This may lead us then to consider these two remarkable men in their respective ministries as types of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who in due time appeared as the Prophet, Whom the Lord God had foretold, through His servant Moses, that He would raise up to Israel.
“Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.” “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him” (Deut. 18:15, 18, 19). The fulfillment of this prophecy we have in the New Testament, and the words themselves directly applied by the apostle Peter to the Lord Jesus (Acts 3:22-26). In Elijah, we are shown the executor of judgment as Jehovah's righteous servant and witness, yet suffering persecution, with no home here, rejected of the nation, but claimed and appropriated by the glory to which he belonged. Elisha was the witness of this translation of his master, and in the power of a double portion of Elijah's spirit he re-enters the land and appears amongst God's erring people as the witness of a power superior to death, and with a ministry not of judgment but of grace. May we not read in this a type of the risen Christ, rejected on earth indeed, but received up in glory on high, and who has received gifts for man, yea, for the rebellious also?
These two prophets, so differing in spirit, experience and testimony, were nevertheless connected in more ways than one, so much so, indeed, that if we would rightly understand the one, we must also have knowledge of the other.
The first reference to Elisha we find in that wondrous scene upon Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19) whither Elijah had gone to make intercession to God against Israel in his disappointment of what he reasonably had expected would have followed the triumphant vindication of Jehovah's name. Baffled as to continuance of testimony for God and service amongst His people, fleeing from the wrath of an imperious, vengeful woman, God meets him there and inquires his business; for surely, according to the mind of God and His thoughts concerning His people, Elijah had come to the wrong mountain. “And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold the word of Jehovah [came] to him, and he said to him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for Jehovah God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword: and I, I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before Jehovah. And, behold, Jehovah passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before Jehovah; [but] Jehovah [was] not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; [but] Jehovah [was] not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; [but] Jehovah [was] not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was [so], when Elijah heard [it], that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, [there came] a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for Jehovah God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword: and I, I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And Jehovah said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael king over Syria: and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat, of Abel-meholah, shalt thou anoint prophet in thy room” (1 Kings 19:9-16).
He had come to Horeb, “the mountain of God” —the mount of law and responsibility, to accuse the people, and, as it were, to invoke the curse of a broken covenant. The “great and strong wind” which “rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before Jehovah “might indeed be most impressive, as also the earthquake, and the fire? they were the natural and proper concomitants of “the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire,” but they are destructive to sinners, and cannot soften the heart—they may terrify, but they cannot attract. Even at the first giving of the law, Israel had entreated that they might not again listen to such awe-inspiring sounds, for how could they exist in the presence of the glory there displayed though it were only in part? Yet when the blessed Lord Jesus was upon earth, in whom dwelt “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” we read that “then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.” So far does the glory of grace exceed, in its power and attractiveness, that of law—the one terrifies and repels, the other draws. The still small voice which appealed to Elijah's heart, spoke of that gracious ministry which God would raise up in the midst of a people who did not indeed deserve it. Convinced that he was now in the presence of God, he wrapped his face in his mantle and stood in the entering in of the cave. Like another in a later day (Hab. 2:1), he would put himself in a listening attitude and watch to see what God would say unto him, and what he should answer when reproved. For reproved he surely was, graciously indeed, but not the less so. How blessed, when it is so, to own with humility that God's way is far above man's, even “as the heavens are high above the earth.” Rarely indeed do we find one of God's servants equally affected by grace and truth, or able to give to each its proper place in testimony. So we find that when Elijah could see nothing but judgment, no resource of grace for Israel, God's command was, “Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael [to be] king over Syria: and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint [to be] king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat, of Abel-meholah, shalt thou anoint [to be] prophet in thy room.”
The idea of a prophetic succession is found nowhere else in Scripture. “Prophet in thy room” certainly intimates that Elijah was to be superseded by another; and in the service and ministry of this successor we have the beautiful expression of that manifold and wondrous grace which God entertained for His people. It was therefore necessary that the two ministries should be closely connected. The, Lord's ministry upon earth was characterized by grace and truth—they “came by Jesus Christ” —and now that redemption has been accomplished, and life eternal and salvation are openly and freely presented to man in the gospel, there is the triumph of grace through righteousness, not in the suppression or concealment of truth, but, as we read in Rom. 5:21, “that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto life eternal, by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
This connection between the two prophets was established in a two-fold way. Firstly, God Himself deposed or withdrew Elijah from the place of testimony in Israel, when he confessed himself (as he thought) alone in Israel, and Jehovah's solitary witness for truth and righteousness. Secondly, it pleased Jehovah to prepare Elisha for the work that was before him, by a course of instruction in the truth of God, and Israel's departure from it, at the feet of Elijah, and in personal attendance upon, and devoted attachment to, him whom God had used in such a remarkable way to arrest the apostasy of the nation. The translation of Elijah witnessed to God's estimate of him, and he who was the object of unreasoning malice, who was feared and hated by the king of Israel, denounced and threatened by the wicked Jezebel, who was sought for in every known kingdom and nation that he might be delivered up to death, is now me outside the limits of Israel's land by a convoy from heaven that shall carry him to realms of glory. But Israel's only hope of blessing and deliverance lay in that glorious escort! Elisha's faith laid hold of this fact and built upon it. The “chariot of fire, and horses of fire” might indeed part these witnesses asunder, but it was “the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof,” and they would be in attendance upon Elisha until the close of his life (compare 2 Kings 2:12-6:17 with 13:14).
Elisha had the opportunity, only accorded to one other man in scripture, of giving expression to that which his heart valued. “And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: [nevertheless,] if thou see me taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be.” Well did his faith rise to the occasion, showing that the glory of God, and the true blessing of His people, were the things which he valued most. He desired to inherit the zeal for God and righteousness, which had filled and characterized his master, but with a spirit of grace in which perhaps Elijah had been lacking. The “double portion” rested upon Elisha. Men might wonder at the change which came over him, but it was a secret between God and his soul, and he did not, like Samson, divulge it. The other instance to which we have referred was that of King Solomon (2 Chron. 1:7-12). No doubt the same spirit which instructed Elisha, formed at an earlier period the desires of the king, so that Solomon asked for and received such a special endowment of wisdom and knowledge suited to his exalted position as king and leader of God's people in the land of Israel, together with the possession of riches, and wealth, and honor beyond all other kings precedent or to follow.
(Continued from p. 311)
(To be continued)