The God of Elijah

I grew up in church. We went to every service during the week, and that meant every week. Sunday morning? We were there. Sunday night? Back again. Wednesday night services? There were no excuses to miss that one, either. In retrospect, I do not regret having to attend all of those services, but there was a point in my life where I decided that I had had enough. I decided once I was under my own roof that I could pick and choose when and where I needed or didn’t need to go to church. For approximately ten years of my life, that was the case.

That is a spiritually dangerous predicament to place yourself into, and it happens to a lot of Christians who grew up in a Christian home the same as I did. Rebellion seems to par for our nature when we reach our late-teenage years, and more often than not it is the rule, not the exception.

I am thankful that I married a Christian girl with a very close background to my own (the second time around) and that we found a church that was seemingly ready-made and waiting for us. Most of all I am thankful for the members of that church and especially the ‘old men’ that took me under their wings and helped me get back onto the straight and narrow path. Again, it is bad form to mention names without consent, though most of those persons are deceased; but some of the ones I am recalling this morning were spiritual giants. There was nothing new that I could bring to the table for them. They had seen it all – the good and the bad, within their own lifetimes. They had overcome the same temptations that I faced, and in turn had fought the good fight for most of their lives. One by one I watched as they passed away, and today I miss their strong guidance in my life, their sharp wit, and the unique way they approached this thing we call life in their own simple manner.

There were lessons to be learned simply by watching them, and oh how I did! I keep hoping that one day, one day, I will reach the level of spiritual maturity that they displayed by the way they lived their lives. Even now, I’ll reach a point where in my own life I’ll find myself wondering how one of those leaders from my past would have reacted to a challenge that I may happen to find myself confronted with. It is during that time that I pray for God to be as real to me as he apparently always was to them.

In Second Kings, Elijah had ascended to heaven in a flaming chariot, leaving his mantle symbolically behind for Elisha to carry on the work he had started. Elisha was a witness to the climatic event in the wilderness, and had shortly afterward returned to the Jordan River ready to begin the job God had led him to do. It was the crossroads of his life, and it was time to decide whether to fish or to cut bait. But as always it seems, immediately a problem came up. The river was too deep to cross. It had been no problem on the way over earlier, Elijah had simply parted the waters and they had walked across on dry ground. But that was Elijah, the great prophet of the Lord. What could Elisha do?

“And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.”

The life Elijah had lived before him, the guidance and support he had given, and most of all the example he provided, would prove to be all that Elisha would need. He called upon the same God that had led Elijah, and received the same results. He crossed the river and began his own work, and the rest as they say, is history.

I do not recall those grand old men ever parting rivers and I’ve never been called upon to perform such a feat myself. But there have been storms and floods in my life where the results of an answered prayer or two (or three) were just as big and ominous to me. Because I knew them and was privy to their hearts, I know they faced the same challenges or worse in their own lives.

One thing I am sure of, and it comforts me in times of trial or heartache – they called upon the same God that I do today. And thankfully, He has always been here for me just as He was for them. Where is the God of those grand old leaders of my youth? Right here beside me, guiding me and watching over me.