THE MINISTRY OF ELISHA IN ITS PRACTICAL VALUE (1)
[p. 225] THE MINISTRY OF ELISHA IN ITS PRACTICAL VALUE (1)
1 Kings 19:19 - 21; 2 Kings 2:9 - 22
JT It is well to keep in mind in these public meetings that the ministry is cumulative, that is, all that proceeds from God takes form in others, maybe two, three or four being involved in it; and the point is that what next proceeds from God should be in accord in those involved with what has gone before. So these two prophets are taken up to show how everything proceeds from God; how the instrumentalities He may use are to be in accord with Himself in the sense of unity. There is to be unity and order in what a servant does. There has been encouragement in relation to the word in Great Britain recently, in the gospel of Matthew being divided into two parts; the first part being taken up in the meetings in Edinburgh, and the second part in London; the same subject divided into two parts. And God blessed the matter. So now we have these two servants, two great prophets. The first is Elijah and he has great distinction in the New Testament, and has been referred to often; and then Elisha, a counterpart, a continuation of Elijah, because it is so. Elijah is the more drastic and severe but Elisha is the more gracious, which is a great matter, that we should have a gracious minister and that we should take part in grace ourselves, every one of us, that we should have part in what is gracious. “The God of all grace” (1 Peter 5:10) is one title of God, and then He is the God of glory as well; but we are dealing now with grace. So the thought is to continue with Elisha and to see how God had ordered Elijah to select him, to select Elisha the prophet instead of himself; that is to say, Elijah has in this first passage given way to God and given way to [p. 226] another to take his place. Sometimes we may be displaced, those of us who are serving, but at the same time we are to accept in grace what is done; we are not to be jealous or envious of one another, but to do everything in humility and grace. So that Elijah is directed of God to choose Elisha to be prophet in his stead, and we can see there is unity in the affections of the two prophets, there is no rivalry whatever. This is a great point for the brethren to imbibe in our hearts and minds, that we are not to be disunited, but that there might be love amongst ourselves. God knows how to order these things, and He selects these two men and uses one of them to select and to anoint the other. In fact we are to get the idea that the anointing is connected with them. We are said to be anointed too; whatever we are as christians is in the power of the anointing or else it is nothing. It is nothing at all if not in the power of the anointing. We may think it is and assume to be something, but it is nothing unless in the power of the anointing.
SMcC Does the numeral twelve mentioned in the passage amplify the thoughts of unity and love that you are referring to?
JT A very good number; God selected it Himself because evidently it suits Him to effect certain things through it. Yet God may take away one of us, as the apostles had one taken away from them; and yet they continued in the power of the anointing.
SMcC So that the number twelve is the most divisible of all numbers, and love enters into it in a particular way.
JT Another number of equal importance is the number seven. It is a spiritual number, and carries spiritual thoughts. We have been around the circuit recently with these special meetings; we began at Detroit and we were recently at Chicago,
[p. 227] and now we are here in Toronto; presently we expect to be in Council Bluffs. As we move from place to place God is carrying on in the ministry with these numbers; He has taken up what means He will to express His thoughts. Divine Persons have chosen the number three for Themselves, and it is important to notice that. In Matthew 28:19 we have “the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. They are all equal; we know that, but at the same time They have taken up places in the economy that They have ordained, which involves that two have taken relatively lower positions. Each has taken a place by Himself. It is wonderful that divine Persons should take this attitude!
SMcC Would you say that in the economy these great thoughts of unity and love are set out in divine Persons?
JT Just so, the Godhead is involved; but it is remarkable that there are three divine Persons. Of course we speak of Them with great reverence, as we ought to. There are three of Them, They have made this choice Themselves, this arrangement Themselves, because clearly divine Persons are equal. So They have come into time, and we see how Their operations in time are on the principle of these numbers.
CHH Would the apostle Paul in Acts 26 have in mind this calculating in love when he says in verse 7, “to which our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night hope to arrive”? Was that the calculation of love?
JT Just so, the whole twelve tribes; that is good. The word ‘whole’ means they were all united. So far as we know the apostles were never separated, excepting Judas, a matter which was ordained; the defection of Judas was foretold. But at the same time that defection was perfectly mended. The idea of mending is a great one in Scripture; if we are not [p. 228] mended, then we had better see to it that we become so; because there is a way of mending things, and they may become better than they were before in wholeness.
RWS It says the Lord “appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve”, not to the eleven, as if the matter were mended.
JT You should say a little more about it.
RWS I thought the mending was actually after He appeared to the apostles, that in the scripture quoted Matthias had not yet been selected; yet it does not say it was to the eleven He appeared, but to the twelve, as if He regarded them as complete. Subsequently they cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven.
FKC Why is it said that Elisha was with the twelfth yoke of oxen?
JT I think he was there in heart. The place a man takes is very often God’s way of showing what a man is. Here Elisha shows that he is lowly in heart; he did not put himself in the front; he did not choose a place to make himself great. He was with the twelfth yoke, so that there were eleven before him; but I would say he was morally the greatest because he was with the twelfth. He was with the divine number with which God was operating, and he is ready to be in that. Elijah helps him to get into it. Elijah had been in it but Elijah was displaced or replaced by Elisha, and Elisha has the same lowly spirit, qualifying him to take the place of Elijah. It is lowliness that counts, “meek and lowly in heart”, the Lord says.
WL Would you say it called for discernment on the part of Elijah to let the whole eleven go by and then pick the twelfth?
JT But we cannot say he is letting them go by, because there was perfect arrangement; things were not left open, there is always arrangement in the [p. 229] ways of God. No doubt they are all needed and put in their places. They are actually working, ploughing, “and he with the twelfth”.
JWF Would you say that very often circumstances come up to break in upon God’s thought, that is to break in on the number twelve, but still God makes it up? That is, Judas’ failure broke in on the twelve apostles and Matthias had to be brought in; and the two sons of Joseph had to be brought in to make up the twelve in Israel’s number. Still God intervenes and carries the matter through, does He not?
JT He does, so that the whole divine thought is carried through in spite of human weakness; God Himself does it.
AR What started at Pentecost was perfect, was it not? I was wondering if that is what you had in mind in carrying forward the idea of the assembly in our day, so that it is not a remnant at all, but we should keep in mind what is perfect.
JT The assembly is held as complete. The word ‘assembly’ is used at the beginning of Acts. In Revelation the Lord writes to the seven assemblies; He selects them and He writes a letter to each of them, and then there is in addition what the Spirit says to them. But what the Spirit says goes right down through the dispensation; and His speaking is going on today. I would hope that this meeting today in Toronto is part of it, part of what the Spirit is saying to the assemblies, not what the Lord is writing to them but what the Spirit is saying to them, to the assemblies.
AR So do you think the Lord had in mind what is perfect when He said to Philadelphia, “I ... will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world”?
JT Just so, it is the assembly; I mean each one of the assemblies. Although there are seven of [p. 230] them, each one in itself represents the whole, so that the divine ways are in that sense continued; they are linked together and everything is in perfect order.
AH Do you suggest that this ability to plough with twelve yoke of oxen applies peculiarly to the local position?
JT I suppose it would; the idea would be there, and Elisha was with the twelfth; that is to say the lowly man was there with the twelfth, where he was needed.
AH Have you any thought why it is ploughing and not reaping?
JT Well, it is the beginning of things. Ploughing is the beginning; in order to have a crop you must plough.
AH Does it suggest going deep in exercise?
JT Just so.
WWM Would you say he is commended for being with the twelfth? In Matthew 20 when the Lord started to pay off the labourers, those that came first thought they should have got more than the twelfth, as you might say; but the twelve are all equal.
JT Just so; there is perfect unity here; they are working together. Elisha is brought in as following on Elijah and he is fit for the place. So it goes on to say, “And Elijah went over to him, and cast his mantle on him. And he left the oxen” — that is to say, that was past history — “be left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow thee”. Now that is the next thing we have to consider, this matter of kissing the father and the mother; that is, with Elisha the claims of nature are the central matter; they are being fully allowed. We have to see if that is as it should be; that is to say he is putting the testimony last, so that he has to be [p. 231] adjusted. We have already seen that it will not do to make the oxen first, they must be left for the sake of the testimony because Elijah has blessed him in view of the testimony, and he must follow Elijah. It is what is of God we must follow. We cannot think of our business or whatever it may be, that has to be left for the sake of the testimony if we are to qualify.
SMcC What you are saying now as to what is natural is important. At Chicago you were drawing our attention to the woman in chapter 17 as operating on the lines of nature, but the man of God takes the child from her bosom. We have to learn to leave that side of things.
JT Very good, the same thing would be here; Elisha says, “let me ... kiss my father and my mother”, that is, he makes a provision, whereas God does not admit of any provision. God is absolute in His demands, He is absolute, and the absoluteness is love; love is behind all the absoluteness in God.
AH Does the blessing of Levi in Deuteronomy 33 bear on this at all? It says in verses 8 and 9, “And of Levi he said, thy Thummim and thy Urim are for thy godly one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; who said to his father and to his mother, I see him not, and he acknowledged not his brethren, and knew not his own children”.
JT Very good, that is in exact correspondence. The ploughing here just represents ordinary business matters; but the idea of manhood is in Elisha; he is the one that serves, and it says that Elijah cast his mantle on him. He did not cast his mantle on any of the oxen, but just on him. Then Elisha raises the question about his father and his mother, and he is rebuked about it; so that we have to learn to disallow nature and oxen, that is business, and all that goes with it for the sake of the testimony [p. 232] of God.
AR It says of James and John in Mark that He called them and they left everything. That apparently marked the apostles at the beginning, that they straightway left everything.
JT That shows they were ready for it.
ANW Are the terms of our service intended to be very simple? That is, he arose and went after Elijah and ministered to him.
JT That is the next thing. He really left his father and mother, but he was ordered to do that; before he ministers to Elijah he left his father and mother. The Lord did that and we have to leave the natural — that is a principle with God. He will look after them. The passage in 2 Timothy 2:4 - 6 emphasises the same truth as to the things that may hinder.
AR It does not say you are to leave your wife.
JT No, you cannot do that; but, you can leave your father and mother and you can leave the oxen and your business; but you cannot leave your wife, or the brethren either. I do not know whether the brethren go with that because we may have to challenge these things; we are dealing with the facts of Scripture and we must be accurate.
EAL “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife” (Genesis 2:24).
SMcC One of the most baneful things in the testimony is the power and influence of what is natural in obstructing our judgment and hindering us.
JT That is so. You have had a lot to do with these things where you are, but on industrial lines; and there are similar things in other countries. There was a difficulty recently overseas, where a brother refused to join the union and was discharged. Of course you are in similar circumstances in Detroit in that respect. Is God helping?
SMcC He certainly is. I think what you have said as to the demands of God being absolute would [p. 233] help all of us to realise that the testimony must come first.
AR A young brother here recently lost his job because of the union.
JT That enters into what we are speaking about, and of course it calls out the sympathies of the brethren. This thing has been current amongst us for at least fifty years, this matter of unionism; and the brethren have been set against it and have shown their faithfulness to the truth in many of our cities. On the other hand, alas! certain have not been faithful; they have been concerned just to hold their jobs and have lost their place amongst the brethren, their real place amongst the brethren.
EAL You once said regarding this matter of trade unionism, if I recall rightly, that in Revelation, trade unionism is shown up as definitely bearing the mark of the beast; and that if any one would justify his stay in the union after that was pointed out to him, it would point to the fact that he probably did not have the Spirit.
JT I would say that; it is very possible that any person who would stay in a trade union and disregard the truth has not the Spirit.
JM In the union matter now current in New York, and the question of having fellowship in relation to employing a lawyer, some brethren have difficulty as to putting it down as assembly giving. Would you say a word as to that?
JT That situation is the same as if you do not know the way from here to Detroit, and you ask a man to show you, and he does; that is the way I would say it applies in New York. These brethren have been discharged because of unionism and they have just employed a man who can tell them what to do. That is all.
JM It seems quite clear to me, but there is a question in some of the brethren’s [p. 234] minds.
JT There is a good deal of legal feeling in these matters. We have just employed a man to tell us what to do, that is all; we ask him and pay him. The brethren should not question that because those discharged are doing what they can in regard to the testimony, and we want to be right in the method of approach to the government. I do not see anything in the matter at all.
SMcC What was in our brother’s mind was as to charging the assembly, and the assembly’s place in having fellowship with the expenses. But cannot the assembly be charged in regard to any issue that involves the truth? The assembly is the pillar and base of the truth.
JT Quite so. Why should not the assembly be charged in such a case? We should be free to pay and thankful to do so.
FW The question raised is in regard to assembly giving in support of this lawyer, and the legal proceedings.
JT But the thing has to be done you see; it refers to the saints, it refers to the testing they are going through. Why should not the assembly do it? It is their matter to do it, our privilege to do it. We are prone to be very legal in these matters. The question is, Are we instructed as to how to act? And if any one can instruct us, let him do it.
EAL It should be quite clear that the spirit of trade unionism and of communism and all that sort of thing is apostate in character.
JT Quite so; it is the growing feature of apostasy of modern times.
EAL I am afraid a great many of the brethren do not see that situation, that it is entirely apostate; the social trend is entirely apostate in character.
JT That is true. But let us proceed with our scripture. It says in verse 20, “And he said to him, Go back again; for what have I done to thee?”
[p. 235] What Elijah had done was to cast his mantle upon him. It goes on, “And he returned back from him, and took the yoke of oxen, and killed them” — notice that, he killed the yoke of oxen; they are his property and he is quite right to use that property for a good purpose — “he ... killed them, and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they ate. And he arose and went after Elijah, and ministered to him”. Now all is clear; and it ought to be instructive to every one of us as to what we should do in similar tests. Elisha is corrected; instead of going back to his father and mother, it says he turned. Elijah said, “Go back again”; he is challenging the spiritual discernment of Elisha and we see that Elisha came to the right viewpoint. The whole position is now clear, the testimony of God is clear, and the work of God is going on properly. Elisha is serving Elijah; instead of going back and kissing his father and mother, he is serving Elijah. I think it is wonderful to notice all these things. He is serving Elijah and the oxen and the ploughing instruments are just material that can be left. They do not belong to the testimony at all; they can be left. The point is Elijah and Elisha; Elisha is following Elijah and ministering to him.
FKC What is involved in ministering to Elijah?
JT Well, ministering is serving the Lord; if Elijah needs anything in a material sense Elisha would give it to him, if he has it to give.
FKC Do you think that Luke ministered in that way, as being called into the service at Troas? The apostle speaks of him as “Luke, the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14). He seems to be always near to Paul and I wondered whether he ministered on that line? I was thinking of the need of those who minister many a time, the need for support and encouragement.
JT Whatever it be, if they need anything, give it to them. That is what I think. That is to say [p. 236] Elisha would do anything that Elijah might need. He poured water on the hands of Elijah, he did that to refresh him; Elijah would be refreshed by that. But now we might come to our second scripture beginning with verse 9 of 2 Kings 2, “And it came to pass when they had gone over, that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I am taken away from thee”. Notice that, dear brethren, Elijah is going to be taken up and he knows it; and so are we all going to be taken up, and we know it, or at least we should know it. Elisha’s answer is to ask for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, but he says to him, “Thou hast asked a hard thing”. He is asking a hard thing from Elijah in wanting to get a double portion of his spirit, but it was a good thing and a right thing; he is now doing what is right. So Elijah says, “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so to thee; but if not, it shall not be so”. I think what is for the brethren in all this is to enquire whether we see things, whether we see what is current in a spiritual way. Many stay at home and have no interest in what is happening; they do not see the things that are happening. The word to Elisha is, “If thou see me ... it shall be so”. So it is that if we are not present when things are happening we are going to lose. We might as well accept it that we are going to lose.
BP As Thomas did in John 20; he missed the first appearing of the Lord, but he got the second appearing.
JT Quite so, I hope all hear that. So Elisha says, “I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me”; that is a double portion of the prophet’s spirit. That is to say, we have the Spirit, and we might say we have a firstborn’s portion; the assembly has the Spirit of God in that special way. Each of us in the assembly has the Spirit in [p. 237] a full way, whereas those in a coming day will not have the Spirit as we have Him. We have to understand that the Spirit will not be so freely given in their day as in our day; we are in the day of the free gift of the Holy Spirit. John’s gospel is full of it, that the Spirit is given freely to us now; John 7 tells us that. The question now is whether we have arrived at it, and whether we are present at the meetings so that we can see what is happening. So Elijah says, “Thou hast asked a hard thing”. Then it says they talked, notice that; the two prophets talked together; and then behold, Elijah is gone and Elisha is here! But he saw Elijah go, and he cried, “My father, my father!” and then he takes up Elijah’s mantle. He takes hold of his own garments and rends them; his whole attitude is changed, according to verses 13 and 14 he is now in entire accord with Elijah. He has got Elijah’s garment and he has the same power as Elijah. That is what we have; the whole power of God is in the assembly, and we want to be in it and of it, not to be left out of it.
AH Is this an advance on getting free from business and natural links? He is now prepared to dispense with his own garment.
JT That is the suggestion, I am sure; we have to let everything go for the sake of the testimony.
SMcC We cannot over-emphasise the fact that the power is here. In the early days among us some brother was saying that everything is at the right hand of God; but it was stressed that the Spirit of God is here.
JT That is good; there is not only power at the right hand of God, it is down here too. So that before the Lord Jesus went up into heaven He said, “If I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you” (John 16:7); but He did go up, and the Spirit came to us. The Lord said the Father would send Him to us [p. 238] and the point we now have to get is that the Spirit is here. Christ is at the right hand of God, but the Spirit is here, sent by Christ, and we want to use the Spirit, to make use of Him, so that there is evidence of God’s holy will being done. That is what Elisha wanted, and Elijah said, You will get it if you see me taken up. If we attend the meetings and are with the brethren, things will be ready for us, available for us. But if we are absent — and that is our own business — it is pretty certain we shall not get things.
Ques You were referring a moment ago to the power that marked Elisha. Would there be anything, do you think, in the moral journey that preceded Elijah’s rapture, the journey from Gilgal to Bethel, and then to Jericho and on to the Jordan, as laying the basis in his soul for the Spirit to be free to work?
JT I thoroughly go with that.
AB He says here, “My father, my father!” a very positive statement of relationship, of the spiritual link, not the natural.
JT Quite so, a beautiful word denoting fatherly, family relations; a beautiful illustration of family relations. Is that on your mind?
AB Yes, indeed. And, going back to the union matter again, I have been impressed with what you have been saying, because I can see the tendency with many of us is to connive with the union in regard to a way out. But I feel impressed by what has been said in regard to the union being part of the apostasy, and therefore we should have no dealings with them whatever. If we are employees our relationship lies with the employer.
JT Quite so.
Rem You stressed in your opening remarks the cumulative aspect of the ministry in what is said and done. I was thinking of the importance of the doing as well as the saying in Elisha’s [p. 239] history.
JT Quite so; and in the next incident (verses 15 - 18) we see that Elisha missed the point. He did well up to this moment but he missed the point in accepting what these fifty men said. He is swayed by them but what they said was not right; he knew it was not right, but he did what they said. He was wrong in that. These are the points in which we have to learn; we are not to give way even if the brethren are all saying certain things that may be wrong. It is a question of being right. There is one thing we have to follow: that is righteousness. That is the one great thing we are to follow. Giving way to the brethren because there are fifty of them is not right; we want to be sure that what the fifty are doing is quite right. It may be wrong. Elisha knew it was wrong; he said afterward, “Did I not say to you, Go not?” But then he should not have allowed them to go. The whole thing is to stand by the truth, and not to give way even though fifty persons are saying something different.