1 Kings 19:19-21 Forsook All His Friends!

 “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?” So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.” ‭‭I Kings‬ ‭19‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

a. He departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat: Elijah did what the still small voice of God told him to do. He happened to do it in reverse order than God described to him in the previous passage. Perhaps Elijah believed that he first needed a friend and apprentice.

b. Who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him: Elijah found Elisha and commissioned him to ministry when Elisha was at work.

c. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him: The mantle was the symbol of Elijah’s prophetic authority. This was a dramatic symbol that said, “I call upon you to join in my work as a prophet.”

i. “The mantle, or pallium, was the peculiar garb of the prophet, as we may learn from Zechariah 13:4; and this was probably made of skin dressed with the hair on. See also 2 Kings 1:8.” (Clarke)

d. What have I done to you: This question “Could mean, ‘Go back, but remember what I have done to you.’ It might be a rebuke at any delay in following.” (Wiseman)

i. “Elijah’s reply indicates that he himself had not called Elisha; it was God’s call. Whether Elisha would follow that call was his own decision.” (Patterson and Austel)

e. Took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate: This demonstrated Elisha’s complete commitment to following Elijah. He destroyed the tools of his trade in a going-away party for his family and friends.

i. “Elisha must have had a considerable estate, when he kept twelve yoke of oxen to till the ground. If, therefore, he obeyed the prophetic call, he did it to considerable secular loss.” (Clarke)

ii. “Hereby he showed how willingly and joyfully he forsook all his friends, that he might serve God in that high and honourable employment.” (Poole)

(Guzik)

Forsook All His Friend’s!

Like Elisha who obeyed the prophetic call and forsook all his friends, those of us that were living a sinful life and then found Jesus also had to forsake all our friends because if we didn’t our friends would have influenced us back into the world and a sinful life. 

I recall a friend at church saying he had to change his phone number to keep the people he used to associate with from calling him and leading him back into his previous life before Christ.

Did you forsake all your friends after becoming a friend of Jesus?

Blessings