NOVEMBER 26th, 2023 PASTOR DON PIEPER
The Days Of Elijah 2 Kings 2:1-6, 7-15
“PASSING THE BATON!”
In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the US Women's 4x100 relay team was so favored to win that it wasn't a matter of whether they would win, but by how much. But the thing about relay races is that not everything is about speed. If you don't hand the baton off well, it doen't end well. In the semi-final race, that's exactly what happened. They dropped the baton and lost. They never even got to the finals.
A photo of a high school relay showed a group of boys, clutching their batons, racing stride for stride, with the one in the middle of the pack carrying two batons. The caption asks: “How did this happen?” Races are won and lost in the transfer of the baton. Our final reading in our Days of Elijah series is a vivid reminder of how vital it is for God's faithful to successfully pass the baton.
Enter Elisha, the prophet Elijah's protege', who, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, entered Elijah's life thru God's guidance and initially for Elijah's support. Now, some 18 years later, it is Elisha who looks to his mentor for support and encouragement. So close have they become over the years that Elisha absolutely refuses to leave his mentor's side: “As surely as the Lord lives, and you yourself live, I will never leave you!” (2 Kings 2:2)
Elisha is Elijah's disciple, and over the years, the two have become virtually inseparable. The thought that their friendship and partnership is soon to come to end is intolerable for the younger man.
Elisha's heart is as heavy as granite. We can hear that in how he responds to the other prophets in training, who learn (from Elijah) that Elijah's ministry is at an end. They approach Elisha and ask him: “Did you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”
Elisha's response is emotionally charged: “Of course I know, but be quiet about it!” (2 Kings 2:3)
Translation: “Are you kidding me? Of course, I - I knew it before you did - so just... (shut...up)!”
It was hard enough that his beloved teacher and friend was saying his goodbyes but that those he was saying goodbye to felt like they had to constantly remind him. Following our first pastoral care class a number of my colleagues sought to practice what they'd learned on each other. They'd learned just enough to be truly dangerous. Someone would mention some difficult experience and one of these pastoral care novices would lean in and ask, 'so how does that make you feel?”
After being asked that for the umpteenth time, I said, 'It makes me feel like punching someone!'
That was Elisha! He was hurting and growing weary of that annoying question... Ever feel that way? Ever feel weighed down with grief or angst and get tired of the question: how are you doing?
So it was for Elisha. Worse still, Elijah had made several stops to encourage Elisha's peers while Elisha was longing for encouragement himself. They went to Gilgal, Bethel and Jericho - cities of other prophets and those in training. Elijah is saying his goodbyes to those who would continue to carry the torch of truth after his departure. Along the way, Elisha, and a number of these prophets in training, are provided one last glimpse of Elijah's prophetic, Holy Spirit filled power.
“Then Elijah took his cloak and rolled it up and struck the water, and the water was parted to the one side and to the other, making it possible for the two of them to cross over on dry ground.”
(2 Kings 2:8)
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What other OT biblical figure does that remind you of? It wasn't the first nor the last time Elijah and Moses would be linked with each other. Both men confronted the kings of their day, both took on false prophets, went to Mt Sinai to talk to God, and parted the waters. Both will one day appear on yet another mountain with none other than Jesus, a vision seen by others chosen by God to pass the baton.
When they reach the other side of the Jordan, Elijah encourages his protege to make one last request. Like a loving father anticipating the end of his days, he seeks to bless his adopted son one last time. And so Elisha responds, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit as your successor.”
(2 Kings 2:9)
Is Elisha asking to be twice as great? Sounds like it, doesn't it? Sounds like he's trying to double dip in the spiritual ice cream..., but actually, a 'double portion' of an inheritance was the eldest son's share. It signified that the heir would take responsibility for the care of the whole family and the property in which they lived. Elisha was asking to run the family business, as it were.
He wasn't being improper or immodest, but just the opposite. He was admitting, “I need God to strengthen me for this task, just as you did you when God fed you thru the ravens. I can't serve as his prophet without his power and help.” What would have been arrogant was to suggest at this point that he could carry on without any help, that his training was sufficient. It's a vivid reminder to those of us who seek to do God's work today. If we’re to succeed in loving people into the Kingdom of God, we need God's supernatural help because we're powerless to change the hearts and minds of those who have become convinced that Christianity is boring, irrelevant, untrue or even dangerous.
It's like the prayer Matthew Perry cited in his book that I quoted last week: “'God, please help me,’ he whispered. ‘Show me that you are here. God, please help me.’ As I kneeled, this Light slowly began to get bigger and bigger until it was so big that it encompassed the entire room. I was in the presence of God. I was certain of it - and this time I had prayed for the right thing: help.”
(from Matthew Perry's Memoir)
Elisha didn't ask for a double portion of Elijah's spirit, that is, of the Spirit of God, so he could be twice as effective but because he realized he was twice as needy. Like Perry, he asked for help. Elijah's response is instructive. How full of the Spirit Elisha was to be was not up to Elijah, but to God. The telling sign, Elijah says, is whether Elisha will be able to perceive what God is doing spiritually!
'If you see me when I'm taken from you, then you'll get your request. If not, then you won't.' (2 Kings 2:10)
About that time you can hear Elijah singing a little ditty: “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, comin' for to carry me home!” And sure enough Elisha sees the whole thing. And cries out with bittersweet sentiment: “My father! My father! I see the chariots and charioteers of Israel! I see them!”
(2 Kings 2:12)
He sees them! He has prophetic vision. And with that the story of Elijah ends and Elisha's begins. Or does it? Actually, in our next series we'll see that Elijah's legacy continues into the New Testament. But at this moment, on the far side of the Jordan, the baton has been effectively passed.
Any doubt of that...is utterly removed when Elisha duplicates Elijah's last miracle.
“Elisha picked up Elijah's cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up. Then Elisha returned to the bank of the Jordan River. He struck the water with Elijah's cloak, (just as Elijah had done), and then the river divided and Elisha went across. When the group of prophets from Jericho saw what happened, they exclaimed, 'Elijah's spirit rests upon Elisha!' (2 Kings 2:13-15)
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Elisha reached down and picked up Elijah's prophetic baton, in the shape of his cloak, that hadn't simply fallen down, it had been passed down, and Elisha took it up and continued his mentor's work. He too would witness to widows and kings, serve during a famine, perform miracles as led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and earn the reputation of a God's trouble-maker...
In 1945, when Harry Truman was the Vice President under Franklin Roosevelt, he received an urgent summons to the White House. Upon his arrival he was informed that the President had died. He asked Mrs. Roosevelt if there was anything he could do for her. She looked him in the eye and famously replied, “Is there anything we can do for you? You're the one in trouble now!” (Eleanor Roosevelt to Harry Truman)
So it was for Elisha. The season of his testing lay yet ahead. In a way, he's our predecessor. Like Elisha, we're reliant on the strength God provides his servants, guided by His Spirit and mentored by those who've preceded us. Somewhere, somehow, someone handed you the baton. From the generation that came before us, who took it from generation before them, all the way back to Jesus' handing it to his followers, it has come to you and to me to pass it on again.
The mantle, or the cloak as it were, is now on our shoulders and like Elisha we must learn to rely on the Spirit of God and our spiritual teammates to accomplish the work God has given us. These are the Days of Elijah as we too rely on the Spirit and look for ways and persons to pass on the baton.
This Christmas, the story of the Boys in the Boat will be released in theaters. It tells the story of eight boys from the northwest who took the gold in the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Berlin. In the book, we read of how boat-maker and former rower, George Pocock, passed the baton on to young Joe...
“As Pocock talked, Joe grew mesmerized. It was something about the calm reverence in which he talked about the wood – as if there was something holy and sacred about it – that drew Joe in. 'The wood teaches us about survival, about overcoming difficulty, about prevailing over adversity. There's something here that reveals infinite beauty and undying grace, about things larger and greater than ourselves, about the reasons we are all here. Sure, I can make a boat, but only God can make a tree.'
He was teaching Joe not only about the craft of boat building but something far more significant. 'It's not enough to master the technical details of it. You have to give yourself up to it spiritually; you have to surrender yourself absolutely to it, (to Him)! Rowing is like that too. And life, too, itself is that way as well. That which really matters involves surrendering yourself utterly to. Do you know what I mean, Joe?' Joe felt a bit nervous, wasn't sure he did, but ultimately..., he would.”
(from Daniel Brown's The Boys in the Boat)
George was all about passing on the baton in the craft of boat-making, the skill of boat racing and the reliance on your fellow athletes in that venture, and in surrendering yourself to that which opens one's heart and life to infinite beauty, undying grace and that which is greater than ourself.
There are four main ways we do this. One, we seek adventurous, bold ways of modeling the reckless, selfless, sacrificial love of Jesus Christ to others. As Jesus instructed: “Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one another”
(John 15:12-13)
Two, we invite those God puts in our path to come and see. It's how this whole Jesus movement got started! When Andrew asked Jesus what he was up to, Jesus replied, “Come and see!” Then Andrew invited his brother, Simon Peter, and Phillip invited Nathaniel, all the way down to me & you! (John 1:39,46)
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Three, we pass the baton by learning how to articulate our faith. As Peter later put it: “If some-one asks about your hope in Christ, always be ready to explain it, but in a gentle, respectful way.” There are so many great authors to help you gain confidence in this: Timothy Keller, Luis Palau, Nicky Gumbel, Lee Strobel, John Burke, among others can help you. Not sure? I'd be happy to help.
(1 Peter 3:15-16)
And four, we pass on the baton by making public worship our top priority. No lesson is more vivid from the life and ministry of Elijah. He made it clear that we're all prone to worship something or someone. It's evident in where we invest our time and resources. Just before this last verse, Peter writes: “Instead of giving in to fear or worry, worship Christ as Lord of your life!” (1 Peter 3:15) “Let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another.” (Hebrews 10:25)
Make weekly worship a priority. Those who know you best will notice, especially your family and friends. When family visits over the holidays, invite them to come with you. If they decline, come any way. If they do come, be sure to talk about the sermon and the songs on the way home!
The mantle, or the cloak as it were, is now on your shoulders and like Elisha you'd do well to on the Holy Spirit and your spiritual teammates to accomplish the task at hand. These are the Days of Elijah as we too rely on the Spirit and look for ways and persons to pass on the baton.