Bible Study on Elisha
Elisha's Journey - How far do you want
to go? (Part 2)
By I Gordon
Introduction
We saw in the first study that Elisha went from being a ploughman,
working in the fields one day, to being a prophet of the Lord the next. It’s
fair to say that’s a mighty big change for Elisha! And you will remember that
what we also looked also at the testing of Elisha. At each step of the journey
Elijah was saying “stay here, don’t go any further“ and he was testing Elisha
to see if Elisha would stay with him and how much Elisha wanted to follow him
and to be with him. And Elisha passed the test saying (in so many words!)
“Look, there’s no way, no way at all I am leaving you. I am staying with you
and I don’t want to be anywhere else.”
What I wanted to do in this study is actually look at the four places
mentioned in 2 Kings 2:1-6. It’s not a geography lesson and it’s not even a
history lesson. Each of
the four places mentioned (Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho and the Jordan)
are highly significant in Israel’s
history and I believe they are highly symbolic of stages in the Christians
life. Here is the passage again:
2 Kings 2:1-6 ‘When the LORD was about to take Elijah up
to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel.”
But Elisha said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave
you.” So they went down to Bethel…
Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here,
Elisha; the LORD has sent me to Jericho.” And he
replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.”
So they went to Jericho…
Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the
LORD has sent me to the Jordan.”
And he replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave
you.” So the two of them walked on.
Where it all starts: Gilgal
(Separation)
So the first stop on the journey was Gilgal. Before we look at the
passage, let me ask you a question… “If you were to go to Gilgal in the days of
the Israelites, what would you see?” The answer - stones. Of course, you would
see stones in any location, but in this case, there were some pretty specific
stones.
Joshua 4:19-24 ‘On the tenth day of the first month the
people went up from the Jordan
and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And
Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan.
He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their
fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel
crossed the Jordan
on dry ground.’ For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had
crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the
Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the
earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might
always fear the LORD your God.”
This is the first real mention of Gilgal and it is very significant.
Gilgal was a very important place in Israel’s history. It was a base
where Joshua and the Israelites used to go out from. And it was also the very
first place that they came to when they entered the Promised Land. Now there
are two important things in Gilgal. The first are these stones that were set up
as a monument and a reminder so that anyone that looked at them would remember
that God is alive and well. God wanted it known and remembered that He is a
living God and that He acts on behalf of His people. That is why the stones
were there. It is, of course, something that we need to be reminded about often!
So often we think and act as if God was not even alive. We act like He doesn’t
even know about the situation that we are going through. We need to be reminded
that God is a living God and that He acts on behalf of His people.
But the second thing in Gilgal, is in Chapter 5 verse 2, 6-9:
At that time the LORD said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites
again.”… The Israelites had moved about in the desert forty
years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died,
since they had not obeyed the LORD. For the LORD had sworn to them that they
would not see the land that he had solemnly promised their fathers to give us,
a land flowing with milk and honey. So he raised up their sons in their
place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised. They were still
uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on the way. And after the
whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until
they were healed. Then the LORD said to
Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has
been called Gilgal to this day.
So this little passage gives us the reason why it is called Gilgal.
Gilgal means the ‘rolling’ or ‘roll-away’ and so it is called Gilgal because
God was saying to them “I have rolled away the past. I have rolled away the
reproach of Egypt,
I have separated you from all those taunts that you had had that you would
never get into the Promised Land’. They were now a separated people, separated
from the past, but also separated unto a living God - which is what
circumcision speaks of. It was a sign
that they had made a covenant with God. And so, if we were going to boil it
down to one word, Gilgal symbolically stands for ‘separation’ - being separated
from the past and being separated unto God. Now, I would remind you that this is
where Elisha started from. And this is where the nation of Israel always
started from. As mentioned earlier, Gilgal became a base of operations for the
Israelite nation. It is so important to not just talk the talk, but to actually
walk the walk in the Christian life. We should, in our lives, be separated from
that which would seek to draw us away from God, and be separated, as living
sacrifices, unto the living God.
Next stop… Bethel (House of God)
Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay
here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel.”
But Elisha said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave
you.”
The next stop on the journey was Bethel.
Alright… here is a difficult question.
Can anyone remember who gave Bethel
its name? No? Have a look in Genesis chapter 28 verse 10-19:
Jacob left Beersheba and
set out for Haran.
When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had
set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to
sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its
top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on
it. There above it stood the LORD, and He said: “I am the LORD, the God of your
father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the
land on which you are lying. Your
descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the
west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will
be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over
you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave
you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob awoke from his
sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is
in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none
other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” Early the next
morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a
pillar and poured oil on top of it. He
called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.’
So it was Jacob who called the place Bethel. And Bethel means the ‘House of God’. And he called it the House of God because
he’d had this amazing time with the Lord.
He had been in the very presence of the Lord. Later in Israel’s history, during the time of Judges, Bethel was where the Ark
of the Covenant was kept. So people always used to go to Bethel
to enquire of the Lord. It was known as the House of God. Now, what does
that mean for us? Well, as a type, Bethel
speaks to us about the Lord’s presence. It is where He is! It is the desire
that we should have to be in His presence. So this is the second stage. The
first stage is to do with separation. The second stage is to do with a desire
for God and a desire for His presence.
I was reading through the Psalms the other day and one small verse stood
out to me. It was talking about the
nation of Israel
and it said ‘When He (God) afflicted them then they sought Him.’ That is
summing up Israel’s
history. When things were hard or went
wrong for them, then they sought Him. Otherwise they didn’t really seek him a
heck of a lot. And the nation of Israel speaks to us of what we are
like in our earthly natures. But how different was King David.
The presence of God was his desire. In good times and in bad.
Jericho – Walk by Faith
Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, Elisha; the LORD has
sent me to Jericho.”
And he replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave
you.” So they went to Jericho.
The next stop in Elisha’s journey was Jericho. Now the first real mention of Jericho is back where we were before in Joshua. What
do you think of when you hear of Jericho? Walls comin’ a tumbling down! Absolutely! It
is probably a story that many Sunday school participants hear many times. It’s
a bit of a classic. So if Gilgal was the first place that Israel came to when they entered the Promised
Land, Jericho
was the first battle that they had to have in the Promised Land. But it was no
ordinary battle obviously.
‘Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing
in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and
asked, “Are you for us or for our
enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD
I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and
asked him, “What message does my Lord
have for his servant?” ’ (Joshua 5:13)
Bit of a strange answer don’t you think? Joshua sees this guy, he’s got a
sword and he looks as if he is going to be a real good fighter and so Joshua
obviously wants to know whose side he is on - ‘Are you with us, or are you with
our enemies?‘ he asks. To which the guy answers ‘No’. I love what Major Ian
Thomas says about this. ‘In so many words Joshua was saying to Him ‘whose side
are you on, are you on our side or on theirs?’ But he said ‘No, I haven’t come
to take sides. I have come to take over!’ And that is what he was meaning. Joshua
was in the presence of the Lord! And the Lord doesn’t come merely ‘to help’. He
comes to take over the situation. Obviously, as the first battle, God was going
to teach the Israelites something special here. Let’s have a look –
Now Jericho
was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came
in. Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See,
I have delivered Jericho
into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the
armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’
horns in front of the ark. On the
seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the
trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the
people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the
people will go up, every man straight in.”
If you ask yourself, ‘how is Israel going to win this battle?’
The answer is - they weren't… the Lord was. So what did they have to do? Well,
they had to walk and they had to walk in faith… quite literally. Their job was
to walk around the walls.
God, here in the first battle in the Promised Land, was teaching them a new principle
- and that was to walk of faith. So Gilgal speaks of being separate… Bethel speaks of the presence of God and Jericho teaches about the walk of faith. It's
easy to talk about, but it's more than likely that you've got problems. I know
this because things are seldom easy on this crazy planet. When you’re in the
midst of a problem, it's very hard to simply trust that God is adequate for
your situation and to walk by faith, even though it sounds great and is so, so,
so biblical! But it means that you are not walking by sight. It means that you
are actually going through a situation where you cannot see how things are
going to turn out. And that can be dreadful at times. But we need, obviously,
to trust. We need to trust our Father.
The eternal principle of the
Jordan – Death and Resurrection
Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me
to the Jordan.”
And he replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave
you.” So the two of them walked on.
The final test for Elisha came with the Jordan.
The Jordan,
as I’m sure you remember, is what the Israelites had to cross to pass into the
Promised Land. The Jordan
separated the land
of Canaan from their
wanderings in the wilderness and was a highly significant place in the
Israelites history. You will remember that God miraculously separated the
waters as the Israelites passed through on dry ground. In fact, God even
commanded Joshua to take 12 stones from the midst of the Jordan and to set them as a memorial for the
sons of Israel
forever so that no one would forget what God had performed there. So would
Elisha go as far as the Jordan?
Ok, so you already know that Elisha went as
far as the Jordan
so no prizes there! But what about you?... What does the Jordan speak of for you and me? The
Jordan,
like the Israelites Red Sea experience, speaks to us of baptism – death and
resurrection. The practical outworking of this is a laying down of our lives.
That is why I called this section ‘the eternal principle’. Jesus’ whole life
demonstrated this principle, but it was clearest as He contemplated the cross…
John
12:23-26 “Jesus said ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified. I tell you the truth, unless
a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The
man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this
world will keep it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me; and
where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who
serves me.’
Notice that Jesus, while thinking of the
cross, said that ‘where I am, my servant will be also.’ This eternal principle
of the wheat falling to the ground and dying was not just for Jesus! No, Jesus
clearly said that to be His servant would mean that the same principle applied.
Elisha knew this, and when the call of God came his way, he readily let go of
his own life, his own hopes and dreams, and followed the call of God to
wherever that would lead him! What a fantastic attitude and a great picture for
our lives.
New Testament Confirmation
So we have looked at the four locations that Elisha was tested at.
Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho
and the Jordan.
And these speak of separation, the presence of God, walking by faith, and death
and resurrection respectively.
When I was thinking about those four places, in dawned on me that there
is a well know New Testament passage that corresponds to each of these
locations. It is Phil 3:6-10. To make things easy (hopefully!), I have added
the following table.
|
Location
|
Principle
|
N.T Verse
|
Passage
|
|
Gilgal
|
Separation
(from the flesh, the past, and unto God)
|
Phil
3:6-7
|
If anyone else thinks he
has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more… But whatever was to my profit I now consider
loss for the sake of Christ
|
|
Bethel
|
House
of God
(a desire to know God and be in His presence.)
|
Phil
3:8
|
What is more, I consider
everything a loss compared to the
surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I
have lost all things.
|
|
Jericho
|
Faith
(Walk by faith and not righteousness or strength)
|
Phil
3:9
|
I consider them rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and
be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that
comes from God and is by faith.
|
|
Jordan
|
Death
& Resurrection
(Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground…)
|
|
I want to know Christ and
the power of his resurrection and
the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the
resurrection from the dead.
|
Conclusion
We are back to where we were at the end of the first study on Elisha. And
that is with what was spoken about Elisha and his master Elijha –
“So
the two of them walked on.”
Or, in the language of the New Testament passage of Philipians 3 -
“I
press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me… But one
thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I
press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me
heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
That was the heart of Paul. Even Paul didn't think that he had arrived, and
wasn’t content with what he currently knew and had experienced in the Lord. It's
important not just to start the Christian life well. It's important to carry on
well and to finish well.
Press on Christian, to lay hold of that which God has for you.
