A Word about the Mantle of Leadership

 

Today I want to share a word about the mantle of leadership, as I comment on 1 Kings 19: 15 & 16 and 19-21. This passage reads:

Then the LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was plowing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, "Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." Then Elijah said to him, "Go back again; for what have I done to you? “ He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant. 

If you think that you have clicked on last’s weeks edition by mistake because the Scriptures are the same, let me put your mind at rest. We will be looking at the same passage of Scripture, but from a different perspective. 

When  we reviewed this passage last week, we highlighted the need to intentionally multiply ourselves through investing in others, which is exactly what Paul taught in 2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” So, we can see that both the Old Testament and the New Testament instruct us to find the leaders whom God will use to lead the his people when we are long gone. 

Remember, none of us will live forever. We need to be like Elijah and be sensitive to God’s leading. We also need to be like Elijah and obey God when he leads. In addition, when the mantle is passed to us, we need to be like Elisha, and receive it with whole-hearted obedience, which is something we will look at today.

God's Call is Rarely Expected:

Right from the top, we can see that God’s call to leadership is usually, if not always, unexpected, and this is exactly the case here with Elisha. 

Elisha was occupied plowing a field, taking care of his family’s business. He also had his hands full as well. I have never tried to control 24 oxen, and I really don’t want to try! The point to observe here is that God’s call doesn’t come when we are ready; no, God’s call comes when He is ready. The saying that “God doesn’t call the equipped but that He equips the called” surely applies here. In fact, it seems to be a constant principle in the history of God’s leadership of His people.

Moses, for example, was not called leadership when he was a prince of Egypt, but when he was a shepherd on the backside of the desert. Samuel was called while he was in service to the High Priest, and David was tending sheep. Nehemiah was a servant to a foreign king in exile, as was Daniel. Peter, James, and John were fishing, and Matthew was collecting taxes. Saul was on the way to persecute the church. None of them were idly twiddling their thumbs; all of them had things to do, places to be, and people to see. Yet, God, in His Sovereignty, looked down from the Heavens and said, “That one! That’s the one I want!” The same thing still happens today, so don’t be surprised if it happens to you or one whom you love.

God's Call Comes in His Timing:

Another thing to observe is that when God is ready, He expects us to be ready, too.

Elisha was surprised at his call, and conflicted at well. God’s call meant he had to leave behind everything that he had known and everyone whom he knew. In Old Testament Israel, family literally meant everything. The leadership structure of the nation was through tribes, which were extended families. Children were taught by their parents, and they worked on their family farm or in their family business. Even the worship in the Temple was led by priests and Levites who were following in their fathers’ footsteps. Family was a big deal!

So Elisha asked Elijah for permission to say goodbye to his parents . This was a natural human response, and a culturally appropriate one to be sure, but it wasn’t what God desired. Elijah’s literal response to this was, “Go back again; for what have I done to you?“ We can probably interpret that to mean, “Your obedience is between you and God. I didn’t call you, He did. You have to deal with that yourself.” This is just like the man in Luke Chapter 9 who asked Jesus for permission to bury his father before following Him. Jesus told him, “Let the dead bury the dead.” In that same passage, another would-be follower of Jesus wanted to go tell his parents goodbye, just like Elisha. Jesus told him, “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.” When God wants us, He wants us on His schedule, not ours.

While some in the Bible tried to delay, others responded immediately.  When God called Abram, he packed up everything and followed God to a place God would show him later. Moses yielded to God at the Burning Bush, and the disciples left their nets and boats and followed Jesus. In Philippi, not only was Lydia and family baptized as soon as the realized the truth of the Gospel, so was the Jailer and his whole family as well.

God's Call Brings Sacrifice:

Elisha responded to God’s call, and he didn’t go to bid farewell to his family. He did have something he needed to do, however, and that was to make a sacrifice of a yoke of oxen. While it is possible that he sacrificed all 24 oxen, I suspect that he only sacrificed the last pair, but that was a tremendous sacrifice nonetheless. His actions remind me of an old joke which goes like this:

The barnyard animals all loved the farmer, and wanted to do somethings special for him on his birthday. The cow had an idea, and said, ‘I know, let’s serve him breakfast in bed! We can prepare bacon and eggs, and I’ll give him a glass of warm, fresh milk.” The chickens enthusiastically clucked their approval, but the pig quickly objected, protesting, ‘Wait just a minute!  For you guys milk and eggs are offerings, but for me, bacon is a real sacrifice!

There is no doubt that leadership is sacrifice. Leaders are first in and last out and in the church, a leader’s responsibility extends past the workday and the work week. Jeremiah the prophet recognized that leadership was sacrifice as did Paul, who described his experiences of serving God this way:

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,  I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

Some, when confronted with these prospects, are like the students in a class who look down at their desk hoping that the teacher won’t call on them. This is probably why Saul was standing at the back of his family when Samuel came to anoint him king of Israel. Thankfully there are others, like Isaiah, who proclaim boldly, “Here am I Lord, send me!” And was Elisha bold or what? His ministry was the very definition of “Go big or go home!” Nothing makes a statement like sacrificing a couple of oxen and feeding the neighborhood! The fact he made stew instead of barbecue might even indicate that he was in a hurry to catch up with Elijah!

God's Call is Honorable and it is Honored by Him:

As we have looked at Elijah and Elisha in this passage of Scripture, we have seen men who were sold out to serve God. 

Like Jesus, Elijah did not see his status as prophet in Israel as “something to be grasped,” but when God told him it was time, he let go of his position and called out his replacement. Elisha, knowing the awesome task which was being placed before him made a public commitment to serving his Lord. Like the Spanish explorer Cortez, he “burned his ship” and didn’t look back. These men, and other people like them in the Bible, are truly models for us to follow as we multiply leaders and take up the mantle of leadership.

What about us? Are we ready to burn our ships? Are we ready to follow God regardless of the cost? Can we say with certainty, “Here am I Lord, send me”? Such commitment is a sacrifice, but one that God will honor and one that God will use as we follow Him into leadership.

Every blessing, 

Dr. Otis Corbitt