ELIJAH AND ELISHA
[p. 22] ELIJAH AND ELISHA
In suggesting this scripture it is as having in mind that it is God’s way to bring out His thoughts in greater fulness in a day of departure. The book of Joshua gives typically the beginning of our dispensation — a people going into the land as risen with Christ, able to overcome all their enemies by the power of God, and take possession of their inheritance. That was verified in the early days of the assembly, particularly in the apostles. But God reserved for a very dark day the bringing out of His great thought to take up a Man into the heavens, and to have Him represented here by those who have a double portion of His Spirit. And with that in view He would show that the power by which the Jordan could be crossed was still amongst His people.
This gives Elijah a most important place in the ways of God. No other man in Old Testament times was ever taken into the heavens. Of Enoch the account in Genesis is that “he was not, for God took him”, and the comment of the Spirit in the New Testament is that he “was translated that he should not see death”, Hebrews 11: 5. God’s victory over death was set forth in him; as I understand it, he sets forth the truth of eternal life rather than the thought of being taken to heaven. But Elijah is distinctly a pattern of Christ as taken into heaven, and known there in a day of apostasy, while Elisha sets forth that there is a vessel of testimony here with a double portion of His Spirit. “And it came to pass when Jehovah would take up Elijah into the heavens”. So that Elijah is more than a type of Christ; he is a pattern, for he was actually taken into the heavens, the only such man in the Old Testament. There are scriptures which speak prophetically of Christ as ascended and at the right hand of God; and types of Him as the heavenly One, such as Melchisedec, Isaac, and, to a certain extent, Aaron, but the only man actually taken into the heavens in the Old Testament is Elijah.
This took place in a very dark day, for it was soon after the death of Ahab, and Jezebel was still alive, so that it distinctly refers to what may be known in a day of great departure; it indicates precious light reserved in the mind of God for a day of apostasy. However dark the day, God is not diverted [p. 23] from what is before Him, and His desire is that we should not be diverted.
It is to be noted that the first verse of this chapter tells us that Elijah went with Elisha, intimating to us that Elisha’s spiritual education is the great point in the chapter, and this makes it very distinctly applicable to ourselves. God would show in that dark period of Israel’s history that the power in which the Jordan was crossed was still available for His people, and God would impress us in our day that all the power that was evidenced in the resurrection and ascension of Christ is available to be known in spiritual reality by the saints today in spite of the apostasy around. It shows how Christ is to be learned today, so that it is very cheering.
We read in Luke 9: 51, “And it came to pass when the days of his receiving up were fulfilled”. Those days had not yet fully come, but they had come in the mind of the Spirit. God would have the gospel history to be viewed as standing in relation to the One who was to be received up, and we must ever bear in mind that it is a Christ received up into heaven that we know, and in whom is all our blessing. Exercise as to this is to go on continually, for every saint in this dispensation has to learn for himself Christ as in heaven, and the Spirit as here, if he is to be in the mind of God. It is most important that we should learn the Christ thus, and be instructed in Him. Paul’s great desire was, “that I may know him”. We must know Him in heaven, and then as having a double portion of His Spirit we become competent to represent the heavenly Man down here. This is the great divine instruction for a dark day like the present. Someone has said that nothing will do for the darkest day but the brightest light.
Our spiritual education in view of knowing Christ in heaven proceeds on the lines suggested by the four places visited by Elijah and Elisha. The starting point of this journey was Gilgal — the place of circumcision, where the flesh is seen to be absolutely cut off. However feeble we may be in our apprehension of it, the circumcision of the Christ is a great divine reality; it is what was effected in His death. So that it is viewed in Colossians as a completed thing; in Christ we are circumcised; it is, as Paul says, the putting off of the body of the flesh. This has been effected in the death of Christ, and it is applied to us by a divine operation — a circumcision not done by hand. Circumcision, as often noticed,
[p. 24] comes in Colossians before baptism, which seems to suggest that in this connection what is inward precedes what is outward. Circumcision takes place in the heart and spirit.
Elisha was tested at every stage of the journey, and in the Lord’s way with us we are all tested as to how far we are prepared to go with Christ. Elisha here is representative of those who in remnant conditions come to know Christ as in heaven, and to have a double portion of the Spirit here. It is evident that Elisha got something which was unknown in Israel generally, and not even known personally by the sons of the prophets, though they had some light as to it. There are those today who have descended from men who had light from God, but they are now unbelieving as to Christ in heaven, and the Christian profession generally is about as dark as Israel was in Elisha’s day. I trust we have spiritual desire to have something which will distinguish us from what surrounds us. If we love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption we shall be prepared to go all the way, but we may expect to be tested. As the work of God proceeds in us we are prepared to go from stage to stage; we would like to go all the way as Elisha did. God would stir up any heart that has become slack to go in heartily for the knowledge of Christ in heaven, and the full virtue of a double portion of His Spirit here. These things have to be gone in for. The sons of the prophets did not go in for them.
If we have learned the lesson of Gilgal then we can go on to Bethel. When man after the flesh is shut out God comes in, and He delights to come in wherever there is room for Him. Bethel would suggest to a spiritual mind the thought of divine faithfulness. God pledged Himself there not to leave Jacob until He had done what He had spoken to him of. It was there that Jacob had his name Israel confirmed, and Jehovah talked with him. At the present time God’s house is the assembly of the living God; He is active there, and He speaks. The inner shrine of the temple was called the oracle; the great thought was that God spoke there. In Genesis 35:10-15 it is mentioned several times that God “talked with him”. Bethel was the place where divine communications were made; God dwells in His house so as to communicate His mind. So that Bethel has a most important place in relation to our knowing Christ in heaven. If God talks to us now, it will be about a risen and heavenly Christ, and the assembly [p. 25] as standing in relation to Him. I trust we know something of this, notwithstanding the state of things around us. The great substance of the New Testament is God talking with us. Think of the ministry of the Lord Himself! What a favour it is to be allowed to read the gospels — to accompany the Lord, as it were, in His pathway here, and hear Him bringing out the wonderful things that are in the mind of God! It all has its place now in the house of God. In the ministry of Paul and Peter and John we have divine communications, too, such as really belong to the house of God, and make known His mind.
The greatest thing in the assembly is what God says to us. We are apt to think that worship is the greatest thing, but surely what God is pleased to say to us is greater than what we can say to Him. If we listen to His speaking we shall be detached from human thoughts and sentiments; we shall be filled with what is of God, and this will produce worship. In all our meetings we should be exercised to hear what God is saying in His house. Any saint is truly glorified if he becomes the vessel through whom God communicates. 1 Corinthians 12 speaks of a member being glorified, and all the members rejoicing with it. It is a great glory to be a suited vessel for divine communications in the house of God.
Then they go on to Jericho, which answers, I suppose, to “the gates of hades” in the New Testament; it was where the great power of the enemy was overthrown. God would remind us that the gates of hades cannot hinder Him; He will deal with every power that obstructs His way of blessing. Jericho represents the world on the intellectual side as marked by reasonings and high things that lift themselves up against the knowledge of God. The overthrow of Jericho means that the world is judged in all its dark thoughts of God. In John’s gospel and in Colossians we move with Christ as to all this. Then we prove that there is power resident in Christ to overthrow in our souls every element of the world that would obstruct spiritual prosperity and progress.
In moving from Bethel to Jericho there is deepening instruction. It is when we have learned something of the great thoughts of God in His house that we become aware of the power that is hostile. But the falling of Jericho’s walls shows that we need not be afraid of going in wholeheartedly for what God speaks to us about. But we do not get the gain of His [p. 26] power if we lose our interest in those blessed things, if we lose sight of Christ in heaven.
Peter and John in the early chapters of the Acts show that greater power was with them than with their adversaries. It did no good to shut them up in prison. And the chapter we are considering would encourage us to believe that the same power is active in support of the testimony in remnant times, and in the darkest day. It may not be manifested outwardly in the same way, but great things will be effected spiritually.
Finally, they came to Jordan. Death has to be learned in all the intensity of its power, and that can only be learned in the death of Christ. This is, perhaps, the deepest lesson of all. It is death viewed as bringing out all the power that is inherent in Christ so that He may have His own in association with Himself. The Lord, at the end of the gospels, led His own to Jordan. He was risen, and they could be risen with Him. What a sense they must have had of the power of life in Him by which He could bring them over Jordan with Him! They had not the doctrine of it as yet, but they experienced the reality of it, and when they had the Spirit, and learned Christ as in heaven, they could interpret their experience. The great lesson for us now is to learn Christ as in heaven. All the preciousness of what there is in Christ in heaven is for us to learn now. He knows how far we are prepared to go in for this. He would have us all to move together in continuous exercise on this line. These movements cover the ground of spiritual education in a day of apostasy, the result being that we are qualified to represent Christ here as having a double portion of His Spirit.
Elisha stands by the bank of Jordan when Elijah has gone up, and he rent his own garments in two pieces; he had done with all that formerly marked and adorned him. In type he had received the double portion of the Spirit of the One in heaven. Elijah saying, “Thou hast asked a hard thing”, is to emphasise to us the greatness of having a double portion of the Spirit of Christ in heaven. A double portion conveys the idea of a distinguished portion, for the double portion distinguished the firstborn from the rest of the family. It brings out the great distinction that attaches to the saints of the present period. Would to God we understood how God had distinguished us! There never was, and there never [p. 27] will be, such a company on earth as the saints of the assembly. I do not think any other company of saints will have a double portion of the Spirit.
The great truth of the moment is that Christ is in heaven and the assembly as the vessel of testimony is here, having this great qualification — a double portion of the Spirit. This chapter is intended to teach us what we may have in times of apostasy, and the consideration of it would help us to keep apart from the current ways of men. We ought to covet a distinct vision of Christ as having gone up; it is characteristic of the saints that they see Jesus crowned with glory and honour. Nothing less than a double portion of the Spirit will qualify us to represent Christ here. That does not mean, of course, that we have twice as much of the Spirit as He has, but that we have the Spirit in a very distinguishing way. We are always being tested as to whether we really desire this. God is working with us continuously that we may know the One who has been taken up into heaven, and be qualified to represent Him here in testimony.