2 Kings 2:1-12
Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?” And he said, “Yes, I know it; keep quiet.”
Elijah said to him, “Elisha, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho. The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?” And he answered, “Yes, I know it; keep quiet.”
Then Elijah said to him, “Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his cloak and rolled it up and struck the water, and the water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground.
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.” And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.
Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation.
The Old Testament reading for Sunday, February 11, comes from Second Kings chapter two verses one through 12. Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elijah were on their way from Gilgal. And Elijah said to Elijah, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel. But Elijah said, As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you? And he said, Yes, I know it. Keep quiet. Elijah said to him, Elijah, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho. But he said, As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho, the sons of the prophets who are at Jericho drew near to Elisha and said to him, do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you? And He answered, Yes, I know it, keep quiet. Then Elijah said to him, please stay here for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan. But he said, As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So the two of them went on 50 min of the sons of the prophets also went and stood at some distance from them. As they both were standing by the Jordan, then Elijah took his cloak and rolled it up and struck the water, and the water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Eli Shah, asked what I shall do for you before I am taken from you. And Elijah said, Please, let there be a double portion of your spirit on me. And he said, You have asked a hard thing yet, if you see me as I am taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if you do not see me, it shall not be so. And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elijah saw it, and he cried, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and its horsemen. And he saw him no more than he took a hold of his own clothes and tore them into pieces. Here ends the reading. This is such an interesting story, really dramatic and powerful. The idea of Elijah the prophet going up into heaven. And it begins with Elijah taking his apprentice, Eli Shah, all around the area. He Elijah takes Eli Shah, and they go to Bethel. And he, he tells a lie show stay behind. And Elijah says, No, I'm going with you. And they get there. And it's really interesting. So it says, And so they went down to Bethel, and the sons of the prophets who are in Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, now I'm pausing there, because I want you to think a little bit about Elijah's life. That phrase, the sons of the prophets should strike you a little bit. Remember what Elijah's early Prophet prophetic ministry was like, Elijah goes up against the king, and his wife Jezebel is out killing all the prophets of God. And it gets so bad that Elijah ends up curling up in the wilderness and asking God to kill him because he's the only prophet left. And everybody is out to hunt him and kill him and find him and make him dead. He's like, just kill me. It's over. And now, within the same lifetime, Elijah is going from town to town, and every where he goes, the sons of the prophets, which are prophets themselves, like the local prophets of God, are coming out of the town to meet them. He goes from being the last of his kind, persecuted almost dead, ready to call it quits. And now there are prophets everywhere. Amazing, right? It's amazing what God did in one man's lifetime to go from what looks like terrible defeat to all the sudden seminaries are springing up everywhere and producing pastors all over the place. Just an interesting note. So when they get there, the sons of the prophets come out and they go to Elisha, and they say to him, Hey, do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you? And Alicia knows? He says, Yes, I know. Keep quiet. What is that about? I actually have no idea. I'm trying to figure out why is a lie, Shah, trying to keep all this quiet. So I should take some again. So they go down to Jericho. He says stay here. But Alicia says nope. As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So they go on the tour. This time they come down to Jericho. And the same thing happens, another group of the sons of the prophets comes out. And they say the same thing. Do you not know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you? And Alicia replies, again? Yes, I know it. Keep quiet. So Elijah does it again, stay here, I'm going to the Jordan. They go down to the Jordan 50 Men of the sons of the prophets, so just a portion of the sons of the prophets also come. And they stood at a distance and they see this. And then Elijah rolls up his cloak strikes it in the water, and they go across. And here's where you get some very interesting things. Elijah then turns to Elijah and says, asked me what you want from me? What should I do? And Elijah says, give me a double portion of your spirit. Oh, here, I'll quote it. It says, Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me. What is Elijah asking? What we see here is a, an inheritance language. When a man dies, and leaves his sons in inheritance, the inheritance is spread out amongst the sons equally except for the firstborn son, who gets a double portion. And so this is inheritance language. Elijah has been going out to all the quote unquote, sons of the prophets, and showing off Elijah and they're seeing everyone. And now that Elijah is going up into heaven, Eli Shah is asking to be the firstborn son of the Prophet, not to receive like twice Elijah spirit, but a double portion as in to be the chief, the firstborn, the double portion of the inheritance. And so as the Office of Prophet is passed down from Elijah, who's kind of the stereotypical prophet Elijah becomes the main Prophet with all the sons of the prophets are also inheriting a portion of that office in spirit as it's been passed down to them. And so Alicia becomes kind of the key one, as we move into the next set of stories in Kings, while Alicia passes that inheritance on, and there are other prophets, but Alicia is the main one. So he says, You've asked a hard thing, yet if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if you do not see me, it shall not be so. So what they do is that he says, if you see me when I'm taken up, you'll get the the double portion. If you don't, you won't get the double portion. So Elijah sees it, he cries out this, this chariot of fire goes in between them preventing Elijah from getting near Elijah, and then Elijah is taken up into heaven in a whirlwind. What comes after this is is a big deal, because it shows what the result is. Eli Shah, he tears his clothes. And then he goes to the Jordan, the place where Elijah took off his mantle and rolled it up and slapped the Jordan River. So he like shot does the same thing takes off his mantle slaps the Jordan River and it parts and he walks across on dry ground. And this shows that Elijah has power has been passed on. He's received Elijah spirit. And Eli Shah is now the main guy. What I take from this is that this office of Prophet is passed down in the history of Israel. similarly to the way we have the office of pastor and that there's this proclamation element of the Prophet If that is passed on to the people, and then now that Christ has come we have something very similar in every congregation and in every place a, a prophetic ministry of preaching that goes out into the world. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai