God Or Mammon

    Over the years, it seems like I usually have to learn things the
hard way as I am sure many others do also.  One of the hardest though
is the value of faithfulness.  When a friend of mine took a job as the
Music Minister of a church in another state, his pastor paid him a
tribute that has continued to stick with me as he was credited with
being faithful in everything that he did.  I thought what better a
testimony could a man receive from his friends.

    Elisha was such a man.  A prophet of God, he walked the length and
breadth of his land fighting against the idolatry that was taking over
the hearts of God's people.  When his predecessor, Elijah, tapped him
out to be a prophet, he was plowing on his fathers farm with 12 yoke
of oxen.  When he realized that he was being selected to succeed
Elijah, he asked if it would be all right if he could first go and say
good bye to his parents before leaving.

    Elijah responded by saying basically that he had done what God had
told him to and what Elisha did was up to him.  Elisha, however,
realized that this thing was too important to blow it, so he built a
fire with the farming equipment and slaughtered a yoke of the oxen to
serve as a sacrifice to God.  He then followed Elijah without ever
turning back.

    Throughout this story in I and II Kings, Elijah tries to shake him
knowing that God is going to take him bodily into heaven without dying
and he isn't sure that Elisha is supposed to see it.  Elisha, however,
doesn't give up and even asks that he be given a double portion of the
Spirit that Elijah has.  Faithfulness.

    After Elijah is taken up into heaven, Elisha is now the prophet of
Israel but he gains a servant who is of a different breed.  Gehazi, no
doubt, could have also been a man of God, but he is given to greed. 
After his master Elisha heals a Syrian Army Commander named Naaman and
takes no money in return, Gehazi becomes greedy and collects a little
on his own.

    When Gehazi returns to his master's house, he is confronted by
Elisha as to where he has been.  Gehazi then lies by saying that he
had not been anywhere.  Elisha is not fooled as he saw what his
servant had done by way of a vision and so he pronounced the leprosy
that Naaman had upon him.

    So what we have here is the son of a rich man valuing the things
of God so much that he would become a poor prophet yet another man who
thinks so little of the things of God that he became greedy and falls
into sin.  We can only learn from this if we ask ourselves where our
own heart is?  Jesus said that we can't serve two masters.  We must
choose between God or riches.


Frank Cooke