00:00The work would not end with him. The flame would be passed on.
00:07Elisha, son of Shaphat, was plowing. Twelve teams of oxen in a long line across the damp field.
00:15The first rain in three years had softened the earth, and every man in Abel-Mahola was at the plow.
00:23Elisha was with the last team, hands firm on the plow handle, eyes on the furrow, sweat trickling down a
00:32scalp that was already beginning to lose its hair.
00:35Across the field, a man was making his way through the furrows toward him. Dark cloak, barefoot, unhurried.
00:44He reached Elisha's side and, without a word, took the cloak from his own shoulders and flung it over the
00:52plowman's shoulders.
00:54The heavy fabric falling, settling, and kept walking.
00:59Elisha stood motionless, hands on the plow handle and another man's cloak on his back.
01:07He looked at the cloth, he looked at the receding back, and he let go of the plow.
01:16Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.
01:26Go. Go back. What have I done to you?
01:51Today I answer the call of God.
02:01Then he took the wood of the plow, the plow he had worked with for ten years, and made a
02:07bonfire of it.
02:08He slaughtered his last team of oxen.
02:12He roasted the meat over the wood from the plow, and he called the village.
02:20Eat, my brothers, for today I leave the plow to follow the Lord.
02:27They ate, and when the bonfire had died down, and the plow handle had turned to glowing embers,
02:34Elisha took the mantle folded over his arm, cast one last look at the field, the house, and his parents,
02:41and turned toward the road where the prophet waited in the darkness.
02:45There was no way back. He wanted none.
02:49While heaven was preparing successors, the earth was preparing a crime.
