2 Kings

Meditations on the Second Book of Kings

H. L. Rossier.

ISBN 0-88172-182-4

BELIEVERS BOOKSHELF INC.

P O Box 261, Sunbury, Pennsylvania 17801

Contents

Introduction

2 Kings 1 — Elijah and Ahaziah

2 Kings 2 — Elijah and Elisha

2 Kings 2: 1-12  The Ascension of Elijah

Elijah, a Type of Christ

Elisha, the Servant

2 Kings 2: 13-25  Elisha, or Christ in the Spirit

2 Kings 3 - 8: 15 — Elisha

2 Kings 3  Jehoram and the War Against Moab

2 Kings 4: 1-7  The Prophet's Widow

2 Kings 4: 8-37  The Shunammite

2 Kings 4: 3841  Death in the Pot

2 Kings 4: 42-44  The Man of Baal-shalishah

2 Kings 5  Naaman

2 Kings 6: 1-7  The Sons of the Prophets and the Jordan

2 Kings 6: 8-23  Dothan

2 Kings 6: 24 - 7: 20  The Siege of Samaria

2 Kings 8: 1-6  The Shunammite Again

2 Kings 8: 7-15  Ben-Hadad and Hazael

2 Kings 8: 16 - 17: 41 — Kings of Israel and of Judah

2 Kings 8: 16-29 Jehoram, King of Judah, and His Son, Ahaziah

2 Kings 9  Jehu, King of Israel

2 Kings 10  Jehu (continued)

2 Kings 11  Athaliah

2 Kings 12  Joash, King of Judah

2 Kings 13: 1-9  Jehoahaz, Son of Jehu, King of Israel

2 Kings 13: 10-25 Joash, King of Israel, and Elisha

2 Kings 14: 1-22 Joash, King of Israel — Amaziah, King of Judah

2 Kings 14: 23-29 Jeroboam II, King of Israel

2 Kings 15: 1-7  Azariah or Uzziah, King of Judah

2 Kings 15: 8-12 Zechariah, King of Israel

2 Kings 15: 13-22  Shallum and Menahem, Kings of Israel

2 Kings 15: 23-31  Pekahiah and Pekah, Kings of Israel

2 Kings 15: 32-38  Jotham, King of Judah

2 Kings 16  Ahaz, King of Judah

2 Kings 17: 1-6  Hoshea, King of Israel

2 Kings 17: 7-41  The Divine Recapitulation of the History of Israel

2 Kings 18 - 25 — The Last Kings of Judah

2 Kings 18 - 20  Hezekiah, King of Judah

  The Revivals of the End

2 Kings 18: 1-18  Hezekiah and the First Revival

2 Kings 18: 19-37  Rab-Shakeh's Discourse

2 Kings 19  Sennacherib and the Lord

2 Kings 20: 1-11  Hezekiah's Illness

2 Kings 20: 12-19  The Embassy from Babylon

2 Kings 21: 1-18  Manasseh

2 Kings 21: 19-26  Amon

2 Kings 22: 1 - 23: 30 — Josiah

2 Kings 22  Josiah and the Second Revival

2 Kings 23: 1-20  The Book of the Covenant and the Sanctification of the people

2 Kings 23: 21-23  The Passover

2 Kings 23: 28-30  Pharaoh-Nechoh

2 Kings 23: 31 - 25: 30 — The Final Downfall

2 Kings 23: 31-35  Jehoahaz

2 Kings 23: 36-24: 7  Jehoiakim

2 Kings 24: 7-17  Jehoiachin (or Jeconiah, or Coniah)

2 Kings 24: 18-25: 21  Zedekiah

2 Kings 25: 22-26  Gedaliah

2 Kings 25: 27-30  The End

Introduction

The Second Book of Kings follows the First without any interruption. In order to spare the reader an erroneous conclusion it may be useful to remark that this division into two books does not form part of the inspired text, which originally formed but one book in the Hebrew canon. As we are mentioning this subject in passing, we would add for our readers that one of the great divisions of the Old Testament, "the Prophets," included besides the books of the prophets proper with exception of Daniel and Lamentations, all the books from Joshua through the books of Kings except for the book of Ruth.*

{*The Old Testament was composed of three major divisions: the Law, that is, the five books of Moses; the Prophets, of which we are speaking; and finally the Hagiographa or "Sacred Writings," known also by the title "the Psalms" (Luke 24: 44), and containing Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the two books of Chronicles.}

The mere title, "the Prophets," enlightens us about the authors of the historical books with which we are occupied. We owe these books to the prophets; they bear their imprint. So-called modern theological criticism should in no way influence the Christian's convictions on this point. The Word of God alone is enough to explain itself and to furnish us assurance as to its contents.

Thus the acts of David are written in the words of Samuel the seer, in the words of Nathan the prophet, and in those of Gad the seer (cf. 1 Chr. 29: 29 with 1 & 2 Samuel); the acts of Solomon, in the words of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah, and in the vision of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat. (cf. 2 Chr. 9: 29 with 1 Kings); the acts of Rehoboam, in the words of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer in the genealogical registers (2 Chr. 12: 15); the acts of Abijah, in the treatise of the prophet Iddo (2 Chr. 13: 22); those of Jehoshaphat, in the words of Jehu the son of Hanani which are inserted in the book of the Kings of Israel (2 Chr. 20: 34). The acts of Uzziah were written by Isaiah the son of Amoz (2 Chr. 26: 22); those of Hezekiah, in the vision of Isaiah the prophet (cf. 2 Chr. 32: 32 with 2 Kings 18-20 and Isa. 36-39). Finally, 2 Kings 24: 18-25 corresponds to Jeremiah 52.

Isn't it remarkable that it should be precisely the books of Chronicles, so contested and so attacked by the rationalists, that confirm the prophetic authority of our historical books? Now if it is true that the books of Kings are the work of the prophets, and that is enough for us since the Word of God does not tell us any more concerning the manner in which they were composed, we can expect to find in them not only the simple account of historical facts, and a perfectly exact statement of these facts since it is of divine origin, but also the features which form the substance of all prophetic writing: examples of the past sufferings and of the future glories of Christ.

This is what the books of Samuel and the first book of Kings have shown us superabundantly in the persons of David and Solomon. But this also explains for us why the prophets themselves play a preponderant role in these books. This fact, as we have already mentioned elsewhere, strikes us as soon as we enter into these books. Nothing but the activity of Elijah and of Elisha is dwelt upon in nineteen of the forty-seven chapters contained in Kings.

By way of preface, it is well yet to add here some remarks which did not get a place in the introduction to the First Book of Kings. They bear upon the character of the prophets of Israel in contrast to those of Judah. In studying 1 Kings we have been able to ascertain the character of Elijah's ministry, which above all was a ministry of miracles. We shall have occasion to notice this even more fully in the life of Elisha, the second great prophet of Israel. The activity of these men of God consisted much more of deeds than of words. On the contrary, that of the prophets of Judah is altogether different. They speak, and only rarely perform a miracle, such as that of the sun dial of Ahaz (Isa. 38: 8). This contrast springs from the fact that the public profession of the worship of Jehovah was still acknowledged in Judah, and subsisted in spite of idolatrous intermixture; thus it did not need miracles to be accredited.

This leads us to respond to the question that is often asked, why one no longer sees miracles in Christendom today. The reason is the same. As long as it has not been spued out of the Lord's mouth, the miracles intended to strengthen the hearts of the faithful grappling with apostasy shall not take place, nor those intended to vindicate the character of the true God before men who have renounced Him.

It was otherwise at the beginning of the Church's history. Numerous miracles took place, whether among the Jews who had rejected their Messiah, in order to prove the divinity of the Savior to them, or whether among the idolatrous Gentiles, in order to accredit the preaching of the God who was unknown to them. God bore witness with His servants "both by signs and wonders, and various acts of power, and distributions of the Holy Ghost, according to his will" (Heb. 2: 4).

Catholicism pretends to miracles, just as in a measure also the Protestantism of our days pretends to miraculous gifts. In fact, that which the first presents to us are false miracles intended to blind the simple, whereas the second seeks to accredit itself by an appearance of divine power when apostasy has already made itself known in its bosom on every hand.

After the rapture of the saints, the miracles of the age to come shall be made manifest, whether among the Jews or before the nations, by means of the remnant, as we see in Revelation 11. The story of Elisha will furnish us occasion to consider this subject in type. But at the same time the land of Israel — of the apostate people under the Antichrist — and the entire world will be the theater of lying wonders performed by the- false prophet, Satan's last instrument to seduce the men who dwell upon the earth. (Rev. 13: 13-15).

We shall limit ourselves to these few preliminary remarks, which will find ample confirmation in that portion of the Scriptures which we want to study under the Lord's eye and with the help of His Holy Spirit.

2 Kings 1

Elijah and Ahaziah

The rebellion of Moab against Israel is the first consequence of Ahaziah's unfaithfulness (see 1 Kings 22: 52-54). It is a judgment upon the king who by his idolatry had provoked God to anger. The change of reign furnishes Moab a favorable occasion to throw off this hated yoke. Had not Moab from olden times hated and sought to curse the people of God (Num. 22)? Back in those times nations that had been reduced to servitude were accustomed to these revolts and were ever awaiting the death of their tyrants to shake off their yoke and free themselves from the heavy taxes with which he weighed them down. The history of the kings of Assyria, otherwise mightier than those of Israel, is full of similar revolts. Moab, chastised by Saul (1 Sam. 14: 47), then subjugated by David (2 Sam. 8: 2, 12; 1 Chr. 18: 2), had been subject under the glorious reign of Solomon, like all the other kingdoms which brought their tribute to the king sitting upon his throne in Jerusalem (1 Kings 4: 21; 1 Kings 10: 25). Since the division of the twelve tribes, Moab, by reason of its geographic position, had become tributary to Israel rather than to Judah (2 Kings 3: 5). Its tribute (100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams with their wool), enormous for such a limited country, must have weighed heavily upon it, to say nothing of the humiliation impatiently suffered by this proud and haughty nation. Thus it is not surprising that Moab should seize upon the first occasion to free itself. But above the external fact which strikes man's attention, the believer sees something invisible, the only important thing for him — the hand of God stretched forth to judge the people and their ungodly leader.

A second judgement falls upon the king himself. "Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria, and was sick." But repentance was foreign to the heart of the king of Israel, and Jehovah had no place either in his thoughts or in his life. He was indifferent to the judgment of God; he saw but an ordinary accident in the blow that had struck him. "He sent messengers and said to them, Go, inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this disease." His own Baal, before whom he bowed (1 Kings 22: 54), was not enough for him; he sends to the Baal of the Philistines to learn his fate. Baal-zebub, the lord of flies, was much more valuable in his eyes than Jehovah. This god was doubtless invoked by this idolatrous nation to secure themselves from this plague of the lands of the East, flies. He was a powerful god to his votaries, for bowing down before him in their blindness they were worshipping or supplicating Satan himself, the Beelzebub so often mentioned in the New Testament.

That which happened to Ahaziah still happens today to every follower of a false religion. His religion can no more satisfy his heart, calm his soul's fears, or make known the future than the Baal of Jezebel and Ahab, who Ahaziah worshipped, could satisfy him. Therefore every new superstition is welcome, provided it gives us hope of escaping the fate by which we feel threatened.

At the command of the angel of the Lord, Elijah the Tishbite appears anew upon the scene, and we find him with all the boldness and energy of faith which he had shown from the brook Cherith to the destruction of the prophets of Baal. The juniper tree in the wilderness and the lesson at Horeb had borne their fruit for the prophet. They had formed a sort of parenthesis of experiences about himself, after which his career of faith had begun anew when he had boldly presented himself in Naboth's vineyard before Ahab to pronounce God's terrible judgment upon him and upon Jezebel (1 Kings 21: 17-26). Our chapter is but the continuation of this courageous testimony. Elijah goes up to meet these messengers of the king and says to them: "Is it because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? Now therefore thus saith Jehovah: Thou shalt not come down from the bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt certainly die."

Had it not in effect been proven before Ahab and Jezebel that there was a God in Israel? There where the man of God was found, one found God — a very important testimony for the perilous day through which we pass. Why did one find God? Because the Word of God had been committed to Elijah and one could come to him to inquire of it.

Moreover, the prophet's character corresponded to his mission and accredited him before the world, so that this latter could recognize in him an authority given by God. Ahaziah, against whom the Word was directed, could not mistake him. "It is Elijah the Tishbite, " he cried when his servants told him: "He was a man in a hairy garment, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins." His clothing and his girdle sufficed to make him known. His garment, like the covering of the ark, depicted the holiness that repels corruption, at the same time the simplicity that delights in that which is humble; his girdle on the one hand kept his garments from contact with defilement, but it was also the emblem of his absolute devotion to the service of the Lord, of the concentration of his thoughts upon one object alone. By these signs the wicked king was forced to recognize the man of God; he said, "It is Elijah!"*

{*And, in fact, he is the only one who recognizes him. No one about him knew the great prophet of Israel; but how greatly that increases the king's guilt! At a time when the Word of God is ignored by a people that should have known it, the only one who does not ignore it is the one who is striving against it!}

Should it not be the same for us today? The word of God is entrusted to the believer in the midst of a Christendom that has given it up. But he can have no power to accredit the testimony of God before the world except by showing forth in his conduct true separation from the world, humility in his walk, and genuine consecration of his entire life to the Lord. Thus it is that we shall have the right to speak on God's behalf. If this is so, the world will have to hear us, whether it wants to or not; if not, it will turn away and take occasion by our conduct to despise the Word of God.

The prophet pronounces a third judgment on Ahaziah. The first, Moab's rebellion, had struck at the glory of his kingdom; the second, his fall, at his health, this third, at his life "Thou shalt not come down from the bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt certainly die."

But that is not all. The king prepares a fourth judgment for himself. He does not fear to send a captain of fifty with his men against the prophet. Elijah "sat on the top of the mount," in an inaccessible spot. The captain addresses him: "Man of God, the king says, Come down!" What temerity on part of the king! To his lack of faith in his own idols and to his gross superstition he adds the pride that rises up against God and intends to bring Him down to his own level. Like the first Adam, he regards being equal with God a thing to be grasped at!

Elijah, the man of God, is here a representative of Christ. Should he have less power, now that He is seated in the heavenlies, than when He walked upon earth, despised and hated of all? Today man's sin has just been made all the more heinous by his hatred for Christ seated on high at God's right hand. If the world is judged for having rejected Jesus in humiliation, what will become of it when it makes war against Him who is seated upon His throne? "He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh," it says in the second Psalm. While Elijah was yet walking in the midst of Israel, fire from heaven, the judgment of God, was at his disposal, not to destroy sinners but to consume the burnt offering A sacrifice had then answered for the people, and God's judgment had fallen upon the victim in order to bring about the deliverance of Israel. From now on this hour of grace was past. Elijah, seated on high, would cause fire to fall from heaven upon his enemies — upon this king who, forgetting all fear, had the audacity to give orders to God!

The difference between these two positions of Christ — upon earth in grace, or seated glorious in heaven, waiting until His foes be made the footstool of His feet — comes out in the Lord's words to His disciples. They would have liked, like Elijah, to have brought down fire from heaven upon the Samaritans because they did not receive their Master. "Ye know not of what spirit ye are,' He told them, severely censuring them (Luke 9: 51-56). In effect, at this moment He was the rejected Christ steadfastly setting His face to go to Jerusalem to be offered up as a burnt offering Was this the moment to judge, when in grace He was Himself to be slain and for our salvation to endure the fire of God's judgment?

But in this passage Elijah is not only a figure of Christ; he is also a type of the faithful, suffering remnant in the end times. Elijah "must come" in the person of those witnesses in the Revelation, of whom it is said: "If any one wills to injure them, fire goes out of their mouth, and devours their enemies. And if any one wills to injure them, thus must he be killed" (Rev. 11: 5). They shall come in the power of Elijah and of Moses, for then God's judgments will be doing their terrible work upon earth. Death and judgment must glorify God then when all the resources of grace have been exhausted and the apostasy is complete.

"If I be a man of God, let fire come down," says the prophet. His whole mission to Israel is concentrated in this single expression "A man of God." "Is it because there is not a God in Israel?" he had said to Ahaziah. God was vindicating His character in the presence of apostasy and had chosen His prophet to be the powerful witness to this.

Blinded by his anger and pride, Ahaziah renews his summons, making it worse yet: "Come down quickly!" He persists in ordering God around. Judgment falls upon the servants of this king who is going to die. Alas! what yet awaits him after death is the final judgment of the living God whom he had so offended!

The third captain (vv. 13-14) fears God and takes the attitude becoming to a sinful man before Him. He approached beseeching, on his knees, acknowledging God in Elijah in saying "Man of God" to him in an entirely different spirit from that of the first two captains. He knows that God can exercise grace: "I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants be precious in thy sight." He has not yet received the assurance that what God is able to do, He is willing to do, but he is convinced that the God of judgment is able to be a God of grace to whosoever submits to him, that He does not desire the death of the sinner, and that his life may be precious to Him. These thoughts are expressed in the words of this man: "Behold, there came down fire from the heavens, and consumed the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties, but now, let my life be precious in thy sight" Such faith is pleasing to the Lord. This third captain "believed that God is,' as the Epistle to the Hebrews expresses it; he acknowledged His full character of majesty, holiness, righteousness, and goodness, a conviction that is necessary if one is to approach Him; but he also believed that God is a "rewarder of them who seek him out" (Heb. 11: 6). So he finds the reward of his faith.

"Go down with him: be not afraid of him" Elijah can have confidence in such a man, and God counts upon him too in entrusting His servant to him, for He can always rest upon the faith which He Himself has given. The prophet had nothing to fear; for that matter, he was no more in danger at the call of the first captain than at that of the third captain; he was just as safe before the bloodthirsty king as on the mountain top; but God takes care to reassure him, for He knows our feeble hearts. Elijah accepts this encouragement. Had he not previously, under the juniper tree, proven how much his weakness had need of it? He boldly presents himself before Ahaziah with the strength that God supplies, as so often in the past before Ahab. This boldness is one of Elijah's outstanding qualities.

Come before the king, the prophet repeats to him, word for word, those things he had told his messengers. In the ways of God with men there is a time when fresh explanations are useless, because they have hardened their hearts. Thus it was with the apostles before the Sanhedrim (compare Acts 4: 19 with 5: 29). Yet the prophet insists upon one thing: "Is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?" Thus men facing uneasy questions about their future ought only to have recourse to the Word of God, and despising this will bring terrible consequences upon themselves. One day this same Word will judge them. "He died according to the word of Jehovah that Elijah had spoken.''

2 Kings 2

Elijah and Elisha

2 Kings 2: 1-12

The Ascension of Elijah

Elijah's history as a prophet of judgment ends in 2 Kings 1. 2 Kings 2 presents the end of his career and the mysterious happenings that accompanied this great event.

In the Word we meet many mysteries, secrets hidden from all eternity in the heart of God, things that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, and that have not entered into the heart of man. These mysteries remained unknown under the old covenant, but there is not a single one which is not revealed to us by the Spirit of God in the New Testament. Yet nevertheless, despite this revelation the Word is full of mysterious things which spiritual intelligence alone discovers. The Lord could make them clear to us in a few words, but for our greatest profit and for the greatest joy of our souls He allows us to discover them. It is only by study done with prayer in dependence upon the Holy Spirit and by seriously applying ourselves to the things of God that we find the key to these enigmas. Thus we learn to recognize a hidden sense in a fact that appears to be simple, just like a diamond that an ignorant person takes as an ordinary stone, but which dazzles with its brilliance the one who applies himself to cut it. The second part of John 1 and John 21 are full of these hidden treasures. The same is true of our chapter; scarcely another can surpass it in interest, in intimate experiences, in prophetic revelations, in majestic grandeur. In presenting Elijah and Elisha to us it speaks of Christ and of His Spirit; it is above all else a typical chapter.

More than once, as for example in the story of the widow of Sarepta (cf. Luke 4: 26), God honors the prophet Elijah by making use of him to portray certain specific qualities of His Well-beloved, but the last day of his prophetic career is used to illustrate the life, the death, and the ascension of the Messiah, and the blessings which were bound to flow from thence upon His people. This privilege of Elijah's is in a measure that of every believer, for each of us is called upon to reproduce the qualities of Christ in the world. If it is true that we are "in Him" before God, it is also true that He is "in us" before the world, and that we are called to manifest Him before the eyes of all. If a Christian is faithful, he will be a copy that will at very first glance make its original known. Whoever does not see in this chapter the truth of which we are speaking has in fact seen nothing Only, we have said, all is presented to us in a mysterious light. That which adds to the mystery is that Elijah is not alone. Elisha, his fellow prophet and his servant, does not leave him for even an instant and sees him going up to heaven; then he returns to "the sons of the prophets," whose circumstances take up the rest of our history.

Elijah, a Type of Christ

"And it came to pass when Jehovah would take up Elijah into the heavens by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal." The prophets had four stages to cover before being taken up to heaven: Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, and the Jordan. At the beginning of his career he had been sent to turn back the heart of the people to the Lord. His mission, faithfully accomplished, had in the end completely failed. Israel, after a momentary turnabout at the destruction of the priests of Baal, had not truly repented, and the kings had persisted in their idolatry. Jesus failed in the same way on His mission in the service of the people returned from their captivity. Now the prophet is sent of God, as is Christ in the gospels, to retrace in the power of the Holy Spirit the path that Israel should have followed, but which it had strewn with unfaithfulness and ruin in failing in its responsibility. "Jehovah has sent me" such are the words of Elijah to his faithful companion at each stage (vv. 2, 4, 6). Such also are the words of the Lord in the Gospels, and especially in the Gospel of John where He constantly presents Himself as the One sent of the Father.

But let us first consider what Israel's path had been.

Jehovah, after having made His people to cross the Jordan, had rolled away the shame of Egypt from off them by circumcision at Gilgal, for none of the sons of those who had come out of Egypt had been circumcised in the wilderness (Joshua 5: 5-9). Then He had made Jericho, the stronghold of the enemy, to fall before Israel, bringing this city under interdict and curse in order at last to introduce His people into the joy of the blessings previously promised to Jacob at Bethel (Gen. 35: 9). Had Israel kept themselves in these blessings? In no wise! "All their wickedness," the prophet Hosea later says to them, "is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings, I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more" (Hosea 9: 15). And again, "Come to Bethel, and transgress! at Gilgal, multiply trangression!" (Amos 4: 4). Jericho, the place of the curse, had been rebuilt by Hiel the Bethelite contrary to the express command of Jehovah (1 Kings 16: 34). Bethel itself under Jeroboam had become the prime center of idolatry (1 Kings 12: 29), where the sins of Israel had been heaped up.

Elijah is called to retrace this path, strewn with so much defilement; only his faith, while at every step undeniably establishing the ruin of the people, again sees and finds the first blessings instituted by God, blessings which He had not given up bringing to fruition. Elijah recognizes Gilgal and Bethel according to the thoughts of God, in the same spirit which had caused him to build his altar of twelve stones in the presence of the prophets of Baal. He goes there as one who is sent, in the power of the Holy Spirit, without being in any way contaminated by their defilements. He faithfully follows the path that Israel ought to have followed and in which they had miserably failed, for if they had answered to the purpose of God by a true judgment of the flesh at Gilgal, they would have dwelt with Jehovah at Bethel in the enjoyment of all His promises. Elijah, led by the will of God, walks alone in this path, where he is but the type of One greater than he.

In effect, that which the prophet could only accomplish in figure was realized at the coming of the Lord. When He entered upon the scene, opportunity was again offered the Jewish people to recover under Emmanuel the blessings that had been lost. The baptism of repentance administered by John the Baptist, this Elijah which was to come, then became Israel's Gilgal. It was necessary to come there in repentance, confessing one's sins, in order again to find blessings under the reign of Messiah. Jesus, making the Jordan to resemble Gilgal in His baptism, came to associate Himself with some of the excellent of the earth, who by repentance had become children of the Kingdom and heirs of the promise to which they had lost access. In this way the shame of Egypt was rolled away from then anew; the flesh must undergo death, for it had proven that it could not enter into possession of the promises. The history of the people in the flesh was ended, but a new Israel, the true Israel, began in Christ. Personally He had no need of this path. He was the Holy One and had ever been that, but He manifested publicly at the Jordan at the beginning of His ministry — also at His birth and when He was "called out of Egypt"-that separation from evil, holiness, and righteousness were His character; only He associated Himself with the very first movement of the Spirit in those who came to John the Baptist confessing their sins.

But the nation as a whole had rejected Him.

Elijah went up from Gilgal to Bethel. This was also Christ's path. Having as its starting point a full consecration to God, it of necessity culminated in the promises that the God of Jacob had made to Israel (Gen. 28: 13-15). He alone, Christ, by virtue of His perfection, was worthy to obtain all the promises of God. Throughout His entire life He had chosen Bethel, the house of God; He had made Jehovah Himself, who hid His face from His rebellious people, His refuge and His dwelling place (Ps. 91). Israel should never have left this place of refuge. Christ alone abode there. A s we have seen, Bethel had become for Israel a house of idols. What must Elijah have felt, but above all, what must the Lord have felt, on seeing this holy dwelling place with the blessings which it promised all defiled by the sin of his people!

Therefore to Christ alone, the obedient Man, henceforth belonged the promises. But was He about to enjoy them? No. Let us ask Elijah; he is not called to remain at Bethel; Jehovah is sending him further. He must abandon the place of the promises in order to go down to Jericho. That is where the Lord is sending him. Israel had long ago encountered this obstacle in going up from Gilgal. There they had met with divine power overthrowing the walls erected by the enemy. God had then pronounced a curse upon this city; it was never to be rebuilt (Joshua 6: 26). But what had Israel done with Jericho? A man from Bethel had rebuilt the accursed city!

Elijah goes down there at God's order. He must follow the path of unfaithful Israel and verify it. Was not the people like the man in the parable who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of thieves — the nations — who plundered him? Christ went down there also, but not, as Elijah, simply to take account of things there. It was that He might feel in His soul the curse pronounced upon the people, to take and to bear in their place the wrath of God's government against this unfaithful nation.

From Jericho Elijah is sent to the Jordan; he leaves Israel and Canaan in crossing this river, such a precious type of death. Elijah crosses through this death dryshod by virtue of his prophet's mantle and in the power of the Spirit he possessed. So it was with Christ; but He did that which Elijah could not do, tasting the terrible reality of death before conquering it and coming forth on the other side in resurrection. Elijah passed through it only in figure and without being himself affected by it; the Lord alone passed through its reality as the termination of His course; He humbled Himself unto death, but it could not hold Him. It was divided before the power of the eternal life which had gone down into it. Having vanquished death, he was marked out Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead (Rom. 1: 4).

Elijah leaves Canaan, the land of promise and of Israel's inheritance, with nothing more than his prophet's mantle. Though he had visited Bethel, he did not stop there; he took away nothing of that which might have belonged to him as a man of God. So it was with Christ, too, for it was said of Him: "(He) shall have nothing" (Dan. 9: 26). But it is there that a new era began for Him. God had sent Him into death. Could He disobey? On the contrary, He resolutely set His face to go there. He left Canaan, His inheritance and His rights, but He knew beforehand that it was in order to go up into heaven, once He had passed through death. Elijah knows this too, but he goes there alive, having passed through only the shadow of the tomb.

Jehovah who was sending His servant on step by step had in mind to introduce him into another world. Thus Elijah received his reward for a life of devotion — doubtless mixed with a measure of human weakness — to the One who had sent him. But Christ receives the reward of unbroken devotion extending even to the sacrifice of Himself. It was also, as we shall see in speaking of Elisha, the starting point of a double spiritual power for the prophet's companion.

Let us be quick to remark that it is not a matter of finding, in all this history, a type of the Savior and of His work of redemption accomplished at the cross. The typical account does not have this work in view; that will become clearer when we add the story of Elisha to that of Elijah. Our subject here is Christ the Man of God (although He was much more than that), the prophet sent by God, come to Israel to bear testimony to its ruin and to the judgement that is the consequence (a testimony which had begun with John the Baptist, this Elijah which was to come), but at the same time to the unchangeable promises of God, which could not be attained except by Christ, a Man without sin, who could share them with His restored people Israel.

The result of all this, as throughout the rest of the Old Testament, is that we must not look for the blessing, properly speaking, of the Church here. The history of Elijah and of Elisha bears uniquely upon Israel. Yet nevertheless, the rapture of Elijah, as that of Enoch, speaks to us in type of the rapture of the saints, of which the Church forms a part. One might say that the rapture is mysteriously concealed in Elijah's ascension,* whereas it is portrayed in that of Enoch. In the first case, Christ is in view; in the second, those "that are Christ's."

{*Revelation 12: 5 presents an analogous example.}

Let us remark in respect to this, that two men, Enoch and Elijah, have gone up to heaven without passing through death, whereas only one, Christ, has been raised from among the dead in order to ascend up into heaven;* this is why He is called "the Firstborn from among the dead," for He precedes the saints of whom He is the Firstfruit in resurrection. Others who had died were raised before Christ, but for earth, never for heaven. They were subject to dying again, whereas Christ, having been raised from among the dead, will die no more; death has no more dominion over Him.

{*Enoch has more than one trait in common with Elijah. Both were prophets of judgment. Enoch walked with God — Elijah stood before Jehovah. Both were taken up before the ultimate judgment to which they had borne witness.}

Elisha, the Servant

We have seen previously that the person of Elijah can be considered from more than one aspect: as prophet, as a type of the forerunner of Christ, as a type of Christ. It is likewise with Elisha. He is first of all a picture of the perfect servant.

From the day when, meeting Elisha, Elijah had cast his prophet's mantle upon him, the newcomer had faithfully followed and served his master; moreover, he was only known as the one who "poured water on the hands of Elijah" (1 Kings 19: 21; 2 Kings 3: 11). As is becoming for a true servant, until he enters upon his public ministry he keeps himself in the background and one hears no more said of him. While possessing the prophetic mantle which had been conferred upon him by Elijah so that he could exercise judgment over the land of Israel in his stead, he did not use it until his master had been taken up, when he would receive along with a double measure of Elijah's spirit a second prophetic mantle fallen from heaven, which would render him capable of exercising a ministry of grace.

Elisha is a beautiful example of the Christian, the servant of Christ. There where his master is, he will be (John 12: 26). At Bethel and at Jericho the sons of the prophets say to him, "Dost thou know that Jehovah will take away thy master from over thy head today?" He responds, "I also know it: be silent." His knowledge cannot be communicated to him by the sons of the prophets, for he is a prophet himself by virtue of a special divine order. But that which distinguishes him above all is that he has left all to follow his master, his sole object, the sole source of blessing for his soul. Without Elijah, Elisha is nothing and desires to be nothing; Elijah above all is the one upon whom his affections are centered: "As Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee!" Elijah had said to him: 'Abide here, I pray thee; for Jehovah has sent me to Bethel," then "to Jericho," then "to the Jordan." "Jehovah has sent me"; this shows Elijah's obedience; but if Elijah obeys, ought not Elisha follow him?

It is the same for us; we can be sure we are following God's way in following that of Christ. Elisha had not received any special direction for his guidance, but he is attached to Elijah who had received direction, and who to him was the man of God, God's representative.

Elisha's faith is tested all along the way. "Abide here, I pray thee," the prophet says to him. Abide at Gilgal, at the place of self-judgement, of judgement of the flesh, at the place where the reproach of Egypt had been rolled away from the people. Begin the history of Israel once again. No, that would be to begin again a test that could not be passed. The one sent of God alone could follow this path — As Jehovah liveth, I will cling to him. Elisha passes through Gilgal with Elijah, as we do with Christ. "I will not leave thee." Begin it again for ourself? Never! Our Gilgal is the cross, the circumcision of the Christ. Just as we too can do, Elisha had found in Elijah all that Gilgal could offer him, and in fact, when he later recrosses the Jordan, Gilgal no longer is a part of his route.

At Bethel, the place of the sure promises made to the fathers...Abide here, says Elijah. You will not fail to obtain them from a God who cannot lie, since you have passed through Gilgal with me. — No, I will not leave thee. If you do not receive them now, how shall I obtain them without you? When you shall have obtained them, then will be the time for me to dwell at Bethel.

And see, now the sons of the prophets are trying his faith. Will you go further, seeing that your master is going to be taken up from you? "I also know it: be silent." You cannot understand the motive behind what I am doing It is he, himself. It is his person that draws me and that is everything to me. To be separated from him for an instant would be to lose a blessing that I know but feebly yet, that I sense with my heart more than with my understanding, but which I shall certainly have if I do not leave him, for I know that he will attain it.

Abide at Jericho, Elisha, says Elijah; as for me, I am sent further. No, could I ever feel the curse hovering over this city more than thou? Since thou, my lord and master, cost not remedy this today, could I remedy it myself? For that I should have to have a personal power, and that I have only in thee. As long as I do not have it, why should I be stopping here? Be silent, prophets!

"Jehovah has sent me to the Jordan." Here there is no more summons to abide. Elijah takes Elisha with him, leads him through the river of death in the power of the Spirit which death cannot resist, in the triumphant power of a life that it cannot swallow up. A mantle belonging to Elijah is able to do these things. Oh, what a blessed association for Elisha! "They two went on." "They two stood by the Jordan." "They two went over on dry ground." Elijah does not go over for himself alone, but in order to let Elisha pass over with him. Elisha, this alter ego of Elijah's, will come forth out of death with him and will then return in deliverance for Israel!

The sons of the prophets who had foretold Elijah's being taken up do not play a useless role here. In them prophecy is the witness at a distance of the victory over death, as also a little later of the return in grace for Israel of a double measure of the spirit of Elijah that Elisha is going to receive. They say: "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha" (v. 15).

Now when they two had passed over the Jordan Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I am taken away from thee." Elisha answered, "I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me." And he said, "Thou hast asked a hard thing: if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so to thee; but if not, it shall not be so." (vv. 9-10).

For Elisha to obtain this double portion it was not enough that his faith and his affection for his master should be put to the test. Watchfulness was also necessary in order that he might not lose the prophet from sight at the moment of his departure. "They went on and talked" (v. 11), apparently occupied with various subjects, but Elisha's eye kept but one object in its field of vision. He could be interested in all the things the rich heart of his master was communicating to him, but his eye was simple. He just did not want to miss that solemn moment. We are not called, as was Elisha, or as the first disciples, to see Jesus ascending to heaven in the cloud, but should we not have the same attitude with regard to his coming as they did to his departure? Should we not, if we truly love Him, wait for Him without distraction while walking and talking as we fulfill our daily responsibilities? For it is a matter of seeing Him "in the twinkling of an eye." Oh, that our expectation might be a continual and watchful one like that of Elijah's servant!

"And it came to pass as they went on, and talked, that behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire; and they parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into the heavens. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father! The chariot of Israel and the horseman thereof! And he saw him no more."

This chariot and these horses of fire were angels (2 Kings 6: 17), corresponding in their appearance to Elijah's character who, as a prophet of the law, had acted by the fire of judgement in the midst of Israel. It was not at all this way at the ascension of the Savior. An angelic train sent to serve Him or to carry Him into heaven was in no way necessary. He went up by His own power, having been declared Son of God in power by resurrection. A cloud, the dwelling place of the divine glory, received Him at once and carried Him up from before the eyes of His disciples (Acts 1: 9). Our ascension will be like unto His (1 Thess. 4: 17). But when He as Son of Man will return to judge the world, He shall be revealed from Heaven "with the angels of his power, in flaming fire" (2 Thess. 1: 7, 8), and we ourselves and all the saints, the hosts of heaven, shall be accompanied by myriads of angels (Rev. 19: 14; Heb. 12: 22; Jude 14; Deut. 33: 2; Zech. 14: 5). And when He shall come as Messiah, Jehovah will give charge to His angels who will bear Him up in their hands, lest He dash His foot against a stone (Ps. 91: 11, 12).

Elisha cries out, "My father!" thus showing that he according to the word of Elijah had seen his patron going up to heaven, but he also acknowledges in him the true Israel: "the chariot of Israel!" This exclamation again proves how much all this scene in type presents to us Christ as the great prophet of Israel and not as the Savior in relation to the Church. It is as Prophet, as the true Sent One, the true Messiah, the true Israel, that He is sent into the heavens here; it is as Son of Man and Son of God, as Lord and Savior, that He has been translated there and that He will come again for us.

Elijah's mantle fell down upon him, because his servant had seen him going up to heaven. Now this mantle belonged to Elisha. Likewise we shall always have the power of the spirit with us if we are attached to Christ and if our eyes follow Him on high.

Elisha tears his own garments in two. They will henceforth serve him no longer, for he possesses Elijah's mantle, the double portion of his spirit. It is in this power that he will walk in the midst of Israel. May it be likewise with us! May we tear up our old garment after having put on Christ, that we may present Him in testimony to the world!

2 Kings 2: 13-25

Elisha, or Christ In The Spirit

Here we see the figure of the prophet Elisha very clearly portrayed as a type, for as we have already mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, his character is essentially typical. If Elijah on the last day of his earthly course represents Christ as the prophetic witness in Israel, what then does this Elisha who is so intimately associated with him represent — this Elisha who backs up his testimony, who crosses the river of death with him, who at his ascension receives a double measure of his spirit? In order to be well understood, let us begin with a little prophetic survey.

During the Messiah's course here below a few disciples, constituting a feeble, faithful Jewish remnant morally separated from the nation, persevered to the end in following Jesus, Jehovah's Anointed and the Sent One of God, the great Prophet of Israel. He, rejected by the nation, associates them with Himself in the results of His death and of His resurrection. We are not speaking of the place they hold in the Church. This latter does not come onto the scene in the Old Testament narratives and might at most, as we have said above, be considered here as mysteriously hidden in the person of Elijah-Christ gone up to heaven. We are speaking here of Jewish disciples, at the head of whom were the twelve, who then constituted the true remnant of Israel. As such they received from Christ a double measure of His Spirit in the form of miracles and acts of power, and were able to perform "greater works" than He in the midst of the people. At Pentecost we see the accomplishment, from the Jewish point of view, of the things announced by the prophet Joel: "Upon my bondmen and upon my bondwomen in those days will I pour out of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy . . . your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." No doubt, even at that moment this power from on high, according to Joel, was not limited to the children of Israel, for God said: "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh" (Acts 2: 17-19). In the future when Joel's prophecy will be fulfilled, the nations will have part in this gift. Only, this prophecy, indicating the participation of the nations in the gift of the Holy Spirit, afforded room on the day of Pentecost for opening the door to Christ's Church —  to the Church, a marvelous parenthesis in the history of the ways of God, an interval during which a heavenly Assembly is being formed here below, a body composed of Jews and Gentiles and united to its risen Head in glory. It was no less true that a Jewish remnant, powerfully endowed with the Spirit of prophecy, was revealed to the eyes of all at Pentecost. To be a part of this remnant, it was necessary to have followed the Messiah throughout all His course upon earth and to have seen Him go up to heaven (Acts 1: 21, 22). "If thou see me" said Elijah, "when I am taken from thee." This remnant, according to the prophecy of Joel cited in Acts 2, had not yet at that moment reached its final destiny and full development. It was, in the strictest sense of the word, represented by the twelve apostles. The Jews rejected their testimony, thus depriving themselves of the times of refreshing predicted by the prophet, and God used the nation's unbelief and its rebellion against the Holy Spirit to form the Church, the bride of the Second Man, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.

But the Church parenthesis will close, and the prophetic times will commence again. The remnant of Israel, of which the Prophets and the Psalms keep telling us, will come upon the scene again with double the prophetic spirit of Elijah, uniting itself, so to speak, to the Jewish disciples who once accompanied the Lord in His course here. Notice carefully that for them, as for Elisha, it will only be that the spirit of Elijah, whether it be in miraculous power or in prophetic understanding, will be upon them, and not in them as with the Christian.

In this short explanation we would in no wise pretend to present the prophet Elisha as a type of the remnant. That would be to understand the importance of his role quite imperfectly. No doubt the Spirit can avail Himself of vessels appropriate to His use, as He made use of Elisha after Elijah's ascension, but whatever the vessel may be, the important thing is that which it contains. Elisha is the spirit of Elijah come again in twofold power and in grace to bless the faithful of the remnant and to regather them. It is Christ in the Spirit, the prophetic Spirit of Christ availing Himself of instruments, no doubt, but returning in the end times first of all to the sons of the prophets, that is to say, to the remnant, properly speaking, then to such in Israel who have faith when apostasy reaches its height. It is on behalf of this remnant that Elisha performs miracles, but in the midst of the people blinded by the final revolt. Thus the children of the kingdom that Christ will establish on earth shall be separated by Him. As far as the human instruments which the prophetic Spirit will use to this effect are concerned, we are not in a position to point them out specifically. Let it suffice to say that if John the Baptist had been received, he would have been the Elijah that was to come; that in the future Elijah will come again and will restore all things; that there will be two witnesses (symbolic of two bodies of witnesses) at Jerusalem, acting in the prophetic spirit and in the power of Elijah and of Moses.

The testimony entrusted to Elisha has, as we have already suggested, a double character corresponding to the double gift of Elijah's mantle (1 Kings 19: 19; 2 Kings 2: 13) — a character of judgment similar to that which his master, a prophet of the law, had exercised here below, judgment which Christ Himself will not execute until the end of the time of the gospel's grace; and a character of grace toward everyone who would be faithful in Israel, to bring back to these witnesses those whom their testimony will reach, and grace for the conversion of the Gentiles.

Elisha had passed through the Jordan dry-shod the first time in the company of his master, when the latter, smiting the waters with his mantle, had compelled the river of death to yield before his power. Left alone, Elisha now does the same. "He . . . stood by the bank of the Jordan; and he took the mantle of Elijah which had fallen from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah? He also smote the waters, and they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over" (vv. 13-14). It is always to Christ that the Spirit bears witness. Elisha experiences the power of Elijah's name over death, not of his own name. He begins again the history of Israel at the place where

Elijah had passed over, not at the beginning (Gilgal) but at the end of his course. Israel of old had crossed the Jordan in the flesh to meet up with sure destruction. Elijah had crossed it to go up to heaven and then to send Elisha back into the land of promise with his prophet's mantle and a double portion of his spirit. Elisha crosses over the river by virtue of Elijah's having crossed — in the name of Elijah, and with Elijah's mantle. "He also," his representative by the Spirit, "smote the waters." Death is powerless before the power of the Spirit of life in Elisha. By the Spirit, as conqueror over death, he recommences the history of the new Israel. It is no longer a people in the flesh who are entering Canaan in order to be rejected at last; it is a new man returning to the people in the power of the Spirit of Christ, the conqueror over death, a new man about to bring to the sons of the prophets, then to the nation, and still later to Gentiles (Naaman) the fruits of this victory and deliverance. The sons of the prophets recognize this power.

So it will be at the time of the end. The prophetic spirit will return to Israel with a completely new power. He will execute, doubtless in the power of Elijah, vengeance against the enemies of the people, just as do the two witnesses in Revelation. But here it is a matter of grace rather than of judgment; the testimony will be one of grace for the blessing of the faithful and the regathering of the entire remnant. The sons of the prophets, gradually enlightened, will recognize this power and will gather themselves around it. The history of the true Israel, having its starting point in Christ, can then begin again to the glory of God.

The sons of the prophets see Elisha (v. 15) They were at Jericho, the place of the curse. They did not yet know of Elijah's ascension, just as the prophetic remnant of the end times will not at first know of the resurrection and ascension of Christ. Thomas in the Gospel of John in figure represents this remnant. He has to be convinced by sight of the resurrection of the Lord. And so the sons of the prophets, at first unbelieving like Thomas, go to look for Elijah. They would like to find upon earth the one who had been taken up to heaven. This was perhaps a good desire; in any case, this searching at once demonstrates both their attachment to Elijah and their ignorance. Christ will return for His people; but it is the devil who says, "Behold, here is the Christ, or there," when He is still in heaven. Thus Elisha, the prophetic spirit sent by Christ, says, "Ye shall not send," But he condescends greatly to their ignorance, for the second time Elisha says, "Send" (vv. 16-17). They must be convinced that their hopes, insofar as they were linked to the old order of things in Israel, were in vain. The fifty men searched for three days and found nothing The Messiah is no longer to be found here below. He is living after having, in contrast to Elijah, passed through death in reality to become the Firstborn from among the dead, that which Elijah could not be. These men returned to Elisha. It was not granted the prophets of old, nor will it be for the prophetic remnant of the end, but it was the portion of the first disciples to see Christ going up to heaven. There would be a testimony connected with them as having received the double portion of His Spirit. The sons of the prophets, despite the good intentions of their hearts, were not acting according to the Spirit.

During this time of searching when the spirits of the sons of the prophets were being convicted, Elisha was dwelling at Jericho in the place of the curse (v. 18), but he is a blessing to the men of the city, for he does not solely have the sons of the prophets in view. While a work is taking place in the heart of these latter, there is room for blessing on a vaster scale. The people appeal to Elisha. Jericho, rebuilt upon the place of judgment and contrary to the thoughts of God, was good in terms of its situation. It was not the selection of Jericho that was bad, for when the people had entered into Canaan this enemy city had become the place of divine power and victory. That which was bad was that which men had made of it, a city contrary to the thoughts of God, a real offense against His will. Besides, the result of Hiel's disobedience was that the spring supplying the town was corrupted and that one had to die there. Moreover, the ground was barren; no fruit could be gotten there.

In order that a fountain of life could spring up there, salt in a new cruse was needed — true separation for God, contained in a new nature. This alone could undo the consequences of the corruption brought about by sin and by the disobedience of the people, for the Word does not speak of these corrupted waters until after Hiel's disobedience (1 Kings 16: 34). Only the prophetic remnant (the salt in the new cruse) will be able to carry out this ministry, for, like the twelve who gathered around the Lord, they will bear the true character of children of the kingdom in the end times (Matt. 5-13).

Such then are the two first fruits of the return of a double portion of the prophetic Spirit: those of the people who were prophets become witnesses of the fact that the Messiah is not in the world but that He has been taken up to heaven. The people appeal to Christ's representative here below and recover the blessing through a true spirit of holiness characterizing the new man (see the character of the remnant at the end, in the Psalms), and poured out there where there was previously a fountain of death and of barrenness.

The Word will have its role in this work, for the blessing is spread through the prophetic word: "The saying of Elisha which he spoke" (v. 22). Elisha says — what grace for these men burdened under the consequences of the divine curse: "I have healed these waters: there shall not be from thence any more death or barrenness" (v. 21). Such is the ultimate result of the witness of the Holy Spirit in Israel in the end times. Spiritual blessing replaces all the misery that has weighed down a part of this poor people, given over to apostasy. This is the main great fact represented in type by Elisha's dwelling at Jericho.

But another fact should not be passed over in silence (vv. 23-24). Elisha goes up to Bethel. Little boys, representing unintelligent, mocking, unbelieving people, come forth from Bethel just at the moment when the prophet is going to meet God in His house, in the place of His unchangeable promises. What an anomaly! Children, created to give praise, mock the man of God! those of an age characterized according to God's thoughts by trust and respect for such who are above them insult the prophet! Instead of recognizing the God of the promise, they mock His servant and despise him. "Go up, bald head!" they cry out to him, because in his person he is showing signs of decrepitude, of old age (just as the remnant in the Psalms, Ps. 71: 9, 18), and of reproach. Yet nonetheless the law declares such a man to be clean and not defiled (Lev. 13: 40-41). Those of whom God should have expected simplicity of faith reject the representative and witness of the Messiah, identified with the feeble, bowed down remnant, and make fun of his appearance. It would seem too that they are mocking His master, Elijah. "Go up, bald head!" they say. They do not believe in Elijah's having been taken up. Folly like this is not even proper for children! Where is the promise of His coming? Is not the world the same today? These insults are so much the more odious in that they are directed at the Spirit of Christ, come back in grace and not in judgment as Elijah. Elisha turns back, for he has the promises before him and not judgment, "and cursed them in the name of Jehovah." They become the prey of a pitiless, cruel power that seizes and tears them.

"And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria" (v. 25). The apostate people did not want Bethel, but the prophetic remnant after having recovered the promises made to Christ withdraws to Carmel. He comes to "a fertile field" to enjoy peace and fellowship with his God there. There it was that Elijah had gone up after the judgment of the priests of Baal; there Elisha ascends after cursing the mockers. Carmel was a place of intercession for Elijah; from there a gracious rain of blessing had fallen upon Israel. "The Spirit,' says Isaiah, shall "be poured upon us from on high.. and the wilderness become a fruitful field (a Carmel).. and righteousness dwell in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places" (Isa. 32: 15-19). Thus we have here come in type to the close of a cycle, to millennial blessing.

Elisha's return to Samaria brings the prophet back, in a measure, to the midst of our historical events.

In bringing this important chapter to a close, let us briefly summarize the career of Elijah, now completed, and that of Elisha in this passage.

Elijah, the great prophet of the law, brings this broken law to God at Horeb. He judges the prophets of Baal; he judges Ahab and Jezebel; he judges Ahaziah and his satellites by fire from heaven; he designates Hazel and Jehu as executors of judgment. In this he is not a type of Christ, except insomuch as Christ will execute judgment, but after this time of grace. He is, on the other hand, the type of Christ's forerunner John the Baptist, the greatest of the prophets of the old covenant (Mal. 4: 5; Matt. 11: 14; Luke 1: 17; Matt. 10-12).

Elijah, the rejected prophet, turns to the nations (the widow of Sarepta), raises their dead, and sends showers of blessing down upon Israel. In this capacity he represents the ministry of grace brought in by the Lord.

Elijah retraces Israel's path as being himself the true Israel, obtains the promises, in grace takes the place that the people had brought upon themselves by their unfaithfulness (Jericho), victoriously crosses the river of death, and is taken up to heaven. This is the path of Christ as servant and prophet in Israel.

Elisha, first a type of the remnant, the servant of Christ the prophet as He had walked upon earth, follows Him to the end in all His walk of holiness and sees Him go up to heaven.

Elisha, the prophetic Spirit of Christ with the remnant, receives the double portion of the Spirit of Christ who has gone up to heaven, retraces the path of Christ except for Gilgal, the circumcision of Christ having taken place at the Jordan, in death. His path above all is a path of grace and of restoration for the inhabitants of the accursed city except for the judgment at the end on the mockers who form a part of the apostate people. The sons of the prophets are the prophetic remnant, the sound but ignorant element of the people before Elisha returns to them with the double portion of Elijah's spirit. Lastly, Elisha dwells in peace in the fertile field of millennial blessings.

2 Kings 3 - 2 Kings 8: 15

Jehoram and the War Against Moab

2 Kings 3

Elisha

"And Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat King of Judah; and he reigned twelve years" (v. 1).

Our purpose is not to explain all the chronological difficulties raised by the reign of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah. (Compare 2 Kings 1: 17; 2 Kings 3: 1; 2 Kings 8: 16; 1 Kings 22: 51; 2 Chr. 20: 31). We shall come back to the most important of these in 2 Kings 8. Unbelief, quick to find fault with God's Word, has not failed to criticize some apparent errors here. To admit a copyist's mistake (always a possibility) in 2 Kings 1: 17 would only remove half the difficulty. The believer waits upon God, without needing to account for everything, and at the right time and place receives light as a recompense for his confidence.

In this chapter we find the prophet grappling with the circumstances of the world round about him. What troubles is the man who comes down from Mount Carmel to visit Samaria going to meet! Moab had rebelled against Israel; this was the consequence of Ahab's unfaithfulness (2 Kings 1: 1), but it lay heavy, as a judgment from God, upon Ahaziah, his unworthy successor. It was customary for subjugated kings to throw off the yoke of their oppressors just as soon as there was a change of reign (vv. 4, 5). The politically-minded man sees nothing more than this in this rebellion of Moab, while the believer recognizes God's hand in chastening or in judgment therein.

Jehoram, the son of Ahab, in one sense had shown himself less irreligious than his father. He had removed the idol of Baal set up by his father, yet without destroying his prophets, as one can infer from Elisha's reply in verse 13. Outwardly he gave up this abominable worship, but it troubled him very little to let its spirit remain. What he did not at all give up was the national religion instituted by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which masked a gross form of idolatry under the guise of the religion of the true God.

Elisha is witness to the alliance between Jehoram of Israel and Jehoshaphat against Moab. Jehoram here follows the tradition of the reign of his father who had allied himself with this same Jehoshaphat against the Syrians, but he goes even further than his father in evil. Needing to pass through the territory of Edom to reach Moab (v. 8), he includes this idolatrous nation, well-known for its implacable enmity against the Lord's people, in his alliance. What a picture of the world whose politics do not take God into account at all!

According to man everything is calculated for certain success; the little warlike country of Moab despite its valor would not be able to resist this powerful confederation. But God is there — the only One whom Jehoram should have taken into account and whom he had outrageously left aside.

And what are we to think about honest Jehoshaphat, already instructed in the thoughts of God by a previous experience (1 Kings 22), and a few years later falling back into the follies that had brought him to the brink of ruin? "I will go up," he says, "I am as thou, my people as thy people, my horses, as thy horses" — exactly the same words he had previously said to Ahab. Kindness and amiability in the world's opinion, the desire to please it, alliance with it in order to promote common interests, are all dreadful obstacles to a faithful walk; and when the Christian does not call these feelings by their right name — sin — they ruin his testimony and contribute toward preserving the world in a false sense of security, since it deludes itself into thinking it is walking in the Christian way because children of God are walking with it, while in fact it is the Christian who is walking in the way of the world. In short, this walk, if it does not bring immediate judgment upon the believer, is at least barren for him, as the history of Jehoshaphat makes manifest; and if it is profitable to anyone, it is to the apostate King Jehoram whose power and prosperity are increased by this alliance. Jehoshaphat was what one would call a broadminded, tolerant person. The divisor of Israel to him was an accomplished fact, something he no longer felt, if he had ever felt it. He would neither strike out against the opinions nor the religion of Jehoram. He willingly associated himself with him under cloak of being useful to him, but he forgot one very important thing: that he was joining himself together with a man who was dishonoring God, outraging His holiness, and taking no account of His Word. Naturally the world highly approves of such an alliance and promotes such believers as examples for those who separate themselves from evil to be true witnesses of Christ. "I am as thou, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses." And why not? says the world. Because I would give up my testimony, I reply, if not God Himself, from the moment that I accept an alliance with a world that is hostile to God.

This walk has yet other, even more serious disadvantages. Like Jehoshaphat one can ally himself with a Jehoram, representing the world which still keeps up the outward appearance of a heavenly religion. In Jehoshaphat's eyes that, no doubt, seemed to be worth more than his alliance with Ahab. He perhaps cherished the illusion that since Jehoram had taken away the column of Baal, an alliance with him would be permissible. In fact, this was worse than the first, for it led to an alliance with Edom, something that poor Jehoshaphat would hardly have suspected, or for which he perhaps did not consider himself liable.

Ahab before going to war had gathered together the prophets to inquire whether he should do so (1 Kings 22: 6). Jehoram doesn't even seem to think of this; Jehoshaphat, alas, no more than he. He had been more faithful with regard to Ahab (1 Kings 22: 5). When a believer lapses back into evil again instead of abstaining from it, his conscience becomes deadened and he winds up no longer feeling the need for the direction from the Word which he had previously felt necessary.

These three kings, so sadly associated together, go then and instead of meeting the enemy have to deal with circumstances that give proof to them that one cannot forget God without danger. They lack water. The king of Israel says: "Alas! that Jehovah has called these three kings together, to give them into the hand of Moab!" Until now he had only followed his own will; when he does remember the Lord, he accuses Him of having led him, along with his two companions, to ruin. The man rebels against his fate, that is to say against God who governs it, instead of acknowledging that he has brought it down upon himself. Godly Jehoshaphat, though lacking the discernment to judge the evil and himself properly, nevertheless has the right though belated thought that it is impossible to get out of the difficulty without inquiring of the Lord. Jehoram on his part knows nothing of the existence of Elisha, the prophet in Israel, and feels no more need in presence of disaster to inquire of one who brings the Word of God than when setting out on his campaign. Happily, one of his servants knew Elisha. The little ones of this earth are aware of divine resources when the great ones are not even inquiring about them. They are also more able to esteem the character of the prophet who in self-forgetfulness had been such a perfect servant to Elijah that his name, as we have seen, was not mentioned from the time of his first call until that day when he was called to replace his master in his mission. A hateful reminder, no doubt, to Jehoram, for it would recall to mind Elijah and his judgement upon his father, his mother, and his brother.

Jehoshaphat, hearing Elisha's name, regains a proper appreciation of the Word of God: "The word of Jehovah is with him" (v. 12). The three kings go down to the prophet, who pays no attention at all to the king of Edom, refers the King of Israel to the prophet of Baal, and takes account only of weak Jehoshaphat, the only representative,

although in such bad company, of God's testimony in Israel. However poor and inconsistent they may be, the Lord does not forget His own. He takes into account the weakest indication of faithfulness to Himself. As to the ten tribes, they are definitively rejected in the person of their responsible king. As always, the inexhaustible patience of God still suspends the blow that is going to strike him and takes into full account the slightest return to Himself, but this dreadful word rings out: "What have I to do with thee?" Is not this that "Verily I say unto you, I do not know you" of Matthew 25: 12, worse even than the sentence pronounced upon Ahaziah: "Thou shalt certainly die?"

Yet Elisha is a prophet of grace. He is not ignorant of the evil; but instead of pronouncing judgment, he points out a marvellous resource for these three kings in their calamity. In order to speak of deliverance he needs to abstract himself from that which is before his eyes and which might rouse him to pronounce a sentence of judgment without mercy. "Now fetch me a minstrel," he says. How could he better abstract himself than by lifting up his soul to God, for it was upon stringed instruments that the heart of the believer would breathe up to Jehovah his praise, his desires, his needs, or his complaints. The remedy worked: "The hand of Jehovah was upon him." Then he was able to reveal by what miraculous intervention (vv. 16-19) Jehovah would bring about deliverance. They must prepare ditches to receive water, and the Lord would fill them. He does not work any miracle of grace which does not at the same time have the goal of putting faith into action. We shall see more than one example of this in the history of the prophet Elisha. Here Jehovah does not intervene, as He does on other occasions, through natural means — wind or rain. He cuts short all the unbelieving reasoning of the confederated kings.

The deliverance takes place in the morning, at the same hour that the sacrifice was being offered upon the altar. Jeroboam's national idolatrous worship had nothing to do with this hour, and God in no way recognizes it; His intervention is in relationship to the altar of the temple at Jerusalem. It is this latter which, so to speak, opens those marvellous floodgates by which a whole army is going to be given to drink. Thus it is with the cross of Christ. However far away it may appear to be, it is at the hour of that offering that God gives heed to save all those who trust in His Word. The water of life originates in the death of a victim. But that which is life for some is death for others. Moab, deceived by appearances, rushes headlong to its doom at the very moment when Jehovah is delivering those who had received His message. For not having discerned and acknowledged the deliverance sent by God Moab is destroyed, and the victory is on the side of those who have drunk of the waters prepared by grace. Is this not like a partial fulfillment of the prophecy of Balaam: "Water shall flow out of his buckets...and his king shall be higher than Agag" (Num. 24: 7)?

Israel alone is mentioned as smiting the enemy and effecting their destruction, according to Elisha's prediction. The King of Moab with seven hundred men tries to break through to the King of Edom, no doubt to take refuge with him, but he does not succeed. Then he offers up his firstborn son for a burnt offering upon the wall. Does not this call to mind that which Jehovah says much later with respect to this same Moab: "Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul" (Micah 6: 7)?

This horrible sacrifice calls forth the indignation of Israel's allies, whose vengeance has driven Moab to this extremity;* they withdraw from the victor to return home. What a useless victory! Moab may believe itself delivered by this appalling offering to its god and remain unvanquished amid its ruins, ready for worse reprisals. Such will ever be the result of human victories, when it is not God who leads his people to victory. Edom, allied for a day, on whom Israel had counted, abandons her and is indignant with her from the moment that she goes into battle with the name of Jehovah as her banner. Jehoshaphat also leaves her and returns into his own country with the same feelings, though they arise from other causes. Jehoram must learn that a religion that only has the appearance of being true will find no lasting support, whether among avowed unbelievers or among those who keep the testimony of God.

{*This at least is the meaning that I believe must be attributed to this word.}

2 Kings 4: 1-7

The Prophet's Widow

As these chapters unfold before our eyes, we are able to notice in them the contrast between the days of Elijah and those of Elisha. Elijah still acknowledges Israel and its king, though it be to pronounce judgment upon them. For Elisha the king no longer exists: "I would not look toward thee nor see thee" (2 Kings 3: 14); the people is rejected; and Judah alone still counts for something in the eyes of the prophet. But while in the days of Elijah the faithful remnant was hidden and Jehovah alone could distinguish the seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal, in the days of Elisha this remnant comes into the full light. It is to this remnant that the prophet addresses himself; the sons of the prophets are the special object of his ministry. This ministry no doubt reaches beyond them, as we shall see, but their role is quite the preponderant one, and this gives its own particular stamp to the typical character of this man of God.

What an environment this is in which he carries on his activities! The sons of prophets are without resources in Israel; they are hungry, they are thirsty, their destitution is absolute. The first seven verses of our chapter bring this condition into relief in a singular way. The prophet's wife is without any outward support whatever; the head of the family has been taken away through death; a heartless creditor wants to seize her two sons to make them his slaves. The widow has nothing with which to ransom them from his hand, nothing except a little oil in the house, and the oil, the symbol of spiritual power, is very nearly gone. Can this feeble resource suffice? It will be the same in the last days before the deliverance of the remnant. An apostate people surrounds them; the Antichrist makes them feel his cruel yoke and intends to enslave them, but Jehovah has divine resources for them; they learn to cry out to him: "Thou knowest that thy servant feared Jehovah." Does one not hear here the language of uprightness so often expressed in the Psalms? Christ is absent. Jehovah no longer dwells in the midst of His people, but His Spirit is present in a double measure with the prophet.

Elisha says to the widow, "What shall I do for thee?" This poor woman whose cry has reached the right place becomes the object of tender solicitude. But first of all she needs to confess to the prophet what resources she has at her disposal: "Thy handmaid has not anything at all in the house but a pot of oil." The word means: just the quantity of oil necessary to anoint oneself. Nothing to pay off her debts, nothing to clear herself, nothing but a very little measure of spiritual power. "Go," says the prophet, "borrow for thyself vessels abroad from all thy neighbors, empty vessels; let it not be few; and go in, and shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and pour out into all those vessels, and set aside what is full." There is fullness of spiritual resources in Elisha; but empty vessels are needed; the poor widow cannot gather too many. She is to borrow them from all her neighbors, bring them into the house from outside, and then, having collected them together, shut the door upon herself. It is an intimate scene in which the apostate nation is in no wise called upon to take part. Three times in this chapter (vv. 4, 21, 33) the door is shut, clearly indicating that these scenes have nothing to do with a public testimony such as that of Elisha's great predecessor.

Empty vessels are needed; to be filled with anointing oil it is necessary to be emptied of self. The people of Jericho needed a new cruse and salt; they needed a new nature, sanctified for God, that the curse might be turned away from their city; the daughter of the prophets and her children, already in possession of a little oil, did not have to procure new vessels in order to obtain a full measure. God avails Himself of the spiritual resources that He finds among His own, however little they may be. It was the same with the disciples when the loaves were multiplied. They told the Lord: "We have not here save five loaves and two fishes." Jesus told them: "Bring them here to me"; then, having blessed and broken the loaves, He gave them to the disciples who distributed them to the crowds, thus availing Himself of that which they had in order to bless five thousand men by their means.

Here the blessing does not stop until there are no more vessels to fill. A fixed number of vessels receive it, just as later, at the time of the end, 144,000 will be sealed in Israel, but for each one the measure is full. Just as the first disciples at Pentecost "were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2: 4), so it will be for the remnant at the time of the latter rain according to Joel's prophecy.

The vessels filled, the oil must be sold — the blessing imparted spreads. Such will be the testimony of the remnant in the last days. Many will share in the spiritual benefits and will themselves become possessors of these blessings. The wise among the people, the bearers of the Word, these sons of the prophets, shall teach righteousness to the many (Dan. 11: 33; Dan. 12: 3). So the prophetic family lives and is sustained with the spiritual anointing which is multiplied for them and which fills their hearts with joy, and the supply is abundant for others.

This miracle reminds us of that of the widow of Zarephath; only in the latter case, it is the blessing brought to the nations by the Messiah; here it is the blessing brought to the remnant of Israel by the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ.

Let us not miss repeating here that all these miracles of Elisha call upon faith. The prophet's widow must gather together the vessels, being persuaded of things she did not yet see, just as in the previous chapter it was necessary to prepare the ditches before refreshing water could come to fill them.

2 Kings 4: 8-37

The Shunammite

Besides the sons of the prophets, there was a testimony of individual faith in the midst of this people who were already judged and, in fact rejected. The Shunammite woman is an example of this. This woman was rich,* in contrast to the widow of the man of the sons of the prophets who was absolutely destitute; but she was a woman of faith, and all her story proves this.

{*It is worth mentioning that the Word generally chooses the rich as examples of those who do not attain salvation. Except for the second thief on the cross, I cannot remember another poor person given us as an example of this. Judas carried the bag; he was the only disciple who had something The gospel was announced to the poor; whereas the rich, like the rich man in the story of Lazarus (Luke 16), have their part in this life. The barns of the rich man whose soul was required of him (Luke 12) overflowed with grain. In the Epistle of James the rich, who had heaped up treasure in the last days and had condemned the just, come under a curse. In the parable of the Great Supper (Luke 14) it was the rich who said, "I pray thee, hold me for excused," and were rejected. The young man who was so rich and likeable (Luke 18) deprived himself of salvation when it was a matter of giving up all to follow Jesus. The prodigal son was rich when he left his father, but had been stripped of everything when he returned to him.

But there are exceptions to this curse that riches carry with them, for if it is impossible with man for a rich man to be saved, yet all things are possible with God. Here the Shunammite woman offers us a precious example. Zaccheus who received Jesus into his house, and Joseph of Arimathea who took care of the Lord when He died (Matt. 27: 57) also were both rich men.}

She exercises hospitality towards the stranger who passed by Shunem, and at the conclusion of several visits she takes account of the character of her guest. Perhaps his conversation, and doubtless the entire behavior of the prophet causes her to acknowledge his character. She does not judge by her first impression, but waits for outward evidences to enlighten her. She has the sober good sense of faith. "Behold now," she says to her husband, " I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us continually." She had begun by constraining him to stay, and the prophet had found there an atmosphere answering to his own character. Every time he passed by, he turned in there. Their natures were drawn one to the other. "This is a holy man of God," she says; to her heart he has not only the official character of one bearing the Word, but she acknowledges him as "holy," as really separated to God in his practical life. For having a gift from God is not everything; to properly accredit such a gift, there must also be the moral character corresponding to it. The old prophet of Bethel (1 Kings 13) had a gift without this character. How important it is for every one of the Lord's laborers to take heed to this. One's gift, however outstanding it may be, remains fruitless if it is not accompanied by moral authority; it is the moral authority that reaches the consciences of the hearers more than the words that accompany it. And moreover, the bearer of the gift himself loses his persuasive energy when his conscience is not right before God. "And I hope also," says the apostle, "that we have been manifested in your consciences" (2 Cor. 5: 11). So it was with Elisha. "I perceive that this is a holy man of God," the Shunammite said of him.

And see how she realizes what is suitable for a man of God. Her riches might have given rise to her preparing a retreat for him furnished with every possible comfort. No, she removes herself from any thoughts of her own position, only to think of what might be suitable for a man to whom riches have no value, or who might even despise them as a snare of the enemy. What is important to her is to receive Elisha not merely in passing, but to prepare him a dwelling in her house. The more we get acquainted with Christ, along with His Word which reveals Him (and which Elisha was the bearer of), the more we will desire that He be a part of our life, and that these words be inscribed on the door of our house: "Here dwells the Word of God." The Word is no longer a passing enjoyment for us then, or the reading of it a duty attended to on occasion, but it will be a part of our life, of our family, of our self. In the Christian most favored with this world's goods, true faith will always manifest itself by this outward simplicity. "Let us make, I pray thee, a small upper chamber with walls, and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a seat, and a lampstand; and it shall be when he cometh to us, he shall turn in thither." Only a lack of intelligence and an absence of communion with the Lord will act in an opposite way. Those who are part of the family of God and who possess this world's goods often do not think enough of the danger of offering their brethren engaged in the work of the lord more than what they need, more than what they are accustomed to. If a brother is spiritual, even relative luxury will make him ill at ease and will be an obstacle to his freely opening his heart, ready to bring his hosts something from God. If his Christian life is weak, such prosperity will be a snare for him; and allowing himself to be won over by it, he will return to the place where it is offered, no more simply for the Lord alone, but to satisfy his own desires for a well-being which is but a catering to the wants of the flesh.

The devotion and intelligence of this woman win the prophet's heart, as they also attract the heart of Christ; so they receive their reward, too. Elisha calls the Shunammite; he has something to give her. " She stood before him," as he himself stood before the Lord. There is beautiful harmony in the reciprocal positions of this man of God and this woman of faith. He wishes to reward her care for him, but first he tests her to see whether their two hearts are beating together. "Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host?" Does she have a desire to increase her resources in the world? She refuses. We shall see later that these things were added to her at a time of need when they were no longer a snare to her. Here, she now answers, "I dwell among mine own people." Beautiful answer, worthy of a pious woman! She recognized this nation over which judgment is already suspended as her people, and she does not disassociate herself from it. She sees in it that which God alone can distinguish, that which faith alone can realize in it. As long as God still recognizes something in it for Himself, this people is His people, and she has no other desire than to be part of it. In the midst of the ruin she cleaves to the people of God, just as Elijah with his altar of twelve stones when the twelve tribes no longer existed as an entity. She does not need anything else; she is satisfied with the rest, the fellowship, and the peace which this dwelling affords her amidst the existing disorder.

In our day today true faith does not differ from that of the Shunammite; she is not seeking the amelioration of a state of things far from the thoughts of God, but she sees what God has established in His counsels. While being conscious of the ruin of the Church as God's house and people here below, she lives in peace, holding to that which the Lord has established from the beginning, to this church, built upon the resurrected Christ; she views the Church with the Lord's thoughts and affections, even as He will present her one day in glory. Faith does not seek to rebuild ruins and say, "I dwell among mine own people," as though all were in order, because