38. A special pain in Bidkar’s eyes

Great men sometimes struggle at small things. Gehazi was no prophet but he had never misplaced his sandals for days at a time. He also knew enough to eat when hungry and to rest when tired. Not so with Elisha. The prophet had come from money, farming his father’s land without a care until one day a broad-shouldered fellow, every bit as hairy as Elisha was bald, appeared on the Beth-shan road.

Gehazi had witnessed their first meeting. When the hairy man crossed the field to Elisha, Gehazi stopped his work and watched. Without a word, Elijah removed his mantle and cast it onto Elisha’s shoulders. The robe itself was nothing special. Gehazi would have said thanks and wished the prophet well, but a spark of visible light jumped the gap between those two and, when Elijah began away, Elisha followed several steps and said, “Let me, I pray you, kiss my father and my mother and I will follow you.”

How odd, with the plowing barely begun.

“Go back then,” Elijah said, “for what have I done to you?”

These men spoke in code. Elijah left. Elisha took twelve healthy oxen worth a king’s ransom in cash and killed them on the spot, each one an amazing animal. With them gone there could be no plowing. Gehazi feared for his pay. Elisha boiled the animals’ flesh using their yokes and other instruments for fuel then served everything to Gehazi and the other workers. Announcing afterward, “I’m going now to follow Elijah to minister to him.”

After such a fine feast Gehazi had almost fallen asleep but, after Elisha had taken only his first few steps away, Elisha stopped, turned and forever changed Gehazi’s life. “You, there,” he said, “come and follow me.”

Why not? Gehazi thought. With no work animals, Elisha’s father would be in a spot.

*

As time passed, Elisha was able to do everything but minister to Elijah. As Elijah’s servant, Elisha built shelters for sons of the prophets, they were called, at Beth-el, at Gilgal and at a third school near Jericho. Gehazi helped him. Sometimes, as they worked side by side, Elisha lectured Gehazi on Israel’s pride, her disobedience and the practice of murdering babies to encourage crops to grow.

“We’ve embraced wickedness,” Elisha told him, “and turned our backs on God.”

“Or did God turn his back on us first?” Gehazi asked, remembering the drought.

“I should never talk to you,” Elisha said. “Get out of my sight.”

So it went with Elisha, always condemning Gehazi while defending the real source of their frustration, Elijah, who had prophesied only twice in Israel during the entire seven years that followed Elisha’s leaving home.

*

In Jezreel, Bidkar asked to meet a second time with Jehu. Jehu surprised Bidkar by granting his request. Never one to hesitate, the captain asked Jehu for permission to join the general in his upcoming campaign against Moab and King Mesha, who had refused to continue providing Israel with meat and wool.

“You’re not a young man, Captain, and clearly no fool,” Jehu said, “yet I recognize a special pain in your eyes; the pain which, experience tells me, can only be caused by a woman.”

Bidkar lowered his head, embarrassed.

“I’ve news for you, Captain,” Jehu said. “God will not allow you to die even if I send you to war. Think, man, at Ramoth-gilead you stood alongside Ahab while beset on all sides for most of the day yet walked away without a scratch! Plainly, God holds you in his palm. You are set for a higher purpose then to fall at Moab to salve your broken heart.”

Bidkar tried to speak but Jehu raised his hand. “You may go to war with me, Captain,” he said, “but on my staff, not on the line. The matter is closed. Name your successor at the garrison before the end of the day. Tomorrow I’ll introduce you to your peers. You and I will serve Jehoram at war, in Moab, as the king pleases.”

“Jehoram, General?” Bidkar said. “At our last meeting you seemed to suggest…”

“I will serve in good faith until my anointing,” Jehu said.

“And then, sir?”

Jehu spoke so softly Bidkar strained to hear. “Then, Captain,” the general said, “the festering seed of Omri will pay for its sins against our people and our God.”