2 Kings 2.
ELIJAH had requested that he might die, as utterly discouraged he had left the borders of Israel (1 Kings 19:4), but God purposed to translate His servant so that he should not see death, as He had dealt with Enoch (Gen. 5:24; Heb. 11:5) and in marked honor, instead of disgrace, the prophet was taken to glory. At this time Elisha reappeared. He was called to succeed Elijah in 1 Kings 19:19, 20, but is not mentioned again except in verse 21 of that chapter until this time.
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 5:1-9), 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 4:4, 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. 28:13-15). 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 16:34) 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