A Double Portion

[00:00:00] Heavenly Father, thank youk for these words that Phil has read for us. [00:00:05] These words from youm Scriptures that are, that are living and active and useful and God breathed. So this morning, regardless of where we land at the moment, whether we've heard those words and not understood a thing, or whether we've heard this passage so many times before, we get it. [00:00:24] Help us to come at it with fresh eyes. [00:00:29] Open our hearts to the work of your spirit. [00:00:32] As the Spirit leads us closer to Jesus, may I decrease and you increase. [00:00:39] In your name we pray. [00:00:41] Amen. [00:00:45] So I've shared this story before, but I remember when I turned 35, it felt like a bit of a milestone. [00:00:54] And I was just sharing it with one of my friends who is a doctor that comes to this church. I may have narrowed it down a little bit there, but as we were talking about it, he uttered these words to me, words that brought an emotional devastation unlike I had experienced for a long time. [00:01:14] He said, you know, medically speaking, you're middle aged now. [00:01:22] Does anyone need to hear that just recently, after they've turned 35? [00:01:29] I remember reeling from that and thinking about it for a very long time. I googled it to make sure he was right. Surprisingly enough, yes, he was absolutely right. I now was, medically speaking, middle aged. [00:01:42] And it forced me, after a week or two. There was a lot of emotional recovery for those few weeks, but realized how much, I guess, of a gift it was because I started to think on it. And if this is true, if this is true, then that means the reality is I am middle aged. [00:02:06] And I love what Dan Allender and Trempa Longman say in their book the Cry of the Soul is that where we meet God is in reality itself, that we have to face reality. And in that reality we experience God in a deep and profound way. And I had to realize I was no longer a young leader, I was no longer a young man. [00:02:34] Parts of me that were beginning to ache that had not ached before. [00:02:38] And so there was an element of my life that I started to think. [00:02:43] I feel like I'm entering into a different stage. [00:02:49] And I became fascinated with this idea, I don't know if you've heard of it, called the first and second Half of Life. [00:02:56] And it's kind of this idea that we kind of have two halves of our life. And our first half of life is we're trying to kind of build the container and we're making the commitments that will shape the rest of our life. [00:03:10] And there is an activeness and a desire in trying to move towards and kind of figure out where am I meant to be and what am I supposed to do? And then we get to the second half of life. And if we keep going down that road actually doesn't fulfill us. If we're trying to just seek our own opportunities, that something shifts. [00:03:32] And that as we move through that middle age into older age, suddenly it becomes, what more can I give to the next generation? How can I help pour into others? Well, how can I give my life away? [00:03:47] What does it look like for me to live in a way that I can bless those who are coming after me rather than stand in their way and be a hindrance? [00:04:00] And so as we continue through our series, we're looking at called Transitions in the story of God. We're going to be looking at a handover in a way of one prophet to another, someone who is handing things on to another person. [00:04:16] And the prophets are Elijah and Elisha. [00:04:20] Names are very, very familiar. I almost called them E1 and E2 because I'm going to get really confused as we move through this story. But I think it's really important to kind of go back to before this story that Phil read for us of kind of where this interaction started to come from. [00:04:40] And so for a moment, imagine you are wearing the sandals of Elijah. [00:04:48] Now Elijah has this profound moment in 1 Kings 18. You can read it in your own time if you like to, but you stand before 850 prophets of other gods of Israel. Gods Baal and Asherah, they are Canaanite gods. [00:05:07] And King Ahaz of Israel is kind of leading God's people into the worship of these gods. And there's this showdown that takes place place on Mount Carmel. [00:05:20] And you make the call to the people of God. How long will you waver between two opinions? Like if Baal's God follow him, but if Yahweh, the God of Israel, is God, then follow him. Don't dance between the two is like the literal translation there. And the people remain silent. And so it comes to this, like, kind of test that they both have to call down fire from heaven. [00:05:49] And the 850 people come and they go through their routines and nothing happens. [00:05:57] Absolutely nothing happens. [00:05:59] It's Elijah's turn and he ups the ante for himself. [00:06:04] He actually takes water and covers this altar with wood three times. And like, just keep in mind they're in the middle of a famine right now. [00:06:15] What is the most important resource that you can possibly have in the midst. Oh, sorry. In a drought, they're in a Drought. What is the most significant resource that you can have on you if you're in a drought season? [00:06:28] Water. [00:06:30] And he's just poured three things of water all over this. [00:06:38] He then prays to God and then suddenly fire comes from heaven. [00:06:47] It licks up all of the water. [00:06:50] It is left in no uncertain terms who is the true God over all things now? Elijah. Imagine you are Elijah in this moment. [00:07:04] How chuffed are you? [00:07:08] Like, how jubilant are you? Because at this point you're on the winning team. [00:07:14] It's clearly been shown. There is a level of excitement. I kind of think that if he were playing NBA basketball today, for those who love to follow along, he would have. Does anyone remember this shot of the Paris Olympics in the gold medal game? Steph Curry, who just has unlimited three point range, hits at over three French players. This is a shot that you do not take. [00:07:42] You just never take this shot. He hits it. It's not as one of the most incredible shots. And then he hits the whole auditor with his patented celebration. Does anyone know Steph's patented celebration? [00:07:56] It's the night night. [00:07:59] He's putting them down to bed. I imagine Elijah would have hit a night night here. [00:08:05] Like in this moment. He thinks it's done, it's been shown. He actually races back to the city to find out what's the ramifications of this incredible victory. [00:08:20] And he gets back and we find this Queen Jezebel sends a message to Elijah to say, may the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like one of the prophets of BAAL who were killed on the mountain. [00:08:41] That's not what he was expecting. He hit him with a night night. It's done. You don't come back from a night night. [00:08:47] What? [00:08:49] So what does Elijah do? [00:08:52] This man who stood on the mountain, who kind of stared down 850, what does he do? He retreats. [00:09:03] He flees. [00:09:05] And it's in this moment that he just wants his life to end. He really thought this was going to happen. So he's in a pretty dark place in this moment. [00:09:16] What would you do? [00:09:19] What would you do if you were Elisha? [00:09:22] And so it's in this moment that he goes. And God invites him, draws near to him, ministers to him gently in this moment, calls him to Mount Horeb, which is another word for Mount Sinai, significant mountain in the history of Israel, and he ministers in there. Elijah then rants twice, says these words are repeated verbatim word for word twice. [00:09:51] Once when he's in a cave. The other times after he is called to come out and encounter God and God doesn't. You may have heard this before, if you've heard this story that there's an earthquake, there's fire, there's a whirlwind. God is not in either of them. [00:10:06] He comes in the still, small voice which leads to the second time of saying these words. He has zealously served the Lord God Almighty. [00:10:19] But the people of Israel have broken their covenant, their arrangement with you. They've torn down your altars, killed every one of your prophets. I'm the only one left. [00:10:29] He feels like he's carrying this whole thing and now they're trying to kill me. [00:10:42] I don't know if you've ever been in a place of desolation quite like this, where you've just felt God has left you, that you have been faithful, but maybe God hasn't held up his end of the bargain. [00:10:56] I don't know if you've ever had a moment like this. But God speaks to him out of this and basically says, let's lift your vision a little higher. [00:11:09] He tells him to go back the way that he came. And then he's going to go to the wilderness of Damascus. And then there are three people that he is to anoint for the next season. [00:11:22] Hazael to be king of Aram. Jehu, grandson of Nimshi, to be king of Israel. [00:11:29] And this bit, which is the relevant part for us today, anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat, from the town of Abel Mehalah, to replace you as my prophet. [00:11:45] And so this, this moment here is Elisha, who has kind of hit the heights, come down to the depths. [00:11:56] He's just had an emotional roller coaster of a journey. He said, I'm alone in this. I feel like I'm the only one left. And God says, I want you to go and anoint this person to be your successor. [00:12:12] And from this point, he goes and he calls Elisha. And we get a glimpse of the person that Elisha is. [00:12:20] He tells him to follow him. He places his cloak over his shoulders and put a pin in that, that that cloak will be important as we come back around. [00:12:31] And Elisha actually says, well, just hang on, let me. Let me go back and say goodbye to my mum and dad. Which seems fair, but Elisha's like, no, no, like, we go now. [00:12:43] This is Elisha's response. He returns to his oxen and slaughters them. He uses the wood from the plow to build a fire. [00:12:52] And then he passes around the roasted meat to the townspeople, and then he leaves. [00:12:58] Now, admittedly, that just looks like a really big communal spit roast that's going on here, but this was his life up to this point. [00:13:10] He is kind of offering up his old way of life to go all in with Elijah. In this moment, his life, his call, his future is wrapped up in the life and the call and the future of Elijah, which starts to make sense of the words that Phil read to us. [00:13:39] This is a moment for Elijah where he is, as Cortez did back in the day of he's burning the ships of his men so they have no choice but to go the way of taking care of the Aztec empire. [00:13:54] This is a moment where he is burning everything behind to follow into the new. And then we get to this story in 2 Kings 2, and I don't know if you got how the beats of the story, they're walking on. And Elijah says to Elisha, right, you stay here. I'm going here. [00:14:15] Does anyone remember what Elisha's response to that was? [00:14:20] No, no, I'm coming with you. [00:14:23] Absolutely. And so then they go. And then there's a group of prophets in that particular region who say to him, did you know that your master's going to be taken away from you? [00:14:36] And then Elisha says the same thing again. He repeats this multiple times. Yes, I do know. Now be quiet. [00:14:43] There seems to be this rhythm and this pattern that keeps going on and on. And they're going to all these different places which just sound like names. And if we had more time, we could speak to the just deep significance that each of these places has to Israel. [00:15:03] But they're going to journey from Gilgal to Bethel. That's about 13km walk. [00:15:10] Then they're going to go from Gilgal to Jericho, which is about 19 kilometers walk. But there is a descent of 3,000ft. [00:15:18] They're, like going way down. This is an enormous trek. And then to the Jordan river, another 16 kilometer walk. [00:15:28] This is a huge undertaking, an enormous endeavor. And each time, there seems to be this pattern. Stay here, Elijah. I'm not going to stay there. [00:15:39] We go. What's going on? [00:15:41] What's happening in these moments? [00:15:48] The general sense is that Elijah is testing the devotion of Elisha, his prophet. Is he willing to really go the distance with him? Now Elisha is. Every time he says, no, no, no, I'm not. I'm coming with you. It's reminiscent almost of Ra, Ruth, and the story of Ruth and Naomi. When, and to not go too much into that. But Naomi has had her husband, her sons die in the land of Obed. They're coming back to Jerusalem, and the two daughters in law are coming with her. And she's sending them back because she has no security, she has no future. She has no man to take care of her. That's the way it was in this particular day and age. She is destitute. [00:16:34] For these two young women to come with her, that is, there's just no hope and no future there. [00:16:40] But Ruth refuses because her life is tied to Naomi. [00:16:47] That's the sense of Elisha with Elijah. He's not going anywhere. [00:16:57] And as they get to the Jordan, Elisha uses his cloak and hits the water. And the water parts which. [00:17:07] We've heard that narrative before, haven't we? [00:17:10] Multiple times. We've seen this moment of the waters parting and the people of God crossing through. [00:17:18] And then Elisha makes this request. [00:17:22] Well, it's asked by Elijah, what can I do for you? [00:17:26] And he says, please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. [00:17:32] I don't know about anyone else. The first time I read this passage, I was like, that just seems greedy. [00:17:39] Like, really. It's like he's saying, I really want your job. Just give me double the pay. [00:17:44] Like, what's going on here? What's he asking for? When he asks for a double portion, is it like just more cool stuff to happen? [00:17:55] I mean, Saiba, actually, there are. There are seven recorded miracles in the life of Elijah, and then there are 14 in the life of Elisha. [00:18:05] But I don't know if that's what he's asking. [00:18:08] Like, what exactly is he asking for? I think we have to go right back to Deuteronomy 21:17 speaks of this idea that the firstborn son, and this is even in attention with a wife that you love, a wife that you don't. There's a whole rabbit hole. We could go on around the customs of the ancient Israelites at this time, but it's saying, regardless of who the firstborn son is, to a wife that you love or a wife that you don't, you give the firstborn son a double portion. [00:18:43] The double portion in this moment is Elisha asking Elijah, can I be the heir and successor of the prophetic ministry that you have had, that he has had his whole life and call wrapped up in this. And this is the moment he knows Elijah's about to be taken up. [00:19:07] Will you grant me the mantle of ministry that you have had? [00:19:16] Can I be the heir to what you are calling me? To do. Which is why Elijah says, well, this is a difficult thing that you're asking. [00:19:25] Like, I don't know if this is for me to give, but if you see me taken, absolutely. If you don't, I can't do anything about that. [00:19:40] And so there's a lot riding on the line here that Elisha is asking to continue on in the ministry, to continue to see the work of God. The assumption here is that the ministry of God will not end with Elijah, that he knows that there will be ministry and works of God to come past this current leader. It's what we've been talking about for a long time. That actually the activity and the movement and the blessing and the presence of God is not tethered to any one human leader. [00:20:16] That I have loved, absolutely love, the decade that I have been able to be here at Summerhill Baptist and seeing God do some pretty cool stuff. [00:20:25] God's going to continue to do pretty cool stuff on December 14th and beyond. [00:20:35] And so then comes the moment, which I always. I don't know if anyone else thought this or if this is just my slow, obtuse self. I always thought Elijah got taken up by the chariots of Fire. [00:20:47] Did anyone ever. [00:20:49] Has anyone ever thought that? Or anyone not thought about that enough? Or did anyone hear Chariots of Fire and go. [00:20:58] Like, I always thought he was taken up by that. But actually, no, no, no. That separates them. [00:21:07] And then it's in the whirlwind, this image for the presence of God. Elijah gets taken up with the presence of God. Elijah sees it. [00:21:20] And then there's this moment where he exclaims, like my father. My father. Something has happened to Elisha in this moment where he sees this is even bigger than Elijah. [00:21:32] This is the God who created all things. [00:21:36] This is who I'm aligning myself behind. [00:21:41] And then we read that he picks up Elijah's cloak. [00:21:48] The cloak was a significant item of clothing, just like it was. You used it for many, many different things. But do you remember what was put across his shoulders when Elisha called him to follow him? [00:22:01] His cloak. [00:22:03] He takes up this cloak as the symbolic taking up the mantle, and he strikes the water with it, like Elisha did. [00:22:15] And then he asks what I think is a vulnerable question in the moment of transition, at any point in time, where now is the Lord? [00:22:25] Because transitions can feel insecure, transitions can feel uncertain and anxious. And what's going to happen past this time? We're not 100% sure. And so these questions of, is God still here? [00:22:40] Is he still present? Is he still acting? Is he still moving? It's important. Yes, he is. But that emotional feeling can really be heightened and feel very raw in the moments of transition. [00:22:52] But when he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left and he crossed over. [00:23:03] The prophets who see this happen say, the spirit of Elijah is now resting on Elisha. There's this acknowledgment that the mantle has been handed on, that the work of God will continue, but it will continue not through Elijah, but through Elisha. [00:23:22] And then did anyone happen to catch how weird it ends? [00:23:30] Like, did anyone notice that at this point, then those prophets who was like, the spirit of God is resting on Elijah and Elisha, like, maybe we should send out a search party. [00:23:41] Like, maybe this chariot or this whirlwind took him away like a heavenly Uber and dropped him off somewhere else. [00:23:51] Maybe, maybe he didn't want to walk up the 3,000 foot incline. [00:23:56] And like, it's this moment of like, wait, what? [00:24:01] Are you serious? [00:24:03] And Elisha is saying, no, no, we're absolutely not going to look for him. That's ridiculous. He's been taken. You saw it. [00:24:13] He's been taken up. And I love the line. [00:24:19] I don't know if this is just me, but it just tickles me every time I read a line like this. They persisted until he was too, too embarrassed to refuse. [00:24:29] They kept on and on and on and on. And it gets to the point where he's like, this is ridiculous. Just go, just look for him. Just go. He's so frustrated by the moment, he's so embarrassed by what's going on. And they go, they take 50 people, they look for three days and do they find him? [00:24:49] No. [00:24:50] Why didn't they find him? [00:24:52] Because he hasn't been dropped off somewhere else. [00:24:56] He's been taken away. [00:24:59] And it ends with Elisha this exasperated going, didn't I tell you not to do this? And that's where the story ends. [00:25:07] Like, it's bonkers. What's going on here? [00:25:11] I think a couple of things to kind of close our time. One, that even in the clearest leadership transitions, which the first leader getting taken away by a whirlwind into the heavens. I would class as clear. [00:25:25] Even in those clearest moments, it can be a challenge to trust what God is doing, moving forward. [00:25:33] Like they saw it. And these prophets, all of them said, taking your master away and then gets to the actual moment. They're like, probably dropped him off about 10 minutes up the road. Maybe we should go get him. [00:25:45] They're still struggling to trust what God is doing in this moment. And Elisha, it serves to show the mantle of God's spirit is actually on this leader. He knows what's happened, that he is the true prophet. It's legitimizing his call moving forward. [00:26:08] It's a fascinating, weird story, if we're honest, but it speaks to how God continues to be at work from one leader to another, and that even when we can lack the trust, in the moments when we feel vulnerable, in the moments where everything starts to creep up and there's a lack of trust, God is still at work, God is still moving. [00:26:44] And so some questions to reflect on, to finish. [00:26:49] How do you find trusting in God in the midst of life's transitions? [00:26:56] Does it come naturally to you? [00:26:59] Is there a moment where it's like, actually when things get a little bit out of control, that's where I come back to God hard. [00:27:08] Or is it a different thing? How do you find trust in God in the middle of life's transitions? [00:27:16] How do you see God at work in our church community, among us in ways that aren't dependent on a pastoral leader? [00:27:28] How do you see God moving in those ways? And this is. It's been a long passage and it's been a weird passage, but what is God getting your attention with? Or maybe what is God getting our attention with in this passage? [00:27:46] This morning, let me pray and I'll hand back to Clay. [00:27:57] Jesus. This story, if I'm honest, is kind of a weird story. [00:28:05] But I'm so thankful that we see the record of these transitions in the times of Scripture, where we see your spirit and your presence continuing on despite handover in human leadership that you are the head of your church, you are the God who has created all things. You are the God of heaven and earth. And so even though trusting you can sometimes be hard, at least for me at times it has been hard. In the midst of transition, we want to come back again. And with the cry of the dad in Luke, chapter nine, Mark, chapter nine, say, I believe. [00:28:48] Help me in my unbelief. [00:28:51] Because we know that you're at work. [00:28:53] We know that you're at work in the life of Summerhill Baptist Church. [00:28:58] And so we trust you and we cling to you and help us to encourage one another in the weeks and the months ahead. In your mighty name we pray, Jesus. [00:29:11] Amen.