2 Kings 2:25

19-25 Observe the miracle of healing the waters. Prophets should make every place to which they come better for them, endeavouring to sweeten bitter spirits, and to make barren souls fruitful, by the word of God, which is like the salt cast into the water by Elisha. It was an apt emblem of the effect produced by the grace of God on the sinful heart of man. Whole families, towns, and cities, sometimes have a new appearance through the preaching of the gospel; wickedness and evil have been changed into fruitfulness in the works of righteousness, which are, through Christ, to the praise and glory of God. Here is a curse on the youths of Bethel, enough to destroy them; it was not a curse causeless, for it was Elisha's character, as God's prophet, that they abused. They bade him "go up," reflecting on the taking up of Elijah into heaven. The prophet acted by Divine impulse. If the Holy Spiri...

CARMEL - Where Elisha held gatherings for religious purposes 2 Kings 4:23 during one period of his life, if he did not actually reside there....

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 HE WENT FROM THENCE TO MOUNT CARMEL,.... Where Elijah used to frequent, and where also there might be a school of the prophets; this, according to Bunting a, was fifty six miles from Bethel: AND FROM THENCE HE RETURNED TO SAMARIA; the capital of the kingdom of Israel; there to bear his testimony against idolatry, to reprove for it, and reclaim from it; this, as the same writer says b, was thirty two miles from Carmel. a Travels, c. p. 206. b Ibid....

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

_he went from thence to mount Carmel_ At which place, either for the purposes of devotion or because there also was a college of the prophets, we see from 2 Kings 4:25, that Elisha was known to reside from time to time. The Shunammite mother in her distress knows where the prophet is to be found. _and from thence he returned_to _Samaria_ In which city we learn, from the story of Naaman in chapter 5 below, that Elisha had a house. The Israelitish maid also speaks of him there as -the prophet that is in Samaria". His most permanent home therefore was most likely in the royal city, and his visits to Carmel and other places made from time to time, as need required....

D. THE CURSING OF THE BETHEL YOUTHS 2:23-25 TRANSLATION (23) And he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up in the way, young men went out from the city, and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, O bald one, Go up, O bald one. (24) And he looked behind him, and saw them, and cursed them, in the name of the LORD; and two she-bears went out from the woods, and tore among them forty-two lads. (25) And he went from there unto Mt. Carmel; and from there he returned to Samaria. COMMENTS After a brief stay at Jericho, Elisha visited Bethel, probably to inform the sons of the prophets there about what had transpired in Transjordan. On the outskirts of the city the prophet was waylaid by a gang of ruffians[516] who viciously mocked him. They jeered _Go up,_ and this may be an allusion to the recent rumor that Elijah had ascended to heaven. These unbelieving urchins were urging Elish...

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