“Elijah the Tishbite” is all we are ever given to know of his parentage and locality. He suddenly appears upon the scene, standing before Ahab with the suddenness of motion true to this day, characteristic of the Bedouins. A girdle of skin round his loins, which he tightened when about to move quickly. In addition to this, he occasionally wore a “mantle” or cape of sheepskin. It was in this mantle that he wrapped his face at the entrance of the cave to listen to the “still small voice.” For the first time, he heard the name of his successor, Elisha, whom he was to anoint to be prophet in his room.
Elijah departed and found Elisha ploughing. There was very little conversation between them. Elijah walks up to Elisha and throws over his shoulders the rough mantle. This was a token of investiture with the prophet’s office and adoption as a son. Elisha did not delay only to give his mother and father the farewell kiss and to preside at the parting feast with his people. Thus he followed the prophet Elijah straightway.
For about eight years nothing is heard concerning Elisha, other than he poured water on the hands of Elijah, or in other words, that he served Elijah, until the day they both arrive at Gilgal, probably on the western edge of the hills of Ephraim. Here the prophet received the divine intimation or revelation that his departure was at hand. A school of prophets had been established at Gilgal by Samuel, as well as others at Bethel and Jericho. The revelation was not in any way a secret, God speaking and telling even the manner of his going.
Elijah sets out for hie last walk, Elisha makes ready to go with him, when the elder begins to counsel the younger. “No, my son, it would be much better for you to stay here with the other prophets. The school is well organized, has some fame throughout the years. Besides, you know and have been a witness to the kind of life I have had. Men, kings, queen do not want to be told the truth and they hate the one who dares to tell them. This is not an easy life to the flesh. There is always plenty to do here and I’ll go on to Bethel alone.”
Elisha had spiritual tenacity. He preferred the hard way. “As the Lord liveth and thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.”
They arrive at Bethel. The prophets rush out. “We have the latest prophecy, did you hear? Your master will be taken away from you today.” They had the right prophecy, but that is as far as they got with it. “Hold your peace. Don’t be such show-offs. Keep quiet! See, we have the confirmation,” but this was not a vital thing to them at all.
Elijah starts to counsel the young prophet again. “You see, my son, you could stay here at Bethel, they love the Lord here, it would be far easier on you to be joined up with someone than to try it alone. Remember when I had to hide by the brook and wait for the ravens to bring me my food, and when the brook dried up, I had to take the last meal of a poor widow and her son?”
“Yes,” answered Elisha, “but the miracle that you did there was a means of saving her and her son from starvation. Then later, God’s glory was greatly manifested when you raised that same boy from the dead. No, I cannot turn back, I must continue with you.”
Now they are at Jericho. These prophets were about as far advanced as the ones at Bethel. The most important part to them was that they had the message but no desire to follow. Elisha was calm as ever, telling them to be quiet as he realized it took more than having a message. Real determination was needed to go through with God.
Elijah, now insistent, “See here, son, you have seen these three schools of prophets. They are studying theology. You haven’t had this education. You can get into the whys and wherefores of everything. They have famous professors. With me, it has been as you know. You can never tell what a new day will bring forth, never know to whom you may have to stand before. Remember how Jezebel pursued me until I despaired of my life. Let’s face it, son, the way of the supernatural never pays off in the way the flesh would figure. People will blame on you what they are guilty of themselves. I Kings 18:17. You will have to stand before kings and false prophets and call their bluff. I beg of you to stay here at Jericho and I will go on to Jordan now.”
“I’m not leaving you, I am following on. I’m going with you to the end.” All of this while fifty of the famous school of prophets took time out from their studies to stand afar off and see what would happen now.
They stand, the two of them at the side of the Jordan. A miracle is needed now. This is to be the last for Elijah. The mantle is doubled again, the waters are smitten, and the two go over on dry ground to the other side of the Jordan. Their earthly ways are now at an end. “All right now, Elisha, tell me what it is that you want, I shall do for you. The time has come when you can go no further with me, my time is now very limited, make it quick and to the point.” Elisha did not have to stop and wait on the Lord, he knew what he wanted. He knew that though this was the end for Elijah on earth, that God would carry on His plan in the earth and he wanted to be in the place where he could be used in that plan. He answers, “I beg of you to let me have just twice as much as you have of the Spirit of God.” This is a hard thing that you have asked, my son, more difficult than a doctorate you could earn by your own merit and by study, than you could get a degree, but what you ask for must come from God. Even though you have been faithful these eight years and have persisted as none other, there is still another factor, you must see me as I go.” There is an “If.” “All the other merits will avail for nothing if you do not see me go.”
Again they walked and talked. It seems to me that Elijah clasped Elisha to his bosom saying, “Oh God, here is one that made the grade, one who will go all the way through, one for whom it was not in vain.” “You have asked a hard thing, I can tell you what I will do, you must see me as I am taken. I’ll cast my robe down, you can catch it immediately and it will still have the same virtue as always, used in the hands of one who believes the same as I.” They were very intent on these last instructions when God’s sovereign hour arrived for Elijah’s departure. The chariot and the horses of fire, the whirlwind. They were parted asunder. Elisha would not have let it be otherwise. Elisha saw it. The mantle fell at his feet.
“My father, my father,” what a relationship. Greater than anything on this earth. That was the last he saw of his father, the prophet, on this earth. He did not esteem his own clothes, he tore them asunder and took up that precious, miraculous mantle of his father, Elijah, and challenged the Lord God of his father. The waters of the Jordan receded as he smote with the same strength of faith.
The fifty prophets were watching the whole performance. They were waiting to see if it really would work. They saw the waters part, and the young prophet get back the same way he had gone over to the other side. Still they were doubting. They had had so much higher criticism, and now they would be called upon again to give their point of view on this latest miracle. They urged Elisha to let fifty of them look for Elijah as they thought he could have been dropped on a mountain peak or in some valley. Three days they spent on ground work. No results from their fleshly pursuits. These prophets had vision, revelation, and prophecy but no faith.
At once, Elisha got into a channel of the gifts, knowledge, miracles, healings were done by him. Waters were healed, irreverence cursed, Israel saved out of the hands of the Moabites. The widow and her sons are saved from being sold into bondage. A child is born to the childless Shunammite and then is raised from the dead after he had died. All of this until he comes once again to the school of the prophets where he started out with Elijah on that last walk.
There was a dearth in the land, the prophets sitting around waiting for something to happen. Perhaps very heavenly minded, but Elisha was right down to earth. He knew that even the prophets needed to eat. He did not perform a miracle but called for the big pot to be set on, he told the prophets to get going. There were herbs to be gathered. There was lack of discernment of herbs and gourds among them. All had gathered edible herbs, but the one who had not been humble enough to ask the others how to discern good from bad. He gathered plenty but poisonous. The others did not examine them when they were brought to the pot. They were cut up into the pot. Not until the poison struck at their entrails did they cry out, “O thou man of God, there is death in the pot.” If they ever needed a miracle, it was at that moment. What if the man of God, who had the gift of miracles, had not been there? Their doctor’s degrees would have gone begging at the end of the year. No one would have been there to have claimed them. What school had Elisha attended? Where did he get these gifts? Wisdom and knowledge were used, also faith in action. All the soup was put back into the pot, the meal was thrown in at Elisha’s command, and it was again dished up and served to the prophets, who ate without fear.
“There is death in the pot.” Today we see those who have little or no discernment. They have not been willing to be taught and have resisted correction stubbornly. They have gone out into the supernatural and have gathered “wild gourds.” Instead of faith, they have stepped on presumptuous territory. None seem to notice it. These poisonous herbs have been mixed in with the good. There has been no testing or trying of the spirits. So this goes on from meeting to meeting. Elisha did nothing about the poisonous pottage until he was called upon to do so. There are many who have not recognized or realized that they are in danger. They have not felt the death pangs as yet, but they will. The prayer for them should be that they catch it in time.
God said to Adam and Eve, “But the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” God only said this once, but the serpent heard it and repeated part of it to Eve. Eve listened and exaggerated what God had said. The serpent said to her, “Ye shall not surely die.” So they ate and lived, they thought, but they were dying while they were living. Adam and Eve swallowed the poison of disobedience, through the disregarding of God’s Word. Satan had his way. He is doing all possible today to play havoc and take his toll on the vital organs of the “Body of Christ.” Satan says, “You don’t have to regard God’s Word in every detail, small matters that don’t count. Just brush over that and launch out in the Spirit over all of the petty things. In this way, your eyes will be opened more and more, and you will see greater visions and have more prophecies.”
“Your eyes will be opened.” This is the lie he told Eve. Their eyes were opened, all right, but to the wrong things. They saw that they were naked and tried to remedy their condition in vain. The damage had been done, and the world was sold out to the enemy and sin, by one sin of disobedience to the Word of God.
“Death,” said Adam and Eve. “We ate, and we didn’t die. We are very much alive.” However, the day came when they were called to look at the blood-soaked corpse of their obedient, spiritual son who had been slain by his disobedient brother. Then, and not until then, did they taste the bitterness of their failure and sin as they reaped the results of their own sowing. Death stared them in the face. Abel was dead, yet he lived and will live eternally because of his obedience. His blood cried out from the ground. Martyrs’ blood cries and has cried throughout the ages. This blood has a voice and the cry is for vengeance. Revelation 6:9,10.
What shall it be? Death to self, to the old man and all of his evil ways and deeds? Or the sleep of death that knows not that “death is in the pot” of presumption and self-will? Recognize where we are as the pangs come and call out, “O thou man of God, there is death in the pot,” so that something can be done in time to save the inevitable and unavoidable end.
