The Way
Chariot of Fire and Whirlwind
Picking up the fallen cloak
Story
Elijah set out from Gilgal with Elisha. Elijah said, “Stay here. The Lord is sending me to Bethel.” Elisha answered, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” At Bethel and again at Jericho the same words passed between them. To the very end, Elisha would not leave his master's side.
When they reached the Jordan, fifty men from the company of the prophets stood at a distance and watched. Elijah rolled up his cloak and struck the water, the water parted, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground. Elijah asked, “What can I do for you before I am taken from you?” Elisha said, “Let a double portion of your spirit be on me.” Elijah said, “You have asked a hard thing.”
As they walked along talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire came between the two of them. Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha cried out, “My father, my father!” Elisha picked up Elijah's fallen cloak, struck the water of the Jordan with it and cried, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” The water parted. The prophets' disciples said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.”
Walk this scene on the map →Words of God and the Prophets
Let a double portion of your spirit be on me.
You have asked a hard thing. If you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours; but if you do not see me, it will not.
My father, my father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!
Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?
The sayings are fresh renderings of the original meaning in today's language. Text: 2 Kgs 2:1–15
Background
A double portion echoes the law by which the firstborn son received two shares of his father's inheritance, so the request is understood as asking to become Elijah's firstborn heir. Elijah is remembered, like Enoch, as one who went to heaven without seeing death.
Pause and Reflect
Is there someone I need to stand by to the very end?