Calling in Reinforcements

When God gave the prophet Elijah some instructions at the entrance of a cave at Mount Horeb, some of the instructions were to go out and anoint some other people to new roles. (“Anoint” might not be a common word today, but in Elijah’s time, it was a means by which people were identified for significant purposes, like becoming a king or a prophet.) As part of this, Elijah went out and found another guy named Elisha.

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.”

“Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.

1 Kings 19:19-21 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.19-21.NIV

If you know more about what happens after this, you might already know that Elisha became a prophet of God, succeeding Elijah in that role. However, when we meet Elisha here, he wasn’t sitting in a seminary class or going around preaching and prophesying. Instead, he’s plowing a field. It sounds like he’s doing agricultural work in a pretty big farm, too, with so many oxen plowing.

The meaning of this “cloaking” event seems to have been sufficiently clear to Elisha, as an invitation to follow Elijah. I’m guessing that Elisha knew what it meant. By the way, this same cloak was probably the one that Elijah covered his face with when he spoke with God at Mount Horeb, and it might be the one that we see again in 2 Kings 2. The cloak wasn’t “magic” or anything like that, but this cloak – or multiple cloaks, if Elijah replaced them from time to time – played a symbolic role in Elijah’s and Elisha’s ministries.

Elisha asked for a chance to tell his parents goodbye, and when Elijah agreed, Elisha offered two oxen as a sacrifice and treated the community to a meal before heading off. As suggested by a commentator [Long, p.225], Elisha wouldn’t be plowing with those particular oxen anymore, once he left to follow Elijah. He was committed!

Centuries later, Jesus also called His disciples (this time, without any cloak-throwing that I’m aware of), and they followed Him. There are similarities here, like how the disciples didn’t take over at first, but rather spent time with Jesus for a while. Furthermore, reading ahead in the story of Elijah and Elisha, we can learn about Elijah being taken up to heaven and leaving Elisha to serve, like Jesus was taken up to heaven, leaving his disciples to continue the mission of spreading the gospel. And, Elisha served Elijah, similar to how the disciples served Jesus. In fact, although we don’t necessarily go and get a colt or prepare an upper room for Jesus like His first-century disciples did, we still serve Him as He directs us to.

So, just as Elisha gave up his previous role to serve Elijah, when God asks us to step up and serve others in the church (see 1 Peter 4:10), let’s be the body of Christ in action.

Like Elijah, we might be called to pass along our mantle to someone else, training them to take our place.
Like Elisha, we might be called to learn from someone else, and serve them in the meantime.
Or, looking at all of 1 Kings 19, maybe we’ll be called to share good news with other people about the hope that God has for them, when they are at their lowest. That might include offering an answer from God’s word, but the right time for that word might sometimes be after helping meet someone’s emotional, mental, and physical needs.

From Sunday School lesson prepared for May 18, 2025

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