Listen to the audio above while following along in the transcript below (which is also available for download in Word document at www.biblestudyministriesinc.com)
We welcome all of you to our little study. We are studying Elijah and Elisha. Let me correct myself; we are studying the Lord Jesus, and we’re using the story of Elijah and Elisha. Let me share this verse. We are in the portion of Elijah’s history where he took his eyes off the Lord for a season and went into a discouragement and, actually, into despair, and he wanted the Lord to take his life. Micah 7:8 because we’re studying now his restoration, he put his eyes back on the Lord, “Do not rejoice over me, oh my enemy, though I fall, I will rise; though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is light for me.” With that in mind, let’s give our time to the Lord.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your word, and for the indwelling Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts, always to turn our eyes to Jesus. We pray as we meditate in Your word that, in fact, You would give us a living revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then grace us to appropriate that and walk in the light as He is in the light. We thank You, Lord, that we can trust You for this. I ask You to protect Your people from anything I might say that is just out of my own mind. You’ve promised to root up what the heavenly Father has not planted, and I’m counting on that. So, Lord, we give this time to you now in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen.
Let me give a little review to get us back into the flow. We’re studying the history of Elijah and Elisha, not to see Elijah and Elisha, but to see the Lord Jesus. In this record of Elijah and Elisha, in this history, the heart of God is to restore His people, Israel. Israel had turned away from the Lord. In fact, this is the time of Ahab and Jezebel, and they actually kicked God out of the nation. They turned, instead, to dead idols, to Baal and to Asherah, and they turned from the One and true living God and turned to these idols. But God had a heart for His people, and He wanted to restore them. The way God decided to do that was to raise up servants like Elijah and Elisha, to use them as His instruments to restore His people.
The persecution got really bad. Ahab and Jezebel actually began to annihilate the servants of the Lord, the prophets of the Lord, but God delights in mercy, and He still loved His people, though they cast Him out, and He still wanted them restored. This is how God restores; He raises up men and women like Elijah and Elisha, and in every age and every generation He’s going to raise up, prepare His servants and raise them up to minister. When you study Kings, you’re seeing how God prepared them, and that’s instructive because that’s how He prepares us. He wants to use us in order to bring redemption.
James 5:17 says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.” The KJV says, “…subject to like passions, as we have.” In other words, Elijah wasn’t some kind of a spiritual hotshot. He was just like you and me, just like us. The way God deals with him is how He will deal with us. He’s just an ordinary person who came to know the Lord intimately. If he’s just like me and just like you, you can expect in the record that he’ll have his ups and downs, and he did, and we are in the process of seeing him delivered from one of his downs. He’s still walking with the Lord, but he needs to be rescued.
In our discussion we have watched God deliver him out of his depression. He began in 1 Kings 17:1, “Elijah, the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord the God of Israel lives before whom I stand.’” This is the very first verse in the Bible that mentions Elijah. We learn from that verse that he is standing in the presence of the living God. That was his stand; he was standing in God’s presence, listening to the Lord and obeying whatever the Lord said. When we come to 1 Kings 19:11, “So, He said, ‘Go forth, stand on the mountain before the Lord.’” Now Elijah is invited to come out of the cave and stand, again, before the Lord. So, something happened in between chapter 17 7 19; he started off in the presence of the Lord, then he took his eyes off the Lord, and now he’s invited to come back into the presence of the Lord. We’ve been discussing that parenthesis, that season where he took his eyes off the Lord.
It happened right after the contest on Mt. Carmel. Rather than the nation turning to the Lord, like Elijah thought because he thought there would be great revival and the nation would turn to the Lord, the opposite happened. 1 King 19:1-3, “Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, how he killed the prophets with the sword, and then Jezebel sent a message to Elijah saying, ‘So may the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as of one of them by tomorrow about this time.’” He was afraid and arose and ran for his life. That’s the turning point; he was afraid, and he arose, and he ran for his life. He had taken his eyes off the Lord and looked at the circumstances, and they were very negative, adverse circumstances, overwhelming, and he had forgotten God’s wonderful benefits at the brook and at the widow’s house and on Mt. Carmel. He forgot all of that, and he just became terrified, and he began to run.
God’s heart is desiring, as He tried to rescue Israel, as He tried to rescue Ahab, to rescue His own servant, His prophet, Elijah. We looked together at that season of depression, when he was under the juniper tree, and we saw how gracious the Lord was to reveal Himself as the Angel of the Lord, and I showed you how tender God was. But at that time, Elijah, even though he was being ministered to by the Angel of the Lord, he didn’t acknowledge Him, he didn’t know that it was the Angel of the Lord. He didn’t know that the Lord Jesus was taking care of him. When you read Elijah under the juniper tree, he never even said one word, he never even said, “Thank You,” when the Angel of the Lord gave him a meal.
In our last lesson we followed Elijah from the juniper tree to Horeb, or Mt. Sinai. 1 Kings 19:9, “He came there to a cave and lodged there.” We have this picture of Elijah under the juniper tree wanting to die, wandering forty days around the wilderness, not knowing where he was going, and now he’s on Mt. Horeb and he’s lodging, he’s camping in a cave. That’s a discouraged person. A discouraged person under the juniper tree and he’s wandering aimlessly and doesn’t know where he’s going to go, and he ends up in the darkness and cold cave, and that’s where he was.
It was on that mountain and from that cave that God fully restored his servant, Elijah. Here Elijah puts his eyes back on the Lord, again, and comes back into His presence. The circumstances have not changed, in fact, they’ve gotten worse. The persecution got hotter, and there is still a bounty on his head. The circumstances didn’t change but God made a great change in the heart of His servant.
In our last lesson we saw how God tenderly drew Elijah out of the cave and back into the glory and presence of the Lord and into His fellowship. Actually, when he came out of the cave, he’s coming out of Elijah, and when he stood in the presence of the Lord, he was coming into the life of the Lord. We call that the exchanged life, when you come out of yourself, and you enter into the life of the Lord. That’s what you have in picture form. It’s Old Testament, so it’s the seed, and it’s not developed, yet, but it’s the same truth.
I’m not going to develop every detail, again, but the main parts I think need review, so we can move to this next step. This next stage we’re calling the restoration, the recommission. He was already restored, and now he’s being recommissioned. Listen as I read 1 Kings 19:11&12, “So, He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.’ Behold, the Lord was passing by. A great and powerful wind was tearing out the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, and the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a gentle blowing,” or a gentle wind or a zephyr, a still, small voice. That’s how the KJV and American Standard translates it.
This is an apt picture of what happened in Elijah’s life. Elijah on Mt. Carmel at this point was living naturally, by nature. His life at this time was a wind, was an earthquake, was a fire. It was all signs and wonders and spectacular. He thought that ministry was just breaking things and shaking things and consuming things, and that’s what he was doing on Mt. Carmel, and he thought that was ministry. So, in picture form, the wind and the quake and the fire was just a picture of Elijah’s natural life. His natural life, like nature, was rather destructive, and what he thought was going to be revival turned out to be the opposite.
After the earthquake, verse 12, “…a fire, the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, the sound of a gentle blowing, and when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantel,” now notice this, “he went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.” He had been invited earlier to come out, and he didn’t. He just stayed in the cave, and he looked at all these spectacular things, but now with the still, small voice, he is drawn out and he buries his face in his mantel.
I reminded you that the mantel is a picture. God is writing a Bible. He’s not only telling a history, He’s writing a Bible, and there’s a unique word for Elijah’s mantel, and it’s not used anywhere else in the Bible; it’s only for Elijah’s mantel. Five times that word is used, and it’s always for this mantel. I showed you how that mantel was a picture of the Life of God, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. That was the exchange, at the drawing, at the sound of the still, small voice, and he came out of his hiding place, his cave, and he buried his face in that which represents the Life of God. When he buried his face, that was his repentance; he was acknowledging, once again, that he was now coming into the presence of the Lord. As I pointed out last week, there are other mantels mentioned in the Bible, many mantels, but not with that word. That word is only for Elijah’s mantel.
Just so, there are many rods mentioned in the Bible, but Moses’ rod becomes spiritually significant. There are many fishing boats mentioned in the Bible, but Peter’s boat became very spiritually significant. Jesus said that there were other lepers in the Bible, but the focus and spotlight falls on Nahum, the leper, to tell a spiritual story. There were many widows at that time, but the spotlight falls on the widow of Zarephath to tell a spiritual story. There are many rivers in the Bible, but God focuses on the Jordan River to tell a spiritual story. We have that over and over again; we’re not surprised that God took Elijah’s mantel and made it a picture. When our Lord Jesus promised the disciples, just before He went to the cross, He said, “It’s expedient and necessary that I go because I’m going to send the Holy Spirit,” and the Bible says that Jesus ascended and then He sent down the Holy Spirit. Well, you have that in picture form in Kings; Elijah is caught up, he’s ascending in a chariot and then comes floating down the mantel, picturing the Holy Spirit. Elisha picks it up, and he doesn’t say, “I want a double Spirit of Elijah,” not this time. Now he has the mantel, and he said, “Where is the God of Elijah?” That’s what he wants, and he snaps it over the river, and the river opens up, and now he has that which pictures the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Anyway, that’s the great exchange, the Life of God being exchanged for the life of Elijah. That’s where we left off; Elijah is restored.
One of the handouts I gave you today is a wonderful poem. We aren’t going to read it. It’s by Theodore Monod, the French preacher. If you get a chance, just go through that because I think it’s a great description of Elijah’s experience on Mt. Horeb. I’m not going to look at it now, and those who are listening by tape, when we send you the tapes, we’ll send you the poem, as well.
Before we continue with Elijah’s experience, especially his recommission, I want to stand back and look at the contrast. You’ve got the wind, the quake, the fire, and on the other side a still, small voice. God’s people through the years have made a big deal out of the contrast. There’s on one side that it’s rough and strong and mighty, and on the other side the still, small voice. Isn’t it interesting that God is not in, in the sense of ministry, this side, but in the still, small, voice. It’s interesting that it’s a voice, and there are no words. It’s a voice and there’s no vocabulary; it’s when God speaks peace to your heart. He speaks peace, and those who have had that experience, you know what I’m talking about, and you say, “God spoke to me.” What did He say? He said, Peace, he just speaks Peace.
Well, as you know, Mt. Horeb, Mt. Sinai is often contrasted with Mt. Zion. I’ve given you a big scripture there, and I’m not going to take time now to read it, Hebrew 12:18-24, “We have not come to this mountain, but we’ve come to this mountain.” You read that and the contrast is amazing. Some people say that the contrast is the attributes of God; God is holy, and that’s on this side, and He’s just, and He has a stern side, and then on the other side He’s loving, merciful, and He has a soft side. I like in that connection Isaiah 28:12, the New American Standard says, “The Lord will rise up as at Mt. Perazim, He’ll be stirred up as in the valley of Gibeon, to do His task, His unusual task, and to work His work, His extraordinary work.” The KJV says, “…that He may work His strange work, and bring to pass His act, His strange act.” What is His strange work? What’s His extraordinary work? The answer is judgment; He doesn’t like judgment. He doesn’t like to do that. That’s His strange work. He’s a God, according to Micah 7:18, that delights in mercy. He’s angry for a night, but then He is a forgiving God. Some have just seen that side; one side is His holiness, and then the still, small voice.
Bethlehem, the babe, that’s the still, small, voice. How silently, God does His great thing. The sunrise, did you ever hear it? No, but you see it. The sunset, you see it. Do you ever see the diamonds, the dew on the grass? You don’t hear that. That’s His still, small voice. He’ll paint the sky and then in five minutes He’ll erase it. What a museum, if you could preserve all of those wonders! Phillip Brooks was a preacher from Boston and he wrote, “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.” I love that verse 3, “How silently the wondrous gift is given, so God imparts to human hearts, the blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin, when meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.” But so much is the still, small voice. I read one commentary who said, “The storm, the wind and the quake and the fire is the Old Testament, and the still, small voice is the New Testament.” They just make these contrasts. “Law, that’s Sinai, grace, works, faith.” I think in the Elijah story the wind, the quake, the fire, that’s Elijah, his natural heart. On the other side, that’s the Life of Christ, the Spirit of God. In the context, I think it’s the exchanged life.
I remember honestly like it was yesterday when God drew me out of my cave in 1965. How can I forget that day! That moment I threw my life, I threw my reputation, I threw my ministry into the deep, blue sea, and I came out of the cave, and with understanding, I wrapped my face in the Life of God. Everything has been different since that day, and that’s what God did for Elijah, and that’s what He wants to do for us. So, let’s move on.
We’re still on Mt. Horeb, and we’ll be there throughout this lesson. There’s more that took place on Mt. Horeb in this lifechanging experience for Elijah. He has been tenderly drawn out of his dark cave and depression. He has buried his face in that which symbolizes the Life of God, he’s moved from the natural to the supernatural, and I would like to look now at what we’ll call the recommissioning. He gets a new commission, and I want us to meditate on that. Verse 15-18, “the Lord said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you’ve arrived you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram; and Jehu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-Meholah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Yet, I’ll leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, every mouth that has not kissed him.”
I begin by reminding you that Elijah has been restored. I want to start there. He’s been rescued from his discouragement. He’s not discouraged anymore. He’s now come out of his darkness and out of the cave, and he’s now embraced the Life of God, the Spirit of God. Elijah has been delivered from Elijah. Much has been made of how similar Elijah was to Moses, but I’d be careful before you make that parallel. They say, “Well, he fasted forty days, and Moses fasted forty days, He’s on Mt. Horeb, and Moses was on Mt. Horeb, He’s in a cave, and Moses went into the cleft of the rock, he saw God passing by, and Moses saw God passing by.” They might look alike on the outside but Moses’ heart at that time was not like the heart of Elijah. Moses wasn’t running in fear from man. Moses wasn’t discouraged and wanting to die. His prayer when he went into the cleft of the rock was, “Show me I pray Thee Thy glory.” He was excited to know the Lord. Moses had a heart for God’s people. Elijah had given up on God’s people, his idolatrous people. On Horeb Moses was vindicating the Lord. When you read the record, when God said, “What are you doing here,” Elijah was vindicating Elijah; he was vindicating himself. So, at this point, Elijah was not Moses, but soon they had the same spiritual heart.
I don’t want to have to prove again that Elijah needed to be restored. We saw that, and God restored him with the still, small voice. What follows is restoration. That’s where we are now. After you’ve taken your eyes off the Lord, or you’ve sinned against, and God in His mercy and grace brought you back, what is next? Let me summarize it with David’s restoration in Psalm 51:10-13, “Create in me a clean heart, God, renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach wrongdoers Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You.” That’s what follows restoration, a clean heart, the presence of the Spirit of God, a willing spirit in me, and a new ministry to lead sinners into fellowship with the Lord. I want to focus on the recommission because it contains age-abiding principles on how God always recommissions after restoration. Because I enjoy principles, I’d like to take the facts and illustrate three wonderful principles and what follows restoration. It’s recommission, but there are three principles of recommission.
The first principle of recommission is this, that God does not set aside and refuse to use again the person who has been restored. That is such an important principle. It’s true in either case. If you need to be restored because you looked to yourself or looked to circumstances, but you didn’t go off into sin, you just looked away and got distracted, or if you had gone off into sin, and you were for a long season away from the Lord, and God restored you, either way this is true, God does not have a post-restoration shelf. Some people think, “I’ve sinned, I’ve messed up and I blew it, and now God has put me on the shelf.” God does not have a shelf, and He doesn’t have a second best or a third best.
As a young Christian I was warned and taught that if I ever took my eyes off the Lord, if I didn’t continue to follow the Lord for any reason, and I needed to be restored, there was a great possibility that God would set me aside and put me on the shelf and would never use me again, that God would put me on a shelf and wouldn’t use me any more as His instrument. He wouldn’t cast me away; I wouldn’t end up in hell, but as far as ministry and service and being useful, they told me that God would not use me anymore. As a young Christian I was also taught that I better pay close attention to God’s will. I need to know God’s will for my life, my vocation, and God’s will for my wife, and I better get the right woman or I’m in big, big trouble. My vocation and what I’m supposed to do with my life, and where I’m supposed to live, and what ministry am I supposed to have? I’ve got to find God’s will because, they say, “If you miss God’s perfect will, you’ll have to end up with His second best, and end up with His third best if you miss His second best.” The illustration that was always pounded home to me, “Remember the bird with the mended wing will never fly as high again.” I don’t even know if that’s even true in nature, but I know it’s not true in grace.
I think I know the element of truth that they were trying to say. I wish they had said it more clearly. I think they were trying to say that sin has consequences, and you might have to bear those consequences. If I get out of fellowship with God and get into a drunken brawl, and I Iose my arm in the drunken brawl, and then God restores me, well, my arm is not going to grow back. Now I have to give God a one-armed service. Is that second best? Does God require a two-armed service from a one-armed man. God always deals with us as we are and where we are in order to bring us to the place He wants us to be, and I promise you, illustrated by Elijah, that if you have been restored, God will use you again. He restores you, and He actually restores you to a greater usefulness. There’s grace and there’s government, and God said to Adam, “I’ll clothe you with My righteousness; I forgive your sin.” That’s grace, now get out of My garden; that’s government. Both are true, but one doesn’t rule out the other. If I sin and I happen to lose my family because of that sin, if I sin against the Lord, if I become introspective and I lose my peace, If I sin against the Lord and become discouraged and turn to addictive drugs and lose my mind, if I fall into temptation and Iose my testimony, God will always deal with me as I am and where I am. Losing my family and my peace and my mind and my testimony does not make the will of God imperfect. God only has a will, and it’s perfect. He doesn’t have a second best and doesn’t have a third best; He only has a will.
I love in that connection Romans 12:1-1, this is one of Jay’s favorite verses, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living and a holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that you may prove,” now watch this, “what the will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” That’s the will of God: good, acceptable and perfect. God doesn’t have more than one will. His will is always good, acceptable and perfect. No matter what takes place in my life, no matter how ugly and repulsive my past might have been, God always offers me His good, perfect and acceptable will.
I think some of you know that on the low level of earth where I don’t live anymore, I live in the heavenlies in union with the Lord, my Lillian and I both have health issues, and often, it might have happened to you, someone will say, “How are you?” I understand that’s not a question; it’s a greeting. They don’t want my long list of how I’m doing, but I’ll often give the answer from Romans. They say, “How are you?” I’ll always say, “Good, acceptable, perfect.” And you know why I say that. It’s the will of God. What’s going on in my life and my Lillian’s life is the will of God, and that’s all you need to know, that it’s good, it’s acceptable and it’s perfect. So, the first principle is that God does not have a shelf, He does not have a second best, and He does not have a third best. He has a will, and it’s good, perfect, acceptable, and at any moment in my life regardless of my past, I can be in the center of the circle of the perfect, acceptable will of God, and so can you.
That’s the first principle here. If you fall away and are restored, God is not going to put you on the scrap heap. He’s going to recommission you. It’ll be different, and there will be government involved, but He’s going to recommission you. In fact, here’s the teaching of the Bible. The Good Shepherd who restores my soul, I’m not only restored, but the Bible says that I’m restored to greater usefulness, and I’m restored to higher usefulness. One of the reasons, of course, is now there’s a great deal of humiliation that comes along with my repentance. A lot of the pride that was there is not going to be there anymore.
Let me read this verse from Joel 2:25, “I’ll make up to you for the years the swarming locust have eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust, the gnawing locust, my great army that I set among you, you’ll have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you.” KJV says, “I’ll restore the years the locust…” God not only puts the fire out, He rebuilds the house. He goes into the past and undoes all the damage that has ever been done. You say, “When I was out of fellowship, I did a lot of damage.” God turns the curse to a blessing. Once again, the rain, former rain and latter rain will fall upon you. If you’ve been restored, and you say, “I messed up my testimony, my ministry is over,” that’s not humility. That’s unbelief. You need to know that God restores to higher usefulness. Right after Elijah was restored, verse 15, the first words here, “The Lord said to him, ‘Go.’” How fast from being in the pits to, “Go, I’ve got work for you; I’ve got a commission for you.”
The second principle that’s illustrated by the recommission, not only God doesn’t have a shelf and second best, but God will give you a new and larger vision of ministry than you had before. Up until this time Elijah had a microscopic vision of his ministry and his usefulness. It was narrow and it was restrictive. It was very local. Elijah imagined that everything came to a climax on Mt. Carmel, at that point in time and at that place and that was God’s ministry. When that didn’t work, what’s left? “I’ve got to run, and I’ve got to hide, and I’m discouraged.”
God is about to open his eyes. 1 Kings 18:39, “When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, ‘The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God.’” Elijah thought that was it, “That’s the peak of my ministry; the whole nation has returned. They said that the Lord is God,” but he’s about to see that God’s will, God’s heart, God’s purpose is bigger than Mt. Carmel, and bigger than that one time when fire fell and the time of the evening sacrifice. It’s bigger than that. I won’t read the verses again, but verses 15-17, God told him to go and to anoint Elisha and anoint Hazael and to anoint Jehu, one as a prophet, and one as a king of Israel, and one as a king of Syria. Elijah might have thought it’s all over and I’ve got my face buried in the mantel, and I can’t expect God to use me after what I’ve done, and God says, “Elijah, you thought everything was Mt. Carmel, and you built everything up. You said, ‘I’m the only one, and here I am, and it looks like success, and it wasn’t.’ I’ve got plans for you, Elijah. You don’t even begin to know, and it’s going to involve the anointing of prophets, and it’s going to involve the anointing of kings, it’s going to involve many wars, it’s going to involve the future, and you’re going to be in heaven long before I finish using you. I’m going to continue to use you, even after I carry you to heaven.”
His vision was not only enlarged by seeing, “My ministry, my new ministry; I thought it was Israel getting restored, but it’s involving heathen nations and wars between nations and generations to come,” and God gives him a telescopic vision of the purposes of God. He not only enlarged his vision about the future, but he also enlarged his future, remember his testimony over and over, 1 Kings 19:10, “I alone am left. They seek my life to take it away.” Verse 14, “I alone am left.” Verse 22:18, “Elijah said to the people, ‘I alone am left a prophet of the Lord. Baal’s prophets are 450. It’s me against everybody.’” Now God gives him a commission. I want you to think of it as a command, “Anoint Elisha, anoint Hazael, anoint Jehu.” Well, let’s read the record. 1 Kings 19:19, “He departed from there and found Elisha, son of Shaphath, while he was plowing with twelve pair of oxen before him, and he with the twelve, and Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantel on him.” Was that an anointing? I don’t see oil, but probably that was an anointing. He did Elisha.
Did Elijah obey God and anoint Hazael? The answer is no. Did Elijah obey the Lord and anoint Jehu? The answer is no. God took him to heaven before he could finish obeying Him. God said, “Do these three things,” and he does one and God takes him to heaven. That’s not nice and that’s not fair. How is he going obey the Lord? So, who obeyed the Lord? Did Elisha anoint Hazael? Well, there are some records that say maybe. Did he anoint Jehu? No. Elisha didn’t, either. You read 2 Kings 9:1-4, Elisha called one of the sons of the prophets and said, “You go do it.” Do you see what’s happening? God is opening Elijah’s eyes on Mt. Carmel. He said, “You thought your ministry was in this little place at this time. Your ministry involves generations yet to come, nations, wars, rumors of wars. You thought it was just you? It’s the body of Christ, it’s the people of God. I tell you to do something, and then later somebody else does it, and then later somebody else does it, because you’re one, and your ministries are one. He began to see, probably for the first time, that it’s not just me, and I’m not the only one, but God has His sons of the prophets and daughters of the prophets, and He has His people, and even generations to come. This is God enlarging Elijah’s vision. Elijah, up to this time, could only see as far as his nose. That’s all he could see, but now he says, “God still wants to use me? That’s a shock, after all I was discouraged and wanting to die, and I ran away from my calling, I left God’s people in the lurch, and He still wants to use me in a great way for the future, and it’s not just me, but it’s me with the body of Christ? He wants to use me?”
His vision was enlarged a third way. I think he was shocked when God said this, verse 18, “I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, every mouth that has not kissed him.” God opened his eyes and said, “I want you to see My purpose involves the future. My purpose involves the body, the whole body of Christ, and I’m doing things behind the scenes that you don’t have a clue, and you don’t even begin to know. Elijah, you thought Carmel was such a failure. 7,000 people turned to the Lord on Mt. Carmel, and I want you to know that I used you greatly. You had no clue.” It’s like Jonah. Jonah did not now that Nineveh repented, and when he found out, what a surprise that was for him! And may I just suggest, some of you here, including myself, we feel like, “God never uses me. I never led anybody to Christ. You don’t have a clue of your influence, and now Elijah’s influence is going out through 7,000 other people. You don’t know how much influence you had, and it passes on, and it passes on. That’s why people are not rewarded when they die. Hebrews 11, the last verse, it says, “God is waiting until the end, and we’ll all be rewarded together.” Why? It’s because they are still earning their rewards, the influence they had in their families and in their neighbors and in their jobs.
That influence goes on and on and only God can keep track of it. Nobody else can keep track of it. So, I hope you don’t have this idea that, “Oh, I’m just nobody, and God will never use me.” I think we’re all going to be shocked when we find out how much God used us. I can picture the Judgment Seat and I don’t know how it’s going to work, but I can picture God saying, “Naomi, come forward and get your reward.” “What did I do?” The Lord says, “Well, you led Ruth to Christ.” “When did I do that?” “Remember that day you said, ‘Go back to your gods?’ She said, ‘Your God will be my God.’” She’s getting rewarded for that. “Sarah, come on up here and get your reward.” “What did I do?” “You called Abraham lord.” “When did I do that?” “Remember you said, ‘How can my lord, being old have a child?’” That’s the only time she ever said that. She’s getting rewarded; God found one word in that sentence to reward, and He’s going to reward her. “Jonah, come on up here and get your reward.” “What did I do?” “You led the mariners to Christ.” “I did? When?” “Remember when you were running from Me, running from the Lord. It says that the mariners feared the Lord.” You don’t have a clue how much God is using you. I don’t have a clue how much He’s using me, but we need to understand that when we are restored, we have God’s perfect will, and when we are restored, we have a vision. God is using us for generations to come, and it’s not just us, it’s us in union with the body; we are one, and God uses all of us, and He’s doing things behind the scenes that can only guess, and we don’t know how many thousands have come to the Lord through our ministry. Sometimes He only tells us because we’re weak in faith and we need to know. Just trust the Lord. I promise you that you are being used.
Alright, there’s one other principle I wanted to give, not only that He doesn’t have a shelf, and not only He enlarges our vision, but there’s one other principle, and I want to jump a little bit ahead and tell a Bible story because it illustrates Elijah’s restored life and his recommissioned life. We’re going to jump about seven years down the road in Elijah’s life. The story itself is intriguing, and you might want me to stop here. We’ll come back to this in our study, but I don’t want to do the story. I want to give you enough so you know the story, but that you can see the principle. We’ll look more in detail when we get to it, but for now just to understand the principle.
The story is recorded in 2 Kings. I’ll give you a few facts just to fill you in on it. Ahab is now dead. His wicked son, Amaziah, is now the king. He’s reigning in his place. As I said, it’s been about eight years since Elijah was on Mt. Horeb, and about four years in the story of Naboth’s vineyard. We were reading story after story of Elijah, and it’s been eight years now, and there’s only two stories about Elijah, after his restoration, but that’s not counting when he gets ushered to heaven. That’s another thing. Anyway, wicked King Amaziah falls through the lattice in the roof, and he gets seriously injured in the fall. 2 Kings 1:2, “Amaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria and became ill. So, he sent messengers and said to them, ‘Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this sickness.’” So, he fell down, he got hurt, and he said, “Go to Ekron, the Philistine territory, and inquire to this false god if I’m going to live.”
Well, the Angel of the Lord who had run with Elijah and all the way under the juniper tree and up to Mount Horeb is still living, and now it’s the Angel of the Lord surrounding him, but there’s also a still, small voice. This becomes important. Anyway, the Angel of the Lord gives him a word, verse 3, “The Angel of the Lord said to Elijah, the Tishbite, ‘Rise, go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘You shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ And Elijah departed.”
So, you get the picture. These messengers are on their way to the false god, and Elijah meets them and says, “How come you’re going there? Is it because there is no real God? Because of that you go back and tell your master that he’s not going to live and he’s going to die,” and then he departed. Well, when the messengers returned to the wounded king, as you can imagine, he wasn’t too happy, and he said, “What did this guy look like who talked to you?” Verse 8, “And they answered him that he was a hairy man with a leather girdle bound about his loins,” and he said, “It’s Elijah, the Tishbite.” He knows who it is. So, he decided to get him. Verse 9, “The king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty, and he went up to him, and behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill, and he said, ‘Oh, man of God, the king says, “Come down.”’ Now, that’s a royal order, “Come down.” Verse 10, “Elijah replied to the captain of fifty, ‘If I’m a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.’ Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.”
The king got the intelligence of what happened, and he’s not too happy. So, verse 11, “So, he again sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty, and he said, ‘Oh, man of God, thus says the king, “Come down quickly.”’ Elijah replied to them, ‘If I’m a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.’ And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.” He’s not happy, so he sends a third group. Verse 13, “He, again, sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. When the third captain of fifty went up and came and bowed down on his knees before Elijah and begged him, and said to him, ‘Oh, man of God, please let my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight.’” And he begged for mercy, and then the Angel of the Lord spoke in verse 15, “The Angel of the Lord said to Elijah, ‘Go down with him, and do not be afraid of him.’”
As I said, at the moment I’m not concerned with the story. The story is exciting, and there’s a couple of principles we’ll look at, but I want you to consider Elijah himself. Up until this time he’s been living in the presence of the Lord, walking in the Spirit, his face is still wrapped in the mantle, spiritually speaking, and the still, small voice is now in his heart. In his early years, he waited for a word from God. God said, “Go show yourself to Ahab.” He obeyed. God said, “Go hide by the Brook Cherith.” He obeyed. God said, “I’ve commanded a widow to provide; go up into enemy territory up into Sidon,” and he obeyed. God said, “Go on Mt. Carmel,” and he obeyed. God said, “Pray fire from heaven to consume the offering at the evening sacrifice,” and he obeyed. God said, “Run to Jezreel and I’ll run horses,” and he obeyed, always a word of God. This time he says, “If I’m a man of God, let fire come down.” Where did he get that idea? There’s no word from God. There’s no command from God. There’s no direction from the Lord. Nobody said, “Incinerate a hundred soldiers.” There’s no word from God on that.
Did fire come down? Yes, it did. That means that was God’s will. How did Elijah know God’s will? This is what contains the principle I want you to get. Obviously, it was God’s will because Elijah couldn’t do it, and God has to do it, and God did it. Now, we don’t see him praying, and we don’t see him seeking God’s will, and we don’t see him asking to put out a fleece, so he knows what to do. We just see him, and he’s not saying, “I’m zealous for the Lord. I alone am standing here, and I’ll know what to do,” but he says, “If I am a man of God,” and that’s the key. He’s no longer deciding things on what he should do, but by who he is. It’s his character, “If I am a man of God.” God has not second best, he has no shelf, God enlarges my vision, so that I know He’s going to use me to the end of time, and every family of the earth is going to be touched by my life, and He’s doing secret things I don’t know anything about it, but now I think He’s illustrating that God has set Elijah free to be Elijah. He lives, but yet not him, but Christ lives in him. It’s this wonderful truth that if I’m really a man of God, if my heart is on Him, if I want His pleasure, if I want His glory, if I want His name, if I want His renown, if I want to honor the Lord, if I am a man of God, if I am a woman of God, then I can live intuitively, I can live automatically. I don’t have to ask for a fleece. I don’t have to ask that God give me a sign, so I know His will. If I’m a man of God, and if my heart is set on Him, I can make decisions. I don’t have to pray, “Should I go here, should I go there, should I call them, should I give him that money, should I share that, should I support that ministry.” I will know; it’s intuitive, because if I’m a man of God, there’s a still, small voice. There is in my heart a direction.
Now, I’m not suggesting that I will never make a mistake, if I’m a man of God, because I walk in the light, but I walk in light imperfectly. You walk in the light, but you walk in the light imperfectly, but when you decide, you are not at the mercy of your decision. You are at the mercy of the Lord, and He will turn the curse to a blessing. He rules, and over-rules. He rules the good, and He over-rules the evil. We’ve already seen this truth. Let me give it to you in simpler verses. Because we have an extreme case, calling down fire from heaven, you might be scratching your head and saying, “The principle is not all that clear.” Let me give it to you more clearly. You’ve already seen it. Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” That’s the same thing. Do you see what I’m saying? If you delight in the Lord, if you’re a man of God, if you’re a woman of God, if your focus is on Him, He’ll give you the desires of your heart. Not what your heart desires, but the desires, where did you get them? How did it come to your mind that you should call so and so or visit so and so, or give so and so a ride? How did that come to your mind? The answer is that if you delight yourself in the Lord, He’ll give you the desires of your heart. Elijah has been recommissioned, and he’s now free to be himself in union with Christ, and to listen to that still, small voice.
Here is another verse that says the same thing, Proverbs 3:5&6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Elijah said, “If I’m a man of God, He’s directing my paths; let fire come down.” That’s what came to him, and that became the will of God. Again, we’ll come back to that because we’re not finished with that illustration. I want to come back to that next time, and we’re going to look together. The reason Elijah took his eyes off the Lord is that he didn’t understand spiritual warfare. I’ve been announcing, and I’m announcing now, next week, Lord willing, we’re going to have a special study. I’m going to step aside from Elijah and Elisha. That’s the occasion, because he didn’t understand warfare, and because I didn’t understand spiritual warfare, and because there’s a great confusion among many of the people of God about spiritual warfare, I want to take one lesson and just look at that issue. So, we’ll do that next week, Lord willing.
Let me summarize what we’ve said. In his recommission we’ve seen three principles. #1 God has no imperfect will; God has no shelf and God has no second best. #2 God enlarges your vision. He is using you through the years, through generations, to the end of time. God is working behind the scenes. You can’t believe how much He is using you, and He’s taking, in the new vision, your eyes off of you and reminding you that there is a body to which you belong. You’re a member of a body, and He’s using the whole body. #3 Finally, in the recommission He sets you free to be yourself, intuitively, to know the will of God, and all your focus is now, “I just want to be.” It’s not about doing; it’s about being, “I want to be a man of God, I want to be a woman of God.” If you are, then live. That’s what He’s calling us to do. Just decide.
This is going to be controversial. At the men’s conference we’ll try to straighten this out, but you don’t have to pray about it. You know the will of God. More of that later.
Heavenly Father, thank You for this portion of scripture and this recommissioning of your servant, Elijah, involving him in Your worldwide purposes, opening his eyes and enlarging his vision, setting him free. Oh Lord, thank You for such a Shepherd who restored our soul. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.