Well friends, I'm very grateful to be with you and what a beautiful place this is.
I've never been here before.
I mean, I've been around Lake Macquarie before, but I haven't been to this particular spot.
It really is lovely, isn't it?
I'm looking forward to seeing it in the morning.
And congratulations on getting here.
It's very difficult on a Friday afternoon, Friday evening to get to places in particular.
Congratulations to anyone who's come with children.
I always admire very much parents with young kids who manage to get away to weekends like this.
It's really, really hard work.
You probably won't get any sleep tonight if you're in that category.
They'll sleep tomorrow night.
They'll be absolutely exhausted.
But well done for coming because it really is worthwhile and a great contribution to everyone else that you make the effort to be here.
I'm sure that a number of people in that category will have understandably decided to come tomorrow.
They're the wimps, of course.
But that's understandable.
We look forward to welcoming them.
Friends, this weekend I'm doing something I haven't done before and I warn you of that.
I'm not sure it's going to work all that well.
So you're the guinea pigs.
I want to look with you a little bit at this extraordinary, extraordinary man in the pages of the Bible by the name of Elisha.
We'll only be having some glimpses.
And particularly tonight I'm going to be just really talking around introducing the subject, looking at why we're looking at this subject, trying to set some sort of context for it.
And we will before we get to the end, at least that's my plan, we will actually meet Elisha briefly tonight.
And then we'll be dipping into just a few little points in his life.
The story is a big story, a really, really important story for reasons that I hope will become clear.
But it's a strange thing to be doing.
Elisha lived round about 850 years before the birth of Jesus.
So we're going back a long, long way.
He was living in Israel, that part of the world that always seems to be turbulent.
And it was turbulent in his days.
But you could be forgiven if you start wondering, come on, of all the things we could be doing this weekend, of all the things we could be thinking about in our troubled world,
if all the things we could be putting our minds to, you're going to take us back 2,000 plus 850 years to look at a man way back then?
Yes, that's what we're going to do.
And I hope that you will see that it really is a very, very important thing that we're doing.
So before we introduce him, I want to spend a few minutes thinking about why we're doing this.
The Bible is remarkable.
Now I think if you're a Christian person you know that.
But I wonder whether we appreciate just how remarkable.
I've been reminded recently of the dimensions of how remarkable the Bible is.
I've been reading what I think is quite an important new book by a highly respected historian by the name of Tom Holland.
He's not a Christian believer.
That's important to remember.
He's not a Christian believer.
But he demonstrates in this major book, it's a big book, and it's been very widely read and it's very widely respected.
And he demonstrates that it was the Bible that introduced to the world ideas like human rights, equality, freedom, tolerance,
and quite a number of other really important values that are recognised and valued by almost everyone in a country like Australia.
We have debates around them, of course.
But there are not that many people in Australia who want to dismiss those ideas as not valuable ideas.
And what he demonstrates is that apart from the influence of the Bible, societies and cultures have not developed those important concepts.
And he has come to understand that almost everything that he loves in today's world, although he himself is not a Christian believer,
has come from the influence of the Bible.
He has this really intriguing question.
He asks, this is one of many questions.
He asks, how did the human race ever learn, listen to this one, how did the human race ever learn that it is more noble to suffer than to inflict suffering?
Now, I think if you talk to almost anyone in Australia today, they'd agree with that proposition as a generalisation.
Okay?
That it's more noble to suffer than to inflict suffering.
Tom Holland points out that no ancient society believed that.
And it was the suffering of Jesus on the cross and the impact of the gospel message about the death of Jesus on the world where that message has gone
that taught us, that was unheard of in the world before.
Or in the world uninfluenced by Jesus, that is, by the Bible.
I found the Tom Holland story quite fascinating.
I still can't quite work out why he isn't a Christian, but he's not.
And he's quite emphatic that he's not.
That's another story.
But he's a man who, in his youth, in his childhood, did go to Sunday school and learnt the Sunday school stories.
And he tells the story of how, in those days, he found that he was much more interested by all the bad people in the Bible.
He was fascinated by the Egyptians and the Romans and the Babylonians and the Assyrians.
And he grew up to become a historical scholar.
And he's written major books, major scholarly books on those groups of people.
But he came to a point about something like 15, 20 years ago, when he said,
I'm fascinated by the Assyrians, the Babylonians and the Egyptians and the Romans, but I don't love them.
I love the culture that I have been brought up in, and I love lots of things about it, but I don't love any of these cultures.
And so he set out on a scholarly exercise, and it took about 15 years, and only last year this book was published,
where he came to the conclusion, and it's being widely accepted, it is being debated, but it's being widely accepted.
I'm quite sure he's right.
He's right on the money and the conclusions he's come to.
But he's come to the conclusion that all of those things that he loves, like respect for human rights,
like the equality of human beings, like it's more noble to suffer than to inflict suffering,
the things that he sees as quite distinctive have all come from the Bible.
However, it's more than that.
And I'm not sure that Tom Holland actually grasps this bit.
Because the Bible has had this powerful impact on the world, and so much of the world,
as a side effect of its main purpose.
See, the Bible's own claim is that in this book, God himself addresses the human race.
That's what the Bible claims.
It is not primarily a book about human rights, and equality, and freedom, and tolerance, and suffering, and so on.
It's a book about the God who created all things, and who has done so purposefully,
and is committed to bringing his good purposes for all things to completion.
The Bible tells us the story that makes sense of the world and of human life.
True sense.
As we read and learn from the Bible, we're learning from God himself, from our Creator.
The Bible is what God wants humans to know, as they live the lives that he has given them in the world that he has made.
If that's what the Bible is, and Tom Holland doesn't get this,
but if that's what the Bible is, it's no surprise that it's had a huge impact,
and that the impact has been so very, very largely for good,
indisputably for good,
on the societies and cultures into which the Bible has come,
and been heard, and had an impact.
But that is a side effect of the purpose of the Bible,
which is summed up in the words, I'll just take the words of 2 Timothy 3, verse 15,
if you're taking notes, which describes the Bible like this,
the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Now friends, that's what God wants us to know.
That's how our lives connect to God's purpose for the whole of his creation.
As we listen to the Bible, any and every part of the Bible,
we can learn lots of things.
We can learn about human rights and equality and freedom and so on.
That's fine.
But God's purpose for the Bible, that he has given us,
is that we will be drawn to Jesus Christ,
and that we'll learn to trust him,
and so be saved.
Now let's remember that,
as we travel back in time,
to the 850s BC,
to meet the remarkable man whose story we'll be glancing at together.
We'll just be dipping into his story.
We'll start in a few moments.
We're going to leave an awful lot of his story untouched,
but that's all right.
That's the limited time we have.
The man's name, as I've mentioned,
is Elisha,
and his story starts in the passage that was read to us a few moments ago
at the end of 1 Kings 19.
His story continues into the book of 2 Kings,
and since my guess is that these books,
1 and 2 Kings,
are not exactly the most familiar books in the Bible,
I want to take a few moments now to sketch what 1 and 2 Kings are about.
Okay, we're doing a lot of introductory work tonight.
Sorry we're doing that on a Friday night when everybody's a bit weary,
but just see if you can bear with me.
Stand up and walk around if it helps,
whatever you want to do.
But I want to sketch what these books of 1 and 2 Kings are about,
and we're going to think,
well, what's the significance of the story they tell
before we come back and look at this particular character?
1 Kings,
and the notes might help you just to follow what I'm saying here.
1 Kings begins with who?
Tell me who's at the beginning of 1 Kings.
Who's the big guy at the beginning of 1 Kings?
Solomon, yes.
Solomon.
Solomon, the son of?
The great King David.
And at the beginning of 1 Kings,
Solomon becomes king.
King of God's Old Testament people, Israel.
And what a king he was.
I don't know whether you've read the story of Solomon's kingdom recently.
I have.
You may remember that God had made a promise to David,
Solomon's father,
that a son of David would one day reign over a kingdom
that would never end.
That promise is back in 2 Samuel chapter 7.
Christians know that the son of David
who fulfills that promise really is Jesus.
But long, long before Jesus,
there was David's son Solomon.
And for a short time,
it would have been possible to think
that Solomon's kingdom was the promised kingdom
because it was so good.
It was a kingdom of peace.
There was no war.
There was no conflict.
There were no external threats.
It was a kingdom of prosperity.
The economy went really, really well
in King Solomon's kingdom.
And Solomon himself was a good king.
A wise king.
And I reckon,
if you'd been there,
then,
you may well have thought,
this is it.
We've arrived.
This is not only what God promised David,
it's what God promised Abraham
centuries earlier again.
That the descendants of Abraham
would enjoy God's blessing
and they would be a blessing to the world.
That's what Solomon's kingdom felt like.
It felt like we'd arrived.
It was so, so good.
One of the things that Solomon did,
perhaps the most important thing he did,
was to build a magnificent building in Jerusalem.
We often call it the temple.
The Bible doesn't actually call it the temple.
Sorry, in 1 and 2 Kings,
it's not called the temple.
It's called the house for the name of the Lord.
We're not going into any more details of Solomon here,
but life in Solomon's kingdom
could be summed up by the words
of 1 Kings 4, verse 20.
It goes like this,
Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea.
They ate and they drank and they were happy.
Good days.
No bushfires.
No coronavirus.
None of the troubles of our world.
It was a great, great time.
It was, in fact, an anticipation,
a kind of foretaste, if you like,
a kind of picture of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can now see that looking back.
The kingdom that Jesus will finally bring.
And as such, Solomon's kingdom was the high point
of the whole Old Testament story.
But, as I'm sure you know,
Solomon's kingdom did not last.
Indeed, one of the lessons of the story of Solomon's kingdom
is this,
that Solomon,
great and good though he was,
was not great or good enough.
And indeed, in his old age,
he lost the plot badly.
He got involved with a whole lot of foreign women
who, we're told in 1 Kings chapter 11,
turned away his heart after other gods
and his heart was not wholly true
to the Lord his God.
And he introduced the worship
of these other gods into Israel.
And with them,
the corruption that always goes
with having gods that are not God.
And to cut a long story short,
Solomon's great kingdom collapsed.
After he died,
it split into two inferior kingdoms.
That's 1 Kings chapter 12.
In the north,
was the kingdom that retained the name Israel.
To the south,
there was a smaller kingdom
that was known as Judah.
Judah had Jerusalem.
Judah had the house for the name of the Lord
that Solomon had built.
The throne in Judah
was passed on generation after generation
to descendants of David and Solomon.
But in Israel,
the northern bit,
the northern breakaway kingdom,
the throne kept changing hands,
very often by an assassination
or a coup of some kind.
The kings in the north consistently adopted
and maintained policies
to keep their people away from Jerusalem,
away from the house for the name of the Lord,
away from the son of David
who was reigning down there,
away from any possibility of them hearing
the promises that God had made to his people,
promises that they may well hear
if they went to Jerusalem.
Well, eventually,
a king came to power
in the north
who was the worst king Israel had ever known.
He was the seventh king
up there in the north
in the first 50 years
of the breakaway kingdom of Israel
and his name was Ahab.
He married a foreign pagan wife.
His name has become quite famous.
She was Queen Jezebel.
Jezebel was a fanatical worshipper
of the pagan god Baal.
All this is at the end of 1 Kings chapter 16.
And these were very dark days in Israel.
Jezebel, I tell you,
she was one powerful lady.
Ahab was weak, really.
And the worship of Baal,
which Jezebel was so keen on,
was pushed and promoted
while the worshippers of the Lord
were persecuted.
Many of them, in fact, were killed.
Well, it's in these days,
King Ahab, Queen Jezebel,
it's in these days
that an utterly extraordinary man
suddenly appears in the story.
You're not given much background.
He just sort of appears.
His name was Elijah.
Not Elisha yet.
Elijah.
And the meaning of Elijah's name
is my God is Yahweh.
Are you familiar with Yahweh?
Yahweh is the name of God
in the Old Testament.
It's represented in our Bibles
when they put L-O-R-D in capital letters.
Behind that is the Hebrew name Yahweh.
My name is Yahweh.
My name is the Lord.
I sort of imagine Elijah coming in.
You've got to remember that
in the Hebrew language,
the names, the meanings of names
are very obvious.
If you're a speaker of the language.
And so Elijah would have come in
and said,
Hello, Your Majesty.
My God is Yahweh.
He was sort of introducing himself,
but he was making a statement
at the same time.
And Elijah,
giant of a man that he was,
made a huge impact
on Ahab
and on the people
of the Northern Kingdom.
I'm sure you can remember
the most famous event
in which that happened.
That was on Mount Carmel
when Elijah confronted
the 450 prophets of Baal
and demonstrated
who really is God
in no uncertain terms.
That's 1 Kings chapter 18.
Well, it was not long after
that spectacular event
that Elisha
enters the story.
We're going to come back
to that moment
very shortly.
1 Kings ends, however,
with the death of Ahab
and his son Ahaziah
comes to the throne in Israel.
But Ahaziah was no better
than his dad.
And you turn the page
and you come to 2 Kings.
Ahaziah's still on the throne,
at least for the first chapter.
Elijah's still around,
but not for long.
And when Elijah departs
from this world
in a rather unusual way
in 2 Kings chapter 2,
which we'll look at
tomorrow morning,
Elisha's story
begins in earnest
and continues through
to 2 Kings chapter 13.
And then the rest
of 2 Kings,
I can sum up fairly quickly,
the rest of 2 Kings
tells the story
of the continued decline
of that northern kingdom
until eventually
it was just utterly destroyed
and wiped off
the face of the earth
by the Assyrians.
That's 2 Kings 17.
The year is about
722 BC by now.
And then we're told
for the rest of the book
how the southern kingdom
of Judah,
you don't hear all that much
about the southern kingdom
of Judah up to this point,
but now we turn our attention
to the southern kingdom
of Judah.
It followed the ways
that had been introduced
in Israel in the north.
And by the end
of 2 Kings,
the surviving inhabitants
of Judah
have been taken off
into exile
by the Babylonians
to Babylonia,
while the city
of Jerusalem
and the house
for the name
of the Lord
were flattened,
destroyed,
demolished.
The story
of 2 Kings
is not a happy one.
Now,
I hope you're still awake.
I can see some of you
still are.
I won't worry about
those of you
who dropped off.
I've sketched this
rather long story
because we need to see
Elisha's story
in its historical context.
But we do need
to ask the question,
what is this story
about?
What is this history
of this people
of Israel
really about?
What are we meant
to learn
from this sad story
of a failed state
so long ago
and so far away?
It was so wonderful
at the beginning
in Solomon's day
and gradually
it just crumpled away
and in the end
death and destruction
everywhere.
Well, it seems to me
that as we follow
the decline and fall
of this people,
as they and their kings
turned their backs
on the God
who had given them
so much,
it is frankly depressing.
I find 2 Kings
a terribly depressing book.
I'm supposed to be
doing some work
on the book of 2 Kings
and I've started it.
It's hard to write
a little commentary
on the book of 2 Kings
and I get so depressed
every time I open it.
I haven't written
anything for months.
It's a very depressing book
so some of you
can come and encourage me
and tell me
it's not all that bad.
But I think
what is particularly depressing
about the book of 2 Kings
is that Israel
and Judah
are so like
the world
in which we live.
Israel's miserable history,
Judah's miserable history
is too much like
the miserable history
of our world.
That's why
when you get into it
and start to take it seriously
I think it really is
so depressing.
The story of Israel,
and I say Israel
because originally
the whole nation
is Israel
and then you've got
the two nations
Israel and Judah
but by Israel
I mean the whole lot.
The story of Israel
is a kind of
small scale version
of the story
of our world.
If you think about it,
think of Solomon's kingdom
there
and how it all ended up.
God gave us
so much.
The beginning of the world
as the Bible presents it to us
was sort of like
Solomon's kingdom
and indeed
as you read through
1 Kings 1 to 11
and if you do that
in your own time
over the coming weeks
you might like to look out
for this.
You hear all sorts of
echoes and reminders
of Genesis 1 and 2
and as we follow
the kings
and the people
turning away from God
refusing to live lives
of thankfulness to God
refusing to trust God
refusing to obey God
it's sort of like
a rerun of the
Genesis 3 story
and so it is like
the world we now
find ourselves in
and as Israel
and Judah
collapse
we're quite right
to see a reflection
like in a mirror
of the disintegration
of our world
at so many levels
and in so many ways.
The history of Israel
in the pages
of the Old Testament
is like a kind of
representation
in miniature
of the history
of the world.
That's a cheery thought
isn't it
for this time
on a Friday night?
But
the history of Israel
in 1 and 2 Kings
raises
the question
that the history
of our world
raises
namely
what hope
is there?
I don't know
whether you think
about these sort of
things seriously
most of us do
at certain times
of life
and I think
I've got to a stage
of life
where I find myself
thinking about
these things a lot.
You could very easily
think,
couldn't you?
as you look at
the world we're in
at the moment
you could very easily
think that God
has given up
on our world
and I'll tell you
what,
you could easily
think that he was
fully justified
in doing so.
a friend of mine
a Christian leader
up in
New England
I'll leave his name
out because
when I'm telling
a story about him
it's a good story
but I was driving
with him
round Armidale
way at one
stage
and he
just turned to me
and said
you know
I wouldn't be
surprised if God
never sent rain
on this land again.
he was thinking
just of the
godlessness
of Australia
and the
well
it's not too much
to say
is it
the hatred
of Christianity
that is starting
to permeate
our public life
that's not true
of every individual
of course it's not
but of the national
life
the public life
you could easily
think
couldn't you
that if God
has given up
on us
he'd be justified
in doing so
how we humans
have messed up
God's good world
it's quite difficult
if you take seriously
the state of the world
at the moment
and the state
of how things are going
it's so difficult
to imagine
the story of our world
ending well
don't you think
in our own day
we find ourselves
in a world
that is busy
at its own destruction
it seems clear
to me
in so many ways
at so many levels
and so many issues
and you say
what hope is there
we're so determined
to destroy ourselves
we're so determined
to abandon God
what hope is there
and as you read
one and two kings
you could very easily
think
that God
had given up
on Israel
look what happened
that story
didn't end well
by the time
you get to the end
of two kings
you could sigh
and say
well what a sad
sad story
it ended
so badly
except for one thing
if you had been
paying careful attention
as you read
the history of Israel
through one and two kings
and I'm hoping
you'll get inspired
to read the story
of one and two kings
all the way through
over the coming weeks
and months
and when you get
to two kings
get in touch with me
and tell me
why it's not all
that depressing
after all
but if you do
read carefully through
you will notice
that there are
some very clear
indications
that God
does not
give up
that's not what
the God
who really is there
is like
he doesn't
give up
yes
the history of Israel
is terrible
and tragic
like the history
of our world
but it is not
hopeless
well friends
I think that's
a good point
at which we
introduce Elisha
can you cope
with just a few
more minutes
yeah
you're not allowed
to say no
are you
you're getting
into trouble
please turn
to one kings
19
I said we're
only going to
get a quick
glimpse of him
to start with
tonight
I'm going to
leave you
again
you might like
to do this
tonight
before you
go to sleep
if you're
able to stay
awake for long
enough
or tomorrow
morning or
something
to read the
dramatic story
of one kings
18
the Mount
Carmel story
about Elijah
and his
momentous
confrontation
with the
prophets of
Baal on
Mount Carmel
that was a
moment of
hope
that really
was a
moment of
hope
even King
Ahab
apparently
joined the
people
and at that
moment at
least
no it didn't
last
but at that
moment
they turned
back to the
Lord with
with a bit
of prompting
from Elijah
and the
climax of the
story in
one kings
18 we
see the
people
falling on
their faces
and crying
out the
Lord he
is God
the Lord
he is
God
that's
chapter 18
verse 39
but that
didn't last
and in
one kings
19
Queen Jezebel
laughed out
and threatened
to kill
Elijah
again I'll
lead you to
read the
story of
Elijah's
escape
through the
first part
of one
kings
19
suffice to
say that
Elijah fled
for his
life and
he fled a
long long
long way
south far
out beyond
Jezebel's
reach and
he came to
a mountain
a famous
mountain has
two names
Mount Horeb
or Mount
Sinai same
mountain two
names you
remember the
story of
Mount Sinai
and there at
Mount Sinai
Mount Horeb he
had a remarkable
encounter with
God in
which to cut
long story
short God
told Elijah to
get back to
work because
God had not
given up
God had not
given up on
Israel even
if Elijah
thought he
had and
this is what
God said to
Elijah I'm
picking it up
at chapter
19 verse 15
the Lord said
to him go
Elijah return
on your way
to the
wilderness of
Damascus and
when you
arrive you
shall anoint
Hazael to
be king over
Syria and
Jehu the
son of
Nimshi
you shall
appoint to
be king
over Israel
and
Elisha
the son
of Shaphat
of Abel
Mahola
you shall
anoint to
be prophet
in your
place
and the
one who
escapes from
the sword
of Hazael
shall Jehu
put to
death and
the one
who escapes
from the
sword of
Jehu
shall
Elisha
put to
death
yet I
will leave
7,000 in
Israel
all the
knees that
have not
bowed to
Baal
and every
mouth that
has not
kissed him
we're not
going to
pause on
the details
here
just notice
that Elisha
was to be
Elijah's
successor
you will have
noticed and you
probably noticed
from Sunday
school days that
the names are
strikingly similar
Elijah and
Elisha
said earlier that
in Hebrew names
very often
almost always
actually have
meanings
the Eli
bit
Eli
and you
come across
that E-L-I
in a number
of names
that means
my God
L is the
word for
God
the I
is the
word for
my
my God
the JAR
bit in
Elijah
is that
name
Yahweh
so my
God is
Yahweh
is Elijah's
name
which summed
up his
message
Ahab and
Jezebel
their God
is Baal
and they
were confronted
with a man
called my
God is
Yahweh
the SHA
in Elisha
means
saves
so my
God is
Yahweh
is going to
have a
successor
called my
God
saves
see already
just a little
bit of a
hint
God does
not give
up
my God
is Yahweh
my God
saves
let's see
what happened
when Elijah
found
Elisha
very quickly
verse 19
so 1 Kings
19
verse 19
so he
that's
Elijah
I'm reading
from the ESV
departed
from there
that was
way down
south at
Mount Sinai
Mount Horeb
way outside
the borders
of Israel
and he
found
Elisha
the son
of Shaphat
he'd gone
all the way
back to
Ahab's
territory
in a
farming
town
in the
Jordan
Valley
Elisha
who was
ploughing
with 12
yoke of
oxen
in front
of him
and he
was with
the 12th
it sounds
as though
Elisha
was from
a rather
well-to-do
farming
family
and Elijah
passed by
him and
cast his
cloak
upon him
this was
Elijah's
hairy
cloak
it was part
of his
rather well-known
distinctive
dress
we'll hear more
about that
cloak
but here
Elijah threw
his cloak
onto the
unsuspecting
farm boy
and Elijah
said nothing
but just
kept walking
verse 20
and he
this is
Elisha
left the
oxen
and ran
after Elijah
and said
let me kiss
my father
and my
mother
and then
I will
follow you
he'd got
the message
and his
eagerness
to follow
Elijah
is remarkable
his request
to kiss
his mum
and dad
goodbye
no coronavirus
in those
days
he was
allowed to
kiss
his mum
and dad
goodbye
emphasises
of course
his readiness
to leave
home
for who
knows
what
and verse
20
Elijah
said to
him
to
Elisha
go back
again
for what
have I
done
to you
it's a
rather
strange
way of
putting it
but I
think he's
saying
go and
say your
goodbyes
but don't
forget
what I've
just done
to you
which you've
understood
you've got
it's
significance
verse 21
and he
Elisha
returned
from following
him
and took
the yoke
of oxen
and sacrificed
them
and boiled
their flesh
with the
yokes
of the
oxen
and gave
it to the
people
and they
ate
and then
he arose
and went
after Elijah
and assisted
him
try and imagine
the scene
it's described
very briefly
but we mustn't
miss what was
happening
Elisha
was putting
on a
farewell
party
for the
people of
his
community
and they
ate
the
oxen
there
would
be no
going
back
to the
ploughing
you see
you could
call this
a decisive
break
with his
former
life
don't you
think
Elisha
left
everything
he had
known
to follow
Elijah
and to
be his
off-sider
and we
know
from what
we read
a few
lines
earlier
that
Elisha
will
become
Elijah's
successor
there was
something
here
more
important
than
the
farm
there
was
something
here
for
Elisha
more
important
than
the
family
there
was
something
here
more
important
than
the
community
Elisha
left
everything
he had
known
to
follow
Elijah
finish
off
with two
points
first
if
we'd
been
reading
the
whole
history
and
we'd
been
starting
to
get
a bit
depressed
about
how
things
were
going
to
end
in
Israel
as
Elijah
had
indeed
been
a little
bit
earlier
can
you
see
how
the
call
of
Elisha
is
a
pretty
sure
sign
that
God
had
not
given
up
God
was
still
dealing
with
Israel
God's
word
would
still
come
to
Israel
God
was
still
God
in
Israel
my
God
saves
will
succeed
my
God
is
Yahweh
and
with
Elisha
leaving
everything
for
who knows
what
don't
you get
the
impression
that
whatever
this
is
about
it
was
more
important
than
anything
it
sort
of
symbolically
represented
to us
in
Elisha
walking
away
from
everything
he'd
known
in
life
to
follow
Elijah
there
is
something
very
important
going
on
now
we
will
follow
Elisha
and
see
a little
bit
of
what
happens
but
at
this
early
stage
we
can
see
that
it
will
be
very
important
if
you
want
to
know
and
you
want
to
see
how
God
had
not
given
up
on
Israel
watch
Elisha
second
many years
later
there was
a similar
scene
listen to
this
account
of it
from
Matthew
chapter
4
I
think
the
reference
is
on
your
notes
while
walking
by the
sea
of
Galilee
Jesus
saw
two
brothers
Simon
who is
called
Peter
and
Andrew
his
brother
casting
a net
into
the
sea
for
they
were
fishermen
and
he
said
to
them
follow
me
and
I
will
make
you
fishers
of
men
and
immediately
they
left
their
nets
and
followed
him
and
going
on
from
there
he
saw
two
other
brothers
James
the
son
of
Zebedee
and
John
his
brother
in the
boat
with
Zebedee
their
father
mending
their
nets
and
he
called
them
and
immediately
they
left
their
boat
and
their
father
and
followed
him
and
this
friends
is the
first
of a
number
of
places
where
we're
going
to see
similarities
between
the
life
of
Elisha
and
the
story
of
Jesus
in
the
New
Testament
Gospels
in
this
case
Jesus
was
acting
rather
like
Elijah
he
called
Peter
and
Andrew
and
James
and
John
in
a way
that
reminds
us
of
Elijah
calling
Elisha
and
here
I
just
want
to
suggest
that
the
parallel
might
get
us
thinking
Peter
Andrew
James
and
John
left
everything
they
had
known
to
follow
Jesus
this
time
it
was
fishing
nets
instead
of
oxen
they
left
their
father
but
it's
a
picture
worth
taking
in
something
important
was
happening
and
if
you
like
me
are
getting
depressed
about
how
things
are
going
in
the
world
look
at
Jesus
and
the
call
of
these
disciples
God
has
not
given
up
on
his
world
what
these
men
left
everything
for
is
more
important
than
anything
God
has
not
given
up
on
his
world
just
as
he
had
not
given
up
on
Israel
and
if
we
want
to
see
how
God
has
not
given
up
on
the
world
we've
got
to
watch
Jesus
and
his
disciples
in
an
important
way
in
Jesus
God
was
doing
again
something
that
he'd
done
before
in
Elisha
just
go back
to
Elisha
for one
final
moment
in the
pages
that
follow
1
Kings
19
right
through
to
the
end
of
the
book
of
1
Kings
there
are
some
pretty
exciting
stories
involving
Elijah
and
King
Ahab
Elisha
is
not
mentioned
again
in
the
rest
of
1
Kings
but
we
can
assume
that
he
was
there
he
was
Elijah's
assistant
the
next
time
we
hear
of
Elisha
is
at
the
beginning
of
2
Kings
chapter
2
where
Elijah's
time
on
earth
was
coming
to
an
end
and
the
time
for
Elisha
to
fill
Elijah's
shoes
so to
speak
or
actually
to fill
his
cloak
is
what
he
did
had
come
now
we
are
going
to
take
up
Elijah's
story
at
that
point
next
time
would
you
join
me
as
we
just
pray
to
conclude
now
dear
God
and
Heavenly
Father
we
thank
you
for
these
great
figures
of
the
past
we
thank
you
for
the
way
in
which
you
have
worked
through
the
centuries
we
thank
you
for
the
Old
Testament
history
that
prepares
us
for
the
coming
of
Jesus
and
gives
us
many
insights
into
and
understand
and
ways
of
understanding
the
extraordinary
grace
that you
have
shown
us
in
Jesus
we
thank you
tonight
for this
simple
thought
this
simple
truth
but
profound
truth
that you
do not
give up
you
do not
give up
you
do not
give up
on
Israel
you
do not
give up
on
your
world
and
heavenly
father
as
individuals
it's
wonderful
for us
to
understand
that you
do not
give up
on
us
we
pray
this
night
that we
be
able
to
embrace
that
truth
and
understand
it
just
a
little
bit
so
that we
can be
filled
with
hope
in
the
God
who
does
not
give
up
we
pray
this
in
Jesus
name
Amen