I. A great and brilliant career was coming to an end. God told the Prophet Elijah that he must leave this world, and follow God's Road from Grace into Glory – “ grace” being the time spent here on earth, “glory” being the translation into eternity above. He didn't know how; he didn't know when; but Elijah expected the change soon. So did Elisha and the other sons of the prophets. In fact a company of them came out to the younger Elisha and asked, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?” “Yes, I know,” Elisha replied. “But do not speak of it.”
You know what it's like when a loved one leaves you, don't you? – someone very close to you? In this sober time when his mentor and friend would take leave of him for good, either Elisha did not see the benefit of talking about it to others or he didn't want to encourage these students' in their empty curiosity. All would be left in the hands of God. Why discuss matters that God had seen fit not to reveal to them? In His wisdom God would decide the best time, the best place, the best situation for the end. So, why discuss that which was safely locked in the gracious mind of God?
II. Silently the two of them went on together. Nothing much to say - the old prophet and teacher, Elijah, with his thoughts, and the younger student with his. Both prepared in their own ways to walk on , down God's Road from Grace to Glory.
Three times the old prophet asked his student to leave him. “Stay here, Elisha,” he said. “The Lord is sending me elsewhere.”
Most likely it was a test of the younger man's loyalty, not so much loyalty to his teacher as much as his loyalty to God. Each time Elisha would not be dissuaded from following saying, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.”
Faithfulness like that, dear friends, is hard to come by in this life. Those who have watched a friend or relative in the past turn to go their own way know the sadness that disloyalty brings to the heart. But when our living God is at the center of our lives, and when one lives his life with God's purposes before him, faithfulness is not a question; it is a characteristic of the Christian. As God is faithful (1Co.1:9, so we are faithful in all that He gives us (1Co.4:2), while we walk this Road from Grace to Glory. The two of them traveled on. Coming to the Jordan River, Elijah took his prophet's mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water with it, like Moses had once stretched out his hand over the Red Sea. And just as had happened there, the waters divided to the right and to the left, leaving a dry path on which the two could walk, passing right through the middle of the great river.
I wonder if the incident called to their minds the promise that the Lord had given through Isaiah, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you….For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (43:1f).
“Passing through the rivers” is figurative language for us of going through the hard times in this life. It could be sickness; it could be problems that cause us great anxiety; it could be heartache or enemies oppressing us; it could be death itself. Anything that threatens to sweep us off our feet is a time of “passing through the rivers.” But at such times when the rivers are being crossed, what does our God tell us? “Fear not, I have redeemed you; you are mine. I will be with you. They will not sweep you away.” Think of the comfort and peace these words gave to both Elijah and Elisha when they crossed the river. As they continued down the Road from Grace to Glory, the Savior was going with them. They were prepared to walk on.
III. From a distance 50 of the students from the Old Testament's seminary of the prophets stood and watched. They became witnesses of the miraculo us crossing.
You see, dear friends, God supplies his witnesses of many kinds and in many ways so that we can be sure of all the things that He tells us in His Holy Word. These are not stories or fabrications; they are not legends or tall tales. They are the accounts of God dealing graciously with His people as they travel on the Road from Grace to Glory.
Like Peter wrote many years later about his part as a
witness to Christ's transfiguration: “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty, for He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory…. We ourselves heard this voice
mountain. And we have the word of (God) made more certain. You will do well to pay attention to it” (2:1:16f).
God provides many witnesses so that we can be sure of all the things that he tells us in His Word. That was true, even here.
IV. Soon Elijah passed out of the student-prophets' view. What a terrible blow this could have meant to them. You see, the world in which Elijah had lived was a decadent one. Apostasy, idolatry, and loose morals had spread all over the land. King Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel wanted to destroy the Church. They tried to kill off the Lord's prophets and to raise up prophets of Baal in their place. The Church seemed in a most precarious way.
On one occasion even Elijah was so discouraged and depressed by it all that he wished to die. He thought he was the only one left in Israel. “It's me against the world, God.” he declared.
But God strengthened him so that Elijah was again ready to run on The Road from Grace to Glory, continuing as a worker of the Lord. He reestablished the schools of the prophets that Samuel (1:19:20) had led. So it was that these student-prophets looked to Elijah for leadership and guidance in perilous times. What would happen if Elijah were taken away from them? He seemed so essential, so indispensable at this point. Would there be any others?
Elisha, too, may have worried. He knew that if Elijah was to leave this world and pass on into glory, he would be the successor. But he felt so young, so incompetent, so unmatched for the task. Therefore, as they were walking along and Elijah asked him if he had any request before he was taken away, Elisha responded, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.”
He was asking that God would see fit to make him Elijah's heir as prophet - that the Lord would give him the same measure of wisdom, courage, power, and leadership which Elijah possessed as God's spokesman. Elijah said that it would be so if God would let Elisha witness him being taken away. And it happened that way.
You see, dear friends, no one person is so essential and indispensable that God's Church could not get along without him. But God is always concerned about His Church and its welfare. He always provides other workers to carry on here, when those who have taught us and preached to us the Word pass down The Road from Grace into Glory. He will not leave us comfortless; He will not leave us as orphans (Jn.14:18). But He will provide “new” workers to carry on in every age, giving them “the double portion of Elijah's spirit.” Oh, how wonderfully God blesses His Church on earth as we travel down the Road from Grace to Glory.
V. The last words had been spoken; the time for parting had come. They had gone only a short distance when suddenly a most awe-inspiring thing happened. Rushing straight toward them came a chariot and horses of fire, burning in heavenly splendor and glory. It parted the two on either side. In a moment Elisha saw his master Elijah caught up in a whirlwind and carried into heaven. In excitement and wonder he cried, “My father, my father, the chariot and horsemen of Israel.”
Elijah has been just that. He had been the spiritual chariots and horsemen for Israel. In those days chariots and horsemen were relied upon to protect and save a country from its enemies. And Elijah had saved Israel in the greatest way possible in keeping the worship of Baal from taking over. How fitting that this protector of the hearts of God's people would be seen in the midst of the very things he had come to be.
Elisha saw it all. He saw what human eyes ordinarily cannot see at the passing of a child of God from The Road of Grace to Glory . He saw a believer escorted triumphantly to the mansions of heaven by the angels of God. He actually saw what is hidden from your eyes and mine when a loved one of ours dies in Christ and is parted from us out of this world. Think of it. Elisha got to see what you and I normally can't.
You see, when we are in a bleak little hospital room, standing mutely, helplessly at the bedside of a loved one, watching his Road of Grace here ending, our hearts our heavy, so heavy that we at times do not know what to say or do. All we can do so often is let our hearts express themselves in a flood of tears.
But what a different thing it is when God opens our eyes through the eyes of Elisha here! Suddenly we would see coming into that hospital room chariots and horses of fire in heavenly splendor. In that same moment we would see the angels of God triumphantly escorting our loved one on the heavenly Road to Glory, entering the mansions that are already prepared above for those who have loved the Savior. Oh, that would be a sight to thrill us and fill our hearts with awe and wonder! The time of parting will come. But we are left to rejoice with Paul, “O death where is thy sting?....Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”
VI. This is a glimpse of glory, dear friends, much like the Gospel Lesson today. In it our Lord took with Him a few of His disciples to a certain mountain. They came to a nice little spot and sat down to rest. But Jesus began to pray. As He did so, a wonderful change came over Him. His human humility disappeared and He radiated the divine glory and majesty that is from above. Then there appeared with Him this Elijah and Moses. The disciples were overcome with excitement and joy, much like Elisha. So happy were they, that Peter cried, “Lord, it is good for us to be here!” He wanted to stay. Never did he want to leave that wonderful place.
Yes, they had been given a foretaste of heaven , the heaven which all who have died in our Lord Jesus Christ now know. Their Road from Grace to Glory is finished. They bask in the presence of the Savior. And we rejoice for them. We can rejoice because of such foretastes of heaven, like these, that God so graciously gives us. Besides His Word promises, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord,” (Rev.14:13). They are blessed, eternally. They taste heaven.
But we are not yet there. We are still On the Road of Grace. Like Elisha we must go back from this sight, take up the prophet's mantel, and carry on the work of proclaiming the Gospel today and tomorrow and the next day until the chariots and horsemen of God appear for us. For as it was in Elijah and Elisha's day, so it is true today: the only real hope for people in this world, people of all races and classes and nations lies in this:
- that because Jesus suffered and died for them and paid for their sins,
- they can have the assurance
- that when they die, they will see what Elisha and the disciples saw
when the glory of heaven was briefly revealed to them.
- But they will see it then only if they believe it now!
We are On God's Road from Grace to Glory. May He grant to every one of us eyes that see the Savior. Then, one day, we, too, will be able to say with Peter, “Lord, it is good to be here.” God grant it to us in faith for Jesus' sake. Amen.