We know that Elisha was the successor to Elijah. When Elijah was taken up to heaven, Elisha called him the chariots of Israel and its horsemen. When Elisha himself was about to die, Joash the king also called him the chariots of Israel and its horsemen. We can see Elisha truly took over the mantle of Elijah as prophet to Israel.

This sermon will take a look at Elisha before he took over the mantle of Elijah; how he underwent some tests and was able to overcome them.
1st Test
Let us take a look at the first test of Elisha. It was also the first time his name appears in the Bible.

1 Kings 19:15-16
The Lord told Elijah some of the things he had to do. One of which was to anoint Elisha as prophet to take over him. These verses also talk a bit about the background of Elisha. He was the son Shaphat. He lived in Abel Meholah.

What does the name Elisha mean? We know that the word ‘Eli’ refers to God. Elijah means ‘my God is Jehovah’. His work was to demonstrate that the Lord is their God. Elisha means ‘God is my salvation’. His name is also very apt when we consider his entire ministry. In fact, many of the miracles that he performed show that God is the Saviour. Of course this name would also have been given by his father. To give Elisha the name ‘’my God is my Saviour’ shows Shaphat was a man of faith. More importantly, we know Elisha was a man of faith.

1 Kings 19:18
Here God tells Elijah that He had reserved 7000 in Israel whose knees had not bowed down to Baal, and whose mouths have not kissed Baal. We don’t know the population of Israel but it was probably a few hundred thousand. Only 7000 were left who hadn’t bowed or kissed Baal. These were people who preserved their faith. Why were there so few people left who worshiped God? At this time, Ahab was king. Jezebel was queen and manipulated Ahab. It was really one of the worst times being a worshipper of God. Jezebel killed the prophets of God, and sponsored the false prophets of Asherah. As a result, many Israelites became worshippers of Baal. Out of the many Israelites, only 7000 were left. It would’ve been very difficult for them to keep their faith.
Why?

1. Israel was an agricultural society.
   Such societies are usually very closely knit together. Religion in such societies are also a very communal activity. To maintain your faith when everyone is a worshipper of Baal would’ve been very difficult. The society we live in today is very individualistic. We aren’t really affected by others. Even if our neighbours call us a cult, we aren’t really affected. But in an agricultural society where everyone is closely knit, you would be very affected.

Bro Tutu/Pr Joshua told the speaker about an incident in the Chin Hills in Myanmar. It was a rural area with a close knit society. He had to deal with a matter in church that had spread even to people outside of the church. Everyone starts talking about you. Relatives talk about you. Even when he went to the marketplace, people talked about him! Life becomes very difficult when you’re ostracised in a tightly knit society.

This was also the case in Jesus’ time. Many people were afraid to acknowledge Jesus lest they get kicked out of the synagogue. There was a blind man who was healed by Jesus. When the parents were asked if that was their son and whether he was born blind, they knew their son was healed but their reply was to ask him themselves. They were afraid of being kicked out of the synagogue.

Yet we see these 7000 were able to keep their faith in such a challenging environment. Their faith was rare.

1. Jezebel was very fierce.
   She massacred the prophets of God. Those who didn’t die had to hide in caves. Obadiah hid 150 of them in caves. Elijah himself disappeared for 3.5 years after declaring a famine.

There were so many false prophets of false gods, but so few of God’s prophets to lead the people. In fact, none. Because all had gone into hiding.

It’s very very difficult when you’re alone with no one to lead you in your faith. It’s difficult enough for us to maintain our faith in Singapore when there are 4 services a week. What more these people with no prophets to lead them.

We can see this phenomena especially in newly pioneered areas. If you just baptise them and don’t follow up properly, many go back to their previous churches and even their previous religions.

A number of years ago, the speaker went to Myanmar. They visited a particular sister who lived very very far away. The first complaint was, “You all come and baptise us but then no one comes to lead us in our faith.” She was on her own in her faith in a remote place. As a clarification, there used to be a preacher who would go to remote places to baptise them; there wasn’t a proper follow up. Today, we try to do it carefully; to have proper follow up after baptism. In Africa, this preacher baptised thousands of people. Most of these members are no longer with us. But there is a very very small group who still holds on to their faith. There was a particular place the church couldn’t go to because of permit issues. After many years, they returned to that place. And their faith was still the same! These small group of believers held on to their faith. Their faith was really genuine.

The 7000 here were also really genuine in their faith. They were left to their own resources. But they kept what they originally believed.

1. A real threat to their lives
   Even if you’re not a prophet of God, but you observe the prophets of God being killed one by one, you’d still be afraid even if you’re just a member. Jezebel even threatened to kill Elijah! That’s why the 7000 had to scatter underground. Elijah didn’t even know of their existence! That’s why he complained he alone was left. God specially told Elijah there were 7000 He had preserved.

This was the very unfavourable environment Elisha had to keep his faith in. These 7000 had to keep their faith in a very very unfavourable environment.

Today, there’s a group that calls themselves 7000. They’re led by an excommunicated preacher. The speaker is not sure in what way they are like the 7000.

In the past, it was Jezebel who was very fierce that caused the believers to go underground. Today, these 7000 are more fierce than any of us. They’re openly writing against the church teachings. In the past, the 7000 had to hold on to their beliefs. Today, these 7000 write against their beliefs. In fact, the ring leader said this, “You should be willing to die spiritually! Be willing to be excommunicated.” No wonder they gave up their original beliefs; they were willing to lose their spiritual lives.

The original 7000 weren’t willing to give up their spiritual lives, but their physical lives. That’s why when everyone is against them, everyone is worshipping Baal, when there was no one to lead them, they held on.
Elisha was one of these honourable 7000. This was the first test he had to pass. He had to hold on to his faith despite the unfavourable environment against him.
2nd test
1 Kings 19:19-20
When Elijah found Elisha, Elisha was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. He was with the 12th. Each yoke of oxen would be a pair so there were 24 oxen. He was probably not driving all these 24, because there were people who later ate with him in v21 (probably servants of his father).

Most likely, Elisha came from a rich background, because he had 12 yoke of oxen. You’d need a lot of land to need that many oxen. So Elisha wasn’t from a poor background.

A Chinese saying: 富二代
This literally means the rich second generation. Many of them don’t work. They just live off their parents’ wealth. They spend their days loitering around enjoying themselves. We see Elisha was nothing like the rich second generation. Plowing is no easy task. When Elijah found him, Elisha wasn’t loitering but plowing in the fields with the servants. Before he became an esteemed prophet of God, he was already a useful person in society.

There’re other examples in the Bible too.
Daniel was impeccable in his work. Even when the enemies wanted to find fault with him, they couldn’t. Jesus Himself worked as a carpenter before beginning His ministry. No wonder Jesus says if we’re faithful in little, we’d be faith in much.

Elisha had a rich background. But he worked hard in the fields.

Next we take a look at his response to Elijah’s calling. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. Elisha left the oxen and ran after Elijah.

Take a step back and put ourselves in his shoes. What would you do? Imagine someone out of the blue asks you to be a full time preacher. How would you react? Most of us would say no. Some of us would say, “Let me go back. I need to talk to my parents/wife/grandparents/etc.” Yesterday, the sermon speaker said he took 3 months to think about being a preacher. But how did this Elisha respond? He responded IMMEDIATELY. Elisha must’ve been very very close to God. You don’t suddenly come out and say “I’ll work full time for God!” without any mental preparation. If he hadn’t thought about it before, he wouldn’t have been able to respond so immediately.

Coming out to be a prophet then is of course much worse than coming out to be a preacher today. Your life would be really threatened. In the past, he could still hide underground. Now he has to make himself open and known. The king, if he remained an idol worshipper, would kill him. In fact in 2 Kings there really was a king who wanted to behead Elisha because of a famine he blamed Elisha for.

Life as a prophet then was also much tougher than life as a preacher today. He had to suffer hunger. Some miracles performed were just to feed the “sons of the prophets” (i.e. other prophets. [Similar to how “the sons of Israel” refer to Israelites]).

They had to undergo a lot of sufferings. They were poor. They didn’t have food to eat. No. But their poverty was embraced. In fact, this was what Elisha told Gehazi when Gehazi went behind his back and tried to get money from Naaman.

2 Kings 5:26b
“Is it time to receive money and to receive clothing…?”
In other words, this isn’t the time to accumulate wealth. As a prophet, this was the mentality they had to have.

Some people who come out full time don’t know the price they have to pay. But Elisha knew the cost. He knew he would be a rich man’s son turned poor son of a prophet. Yet Elisha responded immediately to the out of the blue calling of God. He left his oxen and ran after Elijah.

Let us continue to look at Elisha’s request as he caught up with Elijah.
1 Kings 19:20
“Please let me kiss my father and mother and then I will follow you.”
Some of us who know the New Testament well may suddenly have a question. This sounds like the request of one of the disciples who wanted to follow Jesus.

Luke 9:61
This disciple sounds like Elisha. “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
Why was this disciple’s request spoken against by Jesus? What’s the difference between his request and Elisha’s? God is the same. He doesn’t show favouritism.

Luke 9:57-62
As they were going on the road, three disciples met Jesus. We take a look at them.

First disciple (read v57-58)
It was clear this man hadn’t thought through things carefully. He probably thought it was glorious to follow Jesus. Jesus told him there was a whole lot of suffering, He didn’t even know where He could lay His head. But Elisha knew what he was getting into. He embraced the hardship he was getting in.

Second disciple (read v59-60)
Going back to bury your father is a very simple request right? It’s also the duty of a son. Why did Jesus say, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the Kingdom of God.”
If we understand Jewish burials in the 1st C, we’d understand better why Jesus said this. How the Jews bury the dead is to do it very quickly. The corpse is usually not kept overnight. In fact, the description also fits the Bible: when Jesus arrived, Lazarus was already in the tomb. The way they bury is: once the person dies, they’d quickly embalm, put spices and bury the body. So it’s very unlikely the person hasn’t buried his father yet, because Jesus and His disciples were on the road. If his father had just died, he would be at home tending to matters instead of on the road.

There’re two explanations:
1) Here doesn’t really say the father died. Just that the man said his father had died. Perhaps it was an untrue excuse.
2) More related to the custom of the Jews. If the parents die, the Jews have a secondary burial in the 1st C. They’d take the bones of the parents and transfer it to a final resting place.

So either his father didn’t really die and he was giving an excuse or it is the case of the second burial.

Whatever the case, it is fact Jesus went specially to look for him. If Jesus called him, he should’ve been ready to come out and follow Him. But he just gave some random excuse. He wanted to shirk his spiritually responsibilities.

This wasn’t the case with Elisha. He didn’t come up with any excuse to shirk his responsibilities.

Third disciple (v61)
The third disciple was most like Elisha. At first glance this person is like Elisha. He wanted to bid his family farewell. Elisha too. How do we reconcile this then?

Two persons may say the same thing but think differently. In fact, in v62, Jesus reveals what he was thinking in his heart. That person had two minds about going into the ministry. He wanted to go into the ministry; he had put his hand to the plow. But he also looked back like Lot’s wife. He was very confused.

If we take a closer look at this disciple, Jesus didn’t call this disciple like He did for the second one. This person was along the road and said he wanted to follow Jesus. If he had set his mind to follow Jesus, he should’ve said bye to his home first and followed Jesus. That’s why Jesus said he was looking back; he had two minds.

Elisha was not like this.

1 Kings 19:21
Elisha turned back not because he had two minds about following Elijah. In fact, he turned to fully cut himself from his previous way of life. He wasn’t looking back like the disciple in Luke 9. He took the oxen he was on and cooked it, and gave his equipment away to the people. There was no turning back for Elisha. He was fully resolved to follow Elijah to the very end.
3rd test
2 Kings 2
The final test of Elisha was when Elijah was to be taken up to heaven. Elijah was sent from Gilgal to Bethel. Then Jericho. Finally to Jordan. Thrice Elijah told Elisha to stay. Thrice Elisha replied, “As long as the Lord lives, I will not leave you.” He was resolved to follow to the very end.

Twice the sons of the prophets came out to talk to him, “Don’t you know your master is going to be taken away today?” Twice he replied, “I know. Keep quiet.” Elisha would not be deterred by anyone to stop following Elijah.

If we were in his shoes, would we have stopped halfway? Oftentimes we have a lot of determination initially. But sometimes we waver as time goes by.

Elisha was different.

When Elijah called Elisha, Elisha told him, “Please let me kiss my father and mother. And then, I will follow you.” He would follow Elijah to the very end. And he did.

Because he knew this call wasn’t from Elijah but from God. No one was going to stop him. Even Elijah wasn’t going to stop him.

What we see is his resolution to follow right to the very end. We see his perseverance. And we also see his final reward. He received a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.

Even in the world, we need to go to the very end to see the final result. This is even more true. It’s not enough that we start well. It’s not enough that we’re doing well. It only counts if we persevere right to the very end.
Conclusion
Therefore let us learn from the tests Elisha overcame:

1. He kept his faith despite an unfavourable environment
2. He responded in faith to Elijah’s calling
3. He was resolved and resolute to follow right to the very end

We have also all been called to follow Christ. Will we also be able to be like Elisha to persevere to the very end? May God help us.