“And when the sons of the prophets which [were] to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. And they said unto him, Behold, now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master; lest peradventure the spirit of Jehovah lath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send. 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. And when they came again to him (for he tarried at Jericho), he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?” (2 Kings 2:15-1815And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. 16And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send. 17And 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. 18And when they came again to him, (for he tarried at Jericho,) he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not? (2 Kings 2:15‑18)).
So strong is the tendency in all our hearts to glory in man, that on the occasion of the removal of a beloved servant of God from the scene of action, we are prone to lose confidence in God, or to doubt His wisdom in removing such a one, as if God Himself would be at a loss. We are always more ready to trust the creature than the living God. According to the sons of the prophets “the spirit of Jehovah” might have made a mistake—perhaps have taken up Elijah only to cast him down again! And if so, they had with them “fifty strong men” who will soon put matters right! It was the more remarkable, because they had been made acquainted with the fact of the impending removal, and they could speak of it to one far more in the secret than themselves. “Knowest thou that Jehovah will take away thy master from thy head to-day? And he answered, Yea, I know: hold ye your peace.” How little value there is in mere knowledge! If knowledge can be imparted, acquired, transmitted, not so faith and spirituality; these cannot be so passed on. Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up “and seeketh not her own” but the profit of others. Wisdom and knowledge should go together. As the truth itself is received, so also is the grace that is needed to turn it to profitable account for God's glory, and our own or others' blessing. It was therefore necessary that Elisha should clear himself of whatever rested upon human strength and human knowledge. Either of them is misleading and disappointing. He was about to retrace the journey he had so lately taken in company with his beloved master; and this obtrusion, on the part of the sons of the prophets, of power and knowledge served but to delay him, whilst at the same time it exposed the folly and helplessness of these seekers.
The time is not yet come for the display of the power of God in complete victory over death; yet every true believer in Christ should know and count upon its reality. God has pledged His word to the destruction of man's last great enemy. “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes” (Hos. 13:1414I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. (Hosea 13:14)).
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead necessitates the resurrection of every believer in Him. “Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming” (1 Cor. 15:2323But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (1 Corinthians 15:23)). So also is it a fact that He has gotten the victory for us; death is no longer the inevitable event for the believer. “Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death [is] sin; and the strength of sin, the law. But thanks [be] to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:51-5751Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:51‑57)).
There can be no doubt that this great truth, so full of comfort for believers, was prefigured in the translation of Elijah with its power and blessedness resting upon Elisha to the end of his life, say, for a period of fifty years. The incredulity of the sons of the prophets, while conveying to ourselves an admonitory and instructive lesson as we have seen, illustrates the attitude of religious men with regard to God's gracious interposition in times past between the world and judgment. It was so, for instance, in the day of the Lord's resurrection from the grave. “Say ye, his disciples came by night, and stole him while we slept” (Matt. 28:1313Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. (Matthew 28:13)) sounds very much like “Peradventure the spirit of Jehovah hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley.” At any rate, both these utterances assuredly proceed from the same evil heart of unbelief.
It is interesting to notice that Elisha could not start upon his gracious mission to Israel until this point was cleared up. There is little to choose between the unbelief of Jewish Rabbis and the conclusions of the so-called “higher” critics of the present day when the truth of God's word is in question. It is the heart, as well as the intellect, which is at fault. We have said Elisha retraced his steps, but there is an important difference between the two journeys. In the first, Gilgal is made the starting point. God was taking His servant back to the commencement of Israel's occupation of the land. When about to remove Moses from the place of testimony and service, God nevertheless was pleased to show His servant that goodly land flowing with milk and honey, saying, “This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither” (Deut. 34:44And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. (Deuteronomy 34:4)). In the government of God, Moses was shut out from entering the land, but how ardently he had desired to see it. And see it he did, with eyes in no way dim, although 120 years of age.
Now after 500 years' occupation of Canaan, what monuments of base ingratitude and shameful failure are brought under review and condemnation! Gilgal had witnessed the “putting off the body of the flesh” by circumcision. Sharp knives had been made and used in obedience, so that God could say, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you,” and God had faithfully fulfilled all His promises. Yet Bethel witnessed to the gross corruption which involved their religious system, so that God's authority had been subverted. “The king's chapel and the king's court” had taken the place of the “house of Jehovah” with them, in the same way as in the Gospel of John we read of the passover as but “a feast of the Jews” (chap. 6:4). Again, Jericho told of still greater depths of iniquity as being the first city to oppose the hosts of Jehovah, and was pronounced “accursed,” or “devoted.” This was in the day of Gentile occupation, but the audacious wickedness of Israel in Elijah's day had dared Jehovah to do His worst, and had proved the truth of God's word to their cost (Josh. 6:17-2617And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. 18And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. 19But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord. 20So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. 21And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. 22But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot's house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her. 23And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. 24And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. 25And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. 26And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. (Joshua 6:17‑26); 1 Kings 16:3434In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun. (1 Kings 16:34)). By such a path Jordan was reached and Israel saw Elijah no more.
On Elisha's return journey, Gilgal is not visited; all was over with the people according to the old covenant of which circumcision was the token and the seal. God would not by the ministry of Elisha recall the people to that which could only cry out for judgment against them. Instead of Gilgal, Carmel, the place of prayer, is visited, and God sends His servant as a witness of grace in the very midst of guilty Israel. Samaria, the capital city of the kingdom, is now the place to which Elisha returns, that even the Gentile might learn that if God Himself had been denied a “dwelling-place” in Israel, He would, nevertheless, in marvelous grace, send His servant to take up his residence in Samaria that a Naaman might know that there is a prophet in Israel (chap. 5:8).
Coming back for a moment to Jericho, it is instructive to notice that the new witness for Jehovah is not appealed to in vain. The curse which rested upon the city of palm trees was a reality, however it had been despised, and He who imposed it could alone bring in the remedy. “And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city [is] pleasant, as my lord seeth, but the water [is] naught, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought [it] to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith Jehovah, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren [land]. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake” (chap. 2:19-22). The physical world is still a pleasant place, but the ground has been cursed for man's sake. Yet, where sin abounded, there did grace much more abound. The salt in the new cruse typifies the power and value of that which God has now brought into this scene by the advent of the Lord Jesus. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” “And of his fullness have all we received, and grace upon grace” (John 1:14, 16, 1714And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
16And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 17For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (John 1:16‑17)). This grace and truth is borne witness to by the believer now, and is the divine remedy for all the misery of man's condition. The truth in its own proper character has its abode in such as are new creatures in Christ Jesus. “Wherefore from now know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we [him] no more. Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [there is] a new creation; the old things have passed away, behold, all things are become new. And all things [are] of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:16-1816Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; (2 Corinthians 5:16‑18)). G. S. B.
(To be continued, D.V.)