Seeing God (part 1)

The best stories begin with God: “The Lord said to him [Elijah], ‘Go back
the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get
there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king
over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed
you as prophet’ ” (1 Kings 19:15–16).

And so, aware that his work on earth was almost finished, the old prophet
Elijah turned again toward the land of Israel, to the village of Abel Meholah.
The rest of 1 Kings 19 tells the story. There Elijah found Elisha, Shaphat’s son,
dutifully working the ground, “driving the twelfth” of twelve pairs of oxen,
eating the dust of eleven plows that were turning the soil in front of him.

The old prophet slipped up behind the young man and cast his rough,
camel-hair mantle over his shoulders and moved on. Not a word was spoken,
but Elisha understood. “When a great teacher died,” Sir John Malcolm wrote
in his History of Persia, “he bequeathed his patched mantle to the disciple
he most esteemed . . . His mantle was his all and its transfer marked out his
heir.” The mantle was a symbol of Elisha’s call to the prophetic office.

Elisha’s response was immediate: He left his oxen and “set out to follow
Elijah.” Thus his work began.

For a time Elisha did little more than minister to the physical needs of the
old prophet, “pour[ing] water on his hands,” as the idiom puts it (2 Kings
3:11). It was a time of humble, obscure service. But he learned at the feet of
his master. He listened well, determined to let none of Elijah’s words fall to
the ground.

In turn, Elijah ministered to Elisha, strengthening the young man’s grip
on God. The old man knew there was no better way to spend his last days.

But earthly things must come to an end, and God informed Elijah that
He was calling him home. Elijah, knowing that his departure was imminent
and determined to leave a lasting legacy, asked his disciple, “What can I do
for you before I am taken from you?” (2 Kings 2:9). It was a door flung wide
open, a chancy carte blanche, yet Elijah knew that Elisha would not ask for
anything that God would not bestow.

Elijah’s confidence was well placed. Elisha’s reply showed the stuff of which
he was made. He sought neither prestige nor power but a “double portion”
of Elijah’s spirit.

What did Elisha want? To be considered Elijah’s eldest son, heir to his
influence and successor to his work, for the “double portion” was the inheritance
of the firstborn son (Deuteronomy 21:17).

Elisha knew he would succeed Elijah in his work, but he knew he could not
take on its responsibilities and face its perils without adequate resources. He
was eager to seek the Spirit that had endowed the older prophet with power
from on high, for Elisha knew that he was a mere man—weak and feckless
apart from God. If he was to do the work God had called him to do, he must
have all of God to do it.

Elijah replied, “If you see me when I am taken from you, it [the double
portion] will be yours—otherwise not” (2 Kings 2:10). There was nothing
arbitrary in this test. It was utterly suitable, for God’s work requires the ability
to “see.”

Taken from Seeing God, © 2006 by David Roper. Used by permission of Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566, Grand Rapids MI 4950l. All rights reserved.