PREDESTINED FOR GLORY
2 Kings 2:1;11,12 (to “saw him no more”); 15-18;
This chapter in Kings begins with what God would do; Jehovah would take up this man Elijah into the heavens. We are in the presence of the death of a saint, and we are reminded of what Jesus has done. He has the keys of death and of hades and when it is one of His own, they are put to sleep by Him personally. You might say, ‘Our sister was elderly, she was frail’; it might be what was expected. But that does not detract from the fact that it was the Lord’s own act in love. Unlike our sister, Elijah did not die. He was taken up, and I desire to draw attention to that, because it is easy, in a scene of death to which we are accustomed, to think that it is going to happen to us all. Indeed, the scripture says that “by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death; and thus death passed upon all men”, Rom.5:12. Speaking to a brother recently about the death of a saint, he said to me, ‘Well, it will be our turn next’. But that belies the great hope of the believer. The great hope of the believer is not the grave:
‘The sky, not the grave, is our goal’ (Hymn 238)
We have been reminded already, in what has been said, that Christ has annulled death. One of the great testimonies to His complete annulling of the power of death is that there are saints who are not going to die. They are not going to pass through the article of death. That is revealed by the apostle Paul. He said “Behold, I tell you a mystery”, 1 Cor.15:51. The world is accustomed to death; one generation after another goes down to the gates of death, but Paul says “… I tell you a mystery: We shall not all fall asleep”. Does that hope dim, dear brother, dear sister, or is the prospect of meeting the Lord in the air alive in our hearts and affections? It differs from what happened in this scripture in which it says that Elijah went up by a whirlwind, but what is before us is that the Lord is going to come for His own. If He has not put them to sleep personally, He will come for them personally. He will descend into the air, and while there may be the voice of archangel and the trump of God, the focus will be on the Lord Himself. The apostle says that “thus we shall be always with the Lord”, 1 Thess.4:17.
I just wanted to draw attention to the two sides here. These two men were going together and there was to be a parting. Death is a real parting. The blessedness of the hope that we have beyond death does not remove the sorrow of it. It says of this chariot of fire and these horses of fire that they parted Elijah and Elisha asunder, and Elisha saw Elijah no more. There is a grief in that, never to see again one that we have known and loved in the flesh. I believe that it is meant to be painful. It is customary in the world to use all sorts of euphemisms to cover up the painful side of death. The solemn reality is that death is the final end of everything here, and the pain of it is to instruct us; it is to teach us what death is. It says of those who parted from Paul that “falling upon the neck of Paul they ardently kissed him, specially pained by the word which he had said, that they would no more see his face”, Acts 20:37. But the great hope of the believer enables us to grieve differently. The apostle writing to the Thessalonians says “that ye be not grieved even as also the rest who have no hope”, 1 Thess.4:13. What blessedness is the portion that has been secured for our beloved sister and all who trust in Christ. There is the amelioration of the grief that is felt, and I believe it is intended to be felt.
I read about how these sons of the prophets drew near. They seemed to be in doubt as to where Elijah, this faithful man of God, had gone. Perhaps doubts and fears like that sometimes enter into our hearts on occasions like this, particularly when we are younger. We hear that someone has been taken to be with Christ and yet we see a coffin. We hear about the burial of the body and we may wonder what has happened. But our sister is not here. She has left her body of flesh, she has put off her tabernacle (2 Pet.1:14), and as we have been reminded, her portion is very much better than anything that she had ever enjoyed here below. Not just better or an improvement on the weakness and the sorrow and the failing faculties that she knew, but very much better, something that is of an altogether different character.
That is why I read the passage in Luke, because this beloved man Elijah is found on the mountain, you might say, safe and sound in conditions of glory. No one who knew God would have thought that His faithful servant would have been cast down some ravine or into some chasm. Here he is – in conditions of glory and suited to them, at rest in them. Not fearful, not afraid, but in company with Christ and speaking with Him of His departure. That great sacrifice that the Lord Jesus was to make would lay the basis of everything for God and everything for us. Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus about what was before Him. I am affected, dear brethren, to think of this man Elijah, this faithful man who God had taken up, appearing in glory with Christ. The focus is not on Elijah, the focus is not on Moses, great personalities that they were. We have greater privileges than them, but who of us would measure ourselves morally against men like them? Moses and Elias – what men they were. That is how they are described; it is striking the way in which the Spirit of God puts it; “two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elias”. They had been spiritual giants in the testimony, men who had stood for God in the face of tremendous opposition and unfaithfulness on the part of His own people, and here they were in glory. But the focus is on Jesus. God would have the focus on Him in all our occasions. The focus in this occasion has been on Him. God is going to have myriads like Him; they are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.
How exhilarating that is, as you take account of the frailty and weakness that marked the closing days of our beloved sister, but she has been predestined, and nothing less than that, to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. The purpose of doing that is not simply her blessing, but that God’s Son, He, should be the Firstborn among many brethren. The Lord Jesus is going to be glorified personally, but He is going to be glorified in His saints. He is going to be wondered at in all that have believed. How blessed, and how right it would be, that the glory should be His, the One who, as we have been reminded, alone and unaided, has secured such a portion for Himself. As we feel, and we are intended to feel, the pain of the parting that death brings, let us receive the assurance, the triumphant assurance, that such a glorious portion has been secured not only for our sister but for each one of us who believe.
May God bless the word.
Word at a burial at East Finchley
15 March 2018
Roland H Brown
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