Second Kings 2:1-11
‘When the Lord wanted to take up Elijah into Heaven…, Elijah went with Elisha…. Elijah said to Elisha: “Ask what I should do for you, before I be taken away?”… Elisha said: “Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me!”…. He (Elijah) said: “You have asked a hard thing! Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you — it shall be so!” As they went…and talked…, there appeared a chariot…and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into Heaven!’ Second Kings 2:1-11.
Elisha, whom the Lord had appointed as Elijah’s successor (First Kings 19:16), was to be prepared for carrying on his work. Elisha resolved, certainly also from an inward impulse of the Spirit of God, to be an eye-witness of Elijah’s glorification — so that Elisha might receive the spiritual inheritance of the first-born son from his departing spiritual father.
After crossing the Jordan, Elijah allowed Elisha to make one more request, before Elijah was taken away. Elisha asked: ‘Let a double portion of your spirit be granted to me!’
The request of Elisha is evidently based on Deuteronomy 21:17, where it denotes the double portion which the first-born heir received of the father’s inheritance. Elisha as a ‘first-born son’ resting his foot upon this law, requested from Elijah the double portion of his spirit — as Elisha’s inheritance.
Elisha looked upon himself as the ‘first-born son’ of Elijah in relation to the other ‘sons of the Prophets.’ For Elijah by the command of God had called Elisha to be his successor and to carry on his work. Elijah’s answer agrees with this. ‘You have asked a hard thing’ — because the granting of this request was not in Elijah’s power, but God’s. Elijah therefore made its fulfilment dependent upon a condition which did not rest with himself but was under the control of God. ‘If you shall see me taken from you, let it be so to you!’ Thus, Elijah left the matter with the Lord.
While they were walking on and talking to each other — ‘behold, a fiery chariot and fiery horses (suddenly appeared), and separated the two. Elijah went up to Heaven. As God had formerly taken Enoch away without dying, so did He now also take Elijah away.
The disappearance of Elijah has been compared to that of Moses at his death. This parallel has a real foundation in the appearance of Moses and Elijah with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. Yet unlike Moses, Elijah was taken to Heaven without tasting death, to predict the ascension of Christ (Malachi 4:2-5). As Elijah was an unparalleled champion of the honour of the Lord, a fiery war-chariot was the symbol of his triumphal procession into Heaven.
Elijah’s prophetic mantle than fell to Elisha, pledging that the latter’s request was fulfilled. And as a visible sign to others that Elisha was Elijah’s divinely-appointed successor who thenceforth also bore Elijah’s prophetic spirit (Second Kings 2:13-15). For thus did Elijah blessedly depart from this world!
