2 Kings 2:18

_AND WHEN THEY URGED HIM TILL HE WAS ASHAMED, HE SAID, SEND. THEY SENT THEREFORE FIFTY MEN; AND THEY SOUGHT THREE DAYS, BUT FOUND HIM NOT._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

13-18 Elijah left his mantle to Elisha; as a token of the descent of the Spirit upon him; it was more than if he had left him thousands of gold and silver. Elisha took it up, not as a sacred relic to be worshipped, but as a significant garment to be worn. Now that Elijah was taken to heaven, Elisha inquired, 1. After God; when our creature-comforts are removed, we have a God to go to, who lives for ever. 2. After the God that Elijah served, and honoured, and pleaded for. The Lord God of the holy prophets is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; but what will it avail us to have the mantles of those that are gone, their places, their books, if we have not their spirit, their God? See Elisha's dividing the river; God's people need not fear at last passing through the Jordan of death as on dry ground. The sons of the prophets made a needless search for Elijah. Wise men may yield to tha...

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 2:1 THE REMOVAL OF ELIJAH FROM EARTH, AND SOME EARLY MIRACLES OF ELISHA. The great prophet of Israel was to have a departure from earth as marvelous as his life had been. Ewald's words, though not intended in an historical, but only in a literary sense, embody very forcibly what the humble believer may accept as the actual _rationale_ of the occurrence related in 2 Kings 2:1 : "An earthly career which had no equal in the purity of its devotion to the service of Jehovah, and was at the same time consummated by such powerful efforts to promote the

AND WHEN THEY CAME AGAIN TO HIM, FOR HE TARRIED AT JERICHO,.... Waiting their return to hear the report they made: which when they had, HE SAID UNTO THEM, DID I NOT SAY UNTO YOU, GO NOT? assuring them it would be fruitless, and to no purpose; though this search of theirs served both to confirm the assumption of Elijah, and the truth of Elisha being a prophet of the Lord....

II. THE PROPHET ELISHA 1. The Beginning of His Ministry CHAPTER 2:12-25 _ 1. The mantle used (2 Kings 2:12)_ 2. The sons of the prophets (2 Kings 2:15) 3. The healing of Jericho's waters (2 Kings 2:19) 4. Judgment upon the scoffers (2 Kings 2:23) Both Elijah and Elisha are types of our Lord Jesus Christ. Their names indicate this. Elijah means “my God is Jehovah,” and Elisha, “my God is salvation.” Suffering, affliction and rejection are prominent in the life of Elijah, but it ended for him by being taken into heaven. It foreshadows the path of Him who was rejected by His own, cast

2 KINGS 1:1 TO 2 KINGS 2:25. LAST DAYS AND ASCENSION OF ELIJAH: ELISHA ESTABLISHED AS HIS SUCCESSOR. Here we have perhaps a third Elijah narrative, in which the prophet is represented as playing a part scarcely worthy of the Elijah of 1 Kings 17-19 or 21, who in the first section represents Yahweh against the Tyrian Baal, whereas in the latter he stands for righteousness opposed to legalised violence. Here the king's offence is that he sent to a Philistine oracle instead of inquiring of Yahweh, and his soldiers are punished by fire for summoning the prophet to surrender. The spelling of the prophet's name in Hebrew differs from that in the rest of the OT. The story is mentioned in the Gospel (Luke 9:54). With ch. 2 we seem to en

_And when_[R.V. omits WHEN] _they came again_[R.V. BACK] _to him_, (_for_[R.V. WHILE] _he tarried at Jericho_)] The alteration of the R.V. of course removes the parenthesis. The Hebrew has in both places only the conjunction usually rendered -And". The two clauses are literally -And they came back and he was tarrying" &c. Having acceded to their request, he waited for the return of the searching party. -They turn back as wise as they went. Some men are best satisfied when they have wearied themselves in their own ways. Nothing will teach them wit but disappointments" (Bp Hall). We cannot dismiss the history of Elijah, which is brought to a close in this chapter, without some notice of the powerful hold which that history took upon the minds of the Jewish people, and of the prominent place which the prophet fills in the writings of the New Testament. In the Old Testament Elijah is rarely...

II. ELISHA AND THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS 2:16-25 With the departure of Elijah, Elisha became the _father_ of the prophetic schools. The first official acts of the new leader of the sons of the prophets are related in the remaining verses of chapter 2. Here is recorded (1) his decision regarding a request made by the prophetic students (2 Kings 2:16-18); (2) his healing of the noxious waters at Jericho (2 Kings 2:19-22); and (3) his cursing of the youths at Bethel (2 Kings 2:23-25). A. THE REQUEST OF THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS 2:16-18 TRANSLATION (16) And they said unto him, Behold, we pray you, there are with your servants fifty men of strength. Let us go, we pray you, that

ELIJAH'S TRANSLATION TO HEAVEN The great service rendered to Israel by the prophet whose life is here closed was the stand which he made for the religion of Jehovah when its supremacy was threatened by the worship of the Zidonian Baal introduced by Jezebel. In view of such a crisis, the degradation of Jehovah's worship by the association with it of the golden calves set up by Jeroboam could for a while be ignored, a superstitious form of the true faith being preferable to total apostasy; though later, when the religion of Baal had been abolished by Jehu, the time came for a protest against the calf-worship, such as that which was made by Hosea (Hosea 10:5) and Amos (Amos 8:14). The preeminence which Elijah, by his zeal and devotion in this struggle against Baal worship, won for himself among the prophets of the O

THE LAST KINGS OF *ISRAEL AND *JUDAH BOOK OF 2 KINGS _PHILIP SMITH_ CHAPTER 2 GOD TAKES ELIJAH TO HEAVEN * God had promised Elijah that Elisha would continue his work (1 Kings 19:16). In this chapter is the end of Elijah’s work as a *prophet. But there is also the beginning of Elisha’s work as a *prophet. Because of Elijah’s work, there were now groups of people in *Israel who were loyal to God. Elisha would make those believers stronger. And he would deal with some of the troubles that remained in that country. V1 The time came when the *Lord would take Elijah up to heaven. The *Lord would take him up there in a whirlwind. (A whirlwind is a column of air that goes round very qui