“And it came to pass when Jehovah would take up Elijah into the heavens by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.” The prophets had four stages to cover before being taken up to heaven: Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and the Jordan. At the beginning of his career he had been sent to turn back the heart of the people to the Lord. His mission, faithfully accomplished, had in the end completely failed. Israel, after a momentary turnabout at the destruction of the priests of Baal, had not truly repented, and the kings had persisted in their idolatry. Jesus failed in the same way on His mission in the service of the people returned from their captivity. Now the prophet is sent of God, as is Christ in the gospels, to retrace in the power of the Holy Spirit the path that Israel should have followed, but which it had strewn with unfaithfulness and ruin in failing in its responsibility. “Jehovah has sent me” such are the words of Elijah to his faithful companion at each stage (2 Kings 2:2,4,62And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Beth-el. And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Beth-el. (2 Kings 2:2)
4And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. (2 Kings 2:4)
6And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on. (2 Kings 2:6)). Such also are the words of the Lord in the gospels, and especially in the Gospel of John where He constantly presents Himself as the One sent of the Father.
But let us first consider what Israel’s path had been.
Jehovah, after having made His people to cross the Jordan, had rolled away the shame of Egypt from off them by circumcision at Gilgal, for none of the sons of those who had come out of Egypt had been circumcised in the wilderness (Josh. 5:5-95Now 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 5:5‑9)). Then He had made Jericho, the stronghold of the enemy, to fall before Israel, bringing this city under interdict and curse in order at last to introduce His people into the joy of the blessings previously promised to Jacob at Bethel (Gen. 35:99And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him. (Genesis 35:9)). Had Israel kept themselves in these blessings? In no wise! “All their wickedness:” the prophet Hosea later says to them, “is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings, I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more” (Hos. 9:1515All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters. (Hosea 9:15)). And again, “Come to Bethel, and transgress! at Gilgal, multiply transgression!” (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)). Jericho, the place of the curse, had been rebuilt by Hiel the Bethelite contrary to the express command of Jehovah (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)). Bethel itself under Jeroboam had become the prime center of idolatry (1 Kings 12:2929And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan. (1 Kings 12:29)), where the sins of Israel had been heaped up.
Elijah is called to retrace this path, strewn with so much defilement; only his faith, while at every step undeniably establishing the ruin of the people, again sees and finds the first blessings instituted by God, blessings which He had not given up bringing to fruition. Elijah recognizes Gilgal and Bethel according to the thoughts of God, in the same spirit which had caused him to build his altar of twelve stones in the presence of the prophets of Baal. He goes there as one who is sent, in the power of the Holy Spirit, without being in any way contaminated by their defilements. He faithfully follows the path that Israel ought to have followed and in which they had miserably failed, for if they had answered to the purpose of God by a true judgment of the flesh at Gilgal, they would have dwelt with Jehovah at Bethel in the enjoyment of all His promises. Elijah, led by the will of God, walks alone in this path, where he is but the type of One greater than he.
In effect, that which the prophet could only accomplish in figure was realized at the coming of the Lord. When He entered upon the scene, opportunity was again offered the Jewish people to recover under Emmanuel the blessings that had been lost. The baptism of repentance administered by John the Baptist, this Elijah which was to come, then became Israel’s Gilgal. It was necessary to come there in repentance, confessing one’s sins, in order again to find blessings under the reign of Messiah. Jesus, making the Jordan to resemble Gilgal in His baptism, came to associate Himself with some of the excellent of the earth, who by repentance had become children of the Kingdom and heirs of the promise to which they had lost access. In this way the shame of Egypt was rolled away from then anew; the flesh must undergo death, for it had proven that it could not enter into possession of the promises. The history of the people in the flesh was ended, but a new Israel, the true Israel, began in Christ. Personally He had no need of this path. He was the Holy One and had ever been that, but He manifested publicly at the Jordan at the beginning of His ministry —also at His birth and when He was “called out of Egypt” —that separation from evil, holiness, and righteousness were His character; only He associated Himself with the very first movement of the Spirit in those who came to John the Baptist confessing their sins.
But the nation as a whole had rejected Him.
Elijah went up from Gilgal to Bethel. This was also Christ’s path. Having as its starting point a full consecration to God, it of necessity culminated in the promises that the God of Jacob had made to Israel (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)). He alone, Christ, by virtue of His perfection, was worthy to obtain all the promises of God. Throughout His entire life He had chosen Bethel, the house of God; He had made Jehovah Himself, who hid His face from His rebellious people, His refuge and His dwelling place (Psa. 91). Israel should never have left this place of refuge. Christ alone abode there. As we have seen, Bethel had become for Israel a house of idols. What must Elijah have felt, but above all, what must the Lord have felt, on seeing this holy dwelling place with the blessings which it promised all defiled by the sin of his people!
Therefore to Christ alone, the obedient Man, henceforth belonged the promises. But was He about to enjoy them? No. Let us ask Elijah; he is not called to remain at Bethel; Jehovah is sending him further. He must abandon the place of the promises in order to go down to Jericho. That is where the Lord is sending him. Israel had long ago encountered this obstacle in going up from Gilgal. There they had met with divine power overthrowing the walls erected by the enemy. God had then pronounced a curse upon this city; it was never to be rebuilt (Josh. 6:2626And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. (Joshua 6:26)). But what had Israel done with Jericho? A man from Bethel had rebuilt the accursed city!
Elijah goes down there at God’s order. He must follow the path of unfaithful Israel and verify it. Was not the people like the man in the parable who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of thieves —the nations —who plundered him? Christ went down there also, but not, as Elijah, simply to take account of things there. It was that He might feel in His soul the curse pronounced upon the people, to take and to bear in their place the wrath of God’s government against this unfaithful nation.
From Jericho Elijah is sent to the Jordan; he leaves Israel and Canaan in crossing this river, such a precious type of death. Elijah crosses through this death dryshod by virtue of his prophet’s mantle and in the power of the Spirit he possessed. So it was with Christ; but He did that which Elijah could not do, tasting the terrible reality of death before conquering it and coming forth on the other side in resurrection. Elijah passed through it only in figure and without being himself affected by it; the Lord alone passed through its reality as the termination of His course; He humbled Himself unto death, but it could not hold Him. It was divided before the power of the eternal life which had gone down into it. Having vanquished death, he was marked out Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead (Rom. 1:44And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: (Romans 1:4)).
Elijah leaves Canaan, the land of promise and of Israel’s inheritance, with nothing more than his prophet’s mantle. Though he had visited Bethel, he did not stop there; he took away nothing of that which might have belonged to him as a man of God. So it was with Christ, too, for it was said of Him: “(He) shall have nothing” (Dan. 9:2626And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:26)). But it is there that a new era began for Him. God had sent Him into death. Could He disobey? On the contrary, He resolutely set His face to go there. He left Canaan, His inheritance and His rights, but He knew beforehand that it was in order to go up into heaven, once He had passed through death. Elijah knows this too, but he goes there alive, having passed through only the shadow of the tomb.
Jehovah who was sending His servant on step by step had in mind to introduce him into another world. Thus Elijah received his reward for a life of devotion —doubtless mixed with a measure of human weakness —to the One who had sent him. But Christ receives the reward of unbroken devotion extending even to the sacrifice of Himself. It was also, as we shall see in speaking of Elisha, the starting point of a double spiritual power for the prophet’s companion.
Let us be quick to remark that it is not a matter of finding, in all this history, a type of the Savior and of His work of redemption accomplished at the cross. The typical account does not have this work in view; that will become clearer when we add the story of Elisha to that of Elijah. Our subject here is Christ the Man of God (although He was much more than that), the prophet sent by God, come to Israel to bear testimony to its ruin and to the judgment that is the consequence (a testimony which had begun with John the Baptist, this Elijah which was to come), but at the same time to the unchangeable promises of God, which could not be attained except by Christ, a Man without sin, who could share them with His restored people Israel.
The result of all this, as throughout the rest of the Old Testament, is that we must not look for the blessing, properly speaking, of the Church here. The history of Elijah and of Elisha bears uniquely upon Israel. Yet nevertheless, the rapture of Elijah, as that of Enoch, speaks to us in type of the rapture of the saints, of which the Church forms a part. One might say that the rapture is mysteriously concealed in Elijah’s ascension, whereas it is portrayed in that of Enoch. In the first case, Christ is in view; in the second, those “that are Christ’s!’
Let us remark in respect to this, that two men, Enoch and Elijah, have gone up to heaven without passing through death, whereas only one, Christ, has been raised from among the dead in order to ascend up into heaven; this is why He is called “the Firstborn from among the dead,” for He precedes the saints of whom He is the First-fruit in resurrection. Others who had died were raised before Christ, but for earth, never for heaven. They were subject to dying again, whereas Christ, having been raised from among the dead, will die no more; death has no more dominion over Him.