How Low Will You Go? Part 2

Servitude

1 Kings 19 KJV

16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. 17 And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. 18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. 19 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 by him, and cast his mantle upon him. 20 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? 21 And he returned back from him, and took a 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 Elijah, and ministered unto him.

In this scripture, we are at the point where Elijah just had his encounter with God in the cave and he is given instructions. He is told to go to Elisha and anoint him as his successor in the office of the prophet. He finds Elisha and throws his mantle upon him while he was working his field. He was the twelfth person in the team of ploughers working the field. This indicated that Elisha’s family were wealthy and that he was humble as he was not merely supervising the field, but he was working alongside the servants. Elijah threw his mantle upon him, and some theologians believe that this was an unspoken communication of an adoption taking place, so Elijah was now Elisha’s spiritual father. In 2 Kings 2:12 Elisha addressed him as “my father”. Elisha then uses the wood from the oxen to make a fire for the oxen that was being used to plough, to prepare a goodbye feast for family, servants and friends. Elisha’s immediate submission to what is implied is what I was really impressed by. He IMMEDIATELY and GLADLY put things in place to leave the comfort of a home, family, servants and friends to go and serve a Man of God that he was not fully acquainted with. Remember that Elijah was not a man known to have a home, he was content to live in caves and didn’t seem to have great possessions. Elisha was therefore in our eyes today stepping down low in order to serve a senior prophet.

How many of us would be willing to leave our well paying job with several benefits, and our comforts and relationships to go serve a Man of God that has less than you? Would you be willing to wait on this person hand and foot just because you know that you were his successor? 2 Kings 3:11 described him as “Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah.” This proved that he was not just learning about how to be a great prophet but he became Elisha’s personal servant. Being someone’s personal servant means that you are attentive to their needs, that your needs become secondary. Would we be willing to do this for a mantle or a calling? Today we simply want someone to lay hands over us and just become. But Elisha had to serve and serve well. Bible scholars believe that this happened over a 6-year period. Wow! so he had to humble himself in servitude for a prolonged period for the mantle of Elijah. In 2 Kings 2 when Elijah was going to be taken, Elisha refused to leave him. Three times Elijah told him to wait for him as he was instructed to go somewhere, and he refused to leave him. This kind of attitude and submission to the end saw Elijah asking Elisha what he wanted. Elisha’s response was that he wanted a double portion of his spirit, Elijah said this was a hard thing to ask, but this was granted to him, which resulted in Elisha doing twice as many miracles as Elijah!

Humbling ourselves and going low to serve those greater than us has rewards and promotions when done willingly and happily. There is no need to compromise in order to gain promotions. This principle holds true in the secular and religious world. God Himself remains the justifier of all men and humility will lead to promotion!