Ensign: Across The Jordan

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS           11 February 2018

[One of our Scripture readings this morning in church was 2 Kings 2:1-12 where the prophet Elijah formally transferred his power and authority to Elisha as the LORD God allowed it. But it didn't happen right away; in fact, the journey the two men went on from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to the (River) Jordan was the reverse of the journey Joshua led the Israelites on conquering the Promised land centuries earlier. I learned something new then, and perhaps refreshing my -- our -- memory with this passage from my 2 Kings devotional The Chariot of Israel, and The Horsemen Thereof will be helpful too. Enjoy!]

"And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal." I don't know, maybe Elijah thought the similarity of names between Elisha and himself would confuse Ahab and his forces who was chasing him. LOL Unlike Elijah who simply appeared to Ahab and his queen Jezebel and pronounced that Israel would be punished by the LORD God Whom they'd rejected by a three-year famine, the career of Elisha before he became Israel's prophet of God is well-known and recorded. Later in 1 Kings Elijah arrives at Elisha's parent's field and told that he's the God-appointed successor as prophet of Israel. No formal training prepared Elisha for this, and he didn't actively seek it out, but God tends to confront us where availability and opportunity meet. By the time we pick up with Elisha's first appearance in 2 Kings (oh, the full story of Elisha's appointment is in 1 Kings 19:8-21) about eight years later, Elijah knows the time has come to pass the torch. 

One quality Elisha's already shown is apparently his singlemindedness with Elijah; remember, it's been eight years and Elisha has always been seeing what God's used Elijah to do. And he's the one whom Elijah will lay his mantle on -- appoint to succeed him under God's direction -- just as he did when meeting him in his parents' field. Elijah knows, like any father figure, that Elisha has the ability to succeed him as God's prophet, but does he have the will to do so? Three times (in verses two, four, and six respectively of 2 Kings 2, the object of today's Bible study) Elijah asks Elisha to "tarry here, I pray thee" while he makes another leg of his journey to where God wants him to go. Three times (in verses two, four, and six too) Elisha avers that "As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee". Even when the sons of the prophets, basically followers and supporters of the main prophet of God in Israel who acted as extensions of him and lived as a guild, in Bethel (verse three) and Jericho (verse five) inform Elisha that Elijah will be leaving him today. When Elisha responds he knows that (do you really think he could have NOT known?) he also asks the sons to hold their peace. When fifty of them arrive at [the river] Jordan, they see Elijah and Elisha "afar off". (7) 

Elijah, with the mantle he wears about his shoulders, winds it (think of whipping someone or something with a towel) and in verse eight strikes the waters of the Jordan to make them part for him and Elisha -- what's going to happen next is for now meant for no one else to know. Elisha's also . . . well, you might say "crossed the Rubicon" (named for the river Julius Caesar crossed in the mid-1st century BC to ultimately win Rome's civil war) because it's a turning point in his life where there's no turning back. You're now the prophet of God for Israel, come what may. No turning back. After Elijah and Elisha go over and "crossed the Jordan" on dry land, Elijah asks Elisha as recorded in verse nine, "Ask what I shall shall do for thee, before I be taken from thee." Elisha asks for "a double portion of thy spirit [to] be upon me." In this time and culture, that was a "hard [i.e. serious] thing" to ask for because this was the inheritance the eldest son got upon his father's death. Elijah acknowledges this by their close relationship and says it'll happen, according to verse ten, "if thou see me when I am taken from thee". Verse eleven: "And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." Elijah becomes the second person in the Bible to be taken by God into heaven without dying, the first being Enoch, one of Adam's distant descendants from Genesis 5. And because Elisha actually saw this happen, he becomes the inheritor of Elijah's mantle, spiritually and literally, as God's prophet to Israel. From verse twelve, Elisha's cry of "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof" and his act of rending his clothes in two is both indicative of how important Elijah had been to him and how much he would miss him. 

How many people do we miss like that?

David