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Prophets and Kings
“And they two went on.... And they two stood by Jordan. And
Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters,
and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over
on dry ground. And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that
Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken
away from thee.”
Elisha asked not for worldly honor, or for a high place among the
great men of earth. That which he craved was a large measure of
the Spirit that God had bestowed so freely upon the one about to be
honored with translation. He knew that nothing but the Spirit which
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had rested upon Elijah could fit him to fill the place in Israel to which
God had called him, and so he asked, “I pray thee, let a double portion
of thy Spirit be upon me.”
In response to this request, Elijah said, “Thou hast asked a hard
thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall
be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass, as
they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of
fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went
up by a whirlwind into heaven.” See
2 Kings 2:1-11
.
Elijah was a type of the saints who will be living on the earth at
the time of the second advent of Christ and who will be “changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump,” without
tasting of death.
1 Corinthians 15:51, 52
. It was as a representative of
those who shall be thus translated that Elijah, near the close of Christ’s
earthly ministry, was permitted to stand with Moses by the side of
the Saviour on the mount of transfiguration. In these glorified ones,
the disciples saw in miniature a representation of the kingdom of the
redeemed. They beheld Jesus clothed with the light of heaven; they
heard the “voice out of the cloud” (
Luke 9:35
), acknowledging Him as
the Son of God; they saw Moses, representing those who will be raised
from the dead at the time of the second advent; and there also stood
Elijah, representing those who at the close of earth’s history will be
changed from mortal to immortal and be translated to heaven without
seeing death.
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In the desert, in loneliness and discouragement, Elijah had said
that he had had enough of life and had prayed that he might die. But
the Lord in His mercy had not taken him at his word. There was yet
a great work for Elijah to do; and when his work was done, he was