1 Kings 19:21

Elisha proved himself by what he did. He took the oxen he had been ploughing with, killed them, boiled their flesh using the equipment of the oxen, and gave it to the people. His oxen and plough were essential to his old life. He got rid of them. The act said plainly that he was answering God's call, completely and absolutely. From then on there was no turning back for him.

Elisha had nothing to gain, as far as this world goes, by following Elijah. The prophet was an outlawed man, and his life in constant danger. The Lord Jesus warned those who would follow Him that it might mean losing everything. "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Matt. 8:20). He was going on toward a cross; were His disciples willing to carry one? (Mark 8:34).

If Elisha's actions show some looking back at what lay behind, they also prove him an overcomer. He celebrates giving up his possessions by providing a feast for others. In his own day and measure, as someone has said, he sold what he had and gave to the poor. Having finished with his earthly occupation, "he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him." Until then he had kept to the daily round, working patiently in the field. Now he is to be prepared to display the wonders of God's grace by following Elijah as his servant and companion.

The prophet's reply throws him back on his own responsibility. "Go back again, for what have I done to you?" It was for Elisha to judge whether Elijah's action toward him was a divine call or not. His spiritual instincts told him it was. His response did not rise as high as it might have; following at once would have shown that. Still, his faith, as far as it went, leads to true and fitting action.

You see there was at once the free action of prophetic power. If he had not had Elijah's mantle he would not have been authorised to act as he did. By what right does he sacrifice like this? He understood it well. Notice too that this was not just a visit to his parents. God was in his thoughts. He sacrificed the oxen. "Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him." Now the Lord does not rebuke that. Where He Himself is concerned He did rebuke it. But Elijah was not the Lord, and that is the difference between them.

Elijah met Elisha and threw his prophet's mantle over him. From that day the newcomer followed and served his master faithfully. In fact people knew him only as the man who "poured water on the hands of Elijah" (1 Kings 19:21; 2 Kings 3:11). As is fitting for a true servant, he keeps himself in the background until his public ministry begins, and we hear nothing more of him. He had the prophetic mantle Elijah gave him, so he could act as judge over the land of Israel in Elijah's place. Even so, he did not use it until his master was taken up.

It is one thing to be saved by Christ, and to be, as it were, under the shelter of His mantle. It is another stage in our history when we go out to serve Him, to minister to Him. Does that mean we give up our occupations to follow Him, that we turn our backs on home and wife and children? Not necessarily. But it does mean that where once we pursued our occupations with a selfish aim, now Christ becomes our object.