Summer At Sea: Week 6 Day 6
2 Kings 2:13-18
13 Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
15 The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. 16 “Look,” they said, “we your servants have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.”
“No,” Elisha replied, “do not send them.”
17 But they persisted until he was too embarrassed to refuse. So he said, “Send them.” And they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him. 18 When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”
A Navy ship has a captain, there is a command structure and the ship runs under clear direction and authority. Leading by consensus is a terrible model and Elisha made it clear when he said, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”, to the company of prophets (2 Kings 2:18). These godly men made Elisha feel embarrassed for not doing something he KNEW was futile; he had vision on what happened, he was the authority and they knew it too, yet they bent him to their will.
As believers in Jesus, there are people in the world who want you to conform and they will have good reasons, but we are not people who live by consensus, we are led by the Holy Spirit with the authority of Scripture and we are to live under clear direction and authority. We answer to God, not to popular opinion. I do not think Elisha made any more consensus based decisions after this event; he was a man of God for the people of God and he obeyed the Lord only!
How about you? Are you easily steered away from convictions and clarity? Don’t let the Word of the Lord be stolen away from your life; when God leads, OBEY immediately!