Elisha

When the prophet Elijah was swept into heaven on a chariot of fire, his protégé, Elisha, was there to witness the astonishing event. And Elisha cried out, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen. He cries out in passion, emotion, as he realizes with this lightning flash of glory that Elijah is taken away no more.

And he calls him his father. Elijah had worked many miracles in Israel, and as he neared the end of his ministry, he prepared another to follow him. But Elisha had a decision to make. Would he welcome the scorn and abuse that all true prophets had experienced?

On this Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind, we continue Dr. R.C. Sproul's series, Great Men and Women of the Bible. In the second book of the Kings, in the second chapter, we read that fascinating account of the end of Elijah's life and ministry and of the transfer that takes place between Elijah and his disciple, his protégé, whose name is Elisha. And I want to look at that text because I think it gives us what we call the fruitful moment to capture and crystallize the essence of the prophetic mission in general and in the ministry of Elisha. It starts in chapter 2 of 2 Kings, and it came about when the Lord was about to take up Elijah by a whirlwind to heaven that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

Let me make this comment on the text. You'll recall that Jews today, when they celebrate the Passover and they seat themselves around the table at the head of the table, they will have an empty chair. And for whom is the chair and the place that is set? It is set for Elijah because the very last prophecy of the Old Testament in the book of Malachi, we read that God announces that before the day of the Lord comes to pass, Elijah will return. And of course, the New Testament makes it clear that that prophecy is fulfilled in whom? In John the Baptist, whom the Scriptures tell us came in the spirit and in the power of Elijah. But one of the reasons there was such a mystique about Elijah was that Elijah didn't die.

Moses died, and the other heroes that we've talked about in the Old Testament all died. Moses was personally buried by God, but Elijah was taken up into heaven by the chariots of fire and did not taste death. And so it was that people awaited the coming again of Elijah. Well, John the Baptist appeared in the power and in the spirit of Elijah. Did Elijah himself personally ever come back?

Yes, at the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus was seen there in his radiant deity, shining through his humanity, and the disciples beheld his glory. And they saw him there speaking with Moses and with Elijah. All right, so we read here in the text of the end of Elijah's life, and we say that the Lord was about to take him up by a whirlwind into heaven, and he goes then with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said to Elisha, stay here please, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel. But Elisha said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. Elijah knows that his moment of departure is at hand. I don't think that Elijah knew how it was going to take place.

And he wants to spare his disciple from whatever trauma is facing him. And so he says, please, Elijah, you stay here. This is as far as you go.

We've been together day in, day out. Where I've gone, you've gone. You've helped me. You've held my hand. You've ministered to me. You've been my servant.

But you don't need to go any further. Elisha responds virtually impetuously, doesn't he? He takes a vow. He says, the Lord lives. Wherever you go, I go, and I will not leave you. So Elijah relents, and they go on down to Bethel.

Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel, and Bethel was a central sanctuary of Israel, came out to Elisha and said to him, do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? And he said, yes, I know that. Be still. Be quiet. Shut up. This is a polite translation. He tells them to shut up.

He doesn't need their advice right now. And Elijah says to him again, Elisha, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho. But Elisha said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So once again, Elisha refuses to take his leave from his master and said, if you're going to Jericho, I'm going to Jericho.

So the two of them went on. Now fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood opposite them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle and folded it together and struck the waters, and they were divided here and there so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

Another miracle. Elijah's life was a blaze of miracle. And the mantle that he wore is what he uses here to strike the water to bring about the miracle, because the mantle indicates or symbolizes the power from on high that covers this prophet. And so the mantle of Elijah is the mark of his office, of his role as a prophet and as a miracle worker of God. Now it came about when they had crossed over that Elijah said to Elisha, ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you. This is their poignant moment where Elijah is about to leave his beloved servant, and he said, now before I go, what would you like as my last will and testament? Ask anything of me that I can give you and I will give you.

What do you want? Do you remember what Elisha asked for? He said to his master, please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. He asks for a double portion of the anointing spirit of God. And we can only speculate as to why he made that request.

And we can look at it several ways. I look at that and I think, well, maybe this young man Elisha is so impetuous and he's got so many stars in his eyes that he's filled with ambition and he recognizes the greatness of Elijah. And so he said, whatever you were, I want to be twice as great.

And I realized that you had the Holy Spirit that enabled you to perform miracles and to be a spokesman for God and to do the great things that you've done. I want to beat you by twice. I want to be twice as good as you were.

I want to outstrip my master. That's a common attitude that disciples have of their teachers, that sons have for their fathers. They want to be twice as good and so on. And that's a possibility, but I don't think, that's why he asked that. I don't think Elisha was that dumb. I can't imagine any human being who had been in the presence of a prophet of Israel day after day and realizing the pain and the travail and the loneliness that goes with being a prophet, how anybody in their right mind would want twice the responsibility that Elijah carried on his shoulders. I suspect it's just the opposite, that Elisha knew that if he had any responsibility to carry on in any way the prophetic tradition, if he was going to receive a portion of the mission that was given to Elijah to fulfill that mission, he realized that whatever amount of the Holy Spirit Elijah needed to get the job done, Elisha needed what? Twice as much. Oh God, you know, look, if you're leaving, please don't just leave me the Spirit that's upon you, but I need an extra dose.

I need twice as much if I'm going to be able to make it. So the man understood, I believe, his dependence upon the anointing of God if he was ever going to be an authentic disciple of Elijah. Elijah said, you have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if not, it shall not be so.

This is a very difficult request. Is Elijah saying, you don't know what you're asking for? Because the implication is that if you get twice the Spirit that's upon me, young man, you're going to get twice the responsibility that's upon me. Is that what is in Elijah's mind when he said you're asking a hard thing? It may be.

Or maybe he's saying, this is something that I can't unilaterally deliver. I can give you my shoes. I can give you my walking stick. I can give you my Bible.

I can give you my notes. I can give you my earthly possessions. But I don't control the Spirit that's upon me, and I can't promise you a double measure of the Spirit. Only God can give you the double measure of the Spirit, and so we'll have to see, and we'll leave it up to God. And the sign will be, if you see me depart, then you'll know you're going to get the double portion.

If you don't see me, you won't. Again, I'm not sure which, if either of those interpretations capture what's going on here, but they, I think, approach what's going on. Verse 11 then says, Then it came about, as they were going along and talking, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven. Now, when Christ was born, His entrance into this world, we know, came through lowly means and humble origins, but not exclusively cloaked in humiliation. In addition to all of the dimensions of Jesus' poverty, and the no room in the inn, and all of that, there was also the contrast of the breakthrough of divine glory at the birth of Jesus, when the heavenly host appeared to the shepherds in the field, and the glory of God shone round about. And as we've seen and mentioned a moment ago, that throughout Jesus' life, though His deity was, for the most part, obscured, hidden, played down, there were those moments when it broke through in glory, like the mountain of transfiguration. And we see at the empty tomb of Jesus, the presence of angels. And His ascension into heaven is done on the cloud of glory. And He says that when He returns, He will return on clouds of glory. The Shekinah glory, which is the outward visible manifestation of the dazzling radiance of God Himself. Now notice that it's not your ordinary chariot or your ordinary horses that come to pick up Elijah.

It's not like a local Palestinian taxi service that comes up and says, hop in, and they take him off. But these are chariots and horses of fire. What does that mean biblically? That there is a celestial dimension to them, that they are transcendent, that they are majestic, that they come from the throne on high, that these are the messengers of God, angelic chariots, angelic horses, if you will, horses that are displaying that basic theophany that we find in the Old Testament, the basic visible manifestation of God, which is what?

Fire. Our God is a consuming fire, the burning bush, the pillar of smoke, and so on, so that this divine breakthrough takes place and the Shekinah glory comes down and scoops up the prophet and takes him into heaven. Well, the question is, did Elisha see it? What does he say? Verse 12, and Elisha saw it, and he cried out, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen. He cries out in passion, emotion, as he realizes with this lightning flash of glory that Elijah is taken away no more, and he calls him his father. And he cries out, my father, my father, do you recognize that form of address? From other studies that we've done, the repetition, the expression of intimacy, personal intimacy, a cry of poignancy coming from the soul as Elisha is so deeply moved with the departure of his beloved master.

My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen, and he saw him no more. And then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces, so that his first reaction after crying out when he sees the departure of Elijah was that he takes hold of what? His own clothes. And in Jewish fashion, to show grief and remorse, he rents his garments. He tears his clothes in two.

This is an expression of profound mourning. That's the first thing he takes hold of, his own clothes. But the drama of this story has not yet been reached. The drama takes place in verse 13.

After he takes hold of his own clothes and rips them in half, then what does he take hold of? The mantle of Elijah. Now, I've said many times that the biblical writers, under the guidance and supervision of the Holy Spirit, seem to make use frequently of what I call understated elegance.

They are masters of the understatement. And sometimes the most dramatic moments in all of Scripture are missed because of the low-key way in which they are presented. But I want us to use our imaginations here for a little while. I want us to think for a second. Here is Elijah, who doesn't want to leave. Elijah sighed for a second.

He's terrified of the prospects of his own future without Elijah. He begs for a double portion of the Holy Spirit. He understands from his own experience the excruciating pain that goes with being a prophet of God. And the Scripture says in verse 13, he also took up the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and returned and stood by the bank of the Jordan. It's almost like a concluding unscientific postscript, as if the biblical writer just sort of dashes it off, says he rends his garments. He takes hold of his own closer. He says, oh, by the way, in passing, I ought to mention that before he left, he reached over and snatched up the mantle of Elijah and walked on down the street. I don't believe that that could possibly have happened like that. And I think there had to be a moment of decision for Elijah that was pregnant in that episode. He has to know at that brief moment in his life, that intersection, that time of crisis that will determine the whole rest of his existence, he has two options. He can look at that mantle on the ground and say, goodbye, Elijah.

It was wonderful knowing you. Too bad you forgot your mantle. I'm going back home. And he could have turned and walked away and left that mantle on the ground. Notice that God, when he anoints somebody, the anointing comes down from heaven, or he will send somebody like Samuel to lay his hands on Saul or on David, to anoint him, to indicate the activity of God bringing the Spirit on that person's life. But in this case, God leaves the mantle in the dirt. And if Elijah is going to stand in the prophetic tradition, if he's going to continue that line, what does he have to do?

He has to pick it up. Not like an arrogant prince who crowns himself king. Someone who is so caught up in self-aggrandizement that they snatch for power or for authority or position by grasping it for themselves. Remember even the words of Paul when he spoke of the example of Jesus when he told us, have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who took his equality with God.

Not a thing to be grasped, the Greek there means not a thing to be tenaciously held onto or clutched. For Elijah to pick up that mantle was an act not of arrogance, but of surrender. As soon as he picks up that mantle and puts it on, he is inviting the loneliness, the scorn, the hostility, the rejection of his own people. That's what that piece of clothing means to him. And he can leave it there or he can walk over and pick it up.

If he walks over and picks it up, he is making the supreme act of human sacrifice. I just talked to the chairman of our board yesterday whose son is in high school and he's been spending his summers on the mission field. And this year he signed up to go to Nepal of all places where they're rounding up the missionaries right now and throwing them in prison and they're killing them. And he hasn't left yet for this assignment and he was all excited and he says to his dad, oh, isn't this exciting?

I can't wait to get over there. And his dad said, wait a minute, take it easy. He said, son, it's a whole lot easier to die for Christ than it is to live for him. Wouldn't it be nice if the only act of devotion we were ever called upon to Christ would be one time to go to the stake and say, here I stand and go out in a blaze of glory.

But Elisha understood that if he put on his mantle, that means he's playing for keeps, for the long haul, for his entire life. He has to live for God and be alienated and unpopular with people. Do you realize that one of the most difficult things God can ever ask of you is to be unpopular? How much of your life is spent invested in achieving popularity and getting people to like you? I want people to like me. I don't want people to hate me. I don't want people to be down on me.

I can't see anyone. People say this or that. I do this or I say that or I believe this or that. I mean, who likes the scorn and reproach that goes with being a Christian?

Do you? It's no wonder that the New Testament tells us time after time that unless we're willing to participate in the humiliation of Christ, we will have no participation in his exaltation. Elisha is my hero. Because Elisha walked over there, he stared that mantle straight on, and he picked it up.

He picked it up. And he stood by the bank of the Jordan, and he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and struck the waters and said, Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah? And when he also had struck the waters, they were divided here and there, and Elisha crossed over. Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him, they said, The Spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha, because he picked it up.

None of us is called to be a prophet in the sense that Elisha is, but we have something far more valuable and far more weighty than the mantle of Elisha that stands for us. It's the tradition of the faith of Jesus Christ, the way of the cross, and every Christian, not just ministers or bishops, every Christian has that moment when they have to face the decision, Am I going to pick up the mantle of Christ? Because if I do, it's for keeps. Pick it up. That's the message.

Pick it up. And pray for a double measure of the Spirit to go with it. When we read about the miraculous deeds of Elijah and Elisha, I think we're tempted to imagine what we could accomplish if only we could do things like that.

But today on Renewing Your Mind, Dr. R.C. Sproul has reminded us that speaking for God makes us unpopular, in fact, targets of a society hostile to God. Here on the Saturday edition of our program, we're making our way through Dr. Sproul's series Great Men and Women of the Bible. Each week we see how God equipped ordinary people, sinners like you and me, to do extraordinary things, all for His glory. And we're seeing how the New Testament and the Old Testament harmonize from the prophets to Christ and into the early church.

Scripture is a cohesive narrative. So let me recommend our resource offer today. When you contact us with a donation of any amount, we will send you Dr. Sproul's series Dust to Glory.

In 57 messages, he surveys every book of the Bible and explains how they mesh with the rest of Scripture and will include a disc that contains the study guides for each message. So request Dust to Glory when you go to renewingyourmind.org. You can also call us with your gift at 800-435-4343. Next week, R.C. examines the life of an amazing woman, one who lived for such a time as this. Join us next Saturday as we study the life of Esther here on Renewing Your Mind. .