The Holy Spirit delights to tell us in Hebrews 11 that the worthies of old time preferred Heaven to Earth. Heavenly counsels had not yet been revealed, nor could they be until after the death and resurrection of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit. Old Testament saints were partakers of an earthly calling; but they were so deeply sensible of the ruin of everything here as the fruit of sin, and of the impossibility of flesh ever repairing the mischief it has wrought, that their hearts rose up to Heaven. God was their hope, and their affections were set where He dwells. They “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”; they desired “a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11:13-16). In that city we shall meet them all ere long.
The manner of Elijah’s departure from this scene of toil and strife is noteworthy. We recall a moment when he sat under a juniper tree disappointed and depressed, and requested for himself that he might die. Yet the God of all grace had purposed for him a departure from this world such as no other has ever had, the blessed Son of God alone excepted. “Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not, for God took him” (Heb. 11:5: Gen. 5:24); but nothing spectacular is suggested in the Holy Spirit’s brief record. We God’s present saints are expecting something far more wonderful than either Enoch or Elijah experienced. Not individually, but in a countless throng we shall be caught up. For this the Lord will come in person (1 Thess. 4:16-17). Oh, the unspeakable blessedness of “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him!” (2 Thess. 2:1). What an end to all the anxieties and sufferings of earth!
Elijah’s removal was known in advance by many persons. At least fifty-one men were interested in the great event, but only one witnessed it (Elisha); and he only, so far as we can gather, got a blessing out of it. The sons of the prophets were very skeptical about the miracle; and, although they were discouraged by Elisha, they sought diligently to find Elijah’s body. Why are men so dubious of divine miracles? Why should they doubt the power of God? Alas, the fifty young men who searched for Elijah’s body were all “candidates for the ministry!” What a foreshadow of what has become very common in our day!
Elijah’s translation must be regarded as a mark of Jehovah’s approval of His servant who witnessed for Him so bravely in a very evil time. His dealings with Elijah at Horeb, when for a moment his faith broke down, were private. The record of what passed there was afterward written for the instruction of others who might come after.
The prophet’s last journey requires careful examination. It commenced from Gilgal, Elisha accompanying him. Jehovah could easily have taken up His servant from Gilgal itself; instead, He led him about; first to Bethel; next to Jericho, and then across Jordan. It was a kind of retracement of Israel’s steps in the days of Joshua. God would in this way present vividly to Elijah’s mind the hopeless evil of the people he had served so well, and who had caused him so much grief and disappointment. Gilgal was Israel’s first camping ground after they crossed the Jordan. There they signified their dependence upon God by circumcising themselves in the very presence of the foe (Josh. 5). The place was now one of Israel’s chief centers of idolatry. “All their wickedness is in Gilgal” (Hos. 9:15). “At Gilgal multiply transgressions” (Amos 4:4). BETHEL had sacred associations as the place where Jehovah made himself known to Jacob in His faithful love. He said: “this is the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:17). Now one of Jeroboam’s calves stood there, in public defiance of Jacob’s God! JERICHO witnessed the power of God at the beginning; its rebuilding was glaring evidence of the people’s infidelity (1 Kings 16:34). Thence Elijah crossed the Jordan; and from outside the limits of the land he was rapt by divine power to heaven.
His years of testimony, with striking miracles accompanying, were a warning to the nation; the conduct of Ahaziah and his officers was a solemn proof that the warning was unheeded. But God delights in longsuffering. He is never hasty in judgment. He even granted respite to wicked Ahab when He saw him lying low in sackcloth after the murder of Naboth; and even now, although He was withdrawing Elijah from the scene of testimony, He gave His willful people another opportunity in the gracious ministry of Elisha. But it was all of no avail; and in due course the blow fell. The kingdom was destroyed; and the people were swept out of their land into captivity. The terrible “Lo-Ammi” sentence has not yet been recalled; nor will it be until the appearing of the Lord Jesus.
There was not only a voice to Elijah in the steps of his last journey; there was also a voice to Elisha, who was to witness for God in the land after Elijah’s departure. Elisha had an impression that there was a meaning a meaning of spiritual value in the movements of that day. Thus he kept close to the departing one, not permitting himself to be deflected, either by the words of the prophet, or by the remarks of the sons of the prophets. Three times Elijah said, “Tarry here, I pray thee”; but Elisha replied each time with holy fervor: “As Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.” It was not that Elijah wished to get rid of his friend; but he would test his constancy. Barnabas counseled the converts in Antioch to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart (Acts 11:23). Blessed counsel; may we all heed it! Both joy and power depart when we allow anything to come in between our souls and the Lord. Paul walked once from Troas to Assos about 25 miles alone, sending his companions round by sea (Acts 20:13). He had his own reasons for avoiding conversations just then. With Elijah and Elisha it was different. “They still went on, and talked” (2 Kings 2:11). Elisha was bent on getting the full blessing of that wonderful day. Like Paul later, he would have said: “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind—” (Phil. 3:13).
GILGAL, as we have seen, was the starting point. There the men of Israel used sharp knives upon themselves after they had crossed the Jordan. This was God’s way of teaching them that He can give no recognition to the flesh; it is evil in His sight beyond repair. Have we in spirit crossed the Jordan? Have we definitely accepted the death of Christ as our own, so that we can intelligently hear the apostle saying to us, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God?” (Col. 3:1). As surely as Elisha was appointed to represent the prophet who had gone up to heaven, so we have been divinely set to represent the glorified Christ. But in order that this may be we must be severe with all the workings of the flesh, hence the words in Colossians 3:5, “Mortify your members which are upon the earth.” After the men of Israel had circumcised themselves, Jehovah said: “This day have. I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you” (Josh. 5:9). Gilgal means “rolling.” Everything that is suggestive of the world; everything reminiscent of our ways when we were in and of the world is a reproach to us. Let us never forget this.
BETHEL was the next halting-place. What a lesson of God’s faithfulness could be learned there! When Jacob was in flight from home because of his lying and deception, Jehovah appeared to him by night, and assured him of His continued interest and care. He spoke of the land; his seed; and his own personal needs (Gen. 28). Thus if we learn at Gilgal that flesh is always evil, we learn at Bethel that God is always good. The late J. B. Stoney once said: “I know enough of flesh to distrust it utterly; I know enough of the blessed God to trust Him fully.” It gives strength to any witness for God to be able to speak thus.
From Bethel the two prophets went to JERICHO. When Joshua led the hosts of Israel into the land Jericho was a key city, strongly fortified. They could not by-pass it; but they had no need of military machinery for its destruction. Jehovah manifested His power by causing the walls to fall down flat. Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt it in Ahab’s day. In like manner men are frequently seeking to rebuild that which has crashed as the fruit of their sins (Isa. 9:9-10). But all the wit of man could not lift the curse which lay upon Jericho. The situation of the city was pleasant; but the residents were obliged to confess “the water is bad, and the ground barren” (2 Kings 2:19). God is the great restorer; oh, that men could understand it!
After Jericho, Elijah and his friend reached the Jordan, and by the power of God they passed through the river dry-shod. Jordan being a type of death, Elijah and Elisha typically passed through death that day on to resurrection ground. The lessons of all these places should be grasped by our souls if we are to be efficient witnesses for the absent Christ. The badness of the flesh which calls for the knife continually (Gilgal); the faithfulness of God (Bethel); the power of God over all the might of the enemy (Jericho); and the great lesson of death and resurrection with Christ as taught in Colossians 2 and 3.
On the eastern side of Jordan Elijah said to Elisha “Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee.” A test question, assuredly, reminding us of Jehovah’s word to Solomon in 1 Kings 3:5. Elisha’s reply was prompt and decisive: “I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.” Elijah spoke with authority. At this point he typifies the risen Christ who has boundless blessings to bestow upon His own. Elisha could have what he desired on one condition; he must see Elijah when taken from him. Faith now sees Christ risen and glorified. Had we known Christ after the flesh, i.e. as a living Messiah, we know Him as such no longer (2 Cor. 5:16). He has “gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God” (1 Peter 3:22). We are “in Him” there. This makes us heavenly as He is heavenly (1 Cor. 15:48). Elisha did see his master taken up, and received his mantle as it came down upon him. The risen Christ has sent down to us the Holy Spirit (John 16:7). We thus have the same power for life and testimony as the man Christ Jesus had when here amongst men.
What a sight Elisha beheld! “There appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder: and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” The one who was left exclaimed: “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!” He felt that the people of God had lost their surest defense, although the people themselves were too blind to understand it. In like manner the saints are today the world’s most precious asset, whether men perceive it or not. Having received Elijah’s mantle, Elisha rent his own clothes in two pieces. If we, God’s present saints, are truly conscious of our union with the risen Christ, we will desire that nothing of ourselves shall again be seen. Our whole deportment should speak to men of Christ.
Elisha re-crossed Jordan in order to begin his great work in Israel. Smiting the waters with the mantle, he cried: “Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah?” and the waters parted before him. The honored servant had gone but God remained. This is always true. Men fill their little day, and pass from us; their memory is precious; but God ever remains with His people. Elisha enjoyed angelic ministry as well as Elijah; for when the Syrians besieged Dothan with a view to taking him prisoner, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about him (2 Kings 6:17).
The sons of the prophets said of Elisha when they saw him, “the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha,” and they bowed low respectfully before him. May it be ours to be respected, not for our learning or wealth, or social dignity, but for the power of the Spirit of Christ manifested in our lives!