The Word for today:
2 Kings 1, 2
2 Kings 1, 2
Elijah and Elisha--combined--foreshadow the New Testament church in many ways:
1. Like the church, they are of the same spirit:
And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?" Elisha said, "Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me." (2 Kings 2:9)
And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?" Elisha said, "Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me." (2 Kings 2:9)
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)
2. Elijah is caught up--"raptured"--while still alive. Prior to Jesus' Second Coming, the church who are still alive will be "caught up" to meet Jesus in the air:
Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” So he saw him no more. (2 Kings 2:11-12)
Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” So he saw him no more. (2 Kings 2:11-12)
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
3. Combined, Elijah and Elisha represent a wide range of the attributes of the Savior to come.The church is composed of individual believers who, when combined, form the body of Christ.
Elijah's powerfully dramatic miracles, combined with the common, healing touch of Elisha (who actually performed twice the miracles of Elijah) point out the power and the humility, the strength and vulnerability, the kingly and the lowly, the poetic and the prosaic...the justice and mercy… the seemingly impossible reconciliation of mutually exclusive virtues; in short, the grace and truth of the breathtakingly human Son of God:
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)
Jesus' ministry to official Israel was in the power of Elijah; he began his ministry by cleansing the temple with a whip, a voice of thunder, and eyes of fire. (John 2:13-17)
Jesus' ministry to the individual was the ministry of Elisha—the ministry of grace. (See Matthew 11:28-30.)
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