Passing on the mantle

So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” – 1 Kings 19.19-20

God knew the time was coming when Elijah would have to have a replacement. Elijah was battling the battle of aloneness. God knew that now was the time to deal with both of those things.

As soon as he left the mountain after being encouraged by God’s still small voice Elijah came across a man named Elisha who was ploughing with twenty oxen. That must have been some kind of soil!

Anyway, Elisha was hard at work. Throughout the Bible we tend to see that God uses busy people. God wants to use people who are going to work – sure, God can turn anyone into a worker and it does happen – but God tends to use those who are already workers. When He was ready for ‘fishers of men’ he used fishermen.

But I think there are another couple of lessons here. First is that God gave Elijah a co-worker in his ministry, and secondly we see the importance of mentoring or discipleship, or simply training.

Co-workers are important in serving God. Without one it can get lonely. We need someone to stand by our side and lift us up and prayer with us and fellowship with us. When you don’t have one it can be tough to go on.

And the last thing is the importance of discipleship or training. Elisha was going to be the next national prophet. He needed to be taught and trained and mentored. As we get older we need to be praying about and looking for young men to pass of the mantle so that God’s work goes on. Paul mentioned this to Timothy when we told him the take the things he had been taught, teach other men, so that they could teach other faithful men. That's God’s plan for carrying on His work.