Elijah Taken Up to Heaven 1 When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 2 Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. 3 The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?” “Yes, I know,” Elisha replied, “so be quiet.” 4 Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, Elisha; the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” And he replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho. 5 The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?” “Yes, I know,” he replied, “so be quiet.” 6 Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” And he replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them walked on. 7 Fifty men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. 9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied. 10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”
Elijah told Elisha to stay while he went to another place three times. Each time of the 3 times, Elisha refused, not as a dishonor to the command but as as an honor to Elijah and God.Elijah asks Elisha if there is anything he needs before he goes. Elisha asks for a double portion of his spirit. This seems like a selfish request. We could interpret this as Elisha’s request to be more powerful than his master. But this isn’t the case. The double portion is actually the right of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 21). The firstborn is allotted the king’s entire kingdom (the double portion). Elijah was asking for his inheritance. He wants to continue Elijah’s ministry.
11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two. 13 Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
Suddenly a chariot of fire swoops into the scene and separates the two prophets and Elijah is taken up into the heavens in a whirlwind. Notice the scripture does not say he went into heaven on a chariot of fire. The actual Hebrew translates as he was taken up in a fiery storm. Elisha picks up Elijah’s cloak (mantle) and parts the water with it to leave. We see here that Elisha has indeed inherited Elijah’s powerful ministry.
15 The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. 16 “Look,” they said, “we your servants have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.” “No,” Elisha replied, “do not send them.” 17 But they persisted until he was too embarrassed to refuse. So he said, “Send them.” And they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him. 18 When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?” Healing of the Water 19 The people of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.” 20 “Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. 21 Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’” 22 And the water has remained pure to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.
When Elisha asked for the bowl of salt and threw it into the water, he was a vessel for God. God was the one who changed the situation - through grace. This is Elisha continuing in Elisha’s footsteps to show that God is the true God and can and does make miracles happen.
As we will see with many of these small, encapsulated stories, Elisha’s miracles are not random but all follow a familiar pattern. The pattern is this: through God, Elisha performs a miracle which involves a leap of faith. They often don’t seem to make any real sense in what he asks or does; but that is the faith component. The covenant of belief must first be established in order for the miracle to work.
Elisha Is Jeered 23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. 25 And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.
Chapter 2 follows Elijah as he ascends into Heaven. As we begin the story we realize that his ascension is common knowledge to many of the prophets. Elisha also knows this and through a series of tests does not want to leave his master’s side out of loyalty. Fifty men are to bear witness of this event, and as Elijah and Elisha move toward the point where it will take place, Elijah removes his hair coat (mantle) and strikes the river Jordan with it. This parts the water and they go across the dry land (outside the promised land) and talk to each other.
We also got see a little of Elisha’s ministry. He heals the water at Jericho, not in his name but in the name of the Lord. We also read about Elisha being jeered. Apparently Elisha is bald, so the youths of Bethel taunt him for it. Elisha does what any good prophet would do. He unleashes a bear attack on them. Bears run out of the woods and maul 42 of them.
Now this seems a little out of character for a prophet, but when we look a little deeper we see a few things. First, Elisha is in Bethel. This is the premium site for sacred cow worship in Israel. Plus, the boys are jeering him for his bald head. Long and luxurious hair was often a sign of strength in Israel (see David, Saul, Absalom). but they are also condemning him as a man of God (they know the mantle and are in opposition to it. So Elisha sends a curse from the Lord (not from himself). Again, this is the same thing Elijah did with the fifty men Ahaziah sent. He called to the Lord and the Lord passed judgment.