There in 1 Kings 19 I was reading all this good stuff about Elijah when in verse 16, God tells Elijah to anoint Elisha to be his successor. One interesting thing I discovered as I was reading about Elisha, although not particularly dealing with prayer, was this: “At the time in which Elijah and Elisha exercised their functions religion and morals had gone down to the lowest possible point in Israel. The very schools of the prophets had themselves felt the corrupting influence of the times. Ahab was able to gather four hundred false prophets at a time, the remarkable circumstance being that they were not prophets of Baal, but false prophets of the Lord himself.” (Bible Characters, Moody, Dwight Lyman; Talmage, T. De Witt; Parker, Joseph; Gillette, C. B.)
Imagine that! Four hundred false prophets at a time and they were false prophets of the Lord, not Baal. This reminds me of the 21[SUP]st[/SUP] century, and all of the false doctrine flourishing today. Elisha was very young when Elijah cast his mantle upon him out in the field where he was plowing alongside eleven servants/slaves, and he wasn’t too proud to work alongside the guys doing the nitty gritty dirty work. He asked Elijah if he could go kiss his parents after the older prophet, without a word, spread his sheepskin mantle over Elisha. There is nothing that shows up as frivolous or self-important, or even self-sufficient in this young man. Such characteristics would have destroyed his ability to be a prophet before he even got started. Elisha learns for several years from Elijah before the old man is taken away.
Elisha’s humility very plainly stands out and as I studied I found two “takes” on what is probably the most momentous of his deeds. One school of thought dwells on Elisha’s boldness toward God and the other, his humility regarding this same incident:
2 Kings 2:6 Eliyahu said to him, "Please wait here, because ADONAI has sent me to the Yarden." He replied, "As ADONAI lives, and as you live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on.
7 Fifty of the guild prophets went and stood watching them from a distance, while they stood by the Yarden.
8 Then Eliyahu took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it; and the water divided itself to the left and to the right; so that they crossed on dry ground.
9 After they had crossed, Eliyahu said to Elisha, "Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away from you." Elisha said, "Please! Let a double share of your spirit be on me!"
10 He replied, "You have requested a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, you will get what you asked for; but if not, you won't."
11 Suddenly, as they were walking on and talking, there appeared a fiery chariot with horses of fire; and as it separated the two of them from each other, Eliyahu went up into heaven in a whirlwind.
12 Elisha saw it and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Isra'el!" Then he lost sight of him. Seizing his clothes, he tore them in half.
13 Then he picked up Eliyahu's cloak, which had fallen off him. Standing on the bank of the Yarden,
14 he took the cloak that had fallen off Eliyahu, struck the water and said, "Where is ADONAI, the God of Eliyahu?" But when he actually did strike the water, it divided itself to the left and to the right; then Elisha crossed over.
15 When the guild prophets of Yericho saw him in the distance, they said, "The spirit of Eliyahu does rest on Elisha." Advancing to meet him, they prostrated themselves on the ground before him
I hesitate to dwell too much on the “boldness” thought because I see it so …misused and overdone! When people pray in church, or any other ‘religious’ gathering for that matter, I hear no confession of sins – not even generic (not all sin needs to be confessed in front of a whole congregation of people) – and literally demanding God do something or other for them. The scripture that I have heard used to support this demanding attitude toward Almighty God is “Therefore, let us confidently approach the throne from which God gives grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.“ Hebrews 4:16 (CJB)
Time passes and we see that He didn’t do whatever it was, and the excuse is that God said, “no,” or “wait.” It is never an acknowledgment that the person or group who prayed may have not been pure in heart. This “boldness” is simply referring to the privilege we have of approaching God in prayer without the need to slaughter a goat and have a high priest offer it in our behalf, a necessity now fulfilled by Jesus Christ/Yeshua. “So, brothers, we have confidence to use the way into the Holiest Place opened by the blood of Yeshua.” Hebrews 10:19 (CJB)
Just one more thing I found as I was working on the “boldness” topic that strongly supports what we know is right and that is to STUDY the scriptures, as the Bereans did in Acts 17:11. I read a book about being bold with our prayers and the author used Isaiah 45:11 as a basis for claiming that God tells us to command Him to do for us. Apparently he used the KJV which says: “Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.” But, I looked in the Complete Jewish Bible, which is translated directly from the original Hebrew, which everyone agrees was the language the Old Testament was first written in, and it says: “Thus says ADONAI, the Holy One of Isra'el, his Maker: "You ask for signs concerning my children? You give orders concerning the work of my hands?” The changing of questions in the original to statements in the KJV totally changes the meaning of the passage. It is actually saying, ‘who are you to demand anything of me?’….not, ‘go ahead tell me to do anything you want to.’ So much for boldly going where no man should go.
This is getting very long so will take up the other part of this discussion in the next post.
Also see thread “The falling away” for more on this especially post #266.
Imagine that! Four hundred false prophets at a time and they were false prophets of the Lord, not Baal. This reminds me of the 21[SUP]st[/SUP] century, and all of the false doctrine flourishing today. Elisha was very young when Elijah cast his mantle upon him out in the field where he was plowing alongside eleven servants/slaves, and he wasn’t too proud to work alongside the guys doing the nitty gritty dirty work. He asked Elijah if he could go kiss his parents after the older prophet, without a word, spread his sheepskin mantle over Elisha. There is nothing that shows up as frivolous or self-important, or even self-sufficient in this young man. Such characteristics would have destroyed his ability to be a prophet before he even got started. Elisha learns for several years from Elijah before the old man is taken away.
Elisha’s humility very plainly stands out and as I studied I found two “takes” on what is probably the most momentous of his deeds. One school of thought dwells on Elisha’s boldness toward God and the other, his humility regarding this same incident:
2 Kings 2:6 Eliyahu said to him, "Please wait here, because ADONAI has sent me to the Yarden." He replied, "As ADONAI lives, and as you live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on.
7 Fifty of the guild prophets went and stood watching them from a distance, while they stood by the Yarden.
8 Then Eliyahu took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it; and the water divided itself to the left and to the right; so that they crossed on dry ground.
9 After they had crossed, Eliyahu said to Elisha, "Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away from you." Elisha said, "Please! Let a double share of your spirit be on me!"
10 He replied, "You have requested a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, you will get what you asked for; but if not, you won't."
11 Suddenly, as they were walking on and talking, there appeared a fiery chariot with horses of fire; and as it separated the two of them from each other, Eliyahu went up into heaven in a whirlwind.
12 Elisha saw it and cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Isra'el!" Then he lost sight of him. Seizing his clothes, he tore them in half.
13 Then he picked up Eliyahu's cloak, which had fallen off him. Standing on the bank of the Yarden,
14 he took the cloak that had fallen off Eliyahu, struck the water and said, "Where is ADONAI, the God of Eliyahu?" But when he actually did strike the water, it divided itself to the left and to the right; then Elisha crossed over.
15 When the guild prophets of Yericho saw him in the distance, they said, "The spirit of Eliyahu does rest on Elisha." Advancing to meet him, they prostrated themselves on the ground before him
I hesitate to dwell too much on the “boldness” thought because I see it so …misused and overdone! When people pray in church, or any other ‘religious’ gathering for that matter, I hear no confession of sins – not even generic (not all sin needs to be confessed in front of a whole congregation of people) – and literally demanding God do something or other for them. The scripture that I have heard used to support this demanding attitude toward Almighty God is “Therefore, let us confidently approach the throne from which God gives grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.“ Hebrews 4:16 (CJB)
Time passes and we see that He didn’t do whatever it was, and the excuse is that God said, “no,” or “wait.” It is never an acknowledgment that the person or group who prayed may have not been pure in heart. This “boldness” is simply referring to the privilege we have of approaching God in prayer without the need to slaughter a goat and have a high priest offer it in our behalf, a necessity now fulfilled by Jesus Christ/Yeshua. “So, brothers, we have confidence to use the way into the Holiest Place opened by the blood of Yeshua.” Hebrews 10:19 (CJB)
Just one more thing I found as I was working on the “boldness” topic that strongly supports what we know is right and that is to STUDY the scriptures, as the Bereans did in Acts 17:11. I read a book about being bold with our prayers and the author used Isaiah 45:11 as a basis for claiming that God tells us to command Him to do for us. Apparently he used the KJV which says: “Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.” But, I looked in the Complete Jewish Bible, which is translated directly from the original Hebrew, which everyone agrees was the language the Old Testament was first written in, and it says: “Thus says ADONAI, the Holy One of Isra'el, his Maker: "You ask for signs concerning my children? You give orders concerning the work of my hands?” The changing of questions in the original to statements in the KJV totally changes the meaning of the passage. It is actually saying, ‘who are you to demand anything of me?’….not, ‘go ahead tell me to do anything you want to.’ So much for boldly going where no man should go.
This is getting very long so will take up the other part of this discussion in the next post.
Also see thread “The falling away” for more on this especially post #266.