Thurs 6th August – Read 1 Kings 19:19-21:

Thurs 6^th August   –  Read 1 Kings 19:19-21:

V19:  Elijah is again in God’s will and obedient to His command – surely God’s revelation of Himself has restored him. He goes first to find Elisha, who is ploughing his father’s land. The 12 yoke of Oxen indicate a wealthy, perhaps influential, family, probably very different from Elijah’s own background. God calls His people from all walks and conditions of life. The cloak appears to be symbolic of the prophetic office, and of God’s call to it.

V20:  Elisha knows at once he has been called to follow Elijah, and asks to be allowed to go and say farewell to his parents. Elijah’s brusque response may puzzle us. Does he suspect the kind of limited response Jesus speaks of in Matthew 8:21-22, where the point is that the father is not yet dead, and the man seeks to delay his commitment? Or more likely, is he simply testing Elisha, will he truly follow or will he be easily put off?

V21:  Elisha does go back home for a while, but only to offer the oxen with which he had been ploughing as a sacrifice to God, and feast ” the people” – his servants? – with their flesh. He is surely saying farewell to, and putting off his old life to heed God’s call. Then he goes to follow Elijah, first as his servant/assistant. There was surely to be a period of preparation for service, which Scripture does not record, serving and learning from the older prophet.