Week 17 Day 1 – A Momentary Covering
2 Kings 22:8-20; 23:25-30
The story of Josiah further propels the head-spinning tale started by Hezekiah. Hezekiah reformed the nation and got rid of all the idols in Judah. Then his son did a complete 180 and plunged the nation into the depths of idolatry and paganism. Then, two generations later, we meet Josiah, who jerks us back the other direction and brings about a deeper cleansing than even Hezekiah had accomplished. What a roller coaster this has been!
There are a few reasons why Josiah was such a good king:
1. He did the best he could with the knowledge he had.
Notice in 22:9 that Shaphan reported to Josiah that the officials had paid the workers to repair the Temple. At this point in Josiah’s understanding of God, the Temple was the symbol of God’s relationship with the nation. When the Temple fell into disrepair it was evidence that the nation had fallen into a bad relationship with God. This disrepair happened because the priests had been hording the money and not using it to pay the workers to perform the proper maintenance on the building. Josiah desired to rectify the ruined relationship that Judah had with God that was the result of his father and grandfather’s actions. Yet, being the heir of two generations of pagan leaders, he didn’t know what God required. So, he started repairing the Temple...he knew at least that much.
2. He was receptive to truth.
As the workers and priests were physically cleaning out the storerooms they came across the scroll that recorded the Law of Moses. Apparently the previous leaders had thrown it into the back room, discarding it as yesterday’s news. It is hard to imagine, but the king of Jerusalem had never heard the Word of God read before in his life. When he heard it, he instantly submitted himself to it as the authoritative word of God.
3. He responded to God and sought a dialogue with Him.
For the first time in Josiah’s religious experience, God became real. No longer was God an abstract concept that was lost in the external forms of empty religious ceremonies that had been blended with Canaanite customs. Through exposure to the pure Word of God, Josiah realized that God was a living reality; a personality with whom conversation could be engaged. Where did he go to have a conversation? Did he go to the high priest? Did he go to the wealthy power-brokers of the city? Did he even go to Jeremiah (who was preaching at this time)? No. He went to a woman. Huldah was the wife of the man who watched over the temple wardrobe. Perhaps Huldah was one of those unassuming people who had a steady walk with God, who was not ashamed of her faith, and remained consistent to the truth even when everyone around her ridiculed her for being so "backward" and not "accepting" enough of the Canaanite practices that were now side by side with the Temple worship. Perhaps Josiah joined in his aversion to this woman’s bold faith...until today. When God revealed His truth to Josiah through His Word, where did he turn? He went to Huldah.
4. He acted on truth with no hesitation.
Once Josiah knew that he had missed the mark and that the nation was wallowing in the pig-sty of sin, he went right to work to set the record straight. He purged Israel of its idolatry and reconsecrated the Temple to become the vehicle for proper worship that it was intended to be.
5. He had a whole-hearted faith.
The recurring theme of Josiah, which is a recurring theme of the Old Testament, was that he served the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and all his strength. Josiah realized that God doesn’t care about the buildings or the politics or the externals. He cares about a heart that is totally sold out for Him. When the heart is totally surrendered, then the action will naturally flow, with no hesitation and no fear.
Today we need to examine our hearts and ask if we are like Josiah. Are we acting on the information we currently have about God? Are we willing to be open to learn the truth and see if there are errors in our thinking that are evident in the Word of God? Are we willing to act on those things when they are brought to our attention, no matter what the social/political ramifications may be?
A final note about Josiah: He made a difference in his immediate sphere. His righteousness held God’s wrath at bay for a moment. Yet, it was not enough to stave off the coming destruction that was brought about by Manasseh. In many ways we are living in the wake of Manasseh in our own culture. Our society has bowed the knee to more Baals than we care to mention. It may be too late to pull the nation out of the fire. Yet, that doesn’t mean we don’t do what is right in our own sphere. Just as Josiah placed an umbrella of protection around his sphere, so too, may we act as a preservative to our sphere of influence. We can be the salt and light that can shine to our sphere of influence. Ultimately, that is all anyone can do. Let’s try to be like Josiah this week and leave the big-picture worries to God!
Week 16 Day 5 – A Godly King!
2 Kings 18-19
Finally, we meet another hero. Hezekiah was a good king. What made Hezekiah different than Jehu? Why can we celebrate the life of Hezekiah? Why did God defeat Assyria for him when he used that same nation to destroy Israel? It all comes down to follow-through and a matter of the heart.
There are two points to be made for today:
- Hezekiah was willing to cut down the high places. Ever since Solomon took his nose-dive off of the mountain of godliness, Judah had been infected with the disease of syncretism. Syncretism means “to combine or attempt to combine the characteristic teachings, beliefs, or practices of differing systems of religion or philosophy” (from Collin’s Dictionary). When Hezekiah became king, the people of Judah were still going to the Temple to worship God according to the Laws of Moses, BUT they were ALSO going to the high places outside the city to worship the various gods of the Canaanites. You might say they were covering their spiritual bases. How many times do we see that in our culture? We read news stories about first ladies who drive from their protestant church services over to their astrologer so that they can consult with dead people for guidance. And in response to this behavior, the average American says, “hey, whatever works!” This form of hodgepodge spirituality that picks and chooses pieces of all belief systems (syncretism) seems to be, at first glance, a very loving way to get along in the world. It is most definitely the spirituality of our times. Yet, as bigoted and intolerant as this may sound, that philosophy is the death of a society. It’s what got Israel into trouble, it’s what will get our nation into trouble, and it’s what will get your heart into trouble if you are not careful. Hezekiah knew this, and he did something about it. He tore down the high places and set Judah back on the right track.
(another note from the present: Here is another example of language that I used 7 years ago that makes me cringe a little today. When you read the last paragraph, it could be very easy to slip into what I think is a fundamental flaw in contemporary American Christianity. We have a tendency to equate the United States of America with the nation of Israel. That is dangerous. While I still believe that syncretism is a dangerous practice for the individual follower of Jesus, I think it is equally dangerous for American Christians to develop an attitude that says, "if we just root out all the heathen among us, then this country will get back on track." That kind of thinking is what got the Pharisees in trouble in Jesus' day.
The truth is that the United States of America is a pluralistic society. It is a society where people with different perspectives have the freedom and the right to coexist in peace. There is a huge difference between syncretism and pluralism. Syncretism is the practice of blending all perspectives together to make one new perspective, even to the point of forcing people to adopt only the new hybrid perspective. That is scary and dangerous. Pluralism, on the other hand, preserves each perspective and invites each person to the table on equal ground to voice their perspective. It doesn't ask everyone at the table to agree with one another, it asks them to stop and listen, and more importantly, not kill each other over differences. It is mutual, other-oriented respect. Hey, that kind of sounds like what Jesus taught.
The last thing we need as a nation right now is a bunch of zealous, self-righteous, self-appointed "moral cleansers" running around cutting down everyone else's high places. What we need, as followers of Jesus, we need to look into our own hearts and ask where the high places of pride, arrogance, and hatred still stand and ask God to tear them down. Yes, our country needs to be infused with the message of Jesus. His message is the only hope for peace. But it will only happen when it flows from our heart and flows out through our behavior.
OK, back to seven years ago...) - Even good things can become objects of idolatry. One of the most intriguing parts of this story is found in v. 4 where it says, “He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.” Do you remember the story from Numbers 21? The camp of Israel had been infested with poisonous snakes. In order to counteract this pestilence, God instructed Moses to put a bronze snake on a pole and anyone who looked at the snake would be healed from the venom. That snake had been preserved throughout the nation’s history as a symbol and a memorial of God’s grace and deliverance from sin. Now, in Hezekiah’s time, the people had become so far removed from the truth of God’s nature that they had lost sight of the meaning behind the symbol and had begun to use it as an idol; as something at which to direct prayers.
How typical of we humans. It happens in every generation. One person builds a system of “doing church” or has a truly miraculous experience as they were authentically walking with God, and the next generation venerates it and worships it, as if it was the source of the power. Hezekiah was wise enough, and courageous enough to realize that there was no symbol important enough, not even a cross with a snake on it, to keep around if it was going to get in the way of people authentically knowing God.
Many times you will hear people talking about killing a "sacred cow" in order to save an organization. In today’s reading, Hezekiah was willing to kill a "sacred snake" in order to save the kingdom. What symbols or philosophies are still lurking around in your personal shrine? Are there still forms of worship that you can’t do without? Are there still ways of thinking that are comforting and "easy" into which you slip when the faith-walk of living in the Kingdom of God gets burdensome? Are you willing to let them go in order to know God more fully? Ask God to expose them to you and give you the courage to stand strong like Hezekiah did.
Week 16 Day 4 – The Day of Reckoning
2 Kings 17:7-23
**a note from the present: If you have been reading through my daily posts, or may catch one or two, here and there, you may not be aware that these are recycled posts. I wrote them in 2003, during the first full year of our house church experience in Vegas. Through the encouragement of a publishing friend, I decided to commit to the daily discipline of posting these "Food for Thoughts" on Vibblespace.
It is a strange experience to listen to yourself talk after seven years of hard life experience. I have grown and changed quite a bit since those days. I have grown in my understanding and adoption of a more "emergent" theological perspective. From that perspective, I read the post for today and something in my gut cringes. In today's reading it says that God becomes angry with Israel and removes them from his presence. I talk about the reality of sin and disobedience to God.
How do I feel about it now? One of the things that the emergent voice speaks about now is the love and grace of God. God loves us and nothing we can do will ever change that. The emergent voice also talks about how much of American Evangelical Christianity today is focused on sin management. We see everyone under only two labels: "saved" or "lost" and we warn people that if they aren't "saved" then God is going to throw them out, like he did to Israel in this passage.
So, do I not think that this passage in 2 Kings is valid? Do I want to enter into a hermeneutical gymnastic to explain it away because it makes me uncomfortable? No, I don't. Here are some thoughts that I currently have regarding passages like this:
- 2 Kings was written from the persective of a leader in the Kingdom of Judah, writing to those who survived the holocaust of the Assyrian, the Babylonian, and the Persian invasions of his homeland. He is trying to make sense out of why such heinous things would happen to his homeland-- the land that was promised by God to his founding father, Abraham.
- The language of the Old Testament is heavily colored by the theological perspective of the writer (as is all human language, like the words being written right now) and the ethical intention of the writer to the audience. The writer of 2 Kings was sending a warning to the nation. He is saying that Israel was lost because it ignored God's law. He says, "Don't let that happen to us."
- Today, 20 centuries after the revolutionary teaching of Jesus, we live in a very different world and follow a different "law" from God. Jesus gave us two commands: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. He deconstructed the law of Moses. It had its time and purpose in the specific history of Israel and had become more of a hindrance to the Kingdom of God than a support for it.
- While the specifics of the law has changed, God doesn't. God loved Israel. That's why he gave the law. The law was intended to protect Israel from its own self-destructive nature. It is easy, from the perspective of the writer of 2 Kings, to say that God became angry and removed them from his presence. I think God does become angry when his children do things that will hurt them. I know I do when my children blatantly disobey the boundaries that I set for them for their own protection, knowing that, by defying me, they will get hurt. I get angry, and frustrated, and hurt. But, I don't stop loving them. Neither does God.
- What it really boils down to is consequences. When we think about the idea of God's justice and punishment it is easy to envision a vengeful ogre sitting in the sky just waiting for us to break a law so that he can zap us. I don't think that is it at all. When I reread this passage in 2 Kings, I saw the opposite. I saw a father who spent years sending prophets to Israel warning them to stop messing with the Baals, to stop doing the things that would hurt them. I see a Father whose heart broke when Israel finally reaped what it sowed.
- The problem for us today is to figure out what our "sin" problem is. Is it the failure to adhere to a moralistic list of "do's" and "don'ts", as if God is just waiting for us to fall off the wagon so he can zap us. Or, is it deeper. Have we fallen into the same trap that Israel had at the time of Jesus. They had become so caught up in their cultural religiosity and moralistic self-righteousness, that they had lost the heart of God, which is compassion, grace, and other-oriented love.
- As I read my words from 7 years ago, I still believe them to be true. And I believe that my perspective on God hasn't changed at all. I just realize that, because of my language, many people may misunderstand me to be saying, "If only America would get back to our Puritan ways, God would bless us again and all would be well." That is not what I'm saying at all. Paul said it best, "we reap what we sow." If followers of Jesus sow hatred and violence, then we will reap hatred and violence. It is that simple. If we do not become saturated with the ways of Jesus, and look to the needs of others, regardless of who or what they are, then we are "missing the mark" and will reap the consequences of a world devoid of God's love.
- Thanks for letting me ramble a bit this morning. now, back to the past.
On Monday we said that journeys and histories are punctuated by bright spots that are worthy of stopping to remember. Unfortunately the same is true for dark spots. The Holocaust memorial and the Vietnam Memorial are edifices that have been built, not in celebration of bright moments in history, but as timeless reminders of man’s capabilities for evil. They exist as a hopeful deterrent to future generations to keep them from following the same tragic path.
Today we must make one of those stops along our journey. Chapter 17 is a haunting reminder of:
- the reality of sin
- the reality of God’s justice
- the reality and the severity of the consequences associated with prolonged disobedience to God.
In our feel-good society we don’t like these moments. We don’t like pain. We don’t like consequences and taking responsibility for our actions. Well, too bad. There it is. Jeroboam blew it, the people had a "go with the flow" attitude, nobody stepped up to the plate to do anything about it, and, eventually, SLAM! the terrible foot of Assyria came crashing down on the nation and destroyed 90% of the nation of Israel...forever.
There is no happy, redemptive, good-guy-wins-at-the-end-of-the-story, rah-rah finish to this tale. Israel was gone.
Chapter 17 is a living testimony to the words of Paul in Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." As risky as this may be in a devotional designed to encourage you each day so that you can be fed and face the challenges of the world, we are going to end today on a downer. As you move out into the world today, keep the crushing blow of the Assyrian foot echoing in your soul. In the Kingdom of God there is no time to mess around. There is no space for cheap compromise. God is God. He loves you and invites you into an authentic relationship with Him. He is a jealous husband who will not tolerate a cheating wife. Keep your eyes on Him today and don’t let yourself get distracted.
Week 16 Day 3 – Nice Try
2 Kings 10:28-31
In the aftermath of the reign of king Ahab and his wicked Sidonian Queen Jezebel, the kingdom of Israel was pretty messed up. Jeroboam had launched them on a trajectory of idolatry when he established the golden bulls in Dan and Bethel. Ahab followed that downward trajectory and buried them deeper in the muck and mire of witchcraft, spiritism, and everything that was detestable to God. Through the prophet Elijah, God had promised to eradicate Ahab’s family from the planet.
Jehu was the man chosen for the job. He was the physical tool used by the hand of God to bring justice to the family of Ahab, much like Joshua’s leadership was the tool used to bring justice to the Canaanites. Jehu did a fabulous job at it. Through him Israel was cleansed of all the Baal worship that Ahab and Jezebel had introduced.
Jehu was a hero, right? Jehu was a spiritual giant in Israel right? If God grades on a curve, then, yes, he was. The problem is that God doesn’t grade on a curve, He grades by a constant standard. Jehu was the one and only king in Israel’s history that tried to make an effort to pull the nation out of sin, and yet, there was the issue of those silly bulls in Dan and Bethel. Jehu didn’t touch those. It’s as if Jehu was a kickoff receiver in a football game who caught the ball in his own end zone, plowed ahead down the field, juked and faked and sprinted his way past the 50, past the 25, and got all the way to the one yard line...about to score...then dropped the ball. All that work for nothing. What a waste.
So where is the hope in this devotional? Who is the hero in this story? The hero is Jehu’s partner, Jonadab.
Read this clip from the Word in Life Study Bible:
People sometimes excuse or justify their immoral behavior with the attitude that "everybody’s doing it." But that notion is false. Not everyone is doing it. Not everyone is giving way to popular opinion. Some people maintain their moral convictions—even those which are not based on specific biblical teachings.
Jeremiah shows us an example. The wicked people of Judah were faithless when it came to keeping the covenant, so God gave them a case study in loyalty. He told Jeremiah to offer wine to a group of people called the Rechabites (Jer. 35:2), a family descended from Jonadab the son of Rechab (35:6). The Rechabites refused Jeremiah’s offer (as God knew they would), based on a centuries-old tradition established by their ancestor.
In the days following King Ahab’s evil rule in Israel, God raised up Jehu (see 2 Kin. 9:2) to completely destroy Ahab’s descendants. In carrying out this task—which Jehu did with zeal—he recruited Jonadab to join with him (2 Kin. 10:15–17). Perhaps to display his loyalty to the Lord, Jonadab commanded his descendants to refrain from drinking any alcohol, and to live in tents as nomads (Jer. 35:6–7), just as the Israelites had lived in former times. The Lord did not command Jonadab or his family to live this way. Jonadab established these rules, and his descendants followed them of their own free will.
Thus the Rechabites showed that it is possible to remain faithful and obedient to God, no matter what other people may be doing. After all, if this family could remain loyal to convictions that were not even prescribed by God, then surely the rest of the people could hold fast to beliefs and standards that God had commanded (35:12–16).
The same principle applies today. Here and there in modern society, we find groups of people who steadfastly maintain traditions or lifestyles that they have inherited from their ancestors. They go about their business seemingly undeterred by the fads and fashions of the surrounding culture. But if these groups are able to hold onto their convictions, is there any reason why those of us who claim to follow Christ should not maintain the moral standards and doctrinal truths that the Lord has established in Scripture?2
Like it or not, we live in a world that is more like Israel than like Judah. Our society and our churches have been seriously infected by very worldly philosophies. What those philosophies are and where we draw the lines are issues for another time and for serious consideration. For now, ask God to reveal to you where the compromises have been made in your own life. Ask yourself how you could be more like the Rechabites than like Jehu.
2Word in life study Bible. 1997, c1996 (electronic ed.) (Je 35:12). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Week 16 Day 2 – Good News!
2 Kings 7:3-11
It is difficult for us to imagine the plight of the Samaritans in this story. The Arameans had been surrounding the city for so long that there was no food left. The people were so hungry that they had actually resorted to eating their own children! To have lived in the city of Samaria seems like it must have been the absolute lowest place a person could get in life. Yet, there was something even lower. You could have been a leper in the city of Samaria during the siege. Now that was the lowest of low positions!
As we track with the story of these four hopeless, yet courageously desperate lepers, let’s draw an analogy to this tale. Imagine that the city of Samaria represents humanity and that the surrounding camp of the Arameans represents sin. Because of the fall, sin has surrounded the city of man and has cut it off from its source of food and water; the life-giving relationship with God for which it was created. The effects of sin are morbid, leading humanity to cannibalism and self-destruction. Can you create the analogy in your mind?
Now, here we have four hopeless lepers. They realize that they are in a lose/lose situation. If they stay at the city gate they will die. (After all, no one even wanted them when times were good.) If they go into the enemy camp they will be killed. Yet, if they go into the enemy camp there might be the outside chance of a last meal. They reason that it would be better to be shot at dawn on a full stomach than to die a miserable death of starvation at the city gate. So, they make a courageous move and walk into the enemy camp.
Lo, and behold, what do they find? God had done a miracle. God has driven the enemy out of the camp and removed the threat from the city. No longer was the enemy cutting off the food lines. They were gone. Not only were they gone, but they had left behind food and riches to boot.
Imagine their feeling in that moment. Here are four of the lowest of the low, men who had been treated as sub-human their whole life, now sitting in the lap of luxury and feasting like kings!
How would you have felt in that moment? What would have been your attitude toward the Samaritans? It would have been very easy for the lepers to have thought to themselves, "Finally, we get sweet revenge. All these years the Samaritans have cast us aside and gloated in their bounty. Now it’s payback time. Now we have the bounty and they are suffering. They are getting what they deserve. Let them rot!"
What did the lepers actually say? They realized that they had "good news" for the dying citizens of Samaria. They were convicted that it was wrong to sit around, enjoying the bounty of God’s blessing, while the city lie sick and dying. They had to go back and announce the good news to their fellow citizens.
Now let’s return to our analogy. If Samaria represents the condition of humanity being ravaged by sin, and if the Aramean camp represents sin itself encircling humanity, then we are the lepers. As followers of Jesus we have entered into the truth that God has miraculously defeated the enemy, by no merit of our own, and has made the bounty of life with Him available to all who would enter into it. We are sitting at the table of God’s blessing, feasting in a peaceful and bountiful, life-giving relationship with Him. How does it feel?
Now, how do you feel about the rest of the people who are still in the city, starving to death? Do you think, "Hey, I found this on my own, they can find it on their own as well," or, "those sinners deserve what they are getting." Hopefully, you will become as convicted as the lepers and realize that it is not right to sit and enjoy this bounty, hording it for yourself, while others are perishing in ignorance. You have good news to share. You have tasted the Kingdom of God, and you have what they need...the bread of life.
The question is; what are you doing with it? Who do you know that is starving to death both physically and spiritually? Are you praying for them? Are you being the Kingdom of God in their lives through word and action? Are you being authentically intentional with your conversations with them, trying to open the door for God?
Let’s pray today that we would have the attitude of the lepers and shout to the city, "We have ‘good news’ for you!! Taste and see that the Lord is good!"
Week 16 Day 1 – Men Who Made a Difference
2 Kings 2:1-18
Every journey is marked by special moments or events that become mile markers along the way. While much of the journey will fade into the blur of daily events, periodically something very significant happens that punctuates the monotony and stands out as being significant. So far in our journey through the Old Testament we have stopped to see such mile markers as the fall of Adam and Eve, the calling of Abraham, the giving of the Law to Moses, and the promise made to David. Today we have come to another one of those events. The story of Elijah and Elisha deserves our attention.
The journey in this narrative took in places which were heavy with associations with Israel’s past. Gilgal (v. 1) was the first stopping-place after the Israelites had crossed the Jordan. Male Israelites born during the wilderness years were circumcised there, and a Passover was celebrated (Jos. 5). Bethel (v. 2), some 14 miles into the central hills, was the place of Jacob’s encounter with God (Gn. 28). Jericho (v. 4), in the Jordan valley not far from Gilgal, was the first town to fall to Joshua (Jos. 6), and the Jordan (v. 6) had miraculously stopped to let Israel enter the land (Jos. 3).
Apart from the detour to Bethel, the journey therefore focuses on places connected with Israel’s entry into the promised land. The purpose of this, or at least of the writer’s account of it, is to draw attention to the special roles of Elijah and Elisha in Israel’s history. Previous events in Elijah’s life recalled aspects of Moses’ ministry, e.g. like Moses, Elijah received a revelation of God on Mt Horeb, and his slaughter of the prophets of Baal had echoes of the aftermath of the golden calf incident (Ex. 32:25–29). Now he crossed to the eastern side of the Jordan (in a manner similar to the crossing of the Red Sea under Moses’ leadership), where Moses’ ministry also came to an end. Indeed, the end of Moses’ life was almost as mysterious as that of Elijah’s (Dt. 34:6). The parallels between the lives of the two men are underlined in the NT when they both appear speaking to Jesus at his transfiguration (Mt. 17:3).
There is a theological significance to the parallels between Elijah and Moses. Moses was the mediator of the covenant at Sinai/Horeb, the prophet (Dt. 18:15; 34:10) through whom Israel was brought into that covenant relationship and made the people of God. Elijah was the prophet through whom the people were turned back to the Sinai covenant and Israel’s special status was saved. In short, the parallels with Moses dramatically heighten Elijah’s importance in Israel’s history and in the books of Kings in particular. H. H. Rowley (‘Elijah on Mount Carmel’, BJRL, 43 [1960], 190–219) neatly summed up the relationship between the ministries of Moses and Elijah: ‘Without Moses the religion of Yahweh as it figured in the Old Testament would never have been born. Without Elijah it would have died.’
If Elijah is identified as a second Moses, Elisha would appear to be in the mould of Joshua. As Joshua succeeded Moses as leader of the people, so Elisha succeeded Elijah, crossing the Jordan on dry land from east to west as Joshua did (v. 14) and following in Joshua’s footsteps by going on to Jericho (vv. 15–22). (Even Elisha’s name recalls that of Joshua. Elisha means ‘God is salvation’, while Joshua means ‘Yahweh is salvation’.)
Elijah’s departure demonstrated the power and mystery of God. It was foreknown by Elisha and the groups of prophets at Bethel and Jericho (vv. 3, 5) and finally occurred in a way which defies a clear description (v. 11). Elisha’s request for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit (v. 9) reflects the inheritance-right of a firstborn son (Dt. 21:17), and we may see a connection between this and Elisha addressing Elijah as his father (v. 12). It amounts to a formal request that he might be heir to Elijah’s ministry. The condition which Elijah imposed (v. 10) probably involved Elisha understanding his departure rather than simply witnessing it. Elisha’s cry, ‘the chariots and horsemen of Israel’ (v. 12), showed that he perceived Elijah to be the true might and protection of God’s people. He tore his clothes as a sign of mourning at the people’s loss.
When Elisha approached the Jordan and it divided for him as it had done for Elijah, the event confirmed that the spirit active in Elijah now rested on him. The prophets from Jericho therefore acknowledged him as their new master (v. 15). However, they had not understood Elijah’s departure as well as Elisha, for they insisted on searching for him. Elisha knew this to be useless (vv. 16–18).
In the fifth century bc, the prophet Malachi predicted that the return of Elijah would precede the ‘great and terrible day of the Lord’ (Mal. 4:5). In its context this indicates a prophet who would repeat Elijah’s ministry of calling the people back to God (Mal. 4:6), but it led to much speculation that Elijah would return in person (cf. Mt. 17:10; Mk. 8:28). Jesus indicated that the ministry of Elijah had been resumed by John the Baptist, fulfilling the words of Malachi (Mt. 11:14; 17:11–13).1
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