Elisha or Ahab?

Yesterday I shared part of a devotional I ran across in my study time. It talked about Elijah passing on his mantle of service to the Lord on to Elisha. As Paul Harvey used to say, here’s the rest of the story.

Quick review: Elijah has just endured the contest on Mt. Carmel where God dropped fire from the sky on Elijah’s sacrifice, completely consuming it. Then Elijah has all of the prophets of Baal killed, and Queen Jezebel (Ahab’s wife) puts a hit out on Elijah. So Elijah flees to Mt. Horeb, complains to God about the whole situation, then God tells him to go and anoint Elisha as his successor.

Okay, now let's fast forward a bit through Elijah condemning Ahab, Jezebel murdering Naboth so she can get his vineyard for Ahab, then eventually the prophet Micaiah telling Ahab not to go into battle against Aram. But since Ahab was never really good at listening to the Lord or His prophets, he goes into battle disguised as a normal soldier while a decoy takes his place, and someone randomly hits him with an arrow between his armor and kills him.

1 Kings is clear that Ahab was a bad guy. He “did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him.” (1 Kings 16:30) He consistently went against God’s will because he wanted to, and because his wife Jezebel led him astray. But the fact is that Ahab had multiple chances to turn back to God. A few times he actually did, but then eventually went back to his Baal-worshiping ways. And in the end, he got killed because of his sins.

Compare that to Elisha’s story. Elijah verbally told Ahab multiple times to turn and follow God, but he didn’t listen. God even showed Ahab He was real multiple times through miraculous victories over the Arameans and at Mt. Carmel when he dropped fire from the sky and consumed Elijah’s sacrifice. If that doesn’t get your attention, you either don’t have a pulse, or you’re King Ahab.

Elisha, on the other hand, turned from his old life without ever hearing a single word, without ever seeing a single miracle from Elijah (presumably, although he may have been present at Mt. Carmel for that event…we just don’t know). Either way, Elisha decided to follow God basically at the drop of a hat. What’s more, he committed everything he had to God by destroying his old life.

In life we have a choice like that of Elisha and Ahab. We can either follow God, or we can lead ourselves. Who are you going to be like? Elisha or Ahab?