israel. And you must allow me to tell you the story. Why must the judgment come?
Well, for this reason. Israel under Omri, and even more under Ahab and Jezebel, had departed from the true and the living God and gone off to worship Baal, God of the Sidon. Did you say he was Baal when he was out there? Oh, Baal was, uh, first of all, the storm god. Some forms of Baal is a storm god. Impressive old god he was too. If you stood up there on the coast by Phoenicia when the Mediterranean had one of its wild moods on, you would have been impressed by Baal. Cool how he stormed out there at the sea with those, uh, white horsies and foam and spume and crashing waves and wind and goodness knows what else.
My, you would not have been impressed by old Baal, the storm god. Uh, some people, when they looked, thought they could see it, imagined to see a, a bull or two here and there raising its angry head amongst the foam, and they thought it was a god. The god of the storm. But they see there wasn't any god there at all. There was only a few drops of water and a few puffs of wind, and one or two physical things like that. The Israelites allowed themselves to forget the living god, began to bow down to the physical four feet of the universe.
And then Baal was, in some of his forms, a god of fertility. That's why he was likened to a bull. You know, if you had been an Israelite farmer, you know, and your whole business and prosperity depends on having fruitful herds, doesn't it? And of course, the old bull is chief among the, uh, people responsible that you shall have prosperous plots of cattle and herds of cattle. Because people didn't altogether understand the biological mysteries of fertility. Presently, forgetting the living God, they started to worship the physical mechanisms of life and reproduction and fertility.
I spe- repeat, they left the living God and worshipped and served the created thing, the created process. Can't help feeling that sometimes our modern man is getting perilously near doing the same, isn't it? Lost faith in the living God. His scientists have found out so many of the wonders of the atom and of the cell, they are altogether extraordinary, that some men, foolishly carried away by what little they know about atoms and cells, proudly assert that they don't believe there's any God out there.
It's the scientist with his manipulation of the cell. It's the scientist with his manipulation of the atom is going to bring society to its wonderful paradise that all men seek. They've left the living God to many men, and they worship still, and they put all their hope in and their trust in for building a new world and a new society. They put it in the old ship. Nothing wrong with silicon chips as bits of stuff that are useful if you know how they work, but to put your faith in them as the secret of planning a new world and making life a a glorious place for men to live in.
Pathetic, isn't it? If men have lost faith in the living God. Started to worship the mere creature. So when Israel went away from the living God and started to worship Baal, then God sent Elijah the prophet to bring them back. And God in his mercy, instead of bringing judgments upon Israel for their disobedience, in his patience, through Elijah once more brought his people back by demonstrating to these people who the living God is, who is the real God.
And that was a solemn occasion, wasn't it, when on Mount Carmel, God proceeded to demonstrate who the living God is, so that men might know for sure that there is a living God and who he is. And you say, how did God do that? Please tell me. Well, it was arranged, uh, with the priests of Baal and the Israelites on the one hand, and Elijah on the other, that they should call each upon his God. The priests of Baal should call upon Baal. Elijah should call upon Jehovah, and the God that answered, he should be the God, answered with a living voice.
God that answers, the God that speaks, he should be the living God. Well, the old priests of Baal, they had to go, and they got their sacrifice, and they called upon Baal. Baal, hear us! Baal did not. Cry again, says, suggested Elijah. Baal, hear us! There was no voice. Gone to the toilet, I reckon, said Elijah. Cry again. Or perhaps he'd gone out for hunting. Have another go. Baal, hear us! They got the knives out and slashed themselves till the blood ran red. There was no voice.
No answer. Oh, what a moment. Do I speak to somebody here that doesn't know the living God? And your faith is It merely in instincts sin. the material forces of the universe. My friend, there may well come a time when you'll start to cry, you'll need help. Time when you come to realize that you need help to get through life, and then if you don't know the living God, how sad it's going to be, isn't it? Cry for help!
Cry to your atom. You'll get no voice back. Cry to sun, moon, and stars. You'll get no voice back. Bow down in front of your computer and your silicon chip that hitherto has been solving your mathematical problems, and cry to it for some voice that will speak to your heart and tell you about eternity and the meaning of life, and no voice will come back unless it's your own being recorded on some paper or other. Let there be no true God. You are alone in the universe, crying to the wind, and there's no voice to answer.
Oh, how terribly lonely men are that don't know the living God. Little bits of life, stuck on a planet going round in space and trying to find meaning and calling in all directions. No voice, no answer. Man alone in the universe. Is there a voice to be heard? Who is this voice? There is a living God waiting to talk to men. Men need not be alone.
He made them to speak to them and talk to their hearts the message of his love and mercy. They run away after their false God. But now today, through Elijah, his servant, he will speak to them. He'll make himself known to them. He'll make himself known by speaking. And what on earth will he say? Consider how they've run away from God. How they've abandoned God. Have they left off talking to God for, for ages. Gone after empty nonsense.
Oh, God said. Will there be some thunder of rebuke? Some terrible announcement of judgment upon them for their apostasy? No such thing. God spoke that day, and he spoke by means of a sacrifice. Elijah put the sacrifice upon the altar and doused it with water and cried to the living God, in the name of Israel, a sacrifice offered for Israel's sake.
The living God responded by fire from heaven and accepted that sacrifice on behalf of guilty Israel. God spoke. Oh, what a moment in Israel's history, in the history of that erring and apostate nation, to discover God waiting to speak to them and make himself known, not in his judgment upon them, but in his judgment upon their sacrifice. And who can read the story of Mount Carmel without thinking of another mountain? They're living God.
Can he be heard to speak? Will he speak to me? Where can I hear him? What will he say? If there's a living God, we'll hear him on the mount called Calvary. We'll hear him speak in the voice that is heard from the central cross mouth, God, why have thou forsaken me? And the answer is, the judgment you deserve has fallen upon God's own spine.
This is God. This is God incarnate, dying for you. Speak to your heart. Is that what God is really like? Ponder it, friends. The Bible says that that is how God makes himself known to men by the preaching of the cross of Christ, wherein God speaks. Says that he loves you. That his son died for. What a message. And Israel for the moment rallied and came round Elijah and professed to repent.
And the priests of Baal were slain, and Israel, uh, said they would follow the Lord. And it wasn't a few days after that, but what Jezebel was chasing Elijah uphill and down dale, and Elijah was obliged to run for his life. Israel officially not only gone into apostasy after Baal, but Israel officially now in the person of king and queen, rejecting outright the message of God preached on Carmel. All right, what do you suppose the still small voice will say about that?
It doesn't matter. Words of comfort? I think not. Men will reject. The message of karma. There is nothing left. But judgment. If men will not have the grace of the sacrifice of Carmel, there is nothing left but the terror of the law. Of Mount Horeb.
When Elijah stood by that sacrifice on Mount Carmel and pleaded for Israel in the name of the living God and of the sacrifice he offered, there came showers of blessings. When Israel rejected that message, Elijah went and stood upon the Mount Horeb. We all know what Horeb stands for. There the law was given. I say, my good friend Hutterman, if Elijah were to go and stand on Mount Horeb tonight, where the law was given, and in the name of God's holy law began talking about you, what do you think God would have to say?
If we take our stand beside God's holy law, there's nothing what God can say except to condemn the sinner. And the sinner who has already rejected the sacrifice. In that context, God announced by that still small voice the most sweeping judgment that Israel up to that time had ever experienced. It was against that background why the judgment had been pronounced and before it fell, that Elisha was commissioned to go and preach.
Would you be surprised to find that it was that that added a sort of an edge of urgency to his work and ministry? But he really believed it. And once Hazael came and Jehu came, judgment would run red, as men and women were slain. Elijah was commissioned to go out and slay them, and some other things, that they might escape the sword of Hazael and Jesus.
Judgment is got, is pronounced. We better believe it. The only way to be saved is to face the fact, to ask how I can be delivered from that job. The Lord speak to our hearts. And in these coming weeks, before together we join in this gospel mission, in mission, examine our conscience.
Whether or no we really believe what we profess to prove. Oh, what a glorious message for sinners. God from God. The blessed sacrifice of Mount Calvary and the voice of God that speaks mercy through that, that cry. I say, what shall happen to folks if they hear it and reject it? They not reject it myself.
So we pray they don't. So we use what means we may to prevail upon them, to hear the faith, to hear the voice of God, to own themselves sinners, to declare themselves worthy of the judgment, and find the way of salvation that he has provided for. And if so we do, we, for all our littleness, will be miniature Elijah in our own day and generation.
