Sermon Tone Analysis
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Where’s the Grown-up?
It is January… everyone’s favorite season.
Because we get to do that joy that comes once a year: filing taxes.
Do you have moments where you look around and wonder: where is the grown up who should be doing this for me?
Buying a car, or a house, paying certain bills, voting… taxes is one of those for me.
Makes me feel like 2 kids stacked on top of each other in a trench coat.
Recap - Elijah on Mount Sinai
Recall that God spoke to Elijah, the still-small voice, the quiet whisper.
On Mount Sinai he told Elijah to go and appoint a new king of Syria, and a new king of Israel.
Elijah obeyed.
God told him to go find a young farmer tilling his fields by the name of Elisha.
Elijah did and Elisha stopped in the middle of his work packed up and followed Elijah.
They went on a few more adventures.
Including, one time, King Ahab kept sending troops of 50 soldiers at a time to bring Elijah to him, and Elijah kept calling fire from the sky to consume them.
Good times.
About six years Elisha followed Elijah.
Until the day came...
Oh… that day.
How did he know?
No idea.
But somehow it seems like everyone knew and Elijah goes on a tour of prophet clubs in Judah.
Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho, then across the Jordan river and back again.
Walking distance… but a hard walking distance, up 1000 feet of elevation in there.
And everywhere they go, all the prophets know what’s about to happen.
First, Elijah knows:
Then Bethel
I know, shut up.
“Sons of the prophets” were disciples of the prophets, maybe other disciples to Elijah himself, which is why Elijah is going to visit them.
Prophets in training, looking to inherit the mantle of prophecy.
Elisha, we will see, is a “son of the prophet.”
Elijah again gives Elisha an opportunity to rest, and maybe to spare him the drama of what’s about to happen.
Or maybe to test his young disciple.
How do they know?
I don’t know.
But they know.
And Elisha already knows.
And he says “I know, shut up.”
“Please” stay here.
Seems like an entreaty.
Maybe still a test?
Elisha stays firm, he will follow.
Lots of witnesses
So… awesome.
Not an accident this is reminiscent of Moses and after him Joshua.
This is the same river Joshua passed over on dry land, and Moses died on the East side of the bank never entering into the Promised Land.
Moses and his protege - Joshua.
Elijah and his protege - Elisha.
What is Elisha asking for?
To be twice as powerful as Elijah?
Here’s where some context is helpful.
The way inheritance works in Israel and Judah: It isn’t “the oldest gets everything” like is common in Europe (primogeniture).
All the sons inherit, but the firstborn gets the “birthright” - a double inheritance.
This is what Judah got from his father Israel - after several older brothers lost the privilege.
So Elisha is asking, not for twice the power, but the double birthright as Elijah’s firstborn son.
There are all these “sons of prophets...”, but he asks to be first.
And not of Elijah’s possessions… but of his spirit.
Well… that’s a hard thing because the spirit that empowers Elijah isn’t really his to give, is it?
All of the power, all of the prophesy, all of the miracles are by the Spirit of God.
Always.
So Elijah answers:
Like a test of Elisha’s spiritual insight, his spiritual readiness… and Elijah already knows that God has designated Elisha as his successor.
And sure enough
What a picture.
Chariots - the tanks of the Old World, symbol of power and might.
And horses, symbol of military power and wealth… and chariots are pretty useless without horses...
but these are made of fire.
They don’t take up Elijah, that’s a common mistake, and I definitely had this picture wrong in my head.
The chariots, this burning power of God that throughout Elijah’s life the fire from the sky consumed sacrifices and enemies.... now it stands to separate Elijah from Elisha...
And a whirlwind, I picture a twister, a cyclone, sucks Elijah up into the sky.
And he passes from view.
“into” heaven is debated a bit here.
Possibly “towards” heaven is a better translation, but Elijah is taken elsewhere.
Now, I have always heard this taught as Elijah got sucked up straight into heaven, as in ascended to heaven to be with God.
It doesn’t quite clearly say that… and Jesus says no one before him ascended into heaven.
But this was truly crazy… it appears that several years after this Elijah writes a new king, Jehoram, a letter:
Jehoshaphat was king when Elijah “ascended”.
Jehoram becomes king… and then a letters come to him from Elijah.
Now there are options here.
Maybe Elijah prewrote the letter to have it delivered.
Maybe the events in 2 Kings aren’t exactly chronological somewhere.
Chronology is not usually the primary organizing principle in the Bible.
Or maybe the whirlwind sucked up Elijah to take him elsewhere.
This, in fact, is the assumption that all the other prophets make, and Elisha doesn’t stop them from searching the area by saying “he’s in heaven, y’all.”
But what Elisha very MUCH knows, is that for him, Elijah is gone.
He feels the grief of it, the panic of it.
He is taken from Elisha’s sight, never to be seen again.
And Elisha mourns it.
Tearing them is a vivid demonstration of his sense of loss and grief.
And he heads back the way he came, back towards Judah and Israel:
These are the steps back into the promised land.
But know he has a problem.
How did he cross the Jordan before?
Elijah miracled it.
Bam.
Dry land.
What does he do now?
Elijah was always the “miracle” guy, the prophet, the spirit-filled one.
What can Elisha do?
And he cries out.
2 Kings 2:14a (ESV)
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