Elisha repents, and then comes his deliverance. He turns back, not to kiss his father and mother, but to slay the oxen and bring death on all that he was formerly connected with in the flesh, religiously.
He took "the yoke of oxen" (J. N. D.) and slew them and boiled their flesh with the instruments "of the oxen." He used the very instruments that he was employed with, in the former testimony, now to lay the foundation, in his own soul, for the new testimony of heavenly things, which brings death to the old and life to the new. This death of the oxen spells life for the people of God. How far-reaching the ministry of grace that follows.
Elisha is now a minister of heavenly grace with Elijah who is about to go up to heaven, as his lord and object, for Elisha will remain as a witness of heavenly things.