Having A Godly Mentor

1 Kings 19:20-21---And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.

Elijah left Mount Horeb with fresh inspiration. He was going to train someone to take his place. He saw the man God had told him to call and threw his cloak upon him. It was a picture of the anointing of God coming upon Elisha and covering him. We have the same picture in the New Testament when the Apostle Paul says, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ..." Elisha wanted to go say goodbye to his parents, but Elijah asked him to consider what has just happened. He was called by God. What would hold him back or deter him? We read nothing of him saying goodbye. That reminds us of the person that wanted to follow Jesus but wanted to wait until his parents died. Jesus told him to let the dead bury the dead, but they should come and follow him. Elisha must have considered this to be a great calling. He burned the implements that he used to make a living and roasted the oxen. He fed the people with the meat. He no longer had anything to go back to. Today we would call this "burning our bridges". Elisha planned to go forward and never look back. If God wanted to use him, he wanted to be undistracted and completely available to God. We will see in coming devotions how he highly prized the calling and anointing of God. His training started as a servant to Elijah. He would observe the man that God was using and learn from him.