WWUTT 494 Chariots of Fire?

The Whirlwind and the Chariots of Fire in 2 Kings 2

Elisha got to see something pretty spectacular, but even though the scriptures describe it a certain way, it's still difficult for us to comprehend what it was that he saw. Descriptions of heaven are the same way when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of 2 Kings today up to chapter 2, where we will read about perhaps the most famous story concerning Elijah, and that is of him being taken up into heaven by a whirlwind.

That's right. I said a whirlwind, not chariots of fire. 2 Kings 2 verse 1, now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind. So there you go, and you're going, no, wait a second, aren't there chariots of fire in this story?

Yes, there are, but Elijah did not mount a chariot of fire and get taken up into heaven in it. Contrary to every painting that you've seen depicting this story, Elijah was taken up into heaven by a whirlwind.

So once again, verse 1, now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. And Elijah said to Elisha, please stay here for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.

But Elisha said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?

And he said, yes, I know it. Keep quiet. So you see Elisha's continued enthusiasm here. Elijah is telling him to stay in one spot because he's going to go be with the Lord and get taken up into heaven.

But Elisha wants to be with Elijah as long as he possibly can. He wants to receive wisdom and teaching from this great prophet of God. And then when the other prophets come and tell Elisha that Elijah is about to be taken away, Elisha is hushing them going, I know, I know that's about to happen.

But I'm going to make the most of every moment that I have with this prophet that I may learn from him and receive from him. And Elisha will tell Elijah in just a moment exactly what it is that he wants to receive.

He wants a double portion of the spirit of God that is with Elijah. So the more that he can glean wisdom from him, the more that he knows that he will be blessed by God through this prophet. So then verse four, Elijah said to him, Elisha, please stay here for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.

But Elisha said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. As long as Elijah's feet are setting on this earth, Elisha is going to be there with him. So they came to Jericho, the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho, drew near to Elisha and said to him, do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?

And he answered, yes, I know, keep quiet. Then Elijah said to him, please stay here for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan. But Elisha said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.

So the two of them went on, 50 men of the sons of the prophets also went and stood at some distance from them as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his cloak and rolled it up and struck the water and the water was parted to the one side and to the other till the two of them could go over on dry ground.

Not the first time this has happened. Also happened with the priests of Levi who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant before Israel in the book of Joshua. And when they set foot in the Jordan River, it parted and dried up.

So Elijah has done the same thing here and they've crossed the Jordan to the other side. Fifty of the sons of the prophets are standing on one side. Elijah and Elisha are on are on the other. Verse nine, when they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.

And Elisha said, please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me. And Elijah said, you have asked a hard thing yet. If you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if you do not see me, it shall not be so.

This is Elijah basically saying it's up to God. If the Lord allows you to see the heavenly thing that's about to take place here, then it's clear that there is favor upon you by his spirit and you will receive what it is that you've asked for.

But if you do not see what it is that is about to happen, then it is not for your eyes to see it. Perhaps Elijah would go to another place and be taken away just as Moses was. Nobody was around Moses.

Nobody saw when the Lord took him and where Moses body was buried. So he went up to the mountain to be with God and the Lord took care of all of that. So if that same thing should happen for Elijah, then it's not for Elisha to receive the blessing that Elijah had.

The Divine Army of God and the Heavenly Realm

So as they went on and talked, this is verse 11. As they went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and cried, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen.

And he saw him no more. So get that here in the story. Once again, very specifically, as we read it in the scriptures, Elijah was not taken up into heaven by chariots of fire. He was taken up into heaven by a whirlwind.

It's mentioned at the start of the chapter and it's mentioned halfway through twice that Elijah was taken up by a whirlwind. The chariots of fire separated Elijah and Elisha, but they are not what carried Elijah into heaven.

So what is what exactly is going on here? What is it that Elisha saw? Well, this is the divine army of God, and we've already had mention of them in first and second Kings. Back in first Kings 22, when Ahab was killed, it was that army of God that was talked about being there at that battle in which Ahab lost his life.

And there was a council of the heavenly host and God saying, who is going to go and deceive Ahab? And there's this spirit that comes forward and says, well, I will go and be a lying spirit in the tongues of all of his prophets.

And the Lord says, go and it will be so for you. And so then the prophets of Ahab told him that he will go into battle and be successful and Ahab listened to them. He went into battle and he was randomly shot by an arrow and killed just as the prophet told him that he would die.

And so we had the divine army of God mentioned there in that particular story in first Kings 22. Here we have that army again appear to separate Elijah from Elisha. It's almost like a veil is lifted and Elisha is given the privilege into seeing something in a spiritual realm that we just don't typically see.

And so as Elijah was being taken into that realm, that was what Elisha got to see. So he saw these chariots of fire separate the two of them, Elijah taken up into heaven on a whirlwind, and this divine army of God here in chapter two will come up again a few chapters later.

We'll read about this army making another appearance. Now would these have been literal horses and chariots of fire that Elisha would have seen? No, probably not. Just like how God is not sitting on a literal throne in heaven.

He is spirit, so he doesn't take on a posture of sitting down on a literal throne. This is a descriptor to help us understand that God reigns. He reigns over all of his creation with full authority and just like a king sits down on a throne and issues his decrees for his whole kingdom.

So God issues his decrees and whatever he says happens because that is the divine authority of God. What would have been the most powerful weapon that an army had in their arsenal at this particular time?

It would have been horses and chariots. The more horses and chariots an army had, the more powerful they were considered as being. So when God's army is manifest before Elisha, it makes sense to describe them as chariots of fire.

It's a powerful great army. It's something heavenly and spiritual. He can barely understand what it is that he is seeing and looking at. He cries out as Elijah is being taken into heaven. My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen.

This was the best way that Elisha knew to describe what it was that he was seeing. It's not the only place in scripture that we have the power of God being described in a form of horses and chariots of fire.

Isaiah 66 15, for behold, the Lord will come in fire and his chariots like the whirlwind to render his anger and fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. And we have the weapons of God described in various ways throughout the scriptures, like fire and peels of lightning and thunder.

So it's a great power. It's something greatly spiritual, but not fully comprehensible in our fleshly human minds. The apostle Paul rebuked the Corinthians for trying to fathom spiritual things in natural ways.

So consider where in first Corinthians 15, when Paul is giving an argument for the resurrection of the dead, one of the most thorough apologetic arguments that we have in all of scripture. What's described for us in first Corinthians 15 concerning Christ's resurrection and our promised resurrection for all those who are in Christ Jesus.

So in first Corinthians 15, starting in verse 35, the apostle Paul says the following. But someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? And Paul's response in verse 36 is you foolish person.

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body.

For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind and the glory of the earthly is of another.

There is one glory for the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable and what is raised is imperishable.

So what we are raised into our glorified bodies are not going to be like the crude fleshly matter that we inhabit presently. We will be sown perishable. We will be raised imperishable. So Paul actually rebukes the Corinthians for trying to think about heavenly things in natural ways.

But nature itself does speak to us about how things will be different. Just as there are different bodies, there are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies. There's different kind of flesh. Just as we observe these things in nature, so we should understand that it's going to be different for us in an eternity and what we observe in nature is perishable.

So therefore what we will be in eternity will be imperishable. But this is natural that our, our eternal existence will be spiritual. There was a woman in my church who got angry with me one time for preaching that for, for talking about that.

And she said, Isaiah 40 verse 31 says, they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.

And I said to her, right? Yeah, that's, I know that passage. It's a very famous passage. And she said, well, that's what I imagine that heaven will be like. And I can't wait to get to heaven and I will just be able to run forever and I'll run and not get tired and, and I won't ever grow faint.

And my legs won't ever get weak. I'll just be able to run and run and run. And I said, you know, that's a nice thought, but, but the problem that I have with that, that I can't preach that way is that you're using that passage.

You're first of all, taking that passage out of context because that's not what it's talking about. It isn't talking about heaven. It's talking about spiritual strength that the Lord gives to us. You go back and you read Isaiah 40.

That's exactly what it is. He's talking about, because Isaiah mentions that even youths will grow faint and get weary and young men will fall exhausted, but we who trust in the Lord will never faint or get weary.

In other words, the confidence that we have is not in anything physical. It is not in our youth. It is not in our young bodies. It is in God who lasts forever. And so therefore what we have in the Lord will never be taken from us.

We will always have it. We have this confidence that we can't ever lose. That is the strength that we have. It is a strength that we always have in God. So that's first of all, that's the aspect of the context of Isaiah chapter 40.

But secondly, heaven is not this place with green rolling meadows and fresh air and rolling clouds and birds in the trees. And we're just going to be able to run and do things in heaven, unlike we're able to do here on earth.

It's just taking the physical things on earth and applying them to heaven. That's not what heaven is like. That's the very Americanized ideal of heaven. That's what you see in all the paintings. Like if you go on Google and you type in a search for heaven, what does heaven look like?

What you see is people of picture. It's like a painting of families playing in the park is what it looks like. That's what everybody thinks of heaven being like. There's like a literal lion over here laying down with a literal lamb.

And we're all, you know, we've got wings. We're mounting up with wings like eagles after all. So we can just fly around in heaven. It's like we take what we would ideally want earth to be like, and then we apply that to heaven.

But we make heaven about all the stuff that we want it to be. That's a very American idealized version of heaven. That everything that I've just described right there in another culture, they might imagine an ideal heaven looking a little bit different than that.

But heaven is the place where God is. That is the place where God dwells. We are with him in his presence forever. That's what we should desire most. And we cannot enter into that presence until who we are dies and is transformed into something glorious that can therefore stand in that presence and not be obliterated by his incredible righteousness and holiness.

In 1 John 3, 2, it says that we will be made to be like him because we will see him as he is. And we read to the Philippians, Paul said that Christ will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

And it's in that glorified state that we will live forever with God in heaven. And we can barely fathom with only word pictures comparing to natural things that we can comprehend now in our present finite existence, but can barely comprehend what that will be like in this glorious dwelling with God in which we will live forever.

And in whatever transformation happens in us, when that takes place, what we do know is this, that he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away.

Revelation 21 for I don't know what it's going to be like. I actually have to get back to second Kings here because I'm running out of time, but I love talking about the hope and that promise that we have been given of heaven to be with our Lord God forever in glory, praising him for his goodness.

For he rescued us, redeemed us from sin and its effects, including death itself. We will be resurrected from the grave and live with our Lord forever in glory. Hallelujah. Amen. Praise his name. All right.

Back to second Kings chapter two here. So as Elisha saw this beautiful thing before him, he was privileged to see the spiritual veil lifted and the armies of God separating him from Elijah and Elijah taking taken up into heaven on a whirlwind, not chariots of fire, then continuing verse 12.

I guess we go into a different paragraph here in verse 12. Then he took hold of his own clothes, Elisha did, and tore them in two pieces. And he took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

Now, this cloak of Elijah has been mentioned several times in the in the story of Elijah. Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and he struck the water, saying, where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?

And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other. And Elisha went over. And this is how Elisha knew that he had received that double portion of Elijah's spirit that he had asked for.

Now, when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. And they said to him, behold, now there are with your servants 50 strong men.

Please let them go and seek your master. It may be that the spirit of the Lord has caught him up and cast him upon some mountain or in some valley. And he said, you shall not send. But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, OK, send.

They sent there for 50 men and for three days they sought him but did not find him. They're looking for Elijah. They're looking for his body. And they came back to him while he was staying at Jericho and said to them, did I not say to you, do not go?

And so the the these men were standing on the other side of the Jordan when all of this happened between Elijah and Elisha. But they just thought as Elijah was taken up in the air, his body may have just been thrown somewhere.

So they went to go look to see if they could find him. And of course, confirmed, no, he actually was taken up into heaven. You have 50 witnesses to this fact. Verse 19. Now the men of the city said to Elisha, behold, the situation of this city is pleasant as my Lord sees.

But the water is bad and the land is unfruitful. And Elisha said, bring me a new bowl and put salt in it. So they brought it to him. And when he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, thus says the Lord, I have healed this water from now on, neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.

So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke. He went up from there to Bethel. And while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, go up, you bald head, go up, you bald head.

And he turned around. And when he had saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she bears came out of the woods and tore 42 of the boys. From there, he went on to Mount Carmel. And from there he returned to Samaria.

You know, I'm going to come back to these two stories next week, starting in verse 19 to verse 22. We have the story of him purifying the water. And then in verses 23 through 25, you have him sending out two she bears to maul 42 boys.

So we'll talk about the significance of these two stories when we come back to our study of Second Kings next week. Let us pray. Our Lord God, we thank you so much for your word, your scriptures, which gives to us the promise of of our inheritance in Christ Jesus.

For all those who follow Christ, our sins have been forgiven. We will be resurrected from the grave just as Christ was. Our lowly bodies will be transformed to be like his glorious body. And we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.

We will dwell with our Lord forever, where there is no longer any corruption or evil sin, death, any pain or suffering, no more tears. They will be dried from our eyes and there will be nothing but praise for our Lord God forever in your presence.

What a great and wonderful treasure that is. And I pray that is something that we continue to look forward to, that that promise strengthens us, enlivens us as we go throughout our day, because there is nothing in this world that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.

This is the protection of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find us on the web at www .utt .com.