Randy Green's Blog, page 450

Long Live the King! – Part 1

In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes [Judges 17:6; 21:25].

We have two constructs expressed in those words, words which appear twice in the Book of Judges. Let’s enumerate them.

1. there was no king in Israel
2. every man did what was right in his own eyes

A king is a central authority. A king makes the laws for his kingdom, enforces his laws, and judges the lawbreakers. He determines what is right and what is wrong.

The Lord delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery by marching into Egypt and whupping Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The mighty King of kings put the puny king of Egypt in his place.

Then the Lord marched the Israelites out of Egypt in martial array (cf., Exodus 13:18). The Lord was King YHWH and the Israelites were King YHWH’s subjects, you see. The Lord brought His subjects into His land, the Promised Land, defeated the denizens of the land, and bequeathed the land to His people.

The Lord was King of His land, the new citizens were His subjects, and He laid down the Law as the legal code to govern His subjects. The Lord was King, and the Law expressed His Word for His people. They were not free to do whatever they pleased. In fact they were micromanaged, so to speak, in every facet of living.

This brings us to the second construct contained in the quoted text with which we began this study: every man did what was right in his own eyes. They did this because there was no king in Israel. Without a king, without a central authority, each person has his own opinion of what should be done. So everyone is off somewhere or other doing whatever pleases him.

If the Lord was King of Israel, and if His Law defined every aspect of living in minute detail, that left no room for anyone to do what was right in his own eyes. This brings us face-to-face with a conundrum, dear friends.

• what happened to King YHWH?
• what happened to His Law?

King YHWH, the Lord, led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the desert in visible appearance as the Shekinah cloud of glory. When the Israelites came to the Jordan to cross to the west bank (i.e., Canaan), the Shekinah cloud ceased to appear.

Thenceforth the ark of the covenant became the visible symbol of the Lord’s presence. It symbolized the throne of King YHWH, but there was nothing visible atop the ark any longer. King YHWH no longer led His people visibly. In the Promised Land He led them by means of His Law.

Let us draw this study to a close. The hour is late. The night is falling. We must needs meet with the Lord Jesus before we fall asleep.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...

Christian Sophistry – Part 2

Thus says the Lord, “Where is the certificate of divorce by which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away [Isaiah 50:1].

Jesus charged head on at the religious sophistry of His day, whereby divorce was justified with an allusion to how the Lord divorced Israel. Yesterday we stopped there. Today we will begin there.

Jesus’ rebuttal was to emphasize that the Lord NEVER commanded anyone to get a divorce. Rather, He recognized its frequent practice and regulated it for the benefit of the women of that time. The Lord didn’t tell the Israelites, “Get a divorce!”

Contrary to such a preposterous notion, Jesus noted that, from the beginning of man’s creation, the Lord made humans male and female, and that when a man and a woman married they became one. Then He added, “What God has conjoined, let no man separate. The words “no man” apply to women too. Jesus was referring to divorce as the means by which spouses were separated.

So much for the context. Now let’s get to the second point, viz., reading the entire verse. Jesus’ exception to this law against divorce is specified by the words except for the reason of unchastity. The word unchastity in this context means “adultery”. And that is the same thing Isaiah emphasized to the Israelites in Isaiah 50:1. The Lord sent His wife Israel away (i.e., divorced her) because of her “iniquities” and “transgressions” (i.e., her adultery).

Israel was unfaithful to the Lord by bringing idols into her religious practices. This was spiritual adultery. Physical human adultery always follows the practice of idolatry, dear friends. Consequently, adultery was rampant in the backslidden Israel of Isaiah’s day. But the Isaiah referred to Israel’s idolatry against the Lord as the reason for the Lord divorcing Israel. Israel was sleeping around with all the idols in town!

So Isaiah identified spiritual adultery as the Lord’s justifiable reason for divorcing His wife, Israel. Jesus identified physical adultery as man’s justifiable reason for divorcing his wife (or vice versa). Let it be added, though, that the Lord bore with Israel’s unfaithfulness for next to forever! He didn’t run out and divorce Israel the first or second or seven hundredth time Israel was unfaithful. He bore with Israel for centuries, attempting to work out the issue of her adultery within the context of His relationship with her.

So, too, should we spouses who face infidelity from our mates try to resolve the matter within the context of our marriage, rather than immediately terminate the marriage with a divorce. If a cheating spouse refuses to repent and snarls at his mate when she attempts a resolution; if he refuses to stop and continues being promiscuous—in that case divorce is absolutely justifiable.

If the cheating spouse repents, but then falls into the sin again—well, I cannot set a specific limit on the number of times to forgive such a one. Each person will have to decide for himself. Pray about it and have a heart to glorify the Lord by your decision.

But please, let’s get this issue right in the church. Divorce is sin! God hates divorce! Practically speaking, an adulterous spouse has already divorced his/her mate. A legal divorce in such a case is simply the acknowledgment of this reality, rather than creating the reality.

Let’s be in prayer about this issue. Pray for the people of God to stop living for self and start living for the Lord. If we return to the Bible in spirit and in truth, divorce will disappear of itself. May the name of the Lord Jesus be praised!

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...

Christian Sophistry – Part 1

Thus says the Lord, “Where is the certificate of divorce by which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away [Isaiah 50:1].

Divorce is such a common thing nowadays, even in the church, that no one wants to listen to it denounced by the Word of God. We want to be Christians, you see, but we don’t want the Lord to be our Lord. We want to be our own Lord.

The result is that we use the word Bible profusely, but we don’t read it. We read other men’s words about the Bible and think that suffices for being a child of God and being spiritually astute. So we pick and choose from the Bible what we will eat—usually milk, with a little filler from other books tossed in to add worldly flavor—and we pretend the rest doesn’t exist.

Should anyone be so impertinent as to point out the other parts when we violate them, why, we become defensive and put up our barriers to keep them out. Whereas divorce dominates the American landscape today, both in and outside the church, it is one such solid meat teaching of the Lord that we cannot stomach.

I’ve even been challenged by thin-skinned Christians who are divorced, with a reference to the verse with which we kicked off this study. Their understanding of the verse is that the Lord divorced Israel, so divorce can’t be wrong.

What they fail to realize is two things:

1. we must keep the verse in context
2. the entire verse must be read, not a phrase out of context

Let’s diagnose the issue. The Lord divorced Israel, yes, but He did so for one reason only. He wasn’t fickle about it and walked out on Israel for every little thing! The Lord is perfect, so He makes no mistakes. If He divorced Israel, it was for a right reason. And guess what? This right reason He accepts from us mere mortals as well.

“So, then, what is this legit reason?” you ask. Listen and learn:

It was said, “Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce”; but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery [Matthew 5:31-32].

Those words were spoken by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He noted how the Israelites quoted the Law of Moses to justify divorcing their wives for any reason they felt like. Suchlike fellows claimed the Lord commanded them to divorce their wives by giving their wives a certificate of divorce.

On the surface this argument appears plausible. But even the devil quoted Scripture at Jesus in the wilderness, in order to tempt Him to sin! Of course the devil took Scripture out of context each time. In reality this is a type of argumentation known as sophistry.

Oh, but we’re out of time again! Tomorrow we will hear Jesus’ rebuttal of the sophistry. For now let’s come apart with Him and allow Him to speak softly to us. We cannot help but be blessed abundantly when we do.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...

That doesn’t make sense, God!

Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? [Habakkuk 1:13]

Men and women can sometimes have an impossibly difficult time communicating. Some refer to this by the contemporary adage, “Women are from Venus, men from Mars”. But all jesting aside, men and women by nature have a different mental framework. Their thinking processes are not identical.

This is not an indictment of men or women, just an accurate observation. By the same token Orientals and Occidentals in general also employ different thinking processes. In this case the thinking varies because Occidentals are trained to think, even if subconsciously, in terms of Aristotelian logic. But for Orientals this is not the case.

In the verse we cited at the start of this study, Habakkuk is faced with another example of different thinking processes. In this case the variation is between God’s thinking processes and sinful man’s. God is holy. All men are sinful.

God makes a distinction between born again folks and plain old born folks. Because born again folks have the Spirit of God living in them, they are capable of understanding the mind of Christ, which is equivalent to the mind of God.

We have to go through a spiritual growing process, just as babies in the physical realm do. But if we continue to spend time alone with Jesus—feeding on the Word of God, praying, and obeying—then we mature spiritually to understand how the Lord thinks and what He expects of us.

In Habakkuk’s case He had difficulty grasping how, on the one hand, God cannot bear to even look upon evil, much less tolerate it. On the other hand God permits the extremely wicked people to have the victory over those who are less wicked than them. As if to say, “What gives, God? That doesn’t make sense!”

At the heart of Habakkuk’s problem complaint lies the different thinking processes of God and sinful man. In God’s eyes sin is sin. He doesn’t label some sins as flagitious and others as peccadilloes. Any person who sins is a sinner. A rose is a rose. By any other name it stills smells sweet. A sin is a sin. By any other name it still reeks to high heaven!

So God is not being illogical, when He employs the devil’s kids to spank His kids for sinning. He will do much more than spank the devil’s kids when the time is right, viz., at the Great White Throne judgment. For the present time His business is to rear His own kids. Sometimes this entails visits to the woodshed, sometimes physical or mental afflictions, other times financial failures, and still other times making use of foreign invaders who are more wicked than His kids.

In the final analysis, though, the Lord disciplines His kids to spiritually mature them, but He casts the devil’s kids into the lake of fire for all eternity to be rid of them. During our lives on earth this side of eternity, the Lord does what it takes to get His kids to become like Him. This is well worth the cost to us because in eternity we will live with the Lord forever.

The devil’s kids have their good things now. In eternity they will beg for just a drop of cool water to cool their parched tongues. We have good things now too, just not the worldly good things the devil’s kids crave. In eternity we will enjoy our good things of all stripes and colors.

Let’s not question God’s motives. Let’s spend more time alone with Him and His Word, so that our minds are transformed into the mind of Christ. Life has such a grand appearance when we see through His eyes. What do you say. Can I have an “Amen”?

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...

How to Take Up the Mantle – Part 2

(Elisha) took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and struck the waters and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” And when he also had struck the waters, they were divided here and there; and Elisha crossed over [2 Kings 2:14-15].

We ended our last study with Elijah raptured to heaven and Elisha with a double portion of Elijah’s spirit and taking his place. There was Elisha, standing alone on the east bank with the Jordan River blocking his path to the west bank. Let’s continue at that point now.

When Elijah was carried to heaven in a whirlwind, his mantle fell off. Elisha picked it up. It now was the property of Elisha, so he took it and struck the waters of the Jordan River. Then he gave an authoritative command to the waters, Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?

Those are the words from the Bible verse with which we began this study. And there is the moral to this story. Elisha hadn’t been a prophet before. He was Elijah’s protégé. Suddenly Elijah was gone and Elisha was on his own. What to do? We might think Elisha’s knees would buckle and knock together. He might let out an audible gulp and turn into a worry wart.

Not so! Elisha had received his request. He received a double portion of the Spirit of God. He was bold but not arrogant. He exuded confidence but tempered it with love. He didn’t worry one iota. He proceeded straightway to the Jordan, struck the waters with Elijah’s mantle, and imitated what he had seen from his teacher.

His command to the waters wasn’t a question, though he phrased it as one. He knew the waters would divide because Elijah had done it that way, and Elijah granted his request for a double portion of what Elijah had. The waters could not help but divide and permit Elisha to cross over on dry ground.

The moral to the story? Elijah was gone for good, speaking in terms of this earth. Elijah would never again be available for Elisha. But Elisha wasn’t afraid because the God of Elijah never left! The God of Elijah was the One who performed the miracles and commanded such a presence before men. The same one true God would do the same, and even more, in and through Elisha.

Dear friends, we need to spiritually exercise ourselves on a daily basis, so that our spirits grow strong while our flesh weakens. Otherwise we remain infants in spiritual matters. Instead of fixing our sight on the Lord Jesus, we fasten our attention on men. We expect the pastor or the Sunday School teacher or an author or some other man to serve as Jesus for us.

Alas, but every man will soon be gone. Notwithstanding this fact, the Lord Jesus will still be here with us and for us. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever [Hebrews 13:8]. So let’s learn to focus on the One on Whom we can depend, rather than on that which is passing away even as we speak.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...

How to Take Up the Mantle – Part 1

(Elisha) took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and struck the waters and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” And when he also had struck the waters, they were divided here and there; and Elisha crossed over [2 Kings 2:14-15].

In keeping with the Word of God, Elijah summoned Elisha to the prophetic ministry. Elisha would be Elijah’s replacement. Well, the days went by and it was time for Elijah to exit the scene. Elisha would need to step up and fulfill the Lord’s task at hand.

So Elijah headed for the east bank of the Jordan River, where the Lord would remove him from the earth and promote him to eternity. At three separate locations Elijah told Elisha to wait behind, but Elisha would not budge. He had committed himself to the Lord and to Elijah, and he wasn’t about to leave Elijah at such a solemn time. So Elijah desisted from his attempts to dissuade Elisha.

Just before they crossed the Jordan, Elijah, knowing that his time was moments away, asked Elisha what he could do for him. Elisha responded to Elijah’s question, Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me (v.9).

A double portion in the Bible represented the right of the firstborn son. In effect Elisha put Elijah on notice that he wouldn’t be content to be just another prophet. He had to be Elijah’s replacement. Elisha admired Elijah and wanted to follow in his footsteps, you see. Elijah was the chief prophet at the time.

Elijah acceded to Elisha’s request, but with this proviso: You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so (v.11).

Well, lo and behold, as they walked along horses of fire and a chariot of fire came between them to separate them. Then a whirlwind carried Elijah to heaven. Elijah was raptured, you see. He went to heaven without first dying physically on the earth.

Elisha obtained his request. He did see Elijah when he was taken. He received a double portion of the spirit of Elijah. This spirit was the Holy Spirit, dear friends. Elijah’s spirit was under the control of the Spirit of God. This is what enabled Elijah to do such outstanding miracles. The Lord worked in and through Elijah, and Elijah served as the Lord’s body on earth.

Now it was Elisha who was full of the Spirit of God. It was time for him to be surrendered to the Spirit and perform miracles, in order to continue Elijah’s ministry of leading the Israelites out of Baal worship. So what was Elisha’s first act. He returned to the Jordan to cross back to the west bank. The river blocked his path, so he imitated what Elijah had done to get across.

Oh, but you will have to wait until tomorrow to find out what that was. We are out of time today! So go spend some time with the Lord Jesus a while. I love to be with Him!

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Deuteronomy: Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...

Mannequins in Style – Part 2

Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak [Matthew 26:41].

Yesterday we were presented with two different scenarios. Your actions were the same in each case, but the police response was quite different in each case. How do we explain this?

Weigh your actions in each case. They were the same, were they not? So why a different response by the police in each case? Answer: because the responses were to two different scenarios, obviously. A different scenario will evoke a different response.

We can describe the different scenarios as different contexts, dear friends. This illustrates the necessity to put things in context, when it comes to interpreting them. If we weigh the facts as if they occurred in a vacuum or consider them in the wrong context, the result will be fallacy rather than truth.

Consider the Bible verse we quoted today. Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before Judas brought the Jewish soldiers to arrest Him and have Him crucified by the Romans. He took His three closest disciples with Him and told them to pray. He wanted them to prepare themselves for His impending arrest, trial, and crucifixion.

That is the context for understanding His words. Jesus told His disciples to pray. He added that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. May I point out to you that the spirit is not willing and the flesh is very strong? I just contradicted Jesus’ words, and that’s not a good thing to do!

If I put my words into the context of Gethsemane, then I spoke falsely. If I put my words into the context of the old man, the old sinner who lives inside each one of us, then I spoke Gospel truth. In the old man the spirit is not willing to do righteousness, and the flesh is indeed powerful in its wickedness.

In the new man, the born again person, the spirit is absolutely willing; but the flesh is weak and succumbs at the thought of conducting spiritual warfare. The disciples were products of Jesus’ righteousness. Their spirits were willing, but they were so tired that the flesh gave in to weakness. Ergo, they slept instead of praying.

Let this be a lesson to us about putting things in context. It is the only way we can arrive at the correct conclusion. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Leviticus: Volume 3 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...

Mannequins in Style – Part 1

Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak [Matthew 26:41].

You are sauntering down the city streets, looking in store windows. Suddenly you hear a loud, hard crashing sound and tire wheels screeching. You jerk around with as much speed as your body will provide. A car is stopped in the middle of the road. A body is in front of it, and it’s not moving. The driver screams at the top of his lungs, “Call an ambulance! Hurry!”

You rush into the store and use their phone. When you come back out the car is gone, but the body is still lying motionless in the middle of the street. It’s past dark already, but the street lights allow you to see the person. You rush over to see if the body has a pulse. Ah oh. It’s not a body after all. It’s a clothed mannequin.

At just that moment the police and ambulance sirens are heard in the distance. In a matter of seconds their vehicles screech to a halt. There you are, left holding the bag for some prankster who thinks this is funny…probably peeking from around a building and having the time of his life trying not to roar with laughter and get himself caught.

The police want to know where the car is. You have egg on your face as you sheepishly grin at the officers, all the while appearing to be a distant relative of the Cheshire Cat. You explain how you went into the store to use their phone to call, and when you came out the car was gone.

Just then the emergency medical people blurt out as they kneel over what was supposed to be a body, “Hey! There’s nobody here. It’s just a mannequin!” The police stare at you fiercely, their eyes piercing so menacingly that you think they will burn a hole right through your eyes.

“Why did you make a prank call to the police, lady? I’ve half a notion to run you in and let the judge make an example of you! Don’t you realize you’ve taken us away from real crimes? You should be ashamed of yourself, pulling such a jejune act!”

Now let’s change the story so that the mannequin is really a human being. The driver of the car fled, not because he was a prankster, but because he just ran over somebody and didn’t want to face the music. What words do you suppose the emergency medical team would say, as they bent down over the body? I know they wouldn’t say, “Hey! This isn’t a body. It’s just a mannequin!”

And do you believe the police would still want to run you in for being a wiseacre? Wouldn’t they more likely want to buy you a cup of coffee and sit awhile, so they can question you thoroughly and then send you on your way with compliments for being a good citizen?

We will pause at this time and return to our subject on the morrow. See you then. In the interim enjoy your time with Jesus.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Leviticus: Volume 3 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...

Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak – Part 2

He (i.e., Elisha) left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you.” And he (i.e., Elijah) said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” [1 Kings 19:20]

Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” [Luke 9:61-62]

Yesterday we watched Elijah extend the call of the Lord to Elisha to be His prophet. Elisha accepted with relish. Then he went home and announced to the family that he would no longer live with them and be a farmer. To act out this truth—as the prophets were wont to do—he slaughtered his pair of oxen, cooked them over a fire which burned on the wood of his plow, then fed the family (and Elijah) a hearty meal before departing. This made Elisha the Lord’s witness to his family.

It was quite otherwise with the man who volunteered to follow Jesus. On his own unsolicited initiative, he claimed he wanted to be Jesus’ disciple and serve Him. But then he added a condition to keeping his word to the Lord. First he wanted to return home and tell his family good-bye.

Do you see the difference? This man wasn’t Elisha. He had ties to the world from which he wasn’t prepared to make a clean break. He should have kept his mouth shut and fulfilled his commitments at home. When he was truly ready to leave the world and its lifestyle, then he could request of Jesus permission to be His disciple.

Jesus wasn’t much impressed with this man. Ostensibly the man wanted the glory of “following Jesus”. He wanted the praise of other men for his selfless sacrifice. He wanted to appear holy, you see, but he didn’t really want to be holy. That would entail giving up his own dreams and plans, and laying down his life as a whole burnt offering in service to His Lord.

This is heavy stuff, my dear friends. Let’s hie off to the prayer closet a while and visit with Jesus now. Let Him reveal the truth of our hearts to us. Do we really want to walk with Jesus as His disciples? Are we prepared to leave all the things of the world which we cherish so dearly, in order to be His willing bond slaves? That is heavy…not some quixotic promise to be uttered by our lips.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Leviticus: Volume 3 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...

Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak – Part 1

He (i.e., Elisha) left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you.” And he (i.e., Elijah) said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” [1 Kings 19:20]

Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” [Luke 9:61-62]

Judging by those three verses, we’ve found a contradiction in the Bible. On the one hand, it was okay for Elisha to turn back from following Elijah as the Lord’s chosen prophet-in-training. On the other hand, it was utterly inexcusable for someone else to want to turn back from following Jesus, in order to bid a fond farewell to his family. Hmm. What to make of this. Is it a contradiction or not?

This demonstrates the absolute necessity of reading the Scriptures in context, dear friends. Chapter and verse divisions have cultivated in us the habit of grabbing words and phrases and sentences out of context, as if they occurred in a vacuum. They don’t, and we shouldn’t interpret them as if they did.

In Elisha’s case he was at home, plowing the field with twelve pairs of oxen. This means that Elisha had eleven other men working under him, each person having a plow and a pair of oxen to pull the plow. Elisha was an affluent gent, you see.

Elijah came walking along and tossed his mantle on Elisha. The mantle symbolized the office, and Elijah’s office was that of the Lord’s prophet. In other words Elijah extended to Elisha the Lord’s call to be His prophet.

Elisha was plowing his field, remember. He wasn’t praying for the Lord to call him. He didn’t send his résumé to Elijah or the Lord, applying for the office. The call came to him out of the blue…in more ways than one.

Notwithstanding this context, Elisha straightway embraced the call. Then he requested of Elijah permission to tell his relatives that he had accepted the Lord’s call to be His prophet. This consisted of going back to the house with his pair of oxen and his plow, slaughtering the oxen, then cooking them on the wood from the plow.

Can a more vivid picture story be imagined to declare, “I will no longer be a farmer, dear family. I am leaving that occupation permanently. From now on I will be on the road ministering as the Lord’s prophet!” Elisha slaughtered his oxen and burned up his plow. Obviously he was not intending to farm again!

This is known as being the Lord’s witness, dear people. The Lord calls all Christians to be His witnesses. Elisha did a good thing. No wonder Elijah gave his blessing to this proposal.

Oh, but we’re out of time! We’ll continue the tale tomorrow. For now chew the cud on what we’ve studied today. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you and move the knowledge down into your heart.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Leviticus: Volume 3 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...