Elijah - Servant of God
THE PROPHET’S TRIP HOME
Elijah - Servant of God
THE PROPHET’S TRIP HOME
From the moment that Elijah cast his mantle on the shoulders of Elisha we may consider his prophetic career almost ended. He delivered a message or two, but from the moment that Elisha the son of Shaphat, of Abel-meholah, was anointed to be prophet, Elijah’s ministerial connection with Israel may be considered closed. He actually abandoned the work himself, so, since “He arose, and fled for his life;” it was time to think of appointing a successor.
But, when reflecting upon his life and times, we must not confine our thoughts to Elijah’s ministerial character. We should not only consider him as a prophet, but also as a man; not only as a servant, but also a child; not only officially, but also personally. As a prophet, the steady continuance and successful completion of his course depended on his faithfulness. Therefore, when he allowed himself to be carried away by a spirit inconsistent with the character of a genuine servant, he had to resign his office into the hands of another.1
However, there were better things in store for Elijah. He might be hasty; he might hide in a cave; he might impatiently long to depart from the trying scene of his work; he might do all this, as well as having to resign his place: still, God had thoughts of grace about him that could have never entered into Elijah’s heart.
Blessings come when God is allowed to adopt His own manner in dealing with us. On the other hand, we are sure to sustain loss when God’s method of proceeding is refused; yet it has always been our tendency to interfere. Man will not allow God to adopt His own method of justifying him, but, through creeds, dogmas, and traditions man seeks to intrude even in the wondrous plan of redemption, interfering with God’s method as if he could make better arrangements for himself than God.2 Presumptuous folly.
Think of how much Elijah would have lost, if he had received his request. How much better to be carried up to Heaven in a chariot of fire, than to be taken away in a state of impatience. Elijah asked for the latter, but God gave him the former. “And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal” (2 Kings 2:1).
It would be foreign to the present design of this brief study, to dwell on the circumstances of Elisha’s introduction into the prophetic office, his slowness at first in accompanying Elijah, and his unwillingness to leave him later. He accompanied Elijah from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, and from Jericho to Jordan. All these places were famous in Israel’s history. Bethel (the house of God) was the spot where Jacob of old had seen the mystic ladder stretching from earth to Heaven, expressing God’s future purposes concerning heavenly and earthly families. By command of God, Jacob returned to this same place after he had cleansed himself from the defilement of Shechem (Gen. 35:1).
Therefore, Bethel was a spot of deep interest to the heart of an Israelite. But it had become polluted. Jeroboam’s calf had effectually obliterated the sacred principles of truth taught by Jacob's ladder. Jacob’s ladder led upward and onward – conducting the spirit from earth to Heaven. It led upward to God’s eternal purpose of grace; and onward to the display of that purpose in glory. On the contrary, Jeroboam’s calf brought the heart down to a degrading system of political religion – a system in which the names of things heavenly were used to secure earthly things for self.
Jeroboam made use of the house of God to secure for himself the kingdom of Israel. He was content to remain at the bottom of the ladder, caring not to look upward. His earthly heart did not desire to scale the sublime heights to which Jacob’s ladder led – earth and its glory were all he wanted. As long as he obtained these, he cared not whether he worshipped before Baal’s calf at Bethel or Jehovah’s altar at Jerusalem – it meant nothing to him. Jerusalem, Bethel, Dan are just names to politico-religious men.
Based on the number of organized religious systems, it seems obvious that religion is simply an instrument in the hands of the children of this world – an instrument by which they dig into the bowels of the earth; not a ladder by which they mount from earth to Heaven. Mankind pollutes everything sacred. Place in our hands the purest, the most heavenly truth, and before long we will defile it: commit to our guardianship the most precious, the most impressive ordinance, and before long we will convert it into a lifeless form, even losing the principles to be conveyed. So it was with Bethel. So it is with everything sacred man touches.
The two prophets started from Gilgal, a place of interest. It was there the Lord rolled away the reproach of Egypt from His people; there Israel kept their first Passover in the land of Canaan, and were refreshed by the old corn of the land. Gilgal was the rallying point for Joshua and his men of war; from there they went forth in the strength of the Lord to obtain glorious triumphs over the uncircumcised, returning to enjoy the spoils.3
Gilgal was a place around which the affections of a Jew might well be entwined – a place of many hallowed recollections. Yet it too had lost its reality. The reproach of Egypt had rolled back on Israel. The principles that once stood connected with Gilgal had lost their sway over the hearts of God’s people. Bochim (the place of weepers) had long since taken the place of Gilgal in reference to Israel, and Gilgal had become an empty form – ancient, no doubt, but powerless, for Israel had ceased to walk in the power of truth taught at Gilgal.
At Jericho the hosts of the Lord, under a mighty Captain, gained their first victory in the land of promise, exhibiting the power of faith.
At Jordan Israel had an impressive manifestation of Jehovah’s power in connection with the Ark of His presence. Jordan was the place, in type, where death had been overcome by the power of life; in its midst and on its banks the trophies of victory were presented.
Bethel, Gilgal, Jericho, and Jordan – deeply interesting to the heart of a true child of Abraham; but their power and meaning were lost: Bethel had ceased to be the house of God, except in name; Gilgal was no longer valued as the place where the reproach of Egypt had been rolled away. The walls of Jericho which had been destroyed by faith were built again. Jordan was no longer viewed as the scene of Jehovah’s power.
In other words, these things had become mere form without power, prompting the Lord to speak to the house of Israel concerning them in the following impressive words: “Thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye Me, and ye shall live: but seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to naught. Seek the Lord, and ye shall live” (Amos 5:4-6).
This is an important truth for those whose hearts are prone to cling to ancient forms.
We are taught by this striking passage, that nothing but Divine reality of personal communion with God will stand. We may defend our form, plead in defense of our great antiquity, but where can we find greater form or antiquity than that which Bethel and Gilgal could boast? Yet they failed and came to naught, and the faithful were admonished to abandon them and look up in simple faith to the living God.
Our prophet passed through these places, but his destination lay beyond and above them. He tried to leave Elisha behind him as he pressed onward along his heavenward path; but Elisha clings to him, and accompanies him as it were to the very portals of Heaven, checking the busy intrusion of his brethren by the words, “Hold ye your peace.”
But Elijah moves on toward his heavenly mission. “The Lord hath sent me,” he says; and in obedience to God’s command he passes through Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and on to Jordan; leaving behind those ancient forms and sacred localities that might engage the affections of those who were not, like Elijah the Tishbite, carried forward by a heavenly hope.
We may tarry amid such forms and antiquities, and they may even awaken a hallowed recollection; but, be they ever so sacred, ever so venerable, things of earth have no attraction to one whose spirit is filled with thoughts of going to Heaven. Heaven was Elijah’s object, not Bethel or Gilgal. He was about to take his departure from earth and all its harassing scenes; he was about to leave Ahab and Jezebel behind to meet their terrible doom; he was about to pass beyond the region of broken covenants, ruined altars, and slain prophets; he was about to pass beyond the gloom and sorrow, trial and disappointment of this stormy world – not by the agency of death, but by a heavenly chariot.
Death possessed no power against this heavenly man. No doubt his body was changed in the twinkling of an eye, for “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption”; but death had no power over Elijah. Instead, like a conqueror, he stepped into his triumphal chariot, for his trip home to Heaven.
Happy man – His conflict was over, his race run, his victory secure. Elijah was a stranger on earth – unlike the men of this world. He came forth from the mountains of Gilead as a girded witness, a stern intruder on the course of an evil world. He had no home or resting-place, but as a stranger and pilgrim pressed onward toward his heavenly rest.
From first to last, Elijah’s path was unique. Like John the Baptist, he was a voice “crying in the wilderness,” away from the haunts of men. His appearance was like some heavenly meteor, its origin and destiny beyond the reach of human conception. The man with a leathern girdle was known only as the witness against evil – bearer of God’s truth. He had no real fellowship with man, but in his ways maintained an elevation that repulsed man’s intrusion, thus securing reverence and respect. There was so much sacred solemnity about him that vanity or folly could not live in his presence. Unlike his successor Elisha, he was a social man; his path was solitary.
“He came neither eating nor drinking.” In other words, he was peculiar entering his prophetic career, and peculiar in his passage out of it. He was an exception – a marked exception. The fact that he did not pass through the gates of death is certainly sufficient to draw special attention to him.
But let us observe the path pursued by our prophet as he journeyed toward his heavenly chariot – for his trip home. He retraced the path of the old camp. Israel had journeyed from Jordan to Jericho, but Elijah journeyed from Jericho to Jordan. In other words, since Jordan separated the wilderness from the land, the prophet crossed it, thus leaving Canaan behind him, meeting his chariot in the wilderness, not in the land. Why? Because the land was polluted, and was to be cleansed of those who had introduced the pollution – the glory would soon depart from even the most favored spot. So, since there was nothing left in the land for a heavenly man, our prophet leaves it and goes into the wilderness.
Earth was polluted, no longer the resting-place of the man of God. The Jordan was once divided, allowing Israel to pass from the wilderness to Canaan; it was now divided to allow a heavenly man to pass from Canaan to the wilderness where his heavenly chariot awaited, ready to take him home – to convey him from earth to Heaven.
Earthly things had passed from the mind of Elijah, he had learned the vanity of everything of earthly hopes, and nothing remained but to look beyond it all. He had toiled amid Israel’s broken altars; labored and testified for years among a disobedient and gainsaying people; longed to depart and be at rest; and now he was about to do so – Jehovah Himself was about to place His everlasting arms around His servant, shielding him from the power of death. For Elijah death would have no sting and the grave no victory.
Elijah was privileged to look upward and, unimpeded by sickness and death, see Heaven open to receive him. Not one of the circumstances of fallen humanity fell on our prophet, regarding how he left this earth. He exchanged his prophet's mantle for a chariot of fire, dropping it to earth as he ascended to Heaven. To Elijah earth became a perishable and polluted speck in God’s creation, and he gladly laid aside everything marking his connection with it.
What a position. And yet it is only the position that every Christian should occupy. Nature and earth no longer have any claim on a born again child of God – one who truly believes in Jesus. The Cross of Christ broke all chains binding a Christian to earth. As Jordan separated Elijah from Canaan, bringing him into the wilderness to meet Jehovah's chariot, so the Cross introduces true believers to new ground. If we truly trust in Jesus Christ then we wait for and anticipate His 2nd coming, when we, too, shall be taken up to meet Him in the air – our trip home at last.
To attain to this we must find time to be alone with God, exercising a spirit of self-judgment. Flesh and blood will never understand the view of a heavenly man. Actually, even sons of the prophets did not understand it, for they say to Elisha, “Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men: let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master, lest, peradventure, the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley.”
This was their highest thought about our prophet’s journey – “The Spirit of the Lord hath cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley.” They could not conceive such a thing as being carried up to Heaven in a chariot of fire.4
They still tarried amid the things of earth, their spiritual senses not sufficiently exercised to perceive and appreciate such a glorious truth. Elisha yielded to their importunity, but they learned the folly of their thoughts by the fruitless toil of their messengers. Fifty strong men could not find our prophet. He was gone; God took him home. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Those who walk in the Spirit will understand what a privilege it was for our prophet to be delivered from the claims of mortality – to make his trip home in God’s fiery chariot.
This was the end of our prophet’s course – A glorious end. Who would not say, “Let my last end be like this”? Blessed be God whose love arranged such an honor for Elijah. Blessed be God whose grace allowed His beloved Son, Jesus Christ – the Prince of life – to leave His glory in the heavens and submit to a shameful death on the cross, resulting in a glorious way for all mankind to be exempted from the penalty of sin, permitted to pass into the regions of light and immortality – to one day make our own trip home.
How we should adore this love. Yes; while we trace the footsteps of the remarkable man whose history we have been considering; while we follow him from Gilead to Cherith, from Cherith to Zarephath, from Zarephath to Carmel, from Carmel to Horeb, and from Horeb to Heaven, we must surely feel constrained to cry out, “Oh, the matchless love of God!” Who could conceive that mortal man could tread such a course? Who but God could accomplish such things?
The path of Elijah the Tishbite magnifies grace of God, confounding the enemy’s wisdom. A saint’s trip home to Heaven is one of the richest fruits and most magnificent results of redemption. To save a soul from eternal hell is a glorious achievement, a splendid triumph; to raise up the body of a sleeping saint displays even more Divine grace and power; but to take a living man, in the freshness and energy of his natural existence, and carry him from earth to Heaven, is a display of the power of God and the value of redemption that is beyond anything we can conceive.
Thus it was with Elijah. He was taken away from turmoil and confusion. The tide of evil will yet flow; men and principles will continue to work and show themselves; the measure of Israel’s iniquities will be filled; and the proud Assyrian will enter the scene as the rod of Jehovah’s anger to chastise them; but what was all this compared to our prophet’s trip home? Nothing; Standing as a homeless wanderer in the wilderness, Heaven open up to Elijah. He was finished with the defilement and degradation of the land of Canaan, taking his place above.
Seeing our prophet going into Heaven, our reflections on his life and times might naturally close, except for one New Testament scene in which he appears – the Mount of Transfiguration, where Moses and Elias appeared and spoke with the Lord Jesus Christ of His decease at Jerusalem.
What a company. The Son of God, in white and glistering raiment: Moses, Elias, Peter, James, and John. It is evident that our Lord desired to prepare His apostles for the coming scene of His sufferings by showing them a specimen of the glory that would follow. Our Lord knew the cross, with all its accompanying horrors, was before Him and waiting for Him in the immediate future.
Shortly before His transfiguration, Jesus said to them, “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day”: but before entering into all this, He showed them something of His glory. In reality, the cross is the basis of everything – the future glory of Christ and His saints, as well as the deliverance of creation from the bondage of corruption, hang on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. His sorrows and sufferings have secured the glory of the church of our Lord, and the blessing of the whole creation.
Therefore, it is no marvel that the cross should form the subject of discourse between Christ and His glorious visitors. “They spoke of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.” Everything hung on this. The past, present and future all rested on the cross. Moses could see and acknowledge in the cross that which superseded the law, with all its shadowy rites and ceremonies; Elijah could see and acknowledge in it that which gave efficacy to all prophetic testimony. The law and the prophets pointed to the cross as the foundation of the glory that lay beyond it.
Therefore, the subject of conversation on the Mount of Transfiguration was profoundly interesting. It was interesting to earth, to Heaven, and to the wide creation of God. It forms the center of God’s purposes and counsels; it harmonizes God’s attributes; it secures on immutable principles the glory of God and the sinner’s peace; on it could be inscribed “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Therefore, it is no marvel that Moses and Elias could appear in glory and talk of such a momentous subject. They were about to return to their rest, while their blessed Master descended into the arena of conflict to meet the cross in all its tremendous reality. But, they knew full well that He and they would yet meet in the midst of a glory that would never be overshadowed – a glory of which He, the Lamb, was to be the source and center forever – a glory that would shine with everlasting brilliancy when all human and earthly glories shall be overcast by the shadows of eternal night.
But what of the disciples during this wondrous conversation – What were they doing? They were asleep – Asleep while Moses and Elias spoke with the Son of God concerning His cross and passion. What marvelous insensibility – sleeping in the very presence of the excellent glory.5 “And when they were awake they saw His glory, and the two men that stood with Him. And it came to pass, as they departed from Him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles – one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias – not knowing what he said.”
No doubt it was good to be there – far better than to go down from their elevation and glory to meet all the contradiction and trying obloquy of man. When Peter saw Moses and Elias, it instantly occurred to his Jewish mind that there was no hindrance to the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. He slept while they spoke of “the decease”; he indulged nature while his Master’s sufferings formed the subject of discourse; and waking up, he would have pitched his tent in the midst of that scene of peace and glory, beneath the open heavens. But, he knew not what he said. It was but a passing moment.
The heavenly strangers soon departed; the Lord Jesus was to be delivered into the hands of men. He was to pass from the mount of glory to the place of suffering. Peter himself, would soon be sifted by Satan – deeply humbled and broken. A long and dreary season, a dark night of sorrow and tribulation, was in store for the church of our Lord; the armies of Rome were yet to trample the holy city in the dust, laying waste her bulwarks. The thunders of war and political revolution were yet to roll, with terrible vehemence, over the whole civilized world. All this and more would come to pass before the fond thought of Peter’s heart could be realized on earth.
Those who have received the Holy Spirit have received the earnest of the future inheritance. They have been on the mount; and although they too may have to come down to meet the trial and sorrow below – yet they have a foretaste of the joy and blessedness that shall be theirs forever; and, as they journey on from day to day, they can unfeignedly thank God that their hopes are not bounded by this world’s gloomy horizon, but that they have a home beyond it all.
Footnotes:
1An objection could be made to this view of our prophet’s actions. It may be said that he was raised up for a special purpose at a special era of Israel’s history, and when that purpose had been fulfilled then another kind of instrument was needed. This is certainly true. Yet surely there is little or no difficulty in perceiving the haste and impatience of Elijah desiring to resign his post because things had not turned out as he had expected. God’s counsels and man’s actions are very distinct. The ministry of Elijah had no doubt filled its proper place in the nation’s history; so, another kind of instrument or agent might be needed; yet this leaves untouched the question of Elijah’s spirit and actions in the matter. For example, Joshua might be needed to succeed Moses; yet it was hastiness of spirit that refused Moses permission to cross over Jordan.
2For more information on God’s plan of redemption, see God’s Salvation in Contents.
3For more information see Josiah - Child King in Religion Library section of Contents.
4Re: the youths who came out of Bethel, and said to Elisha, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” (2 Kings 2:23, NKJV). These were not children, but infidels and idolatrous young men in their late teens or twenties (cf. Gen. 22:12; 37:2; 1 Kings 20:14, 15). Baldness was regarded as a disgrace (cf. Is. 3:17, 24). The baldness of Elisha referred to here may be natural loss of hair; a shaved head denoting his separation to the prophetic office; or more likely an epithet of scorn and contempt, not being literally bald. These youths were sarcastically taunting and insulting the Lord’s prophet by telling him to repeat Elijah’s translation (“Go up”). In verse 24, Elisha pronounced a curse because these young people of about 20 years of age or older (the same term is used of Solomon in 1 Kings 3:7) so despised the prophet of the Lord, Elisha called upon the Lord to deal with the rebels as He saw fit. The Lord’s punishment was the mauling of 42 youths by two female bears. The penalty was clearly justified, for to ridicule Elisha was to ridicule the Lord Himself. The gravity of the penalty mirrored the gravity of the crime. The appalling judgment was God’s warning to any and all who attempted to interfere with the newly invested prophet’s ministry.
5These same disciples slept during the season of our Lord’s agony in the garden; they slept in view of the glory; and also in the view of the cross. And yet the blessed Master does not rebuke them, except to say, “Couldst thou not watch with Me one hour?” He knew what He was dealing with: He knew that “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Gracious Master, ever ready to make allowance for His people, saying to those who had slept on the mount, slept in the garden, and who were about to deny and desert Him in the hour of His deepest need, “Ye are they who have continued with Me in My temptation,”
