When they came to the other side, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away.” And Elisha replied, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit and become your successor.” “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah replied. “If you see me when I am taken from you, then you will get your request. But if not, then you won’t.” As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, drawn by horses of fire. It drove between the two men, separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha saw it and cried out, “My father! My father! I see the chariots and charioteers of Israel!” And as they disappeared from sight, Elisha tore his clothes in distress. Elisha picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up. Then Elisha returned to the bank of the Jordan River. He struck the water with Elijah’s cloak and cried out, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Then the river divided, and Elisha went across. When the group of prophets from Jericho saw from a distance what happened, they exclaimed, “Elijah’s spirit rests upon Elisha!” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. “Sir,” they said, “just say the word and fifty of our strongest men will search the wilderness for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has left him on some mountain or in some valley.” “No,” Elisha said, “don’t send them.” But they kept urging him until they shamed him into agreeing, and he finally said, “All right, send them.” So fifty men searched for three days but did not find Elijah. Elisha was still at Jericho when they returned. “Didn’t I tell you not to go?” he asked. One day the leaders of the town of Jericho visited Elisha. “We have a problem, my lord,” they told him. “This town is located in pleasant surroundings, as you can see. But the water is bad, and the land is unproductive.” Elisha said, “Bring me a new bowl with salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, “This is what the Lord says: I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility.” And the water has remained pure ever since, just as Elisha said. 2 Kings 2:9-22
Elisha had a burning desire to carry on Elijah’s ministry. He’d been the prophet’s understudy and had seen God’s hand moving, and
the good work accomplished. There was
some anxiety about whether he’d get the job after his master was gone. There was some patience required.
Kind of sounds like Advent. Every
bit of the Old Testament’s pointing to the arrival of God’s kingdom was just
that, pointing to the future. Until Mary’s water broke, and the God/man
Jesus came forth, it was all waiting.
Much patience required.
And in that patience is a healthy portion of warning
to not get the cart in front of the horse – and not even imagine it’s a cart
and horse, rather than maybe, say, a space shuttle. The prophets of Jericho thought they were
doing good when they insisted on searching for Elijah, but they’d misjudged
everything. So did the people of Jesus’
day…they wanted a political messiah, so they put Jesus on trial to push the
envelope. And when Messiah wouldn’t bend
to their wishes, they hung him on a tree on the town garbage dump.
We’re hardly better. At the pace of
life today, patience is more than a virtue, it’s the vital and missing piece of
the puzzle. We anxiously waited for the
outcome of the presidential election.
Some are still wringing their hands, awaiting possible recounts to
change everything. The other half are
wringing hands that their “win” will be taken away. We’ve waited close to a year for a cure and
vaccine for Coronavirus, and the injections will begin this week, albeit with
wringing hands that it won’t cause this or that kind of new problem.
And the beat goes on!
Waiting and anxious; nervous and expectant; never calm, claiming kingdom
membership, but hardly living in the grace of God’s promises.
For You Today
The
apostle Paul reminds us in his letter to the Roman
church
that the tribulation we now find ourselves in is God working on us to develop
patience. And, as Jesus’ half-brother,
James, reminds us, we ought to thank God for that!
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. James 1:2-4
Title image, Pixabay.com and W Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For another post on this passage see: Chariot of Fire
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