2 Kings 2:9 - Meaning and Application

Here, Elijah makes his will and leaves Elisha as his heir. He now appoints Elisha to be prophet in his place, more fully than when he first threw his mantle over him (1 Kings 19:19). Elijah is pleased with Elisha’s steady love and faithful company, so he tells him to ask for any parting gift he wants.

He does not say, as Bishop Hall notes, “Ask of me when I am gone. In heaven I shall be better able to help you.” Instead, he says, “Ask before I go.” Our friends on earth can be spoken to, and they can answer us. But we do not know that we can reach any friend in heaven except Christ, and God in him. Abraham does not know us.

Elisha has a rare chance to gain great wealth, but he asks for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. He does not ask for money, honor, or escape from trouble. He asks to be fitted for God’s service and for the work of his own generation. He asks for the Spirit, though he knows Elijah cannot give the Spirit himself. So he says, in effect, “Let it rest on me, and pray to God for this on my behalf.” Christ told his disciples to ask for whatever they wanted, and he promised to send the Spirit with far greater authority and certainty than Elijah could.

He asks for Elijah’s spirit because he is to take Elijah’s place. He must carry on Elijah’s work, guide the sons of the prophets, and face their enemies. He has the same stubborn people to deal with that Elijah had. So if he does not receive Elijah’s spirit, he will not have the strength needed for his day.

By a double portion, Elisha does not mean twice as much as Elijah had. He means more than the rest of the prophets had, because much more would be expected from him. He had been trained under Elijah, so he should be ready for greater work. It is a holy ambition to desire the best gifts, especially the gifts that make us most useful to God and to others. Ministers and ordinary believers should both look to the example of those who came before them, seek their spirit, and earnestly ask God for the grace that carried them through their work and helped them finish well.

Elijah promises Elisha what he asks, but with two conditions (2 Kings 2:10). First, Elisha must value the gift properly and see how great it is. Elijah calls it “a hard thing,” not because God cannot do it, but because it is too great for Elisha to claim lightly. People are best prepared for spiritual blessings when they know their worth and their own unworthiness to receive them.

Second, Elisha must stay close to his master until the end and keep watching him. “If you see me when I am taken from you, it will be so; if not, it will not.” Careful attention to Elijah’s teaching and a close look at his example, especially in this last moment, would help prepare Elisha to receive much of Elijah’s spirit. Watching how a godly person dies can greatly strengthen our comfort and our resolve. Or this may have been only a sign, meaning that if God let Elisha see Elijah rise, that would assure him his request would be granted. Christ’s disciples saw him ascend, and then they were assured that they would soon be filled with his Spirit (Acts 1:8). We may imagine Elisha praying, “Lord, show me this sign for good.”

Elijah is then carried up to heaven in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:11). Like Enoch, he was taken so that he would not see death. As one writer says, he was the second man to leap the ditch where all the rest of humanity fell. He did not go down to the grave, but up toward heaven. Many curious questions could be asked about this event, but they cannot be answered. It is enough to know what the text tells us.

First, we are told what Elijah’s Lord found him doing when he came. Elijah was talking with Elisha, teaching and encouraging him, guiding him in his work, and stirring him up to faithfulness for the good of those he would leave behind. He was not lost in silent meditation, as one entirely absorbed with the world he was about to enter. Instead, he was speaking words that built up the kingdom of God among men. We would be wrong to think that our preparation for heaven comes only through meditation and prayer. Service to others counts in our account too. Thinking about divine things is good, but speaking of them, when it comes from the heart, is better because it builds others up (1 Corinthians 14:4). Christ also ascended while blessing his disciples.

Second, we are told what escort the Lord sent for him, a chariot of fire and horses of fire. These may have appeared as if they were coming down from the clouds, or, as Bishop Patrick thinks, rushing toward them on the ground. In this form the angels appeared. The souls of all believers are carried by an unseen guard of angels into Abraham’s care, but Elijah was taking his body with him, so this heavenly escort was visible. They did not appear in human form, as they often do, though they could have borne him up in their arms, or carried him as on eagles’ wings. Instead, they appeared as a chariot and horses so that he might go in honor, like a prince or a conqueror, yes, more than a conqueror. Scripture calls angels cherubim and seraphim. Their appearance here fits both names, since seraphim means fiery, and God makes them flames of fire (Psalm 104:4). Cherubim may mean chariots, and they are called the chariots of God (Psalm 68:17), while he is said to ride on a cherub (Psalm 18:10). There may also be an echo of Ezekiel’s vision of living creatures and wheels, or of Zechariah’s visions (Zechariah 1:8; Zechariah 6:1), and compare Revelation 6:2 and following. This shows how ready the angels are to do God’s will, even in the humblest tasks, for the good of those who will inherit salvation. Elijah was moving to the world of angels, and some of them came to bring him there. The chariot and horses looked like fire, not because they would burn him, but because of their brightness. They were not sent to hurt him, but to make his ascent plain and glorious to those watching from a distance. Elijah had burned with holy zeal for God and his honor, and now heavenly fire refined him and carried him up.

Third, we are told how he was separated from Elisha. The chariot divided them. Even the closest friends must part. Elisha had promised that he would not leave Elijah, but now Elijah is taken away and Elisha is left behind.

Fourth, we are told where he was carried. He went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

Elijah ascended, and the fire seems to move upward with him. The whirlwind carried him through the air, beyond the reach of this earthly world, and then he rose, as far as we can imagine, through the pure heavens to the home of holy and blessed spirits. We cannot tell where he stopped. As Cowley wrote, his end is hidden, until renewed creation itself rises to a better life and follows him into eternal fire.

Elijah had once, in a moment of weakness, wished that he might die, but God was gracious to him. God did not take him at his word then. Instead, God gave him this rare honor, that he should never see death. In Elijah and Enoch, God showed what human life would have been like if sin had never entered the world, not ending by death, but by being taken up. He also gave a glimpse of the life and immortality made clear in the gospel, showing the glory that waits for the bodies of the saints and the opening of heaven to all believers, as it had been opened to Elijah. This event also pointed forward to Christ’s ascension.

Elisha, however, grieved deeply over the loss of that great prophet. He saw Elijah go, and this gave him the sign that his request had been granted, that he would receive a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, meaning a full share of his prophetic power and work. Elisha kept looking toward heaven, where he expected that gift, just as the disciples later did (Acts 1:10). He watched for a while, but then Elijah was gone from sight.

Then Elisha tore his own clothes, showing his sorrow over a great personal and public loss. Elijah had gone to heaven in triumph, yet this world could hardly spare him. His removal was something the survivors should deeply mourn. The hearts of those are hard whose eyes stay dry when God takes away faithful and useful men and calls for weeping.

Though Elijah’s departure made room for Elisha to become more prominent, and though Elisha now knew he had received a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, he still mourned him. He loved him, and he would have served him forever. He called him, “My father, my father,” because he felt like a child left without a father and thrown into the world alone. Christ, when he left his disciples, did not leave them as orphans (John 14:15), but Elijah did.

Elisha also said that the public had lost its best protection: “the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.” Elijah would have brought them all safely to heaven, as if in that chariot, if their own sin had not kept them back. Israel did not rely on chariots and horses in war, but Elijah was better than any army power. By his counsel, warnings, and prayers, he kept back God’s judgments. His removal was like an army being broken and scattered, an irreplaceable loss. It was as if one could say, “It would have been better to lose all our soldiers than this man of God.”