Elijah - By a Whirlwind into Heaven
Simon Attwood
There are no half measures with Elijah. He is fully committed to the service God has given him to do. His ways are righteous, and his words real; even his physical actions and the postures he adopts exhibit his zeal.[1] And yet he runs for his life when Jezebel sends him a death threat the day after God vindicates him on mount Carmel (1 Ki. 19:2–3). How frail we are, even at our best; how difficult it can be to continue in the face of disappointment. Going ‘a day’s journey into the wilderness’ — outside the land — he sits down and says, ‘It is enough: now, Jehovah, take my life; for I am not better than my fathers’ (v. 4). But God ‘abides faithful’ when we go wrong (2 Tim. 2:13) and draws us back to Himself. He will not permit Elijah’s life to dissipate under a bush in the desert. He sends an angel, not once but twice, to sustain and encourage him (1 Ki. 19:5–8).
At Horeb, Elijah encounters Jehovah in ‘a still small voice’ rather than the wind, earthquake and fire (vs. 11–12). He is moved by this, but when Jehovah asks him a second time, ‘What doest thou here, Elijah?’ (v. 13), he repeats what he said earlier about his jealousy for God and the people’s unfaithfulness (vs. 10, 14). No doubt he is right in this, but he is wrong to claim, ‘I am left, I alone’. Jehovah answers, ‘I have left myself seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth that hath not kissed him’ (v. 18). He knows them all and has left an account of some of them: Elisha who succeeds Elijah (v. 16), the unnamed prophet who promises King Ahab that Jehovah will deliver the Syrian host into his hand (20:13), the prophet’s son who denounces Ahab to his face for letting the king of Syria go free (vs. 35-43), Naboth, who dies rather than yield his fathers’ inheritance to Ahab (ch. 21), and Micah, the only prophet at the council of war against Syria who truthfully predicts its outcome to Ahab and the king of Judah (22:13–28). Either Elijah does not know them or does not hold them in sufficient esteem — a mistake we can all make if we become self-occupied.
Although Elijah does not rise to the level of God’s patient grace with His people, God honours him by continuing to use him though he must prepare for his departure from the field of service (1 Ki. 19:15–18). This sets the scene for his last journey in 2 Kings 2:1–14.
Handover of responsibility
Elijah has enjoyed Elisha’s company and personal support after casting his mantle on him (1 Ki. 19:19). We see this in the way he walks and talks with him from Gilgal to the river Jordan. He knows that the younger man is faithful and that he can confidently leave the office of prophet in his hands. How good it is when there is no generation gap among God’s people but seamless fellowship that leads to a continuing testimony (2 Tim. 2:1). Paul and Timothy work this out themselves as we find in Acts and Paul’s letters.
Faith, not despondency
The journey starts at Gilgal. This is where the men of Israel were circumcised after they entered Canaan (Josh. 5:2-9) and it was their base of operations in the land. Circumcision speaks of the cutting off of the flesh; that is, self-judgment so that God’s people may not be proud or act in their own strength but depend on Him alone. Elijah and Elisha go to Bethel, the house of God (Gen. 28:16–19), and to Jericho, the city that stood in the way of Israel possessing the land (Josh. 6:1). The message for us is clear: we must judge the flesh according to Christ’s death (Col. 2:11; Phil. 3:3) if we are to maintain God’s rights in His house (the assembly: 1 Tim. 3:15) as we should, and enjoy our spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ in the face of our enemy’s attacks (Eph. 1:3; 6:10–18).
By Elijah’s time, the three places had sunk very low: idols at Gilgal (Jdgs. 3:19), a false religion established at Bethel (1 Ki. 12:28–29) and Jericho rebuilt despite Joshua’s curse (Josh. 6:26; 1 Ki. 16:33–34). Although his ministry has not changed these things, there is no hint of despondency on his part now. He has fought the good fight like Paul (2 Tim. 4:7) and prepares Elisha for his service. He says to him at each place, ‘Abide here’; that is, count the cost of being my successor (Luke 14:25–33). But the younger man is committed and replies each time, ‘As Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee!’ He knows the secret of success lies in sticking close to his master. May we learn this lesson and encourage others to do the same, especially those younger than ourselves.
The sons of the prophets
These men represent their spiritual forefathers but do not seem to be marked by the same conviction. They sense that Elijah is about to be taken from the scene, but they see this affecting Elisha, not themselves. They do not converse with him as Elisha does. They are a warning to us. We may have been brought up in a godly home and even know a good deal about future events because of teaching about prophecy but walk at a distance from our Lord. When Peter did this, he had no spiritual power (Mark 14:53–54; 66–72). Let us take to heart the Lord’s words: ‘He that abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit’ (John 15:5).
Crossing the Jordan
The sons of the prophets can only watch from a distance as Elijah wraps his mantle and smites the waters of the Jordan. He and Elisha go over on dry ground and in doing so experience and enjoy the power that marked Joshua and Israel when they entered Canaan. But why do they go in the opposite direction — outside the land? Because they recognise it to be a scene of failure and acknowledge their part in this along with the people. Further, Jordan, meaning ‘descender’, is a symbol of death. To use New Testament language they have the sentence of death in themselves that they should not have their trust in themselves but in God who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:9). Now they will experience His power in different ways: Elijah will be taken by a whirlwind into heaven; Elisha will return to the land to serve Him acceptably (Heb. 12:28).
A double portion of Elijah’s spirit
Elijah says to Elisha, ‘Ask what I shall do for thee, before I am taken away from thee.’ Elisha answers, ‘I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me’; that is, he claims the portion of the firstborn son (Deut. 21:17) so that he can represent Elijah in his absence (he calls him ‘my father’: v. 12). He has witnessed the vigour of his service for God and feels he must have his spirit twice over to succeed him effectively, not in the desultory way the sons of the prophets represent their fathers. Perhaps he also realises that he needs the double portion to fulfil two ministries: maintaining God’s authority as Elijah has done and ministering divine grace.
Elijah’s words, ‘Thou hast asked a hard thing: if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so to thee; but if not, it shall not be so’ (2 Ki. 2:10), mean this will be impossible unless Elisha sets his sight on his master as he goes up to heaven. This is redolent of Christian truth: we who have believed the gospel have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and He trains our spiritual sight on Christ in glory so that we become like Him down here (2 Cor. 3:18). But do we walk closely enough to our Lord? Elijah and Elisha were so close they had to be parted by ‘a chariot of fire and horses of fire’ (2 Ki. 2:11).
A picture of three New Testament truths
It is remarkable that Elijah’s departure brings God’s operations of grace before us in past, present and future aspects.
The ascension. Elijah, taken up bodily into heaven, is a picture of our Lord ‘received up in glory’ (1 Tim. 3:16). But in contrast to Elijah who is taken up by a whirlwind, our Lord ascends with His hands uplifted in blessing (Luke 24:50) — beautiful culmination to His ministry here of grace and truth; glorious prelude to His high priesthood in heaven for us (Heb. 7:26).
The gift of the Holy Spirit. The little nucleus of our Lord’s disciples receive power from on high in the baptism of the Holy Spirit when the assembly is formed on the day of Pentecost. Believers on the Lord Jesus today share in this as those who have received — not the double spirit of a man, however faithful — but the Spirit Himself (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:13).
The rapture of the saints. Elijah is taken up to heaven. Later, he reappears after being taken up. What rich reparation for the man wicked Ahab called ‘the troubler of Israel’ and ‘mine enemy’ (1 Ki. 18:17; 21:20) to speak on the mount of transfiguration with the Lord Jesus, the ‘king [who] shall reign in righteousness’ (Isa. 32:1), about His own departure from this world (Luke 9:31). Moses is also there, showing that whether we live until Christ takes us up (like Elijah) or pass through the article of death (like Moses), we will all be raptured before the millennial day to be with and like Him forever (1 Thess. 4:15–17).
What blessed lessons we learn from Elijah in 2 Kings 2!
[1] 1 Ki. 17:21; 18:31–33, 42, 46; 19:8, 19; 2 Ki. 1:8; 2:8. Note the contrasting actions of Elijah and Elisha in raising the dead (1 Ki. 17:21–22; 2 Ki. 4:34–35). Elijah stretches himself three times on the widow of Zarephath’s son, emphasising God’s power. Elisha shuts the door, confines himself to the mouth, eyes and hands of the Shunammite’s boy, bends over him and walks about until the child opens his eyes and sneezes seven times, emphasising the hidden, patient working of divine grace that reaches man in his littleness. Both are necessary.
From: Truth and Testimony, 2023