Burning Bridges, Boiling Oxen

What do bridges and oxen have to do with each other? They seem almost as incongruous as the two Bible stories I have been contemplating.

And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61-61 NKJV)

My Bible cross references this to a story in the Old Testament about Elijah and Elisha. Elisha was plowing in the field. Elijah threw his mantle on Elisha.

And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” (I Kings 19:20 NKJV)

Why did Jesus tell the man he could not go back to say good-bye? Elijah let Elisha go back. The difference is in the heart. Jesus knew the man was clinging to his past. Elisha was letting go. Notice what Elisha did next,

So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant. (1 Kings 19-21 NKJV)

How often would a farmer use his plowing equipment to start a fire and boil his oxen? Elisha cut ties to his past. He burned the bridges. No going back.

Too often I hang on to my past. I let feelings of past failure control my present. No more. Today I am boiling my oxen. I will not let my past hold me back from the amazing future God has planned for me.