Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 2
2 Kings 2. I'll begin reading in verse 1. And it came to pass, when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Then Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel.
But Elisha said, As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. Now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? And he said, Yes, I know.
Keep silent. Then Elijah said to him, Elisha, stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Jericho. But he said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho.
Now the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came to Elisha and said to him, Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? So he answered, Yes, I know. Keep silent. Then Elijah said to him, Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan.
But he said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So the two of them went on. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan. Now Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water.
And it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground. And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask, what may I do for you before I am taken away from you? Elisha said, Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. So he said, you have asked a hard thing.
Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if not, it shall not be so. Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire and separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
And Elisha saw it and he cried out, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen. So he saw him no more, and he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces. He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water and said, where is the Lord God of Elijah?
And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that, and Elisha crossed over. Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. Then they said to him, Look now, there are fifty strong men with your servants.
Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley. And he said, You shall not send anyone. But when they urged him, till he was ashamed, he said, Send them. Therefore they sent fifty men, and they searched for three days, but did not find him.
And when they came back to him, for he had stayed in Jericho, he said to them, Did I not say to you, Do not go? Then the men of the city said to Elisha, Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it. So they brought it to him.
Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water. From it there shall be no more death or barrenness. So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke. Then he went up from there to Bethel, and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him and said to him, go up, you bald head, go up, you bald head.
So he turned around and looked at them and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the youths. Then he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria. Amen.
Introduction
I remember hearing a story one time about C.H. Spurgeon. He used to always tell the students at his pastor's college not to plagiarize or not to steal sermons. And so one time he was visiting and one of his students was preaching a sermon and Spurgeon thought the sermon sounded very familiar.
And so he called the young man over and he said, don't you remember your lesson in the college? I told you not to take messages from me, specifically. And the young man said, I didn't take it from you, Mr. Spurgeon, I took it from Matthew Henry.
And Spurgeon said, oh yeah, that's where I got it too. And I say that to simply say I took Matthew Henry's headings out of his commentary for this chapter. I think the chapter breaks down into two broad sections focusing on the prophet that was and the prophet that has come. And those two points are the translation of Elijah, verses 1 to 12, and then the manifestation of Elisha in verses 13 to 25.
So after Elijah ascends, we then see Elisha engaging in miracle working. And those miracles authenticate to the sons of the prophets that he is, in fact, the replacement. He is, in fact, the one that has come to succeed Elisha the prophet. And as we move through the passage tonight, no doubt you have heard, or if you haven't heard, this is your first foray into 2 Kings 2.
Perhaps you never knew this story about the two female bears coming out of the woods and mauling 42 of the youths. Certainly, you can imagine that this is one of the least loved passages for those who are opponents to the Scripture, and I would argue at times Christians get troubled by such passages in Holy Scripture, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to answer every particular concern that you have tonight. but try to put it into its context and try and see what's happening so that we can see the significance of such things. But before we get into this, I just want to read a brief quote by Paul House concerning the significance of Elisha. Elisha is like Elijah, another larger-than-life sort of character that engages in a whole host of wonderful things for the glory of God and for the kingdom of God.
And essentially what we have now, though we have a divided kingdom, we have the northern and the southern kingdoms, of Israel and Judah respectively, we've had stability in terms of the prophetic ministry under Elijah the prophet. And now comes Elisha. So it's the changing of the prophetic guard. And some might be tempted to wonder if we're going to get as good a man as Elijah.
Well, Elisha certainly is as good a man. And Howe says, again, the Lord uses several prophets while blessing one person in an extraordinary manner. Many prophets are mentioned, but it is Elisha who follows Elijah as the man of God. He performs miracles, protects Israel, and appoints kings in Israel and Syria.
One he anoints as king, Jehu, leads a purge of northern and southern leadership, which in turn makes reform possible in Judah. So Elisha is a very significant figure. We've already met him in 1 Kings 19. There we learn that it's going to be him that takes the mantle from Elijah to undertake the prophetic ministry here in Israel.
So
The Translation of Elijah
let's look at the translation of Elijah in verses 1 to 12.
God's Plan and Elisha's Persistence
Note the plan of God in verse 1. It says, it came to pass when the Lord was about to take up Elijah, into heaven by a whirlwind that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. So God had revealed this to Elijah. He knew that this was coming and everybody else in the chapter knows it's coming as well.
Certainly Elisha does because he's clinging onto him and he wants to be with him. when that time comes. The sons of the prophets, notice in verses 3 and 5, they're also uniquely aware of the fact that this is going to take place with Elijah. They, of course, remind Elisha, and he tells them in both instances to keep silent. I think the idea is simply, you don't talk about somebody's death or translation in their presence.
Now, they don't know the significance or they don't know the specifics of how this is going to transpire, simply that God is going to take him. Now I believe that as we move through the chapter only Elisha genuinely knows what happens in terms of Elijah going up in this whirlwind. I don't think the sons of the prophets actually witnessed that because they want to actually go and look for the body of Elijah. Perhaps they thought that just his spirit had been taken by the Lord and his body was somewhere else.
They wanted to find his body and give it a proper burial. So there was some consciousness of something going to happen to Elijah in terms of God taking him, but the specifics are not clear to everybody involved at this point. Now
The Journey to the Jordan
note the particular journey to the Jordan from verses 2 to 8. Elijah wants to be alone in this venture. Notice at verse 2 he says, Elijah said to Elisha, stay here please for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel. Now the text doesn't indicate why Elijah wanted to be alone.
Now, commentators generally speculate that it was one because he was humble and modest. He didn't want everybody to see this sort of translation from earth to heaven in this very vivid and powerful way. Others suggest that it was a means to prevent Elisha's grief, that he didn't want Elisha to see him translated and thus feel bad at the absence of Elijah. Others suggest that it was a means by which Elijah was testing the affection and the love of Elisha.
Would Elisha just say, okay, I'm not going to go with you, or would Elisha tenaciously and persistently seek to be alongside of Elijah at this particular time? Again, the text doesn't indicate, but Elijah desires to be alone. But the fact is that Elisha is persistent. And the reason for his persistence, I think, is well explained by John Gill.
It says he was being determined to see the last of him and to have the benefit of his company in conversation, his heavenly discourse, and instruction from him as long as he could, and in hope of receiving a blessing from him at parting. Makes sense. I mean, if you had been a friend of Elijah's, you'd want to be the friend of Elijah at the very end. You wouldn't want to miss any opportunity for a holy conversation, or for example, or for instruction, or fellowship, or anything like that.
So we can understand why Elisha wants to be in the presence of Elijah. And then note this reference to the sons of the prophets. They are stationed in each of the cities here. Notice in verse 3, now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?
Now, most say that this is some type of school of prophets. And Gil, I think, nails it very clearly and very briefly when he says, Perhaps founded by Elijah as a nursery for religion and to check upon the idolatry of the times. In other words, it was a training ground. It was a place where the prophetic ministry would be taught, would be trained, would be encouraged, would be exhorted, so that they in turn could go to the various persons in their cities and bring the covenant word of God to the nation of Israel, both northern and southern kingdom.
And then note the specific locations involved that these men traveled to, ultimately ending up at Jordan, where Elijah is translated. They moved from Bethel to Jericho to Jordan. And there we see that Elijah and Elisha work together, they move together. And again, I think Paul House describes the significance well.
The trip from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to the Jordan retraces the first movements Israel made in the promised land according to Joshua chapters 1 to 8. In other words, oftentimes you get subsequent or later revelation using convention or literary allusions to previous revelation to remind us of certain things, to tell us certain things about the consistency of Scripture, the unity of Scripture, and the fact that Elisha can be considered as a Joshua-like figure, successor to Elijah, the way Joshua was to Moses. and that Elisha as well does represent something of a Moses character. At any rate, he goes on, and the parting of the Jordan may also remind readers of the crossing of the Red Sea. It's recorded in Exodus 14, but I think as well the crossing of the Jordan in Joshua chapters 3 and 4 at the very initial phase of the conquest.
He goes on to say, such a scenario calls attention to the similarities of Elisha's succession of Elijah and Joshua's succession of Moses. Therefore, the text stresses the continuity of God's message and God's messengers in Israel's history and places Elijah on par with Moses. Again, you have to appreciate the significance of this in this particular setting. If Elijah, the prophet, was ministering at the time that you live, and he was about to die or to be translated into heaven, there would probably be a question in your mind, who's going to follow in his shoes?
I mean, who follows an Elijah? Who follows a Charles Haddon Spurgeon? Who follows a John Calvin or a Martin Luther? Who fills that particular void?
And so the author here, in weaving this narrative, highlights where they stopped historically, but he expects us to reminisce and consider the fact that what we have here is a Moses-Joshua sort of a convention, and the fact that God's Word is faithful. That though one prophet either dies or is translated, that doesn't mean the prophetic Word is gone. Forever settled in the heavens is the Word of the living and the true God. Whether it's Elijah, whether it's Elisha, whether it's Joblo, in a small village in some part of Canada, the reality is that God's Word marches on.
He goes on to say, the reverse tracing of Joshua's itinerary also serves as a reminder that every foot of the promised land belongs to God and is under the authority of God's Word. As well, as we look at the geography here, as these city names are mentioned, Bethel, Jericho, Jordan, both Elijah and Elisha go there together. Some suggest that the end of chapter 2 is sort of a folklore appendage. They don't like the bear story.
They think that's a murderous assault by Elisha in an ungodly way, and they believe it's folklore, and this passage was just somehow attached here to sort of add some sort of mystique concerning Elisha. Well, Davis points out that Elijah goes to the very same cities as well, and he shows that structurally the whole chapter hangs together, and that this is not an appendage. It's not something that's an add-on, but rather it's vitally connected to everything that precedes it. Because we not only have the bear story, we also have the water story.
And I'm going to give you a bit of a hint as to how we're supposed to understand those latter two miracles. As a Moses-like figure, Elisha demonstrates under God that he has the power of both blessing and cursing. If those who come to God in repentance or in faith and they say our water supply is poison, it's not just a little bit dangerous, but it's actually poison water. Elisha brings this or takes this bowl of salt and cures the water.
There's blessing there from Jehovah. But when these young men curse the name of God Most High vis-a-vis His representative on earth, there is cursing to be had. This is the consistent message from Deuteronomy 28, and Elisha indicates that he is that sort of a man of God. He is a both blessing and a cursing man of God.
And so this section is absolutely crucial in the particular cities are mentioned there not just simply to furnish an illusion to the book of Joshua, but to show us that Elisha retraces in these same cities to demonstrate that God now is in fact with him and that he has in fact received the double portion that he asked from Elijah. So it does hang together. And then
The Mantle Struck at the Jordan
note very specifically this mantle at the Jordan in verses 7 and 8. Notice, they get to the Jordan, this is where the translation, the ascension, the assumption of Elijah is going to take place. And in verse 7 it says, "...and fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan." Now, Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water, and it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground." Again, the same thing's going to happen with Elisha at the same river, and these prophets are going to witness it, and they're going to remember. Hey, not too very long ago, like moments ago, Elijah put this mantle in the water and it divided.
Elisha has now put this mantle in the water and it divided. Guess what? The Spirit of the Lord is upon Elisha. It confirms and authenticates that he is God's man.
Remember, more often than not, the miraculous in the scripture is not first and foremost intended to dazzle and to impress the people of God, or even the non-people of God. It is to confirm the revelatory word. In other words, the man who is working the miracles is an authorized representative of the living God. So that when he operates or does those miracles, you can believe that the word that proceeds from his mouth is in fact the true word of God.
You see that with Moses, you see that with the prophets, you see that with Jesus, you see that with the apostles. The miracles, the signs, the wonders were never meant as an end of themselves. and end in and of themselves, but rather they were a means to confirm and verify that the word spoken by Moses, by the prophets, by Jesus, by the apostles was the word of the living God. See, the miracles serve that particular function. Now, certainly people benefit as a result of the miracles, that man that was paralyzed and was lowered through the roof and received the forgiveness of sins and was told to take up his pallet and walk.
The taking up the pallet and walking was a confirmation that Jesus was able to forgive him of his sins. So, the miracles did benefit persons, but they were as a means to authenticate that these were God's representatives speaking God's word of truth. So, this incident at the Jordan is most crucial for understanding how Elisha is confirmed later on. So, Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, struck the water.
It was divided this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground. Now,
Elisha's Request and Elijah's Ascension
note the ascension of Elijah proper. Note the request in verse 9. Elijah says, ask what I may do for you before I am taken away from you. And Elisha said, please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.
Now this has been understood in a whole host of ways. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's a double portion of Elijah's spirit. It could be the spirit of the prophets. In other words, Deuteronomy 21.17 speaks of the double benefit of a firstborn son.
And Elisha may be suggesting to Elisha, as your firstborn son, in terms of the prophets, may my portion be double over what these other prophets have. It could be that he asks for a double portion of the spirit that Elijah himself had. But it doesn't necessarily mean it's out of a godless ambition or a desire to be even more. No, it simply means perhaps that he's keenly aware of his own weakness and his own limitations and how desperate he is in need of that spirit so that he may engage in the prophetic ministry.
I think that John Gill describes this well. He says, not from a spirit of vanity and ambition to be greater than his master, but from an eagerness to promote the glory of God. You see, we're so used to persons asking for a double portion of the Spirit to be upon them so that they get more money, they get more cars, they get more houses, they get more comfort, they get more stability, that when a genuinely humble man of God asks for it, for the promotion of God's glory, it's foreign to us. We're just so used to persons abusing the goodness and the gifts and the graciousness of God that when we meet an Elisha in the scripture who wants a double portion, not to spend on his own lust, but to spend on the glory of God, we really have to explain it and qualify it and put it in its biblical context.
So Gil says, not from a spirit of vanity and ambition to be greater than his master, but from an eagerness to promote the glory of God, the interest of religion, to reclaim the Israelites from their idolatry and establish the true religion, which he might observe Elijah was not able to do with that measure of grace and gifts he had. I don't think that's inaccurate to suggest. Elisha saw Elijah's difficulties in the prophetic ministry. Elisha's not a fool.
He says, Elijah, I know that you are a gifted man of God. You preached, you brought fire down, you did incredible things, and yet Israel is still devoted to her idols. If we're going to see an Israel free from her idols, then it may require a double portion from you. So please grant that to me so that I can go out and proclaim the word of God Most High through the destruction of idols and the promotion of the true religion in the land.
And then notice, Elijah answers in verse 10. You've asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if not, it shall not be so.
And now Elijah is translated. Perhaps you've seen the picture. There's a famous painting. I have it on a book that I have.
Looks like Mr. Alder Leaston. The picture of... It's a famous painting of Elijah, presumably.
I mean, we didn't have pictures of Elijah. I guess this is what we would guess he'd look like. He'd look like Mr. Alder Leaston.
Long gray beard and... You know, sitting in a chariot, but he's not in the chariot. The chariot simply divides or separates Elijah and Elisha. He goes up in the whirlwind.
This is what the text says. Notice in verse 11, then it happened as they continued on and talked that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire. and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." There was a lot of fire associated with the ministry of Elijah. There was fire at Mount Carmel when fire came down from Yahweh and consumed Elijah's sacrifice. There was fire when it came to Ahaziah.
Remember those men that wanted to seize Elijah? It shouldn't be that hard. It was last Wednesday, and God sent fire down to consume the 50 plus 1 in two instances. So 102 men met their fate, death by fire, from God.
So it really ought not to surprise us that when this godly man is translated back into heaven, There's fire present, there is this pomp, and there is this show. It's a glorious and a splendid end in terms of an earthly ministry for a very proven servant of God. Of course, we meet Elijah the prophet again on the Mount of Transfiguration, wherein he and Moses are there at the Mount, and Peter says, It is good for us to be here. Let me build three tabernacles for you, Jesus, and for Moses, and for Elijah." So Elijah is certainly a very excellent and wonderful character in the biblical narrative.
So here he is translated up into heaven.
Elisha's Lament and Israel's True Power
Now note Elisha's response in verse 12. Elisha saw it, he cried out, my father, my father. Again, it's not paternal in terms of genetics, but his father as the prophet. And then he says, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen.
This is how he describes Elijah, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen. In other words, any success, any stability, any health that Israel still maintains vis-a-vis in the world setting or in the world context, in terms of subduing Syria, in terms of not being subdued by Syria, in terms of not being subdued by these surrounding nations, the glory is owing to God ultimately, but to the prophet Elijah. In other words, it's not the kings, it's not their savvy, it's not their might, it's not their military ability. The strength of Israel is in the prophetic word of the living God.
That's what sustains this kingdom. That's what holds it together. Elijah has been Israel's true power as chariotry is the driving power of an army. And then notice later in 2 Kings 13, 14, Elisha is given this same title himself.
In 2 Kings 13 at verse 14, Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him and wept over his face and said, Oh my father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and their horsemen." So what is God telling us in these descriptions of His prophetic servants? The Word is everything. You see, that's an application that we're going to make over and over again as we move through the rest of Kings, because that's the application God makes over and over again in 1 and 2 Kings.
It is that prophetic Word that is everything to the Kingdom of Israel. Now, of course, he is sad in terms of his own loss. Notice in verse 12, he saw him no more. He took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces.
He's not sad for Elijah. Elijah's been translated in the presence of God Almighty, but he's sad for himself and for Israel. The great man is gone. A champion of Israel is gone.
Certainly, that will have an effect. upon the nation as a whole. Now
The Manifestation of Elisha
that brings us, in terms of the second broad section of the chapter, the manifestation of Elisha in verses 13 to 25.
The Mantle Taken Up
Notice in verse 13, he also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. Now this was, of course, the mantle, the garment, the piece of of attire that Elijah wore that signified that he was indeed the prophetic mouthpiece for God Most High. So now that's been given to Elisha. It's not magic.
There's no hocus pocus. When we get to the bowl of salt that Elisha pours into the water, it's not magic. It's very conspicuous, it's the word of the Lord that heals the waters. But oftentimes, the prophets used symbols.
The prophets used acted parables. The prophets gave us, or gave their hearers, some visible representation of the invisible reality of the living and the true God. Tabernacle, temple, it wasn't as if God actually lived in the Holy of Holies. God transcends that, but it's the physical emblem or symbol or representation of the invisible God.
The problem is when we treat those things like magic or when we get superstitious about those things. Remember the brazen serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness? What ultimately happened with the children of Israel? They started bowing down to it.
You're not supposed to do that. It's a visible emblem designed to lead you to faith in the living and the true God. So this mantle functions in that particular manner. So he's at the Jordan, and then notice in verse 14, he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water and said, where is the Lord God of Elijah?
And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that, and Elisha crossed over. You see, this is for Elisha. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Again, that's not a question in terms of, you know, where is he among Baal or Asherah.
He is conscious of the reality of what is transpiring. He was present in 1 Kings 19. He knew that he was the successor of Elijah. And so this is a means for Elisha for his own confirmation and then for the sons of the prophets.
And notice that is specifically how it plays out in verse 15. Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. So there you have it. Elijah is translated, Elisha is manifested as the prophetic successor of Elijah the prophet.
Now as I already mentioned, these men want to seek for Elijah. Notice in verse 15b. And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. Then they said to him, Look now, there are fifty strong men with your servants.
Please let them go and search for your master. Lest perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley." Now that's not outlandish on their part. Remember that was precisely the complaint of Obadiah. the concern of Obadiah in 1 Kings chapter 18. Remember when Ahab shows up and tells Obadiah, go fetch Ahab, I want to talk to him.
Obadiah says, if that happens, the spirit of the Lord may spirit you away. And then I'm going to be stuck with Ahab that's looking. I'm giving you the Jim Butler paraphrase just to kind of cut to it. Obadiah was concerned that the spirit might spirit away Elijah, and then Obadiah would be standing there holding an empty bag in front of Ahab.
So these prophets have the same idea, lest perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley. Again, I suggest they didn't see the actual translation. And so they don't know, has just his spirit been translated? Is his body laying somewhere?
Will the animals get it? We want to find it. We want to bury it. We want to give it its proper respect and its due honor and that sort of thing.
But notice, he goes on, or Elisha says, you shall not send anyone. Now, Davis develops an interesting lesson here. He says that Elisha is indeed the prophetic word of the living God. They've recognized that.
Verse 15, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. As well as the prophetic word of God, he's also a man who's wise. And these men have acknowledged the fact that the Spirit of the Lord rests upon him, or the Spirit of Elijah, rather, rests upon Elisha, and yet they're not listening to him. They're not taking in what he has to say.
He says, you shall not send anyone. As a general rule, when the prophet of the living God says, you shall not send anyone, don't keep trying to wear him down. Don't keep trying to say, no, but we want to send somebody. That is ultimately what they do.
Verse 17, they urged him till he was ashamed. He said, send them. And again, the ashamed there doesn't mean ashamed in the sense that, you know, he's going to go home and cry. It's just they've worn him down.
And so he says, go ahead. Davis says this little episode shows the sons of the prophets that Elisha knows what he's talking about. Elisha is not only the bearer of God's power, but of God's wisdom. And I love the way this whole affair ends.
You know how it goes when you tell somebody something and then they go out and do the exact opposite and then they come back to you. What do you typically always say or at least want to say? I told you so. Isn't that satisfying?
Isn't that just make you feel wonderful? I don't know why that is. We just love to be right. Elisha does that at the end of verse 18.
I'm not suggesting he does it with the same motivation I would do it. But notice in verse 18, and when they came back to him, for he had stayed in Jericho, he said to them, Did I not say to you, do not go? It will be an exercise in futility. You're not going to find his body.
He's been translated. He's in the presence of God Most High. The next time he is going to be seen is on the Mount of Transfiguration. Do not go, mountain to mountain, searching for the body of Elijah.
Did I not say to you, do not go? Now,
The Prophet's Blessing at Jericho
notice, not only has this mantle confirmed that he is, in fact, the man that God has raised up as successor to Elijah, but notice the prophet's blessing in verses 19 to 22. Now the problem is indicated in verse 19, then the men of the city, this is Jericho, said to Elisha, please notice the situation of this city as pleasant as my Lord sees, but the water is bad and the ground barren. Literally the ground miscarries. If you look at verse 21, the end, from it there shall be no more death or miscarriages.
Davis makes this observation. The land suffers from miscarriages better picks up the sense of the verb. Moreover, when Elisha announces Yahweh's healing of the waters, he assures townsfolk that the water supply will no longer cause death or miscarriage. The problem is far more serious than unproductive land.
There was something lethal in the water supply, causing fatalities in livestock and humans. Hence, when verse 19 says, the land miscarries, I take land as a cipher for its occupants. In other words, livestock and people. So, you know, there was a time, probably it was a couple of years ago, Chilliwack increased the chlorine in their water supply.
And I think you could taste it. You'd go to the tap, and what used to be fresh, clear water, you didn't taste any chlorine. Now there was that hint of chlorine. That's not the problem here in Jericho.
It is causing barrenness, miscarriages on the part of female animals and female humans. This is a bad, bad situation. Now, if you think back in biblical history, what was the deal with Jericho? Jericho had been imposed with a curse by Joshua in Joshua chapter 6.
In 1 Kings chapter 16, a man rebuilds in Jericho, and it costs him his firstborn sons. This was a city that was effectively under a curse. But now notice what happens here. Now, again, it's not a curse of chlorinated water.
It's a curse of death. People are having serious calamities trying to sustain life here in Jericho. So verse 20, he said, bring me a new bowl and put salt in it. I mean, isn't that just a beautiful thing that God does?
Salt is the very contrary to what you want to put into water to make it potable, to make it drinkable, to make it something that sustains and nourishes life. You see, Yahweh is displaying His power here through Elisha. I'm going to put salt in this water to clean it. This is the power of God Almighty.
This is the glory of the one we worship. So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the source of the water and cast in the salt there and said, Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water. So again, it's not magic, it's not the effectiveness of the salt, it wasn't some special salt or a special bowl that was prepared for such a ritual that did indeed cleanse this water at its supply source.
No, it was the word of the living God. This was a symbol, this was a sign, this was a display, this was a representation of the power of God Almighty at work. And the fact that it was absolutely contrary to what one would expect to clean up water further evidences His glory and His majesty and His excellence. So I have healed this water, from it there shall be no more death or miscarriages, so the water remains healed to this day according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.
Isn't this a beautiful display of God's grace? About every few years or so, some new group resurrects the idea or concept of transgenerational curses. And they basically teach that these transgenerational curses means that you're under the whammy. You know, if your parents were wretched, you're just destined to suffer as a result of that.
Now, I don't doubt, brethren, the scriptures teach that oftentimes children imbibe or children learn the idolatry of their parents. I think that's probably what's happening with these youths in Bethel. I doubt they just, you know, decided on their own to go and mock the prophet Elisha. They probably heard the prophets mocked in their living rooms every night by their godless parents.
But at any rate, this idea teaches that these transgenerational curses means, you know, you're basically out of luck because your parents were terrible. Look at what this lesson teaches us. A nation or a city-state that was cursed by Joshua the prophet was reiterated when the city was refounded in 1st Kings 16. God says, I'm going to cleanse your water.
That's the God of grace. You see amazing grace in 2 Kings 2. Certainly in the translation of Elijah the prophet, but in the cleansing of this water supply so that these people won't miscarry, so that these people won't give stillbirth anymore, so that these people will be able to sustain life in the land that they've been placed in. And then so we see there, there's the prophet's blessing.
Now
The Prophet's Curse at Bethel
notice finally the prophet's curse in verses 23 to 25. Then he went up from there to Bethel. And as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him and said to him, go up, you bald head. Go up, you bald head.
If I'm guilty of plagiarism tonight, it's not Matthew Henry. I just took his two main headings, probably Davis. So if you want to really get me in trouble, email him and tell on me there. But he says, you know, is this just a case of a cranky prophet?
You know, if he would have drank decaf that morning, would everything have been different? I mean, Elisha just get up on the wrong day? Is he having a case of the Mondays? Is he, you know, just discouraged?
He's sad? Is that all that's going on here? Just a cranky prophet and some mischievous youths that just, you know, got more than they bargained for? There are several things we ought to consider as we move through this section.
First, the location. Bethel. The word Bethel means house of God. It's a good thing.
But what happens to Bethel in 1 Kings chapter 12 under Jeroboam? It becomes a central location for calf worship. It's a hotbed of idolatry. They're not favorable to Yahweh in this particular city.
They don't like God. They have rejected God. They have learned from Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and no doubt they have learned to bend the knee to these calves. As well, we need to understand something about the lads.
Now, House, the commentator, says that this word or this description can describe men or young people from ages 12 to 30. Ages 12 to 30. Typically, commentators put the age from about 10 to 12. Now, again, that may be rough and it may be tough and it may be hard for us to understand, but we ought to at least appreciate that God does deal with sin wherever it is.
It's not just an old problem, it's a young problem too. It's a problem that affects all the sons of Adam. But we need to appreciate that these young lads, young men, however our Bibles translate the word, youths here, there's more going on. Notice their intent.
At verse 23, some youths came from the city. So it's not like they're just hanging out at 7-Eleven. They're not just sort of loitering somewhere and Elisha comes down the main street and they, you know, yell out, hey, bald head, that sort of a thing. They come out of the city.
Elisha is not in the city. Elisha is passing through. They with intent go and find the prophet of God. Notice that they call him bald head.
Now this indicates that they knew who he was. I mean, Matthew Henry develops this beautifully. You don't make fun of people with a physical, I don't know what he calls it, not infirmity, but I mean, you kind of see where he falls on the whole idea of a bald head, but don't make fun of people with, you know, some physical appearance that they can't control. These young men knew who it was.
They had particular intent. They go out of the city and they mock him and they say, go up. Now, that go up could indicate one of two things, but the same end result. Elijah went up.
What's their suggestion? Why don't you go up with Elijah and get out of Bethel? We don't want you here. We don't want Yahweh or his prophet in our city.
Again, they learned this at their homes, their parents no doubt taught them this, but they had embraced it, they had made it theirs, and now they are mocking the prophet of the living God. As well it could mean go up out of our city, go up to another city. But the end result is the same. We don't want you and your kind here, Elisha.
And then if we look at the text, it was 42 of the youths. That indicates that there were some youths that weren't mauled. We're not talking about three or four kids outside 7-Eleven. We're talking about 42 plus young people that go out of the city to mock the prophet of God and essentially say, we don't want you or your kind here.
In sum, Davis says they were responsible young lads expressing abuse, contempt, and hostility toward Yahweh's representative, and they knew they were doing so. You see, the older commentators say they got what was coming to them. Gill says, why is it surprising that these sheepbears come out of the woods and maul them? They asked for it very specifically by mocking the very prophet of God Almighty.
The prophet did not go through town, but was going up on the road outside of town, and these fellows went forth. Theirs was a deliberate and malicious intent to malign the prophet of God and the God of the prophet. Now notice what Elisha does in verse 24. He turned around and looked at them and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord.
So, Elisha didn't control the she-bears any more than Elijah controlled the fire that consumed the 102 troops dispatched by Ahaziah to seize Elijah, to bring him back to Ahaziah, and to execute him for whatever it was Ahaziah was going to execute him for. Elijah didn't control the fire. He laid it before the living and the true God. Elisha doesn't control she-bears.
Elisha doesn't, you know, wind them up in their backs and send them out to maul these youths that were mocking him. No, he simply turns, he looks at them, he pronounces a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And then verse 24 tells us, and two female bears. Most of the commentators suggest, and I think they're right, female bears.
Female bears that were robbed of their whelps, robbed of their cubs. They're even more vicious. They're even more vile. They're even more harsh.
And they come out of the woods and they maul 42 of the youths." Again, I want to return to what Davis says here. We must size up these bears correctly. They were covenant bears. The covenant curse of Leviticus 26, 22, which reads, I will let loose the wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, explains the episode.
You see, if we've read Leviticus or Deuteronomy, we sure ought not to freak out at the end of 2 Kings 2. God has said, break my covenant, curse my name, rebel against me, and this is what you'll reap. It's sinners, like us, that say, well, I don't know why God would do such and such. I don't know why these she-bears would come out of the woods.
Because they're mocking the prophet of God, and thus they're mocking the God of the prophet. Davis says, covenant infidelity, hatred of Yahweh's servant, and perhaps persisting in Bethel's perverse worship, has brought the covenant curse. Had Elisha been wronged to curse, one would assume Yahweh would not have fulfilled the curse. That Yahweh did so validates Elisha's curse.
Here is not an irritable prophet, but a judging God. Same thing we saw with Elijah. If God was displeased with Elijah's prayer, he wouldn't have sent the fire. But the fact that God sends the fire indicates that what Elijah was praying was absolutely consistent.
Now, brethren, we might say, well, we can't always interpret things by providence. We can when we're dealing with the prophets of God in certain literary contexts where it is obvious and evident that they are the prophets of God and they speak for Yahweh, such that when they pray an imprecation and it comes to pass, we know that God authorizes it, God blesses it, and God dealt with those rebel youths that were mocking the prophet. Listen to Matthew Henry. He says, the prophet must be justified for he did it by divine impulse.
He had the curse or had the curse come from any bad principle, God would not have said amen to it. There's some wretched interpretations of our dear brother, Elisha. They say he was vicious. He was a murderer.
He was wretched and reprehensible. And obviously we can't take this as truth because no one would ever engage in this sort of activity. Yeah, no one that was anywhere cognizant of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 But the prophet of God who's suing the nation of God on behalf of God is certainly conscious of that, and he invokes the covenant curses to deal with the covenant threat. Matthew Henry goes on to say, we may think it would have been better to have called for two rods for the correction of these children than two bears for the destruction of them.
But Elisha knew by the spirit the bad character of these children. He knew what a generation of vipers those were and what mischievous enemies they would be to God's prophets if they should live to be men who began so early to be abusive to them. See, brethren, I would suggest that the surprise or the dismay, I get it from pagans because they hate God and they hate the thought of the judgment of God, but from professing Christians, don't tell me you've got a problem with 2 Kings 2 and then say, oh, I love the book of Leviticus, I love Deuteronomy. You know that chapter about the blessings and the cursing.
Boy, God really means business. Yeah, and that's exactly what's being applied here. That's what the text says. I will let loose the wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children.
You break my covenant, this is what's going to happen. So we come to 2 Kings 2 and we're shocked that God actually prosecutes his word, that God actually carries out his vengeance and his judgment. You know what we ought to take away from this? Fear and trembling.
And the reality that God has no truck was sin. Whether it's sin in the old head, whether it's sin in the young head, we need to see how vile and reprehensible sin is. That's another typical canned response of sinners. We say, oh, how outlandish that Elisha would do such and such.
How terrible that God would send these sheep bears out to maul these Jews. We never, ever muse on the fact that these rebel, incorrigible youth go out of their way to aggressively mock the prophet of the living God. I mean, isn't that typical? Oh, how dare God bring judgment?
What about the sin he brought judgment upon? That doesn't bother us as much, does it? Brethren, 2 Kings 2, 23 to 24 is a display of God's power, God's judgment, and God's wrath to sinners. Now the significance as mentioned before, the prophet Elisha, like Moses before him, has authority under God to pronounce both blessing and cursing.
So then he went from there to Mount Carmel, probably to meditate, to pray, to muse, to reflect, to commune with his God, and then where? Samaria. Why? Because it's the political, religious capital of the North, and Elisha's got business to transact.
Elisha's got kings to rebuke. Elisha's got the prophetic word to prosecute. Elisha's got to have dealings with men in the name of the living God.
Application: God's Word Marches On
Well, brethren, in conclusion, the power of God is on display here, and that power is not restricted to a particular era. The power of God displayed at the Exodus, wherein the sea was divided, and in Joshua chapters 3 and 4, wherein the sea was divided, is the same power on display here in the lives of Elijah and Elisha. And I think that this is a very appropriate application. Again, I've taken this from Davis.
The power of God is not restricted to a particular instrument. I put it even more homey, to a particular person. You see, when Elijah is translated, when John Calvin dies, when C.H. Spurgeon goes the way of all flesh, God's kingdom marches on.
You see, it's the Word, brethren. It's the Word that has power. Davis says, the prophets likely wondered, what will we do now that Elijah is no longer with us? And if we think that, we must, like Elisha himself, look for the God of Elijah to be with us.
He says, our help is in the name of the Lord, not in the charisma of his servants. I think this is a very appropriate application in light of what is a celebrity evangelical culture. I mean, you go to Sermon Audio and find the most popular downloaded preacher. I mean, there are celebrity preachers.
I'm not saying it's wicked to download sermons from these guys, but we typically have a way of sort of exalting man and just finding our comfort in, I'm of Paul, or I'm of Cephas, or I'm of this, or I'm of that. Just let's be of Jesus. He goes on to say, God's leaders change, God's power persists. Perhaps sometimes God removes His most illustrious servants so that we will not make idols of them as though they are the only conduits of God's help.
Perhaps God deliberately displays His might through lesser instruments so that we will not be transfixed on the pizzazz of God's servants but on the strength of God's arm. Beautiful. It's not just about Elijah, it's God. Elisha will do just fine, brethren.
He gives an illustration of Calvin. Calvin, before he died, said, don't mark my grave. I want to be buried like everybody else. No headstone, no nothing.
So that not long, a week, couple weeks later, somebody was visiting the city and said, where's Calvin's grave? They couldn't find it. I mean, talk about a humble servant. I mean, John Calvin said, I don't want you to mark my grave.
I don't want anybody to exalt John Calvin. I mean, if Calvin knew there were Calvinists, he would probably with Luther. Why would anybody want to call themselves Lutheran? You know, I think that was the context in which Luther said, I'm just a stinking bag of maggots.
Why would anybody want to take my name? You see, brethren, it's us to gravitate toward men. We need to gravitate toward God. Praise God that He uses men.
Praise God for these preachers that the Lord uses to bring the word out. They've got beautiful feet, and we ought to appreciate them for that, and appreciate God using them. But boy, if a servant of Christ dies, I've got a lot of heroes of the Christian faith, and after each one of them is gone, the kingdom still marched on. Paul died and the kingdom still marched on.
I mean, if the kingdom would ever stop after the death of a particular servant, it would have had to have been Paul. I mean, he was the chief servant, obviously next to Jesus, in terms of Christianity. Do you have the death of, you know, those church fathers that fought and contended for the doctrine of the Trinity and the solid Christology, Athanasius, Contramundum, Athanasius against the world? He died.
What happened? Kingdom kept marching on. Spurgeon's dead, Calvin's dead, Luther's dead. We're all going to be dead.
Guess what's going to happen? The kingdom of God's going to march on because it's about the word. It's a beautiful thing. It's a wonderful thing.
I remember hearing Al Martin say, no minister of the gospel should ever take themselves too seriously. You drop dead in your sleep tonight, the kingdom is going to march on tomorrow without you. Don't take yourself so seriously. And then as well, finally, we already looked at the grace of God.
I just want to end with this quote by Matthew Henry on the judgment of God. Let me just read you a couple sample specimens of how unbelieving men or liberal theologians or commentators deal with the the She-Bear incident. One man says, this murderous response to the boy's mockery is morally scandalous. Is it meant to suggest that Elisha does not make responsible use of his prophetic powers?
That after turning death to life at the spring, he now spreads death? Boy, that sounds dramatic, doesn't it? No, it sounds more consistent to say he's prosecuting the covenant blessings and covenant cursings. He goes on to say, the early rabbis were so outraged by this story, as if I could care less what an early rabbi said.
The early rabbis were so outraged by this story that they felt constrained to assert it never really happened. Their formulation, neither bears nor forest, became idiomatic in Hebrew for a cock and bull story. Another man says, verses 23 to 25 is in every respect a puerile tale and that there is no serious point in this incident. The supposition that Elisha invoked the name of Yahweh to curse the boys with such terrible consequences is derogatory to the great public figure and borders on blasphemy.
You see, that's the kind of antipathy there is to the biblical narrative when we don't like it. See, when it's a passage that deals with blessing, nobody says, well, it's suspect that it's even true. But it's when it's cursing or when it's judgment, oh, no, can't be the Word of God. I like Matthew, Henry, and we'll end here.
God must be glorified as a righteous God that hates sin and will reckon for it even in children. Let the hideous shrieks and groans of this wicked, wretched brood make our flesh tremble for fear of God." Maybe that's the lesson we're supposed to take from 2 Kings 2, 23 and 24. Because a great big dose of the fear of God would do us all a whole world of good.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your Word, and we thank you for its clarity, and I thank you, God, for the Holy Spirit that has given this Word to us, and for the prophets that have gone in olden times. We thank you for the apostles. We thank you for various figures in church history.
We thank you for the men that you have used to bring the gospel of free grace. God, we thank you most of all for the gospel of free grace. We thank you for that Word that endures, that Word that can't be snuffed out, that word that is indeed the word of the living and true God. Help us to be submissive to it.
Help us to appreciate in this passage your power, your grace, your wisdom, and as well your justice and your judgment. Go with us now, we pray, and bring us together on the Sabbath that we may worship you in spirit and in truth. And we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.