Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: Elijah's death was just as incredible as his ministry. We'll see how next on Hope From the Word.

Guest (Male): He didn't die a normal death. Moses died a normal death. The Scripture says no one was with him when he died. God buried him. Nobody knew where he was buried. Elijah had a very prophetic ministry in many ways, similar to Moses. They both parted the waters. They both had very prophetic ministries. They both were leaders of the nation, and you could make a list of many similarities.

Elijah, however, was very fortunate, one of only two guys in the Old Testament not to die a natural death, to be taken up into heaven without dying. And Elisha saw this event happen. Give me one pure and holy passion. Give me one magnificent obsession. Give me one glorious ambition for my life: to know and follow hard after you. To know and follow hard after you.

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Hope From the Word, the radio ministry of Calvary Chapel of Marlton. Once again, we'll be taking another look at the great prophet Elijah. Elijah did many miraculous things in his lifetime, but his death might be the most interesting thing about it, and that's because he didn't exactly die.

We'll see what happens to him instead as we join our teacher, Pastor Bill Luebkemann. If you're able, you can open your Bible to Second Kings chapter one, verse 10. Here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Luebkemann: "If I am a man of God," Elijah replied, "may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men." Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his 50 men. Didn't this guy hear what happened to the first 50? We're going to find out the guy in charge of the third 50 heard about what happened the first two times.

Now you say, "Well, how did anyone hear about it if they all got consumed?" Well, someone must have been watching. Someone must have been within eyesight nearby. Someone saw the 50 men go up there and was wondering, "Where are those 50 men going?" And they watched, and then they saw the fire come down. And when fire comes down from heaven, I wouldn't be surprised if it makes a pretty loud noise also, in addition to being pretty bright.

So perhaps they heard something as well as saw something. This second group of 50 went anyway, so the king sent a third captain with his 50 men. This guy is smarter though. This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. "Man of God," he begged, "please have respect for my life and the lives of these 50 men, your servants." I'll give you the Luebkemann paraphrase: "Give us a break."

"See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two captains and all their men, but now have respect for my life." Here's a guy that's at least polite. He's speaking to Elijah in a polite way. And the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, "Go down with him. Do not be afraid of him." So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.

Here's a guy that treated the prophet with proper respect and Elijah went along. He told the king, "This is what the Lord says. Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die." And so he died according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken.

Because Ahaziah had no son, Joram succeeded him as king in the second year of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. As for all the other events of Ahaziah's reign and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? So Elijah did go down. The angel of the Lord told him not to be worried or concerned about what would happen to him. He went down and delivered this message from the Lord directly to him.

And at no point do you see this king repent. When his messengers came back to him and said, "We met this guy, and he was the guy with the hairy garment on and everything, and he told us this thing," he could have torn his clothes, sat in ashes, put on sackcloth, and he could have repented. And you see with Ahab his father, remember just a few chapters ago, his father did something similar.

Ahab repented. First Kings 21:27: "When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly." Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: "Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son." Well, God knew that Ahab at least humbled himself when he was confronted with his situation.

But his son wouldn't even do that. And then, when Elijah went down and saw the king in person, yet another opportunity wasted, yet another chance to humble himself. It's not recorded that he even answered Elijah. Elijah told him, "You will certainly die," and it says he died. Opportunity wasted. Whenever the Lord brings this kind of judgment—"You will certainly die because of what you've done"—at least try humbling yourself, buddy. Who knows? Maybe God might relent and put off the judgment.

Now we skip forward a little bit in chapter two to the time when Elijah's time on earth is up. It's nearing the end of his ministry. When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here. The Lord has sent me to Bethel." But Elisha said, "As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.

Now, we've come to this day in the ministry of Elijah when it's going to be his last day on earth, and he knows it. And Elisha knows it, and apparently so do a lot of other people. I think it was in the newspaper, on the internet, or something. A lot of the prophets seem to know it, as you're going to find out here. And Elijah is aware that it's his last day, and Elisha is aware of it also.

It seems like he's trying to get rid of Elisha. Maybe he's testing his faithfulness to see how faithful Elisha will be to be with him to the very end here. And Elisha says—and so several times here—Elijah says, "You wait here. I'm going to go on." And Elisha says, "No, I'm not waiting here. I'm not missing out. I'm sticking by you. I want to see what's going to happen. I want to be there. As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave your side."

So they went down to Bethel. The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, "Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?" "Yes, I know," Elisha replied, "but do not speak of it." I guess it bothered him. Even though Elijah didn't die in the traditional sense but was taken up to heaven, he was still not going to be on earth anymore, and he was going to be missed.

And Elisha was going to mourn in some way. And I don't know if he knew exactly what was going to happen or not or how it was going to happen, but Elisha says, "I know that. I don't want to talk about it. Keep it to yourself." Then Elijah repeats the whole thing with a different place. Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here, Elisha. The Lord has sent me to Jericho." And he replied, "As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you."

So they went to Jericho. The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, "Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?" "Yes, I know," he replied, "but do not speak of it." So again, they go from Bethel to Jericho. Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here. The Lord has sent me to the Jordan." And he replied, "As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you."

So the two of them walked on. Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance. So you have a bunch of guys watching. This is what they call a gaper delay, taking the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?" So it's kind of like you get the idea Elisha's passed the test a few times here. He stuck by his master's side. There's going to be some reward, perhaps. "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied. "You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said. "Yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours; otherwise not."

A double portion. "Let me have twice as much of the spirit as you have." Well, it doesn't necessarily mean that. You may remember that the firstborn always got a double portion of the inheritance, right? The firstborn inherited a double portion of what the others got. So if there were three sons, the firstborn got a double portion of what the other two got. So if there were three sons, the estate was divided four ways.

The first son got half and the other two got a quarter. That was a double portion. If there were six sons, the estate was divided seven ways, and the first son got a double portion. So really, what he might be saying here is, "Let me be like your only son here, your firstborn. Let me be like your firstborn son. Let me have the inheritance that a firstborn son would get."

"I'm like your firstborn child here. I want to inherit what you got. I want to inherit your ministry. I want to inherit your role to the people here. I want to inherit from you what you got going with the spirit of God. Not called the Holy Spirit really at this point." And Elijah said, "That's a big thing that you're asking for. But nevertheless, if you see me when I'm taken from you, that's how you'll know that it's yours. If you don't see me, then you're out of luck."

As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them. And Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart. So they're just walking along at this point.

They've gone past Bethel. They've gone past Jericho. They've crossed over the Jordan River. They left this company of prophets behind watching. I think they're probably out of sight of them now. And all of a sudden, this chariot and horses shows up. Only thing is, they're made out of fire. And somehow neither one of them gets burned. But somehow he moves out of the way when this chariot pulls in there. Hey, you saw a chariot of fire, you'd move out of the way too.

And this chariot of fire picks up Elijah here. While he's taken up in the whirlwind, one commentator I read said it wasn't really the chariot that brought him up into heaven; it was the whirlwind. Well then, why is there a chariot there? I think maybe he rode the chariot and the wind blew him up there, but I don't know. You can make your own decision on exactly how that happened. Whatever you decide will be fine with me.

So this chariot shows up. The point is, he didn't die a normal death. Moses died a normal death. The Scripture says no one was with him when he died. God buried him. Nobody knew where he was buried. Elijah had a very prophetic ministry in many ways, similar to Moses. They both parted the waters. They both had very prophetic ministries. They both were leaders of the nation, and you could make a list of many similarities.

Elijah, however, was very fortunate, one of only two guys in the Old Testament not to die a natural death, to be taken up into heaven without dying. And Elisha saw this event happen, and he tore his clothes because he wasn't going to be with him anymore. He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah. Now look, that's kind of the real proof in the pudding that it doesn't say all of Elijah's clothes fell.

It doesn't say his sandals fell off. It's not like his spirit went up on Star Trek where someone's body leaving all their clothes fall on the ground. It doesn't say his shoes were left and his tunic and all his garments, just the cloak—the mantle, as it would say in some versions of the Bible. This was the garment that signified he was a prophet. It was a very significant piece of clothing that was left behind, and God saw to it that when Elijah was taken up, this particular garment was left behind for Elisha to wear, which was even more of a proof, more symbolic of the fact that Elisha was going to be taking over Elijah's ministry.

He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. "Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?" he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. So he was able to do the same exact miracle here that Elijah had done. And this was a very interesting day here.

I hope they have this on video up in heaven. I was saying that last week or on Sunday. I forget what we were talking about, but I was saying I hope they have an extensive video collection because I would like to see how this all came down. But he was going back, struck the water himself, the water parted, and he crossed over on dry ground. By the way, not mud. This was not some wind that happened to strike up.

It wasn't like it was a certain season when the water wasn't very deep and he only had to put on his wading boots and walk over. This was dry ground that he walked over, just like when they came over the opposite direction. The company of the prophets from Jericho who were watching, still standing over there by the way, said, "The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha." And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.

So they recognized God's spirit on this guy. And they recognized Elijah is gone, Elisha now has the spirit of God resting on him. "Look," they said, "we your servants have 50 able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley." Maybe he's somewhere else. Maybe God just moved him.

In the New Testament book of Acts, one of the disciples was transported by the Holy Spirit to another town to continue ministering wherever God needed him to be. Poof, he was there. So they say here, "Maybe it was the Spirit of the Lord that just moved him somewhere else. Maybe he's on some other mountain. Maybe he got blown over to a different valley. Look, we've got 50 able-bodied guys here. Why don't we go search for Elijah, see if we can find him anywhere?"

Elisha replied, "No, do not send them." But they persisted until he was too ashamed to refuse. So he said, "Send them." And they sent 50 men who searched for three days but did not find him. When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, "Didn't I tell you not to go?" So he said, "Look, don't bother searching for him. He's not there." But they insisted.

So finally he got tired of hearing it. He said, "Okay, you want to go, you can go. Fifty of you waste three days. That's 150 man-days. You could have built a house with that or something useful." So they go, they search everywhere, they can't find him. They come back, "We can't find him." "Well, there you go. I told you he wasn't there. He's gone, taken up to heaven." God didn't take him to some other part of the world, some other continent.

He didn't bring him somewhere else so that he could continue his ministry. He took him to heaven. I told you not to be bothered going. Miracle after miracle happens in this chapter here: the parting of the water two times, both directions, Elijah being taken up to heaven, etc. The men of the city said to Elisha, "Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive."

"Bring me a new bowl," he said, "and put salt in it." So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, "This is what the Lord says. I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive." And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.

So while he's there in the town, really, this is the first time Elisha does a miracle on his own. Elijah's gone, he's on his own now. And the men of the city say, "We have a problem with our water supply here, and the water is bad." And he sprinkles some salt in there and says, "The Lord says I'm healing this." Look, this was not the medicinal qualities of salt here. It was not that he was a chemist and he knew that putting salt into the water would solve the problem here.

How much could a bowl of salt do that would make the water good until this day, it says? Until this book was written, for hundreds of years, or however long that was. The fact of the matter is, this was a miracle of God. The salt was some symbolic act that God had him do, upon which point God acted. From there, Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him.

Now the word here could mean young adults. It was used in the Bible to describe people who were even 50 years old. So we're not talking about 12-year-olds here. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead," they said. "Go on up, you baldhead." He turned around, looked at them, and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the youths.

And he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there returned to Samaria. So here you go. These youths come out, these young men come out, and they start to harass him. "Go on up, you baldhead." Now I don't think they were harassing him by calling him a baldhead. I think they were making fun of what he saw happen here when he saw Elijah go up into heaven. Maybe they didn't believe it.

Maybe they heard about what the guy said, "Hey, did you hear that baldhead? He said he was with Elijah and some chariot of fire came down and took him up to heaven. Can you believe anything so crazy as that, so foolish? If that really happened, why didn't he ride that chariot up to heaven? Why is he still down here? He's just making that story up. If that really happened, he should go up also."

I think in effect they were really condemning his faith here, which means they were really putting down the Lord. And they were chewing on the wrong person here when they were attacking the Lord. And he called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And once again, just like we saw before, they could have perhaps repented at this time also, but just like the fire consuming the 51 soldiers, God's not going to harm some innocent person.

Two bears came out of nowhere out of the woods and mauled 42 of the youths. Well, how many were there if two bears could maul 42 of the youths? I have to think some of the youths took off and ran. I mean, you heard about the two guys being chased by the bear and the one guy said, "Don't you know you can't outrun a bear?" And he says, "I don't have to outrun the bear. I only have to outrun you."

And you have to think here, some of them must have taken off and started running. Maybe they all started running. But the two bears still got 42 of them. So how many were there? Put the numbers together in your head and figure that out. Were there 43 and the bear got 42? I doubt it. My money's on the fact that there was 100 or something, that there was a much greater number, that a lot of them got away.

In other words, my guess is this was more of a threatening mob scene type of environment. These bears may have been as much for protection as anything else. It's not that two bears came out and mauled some innocent youths who were just calling names and not causing any harm here. They may have been very threatening to Elisha, and he may have been very well outnumbered. So these bears may very well have saved his life.

And the other 58 youths may have run off. I don't know how many there were, but my guess is if I was there, I would have taken off running. And bears can run pretty fast, but how many people they can maul that fast? If two bears were busy mauling 42 people, still there's a limit to how much a bear can handle. They only have four limbs like we do. So my guess is there was a lot more than 42 youths there and that God rescued him basically from a mob scene.

So we see the end of Elijah's ministry, the beginning of Elisha's ministry, and as we continue here in the next few weeks, we're going to see plenty of miracles that Elisha does that are of a similar nature to the ones that Elijah had been doing.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in Pastor Bill Luebkemann's study of Second Kings. If you'd like to hear this message again, you have several options. Visit our website at ccmarlton.org, download the Hope FM app to your smartphone or tablet, or look for us wherever you find your podcasts.

If you've been thinking about visiting Calvary Chapel of Marlton where Bill serves as pastor, we'd love to have you. Our service times are on Sunday mornings at 10:00. We also meet midweek on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. You can also livestream from home whenever you visit our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton. For more information, go to ccmarlton.org. We hope to see you soon.

Before the day is done, we'd like to connect with you. Share a praise report, prayer request, or what you're learning from this series. You can easily email us from our website, ccmarlton.org, or just call us at 856-983-1662. There's more to come from Bill's study of Second Kings, and we'll have that for you next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton. To know and follow hard after you. To know and follow hard after you. To grow as your disciple in your truth. To grow as your disciple in your truth. This world is empty, pale, and poor compared to knowing you, my Lord. Lead me on and I will run after you. Lead me on and I will run after you.