Bible Lessons

 
2 Kings 2.
Elijah and Elisha started from Gilgal on a journey full of significance to Israel that led them out of that highly favored but apostate land in quite a different connection from Elijah’s quitting it in 1 Kings 19. God was in the one case, and Elijah was seen acting in self-will in the other.
Gilgal was a place of marked interest to the Israelite; there His people had entered the land, headed by Joshua, to take possession of the inheritance long before promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; there the “reproach of Egypt” had been rolled away (Joshua 5:1-91And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel. 2At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. 3And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. 4And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt. 5Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. 6For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: unto whom the Lord sware that he would not show them the land, which the Lord sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. 7And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way. 8And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. 9And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day. (Joshua 5:1‑9)), and there was power for victory after victory gained in the necessary warfare for possession of the inheritance. But Gilgal had, in God’s sight, ceased to hold the connection that once had marked it as early as the days of the Judges (chapter 2:1-5). It no longer spoke of a people separated from an ungodly world to the Lord God, but was now connected with sin openly practiced. (See Amos 4:44Come to Beth-el, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years: (Amos 4:4), and 5:4,5). In like manner the cross of Christ has in the days of Christianity, become connected with idolatry through the devil’s wiles.
From Gilgal Elijah would go, first however testing Elisha’s fitness to succeed him. Elisha stood the test; he would not leave him; he sought to share his spirit, and they journeyed together to Beth-el and to the final parting. Beth-el was the memorial, to the pious Israelite, of the unconditional promise of God to Jacob (Gen. 28:13-1513And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. (Genesis 28:13‑15)). Yet at this place of hallowed memory was one of the calf idols set up by Jeroboam! Elijah cannot stay there, and bidding Elisha (who refused) to remain, he goes on to Jericho. There under Joshua the power of Satan had met with a crushing defeat, and a curse had been pronounced by God’s authority upon the ruins. Man had nevertheless (1 Kings 16:3434In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun. (1 Kings 16:34)) rebuilt it, and suffered the penalty which was attached; the curse was not removed. What more was needed to testify to the heart of the faithful one concerning the departure of the chosen people from divine principles?
ML 10/02/1927