For years Elisha has walked behind Elijah, pouring water on his hands. Now the old prophet is going home, and everyone seems to know it — the sons of the prophets at Bethel, at Jericho, Elisha himself. Three times Elijah tells him to stay behind; three times he refuses. They cross the Jordan on dry ground, and Elisha asks for one thing: a double portion of the spirit resting on the man about to leave. Then a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and a mantle on the ground.
A study in 2 Kings 2 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
As The LORD Liveth, I Will Not Leave Thee
“And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Beth-el. And Elisha said unto him, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Beth-el.”
2 Kings 2:2
The route is a farewell tour of the schools Elijah rebuilt — Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho — and at each stop he tells Elisha to wait behind. It reads like the same test Elisha met the day the mantle first landed on his shoulders: count the cost, and decide for yourself. He gives the same answer every time. He will not be parted from his master while there is one more mile of instruction to be had.
The sons of the prophets keep coming out to tell Elisha what he already knows: “the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day.” His reply is almost curt — “yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.” This is not a morning for spectators comparing notes. It is a morning to keep walking.
“But in his early labor of guiding the plow, Elisha had learned not to fail or to become discouraged, and now that he had set his hand to the plow in another line of duty he would not be diverted from his purpose.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 225
Let A Double Portion Of Thy Spirit Be Upon Me
“And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.”
2 Kings 2:9-10
The “double portion” is the language of inheritance — the share of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 21:17). Elisha is asking to be treated as Elijah’s heir, not for twice the power but for the eldest son’s portion of the Spirit that made Elijah what he was. He does not ask for standing, or safety, or a name among the great. He asks for the one thing that could fit him to do the work.
Elijah calls it “a hard thing,” because it is not his to give. He can only point to the sign: if you are given eyes to see me go, you have your answer. The gift is God’s; the condition is that Elisha keep watching to the last second.
“Elisha asked not for worldly honor, or for a high place among the great men of earth. That which he craved was a large measure of the Spirit that God had bestowed so freely upon the one about to be honored with translation.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 226
The Chariot Of Israel, And The Horsemen Thereof
“And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.”
2 Kings 2:11-12
Elisha’s cry is a title for Elijah: the old prophet, standing alone against Ahab and Jezebel and the priests of Baal, had been Israel’s real defense — worth more than her chariots and cavalry. The nation that trusted in horses had its true strength carried off in a whirlwind, and only one man was watching.
Elijah is one of two men in Scripture who did not die (Enoch is the other). In the desert he had asked to die and been refused; there was still work to do, and a better end than the grave waiting for him. At the transfiguration he stands beside Moses and Christ — a sample, centuries early, of the living who will be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:52).
“There was yet a great work for Elijah to do; and when his work was done, he was not to perish in discouragement and solitude. Not for him the descent into the tomb, but the ascent with God’s angels to the presence of His glory.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 228
Where Is The LORD God Of Elijah?
“He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of Jordan; And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.”
2 Kings 2:13-14
The question is not doubt; it is faith looking for its footing. The God of Elijah is not gone with Elijah. Elisha strikes the river with the same mantle, the water opens the same way, and the sons of the prophets watching from Jericho say, “the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.” The double portion was granted; he saw the chariot.
The rest of the chapter shows the two sides of the new prophet. At Jericho he heals a poisoned spring with a cruse of salt — a mission “to build up and strengthen.” On the road to Bethel a mob of youths jeers the translation itself — “go up, thou bald head” — and two she-bears come out of the wood. Elisha’s work will mostly be mercy, but the reverence God is owed is not optional, and the man who carries His word is not to be mocked with impunity.
“When the Lord in His providence sees fit to remove from His work those to whom He has given wisdom, He helps and strengthens their successors, if they will look to Him for aid and will walk in His ways.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 228
