Elijah sings “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and Elisha does 2 water miracles…

One of the things I find fascinating about the narrative of Elijah being taken to heaven is that all the “sons of the prophets” seem to know it. The Spirit of the LORD has informed everyone.

This story also has some significant parallels with Israel entering the Promised Land.

Moses is led up Mount Nebo and dies there and buried by the Almighty Himself. Mount Nebo is only a short fiery-chariot ride away from where Elijah is taken up.

Then Israel miraculously crosses the Jordan on dry ground just like Elijah and Elisha. The first city they conquer is Jericho, and Elijah and Elisha also visit Jericho. Instead of 2 spies hiding in Rahab’s house, they are 2 prophets and they are met by a group of other prophets.

Elisha sticks to Elijah like white on rice even though Elijah keeps telling him to stay put. Elisha KNOWS that somehow, God is going to take Elijah away from him that very day.

What’s interesting about Elisha’s request for a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit, is that Elijah apparently has the authority to grant that request. He doesn’t pray about it. He doesn’t say, “Well, Elisha, that’s up to God. I can’t give you a double portion.” He basically says, “That‘s hard, but doable.”

Now here’s a detail in the story that everybody gets wrong. We read it and we don’t even see it because our heads are programmed with “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and images like this:

But here’s the text:

“And as they still 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.”
‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭2‬:‭11‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I don’t know if the horses and chariot were in the whirlwind. If they were, that was officially the most insane merry-go-round ever. Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind, not a fiery chariot. The fiery chariot was what came careening out of heaven and almost ran them over and split them apart in some way.

And you know how the sons of the prophets all knew that Elijah was going to be “taken away?” Well, they all recognized that “the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.”

And we also see where it seemed to be rather common for Elijah to just disappear and be teleported off to somewhere. Elisha knew he was gone- as in GONE. But the other guys thought maybe he had just been moved. After 3 days of searching they came back to Elisha who said, “See? Told ya.”

Elisha is hanging out at PUJ (Prophet University Jericho), but they have a water problem. The water is bad; possibly acidic. Elisha asks for a new water pitcher, puts salt in it, carries it to the spring and sprinkles it in while delivering the Word of Yahweh over the water. Salt makes water more alkaline and balances a PH level that is overly acidic. This is obviously still a miracle because one bowl of salt isn’t enough to change a whole spring system permanently, but I do find it interesting that the chemistry makes sense.

Elisha somehow ends up with or near the army on their 7-day roundabout march through the wilderness as they are going to attack Moab for jilting them on their sheep supply.

🤨 Hold up… They went to WAR over…sheep?

Well, the lack of sheep. Moab was supposed to raise sheep for Israel and they cancelled the trade deal.

🤔 And Israel decided that was an action of provocation? Gees. Touchy.

Moab had been under the dominion of Israel for quite a while. The cutting off of the sheep was seen as an act of rebellion. Kinda like the American colonists refusing to pay taxes to the English. So Joram, (the son of Ahab), makes an alliance with Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom to go after the Moabites.

But on the week-long trek to Moab (by the back way- for surprise), they run out of water. Elisha is called in. And I love how the Septuagint reads:

“Elisha said to the king of Israel, ‘What do I have to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father.’” 4 Kingdoms 3:13a

The “prophets of his father” (Ahab) were the infamous prophets of Baal. We’ve met some of them already. Elijah defeated a bunch of them on Mount Carmel. Then another group of them told Ahab to go to battle at Ramoth-Gilad where he got himself killed.

It seems like most people only get interested in the LORD when they have run out of all the other options. Joram wasn’t serious about Yahweh. But when he’s faced with a real crisis, suddenly he wants to see a preacher.

But Elisha is only granting this audience because of godly king Jehoshaphat. Elisha sounds rather angry. And it’s harder to hear from the Lord when you’re grumpy and stressed. So he demands a harpist.

I LOVE this verse!

“But now bring me a musician.” And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him.”
‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭3‬:‭15‬ ‭ESV‬‬

If that could happen in the OT, think how much more powerful music could be when played by a musician who has the Spirit of the Lord dwelling within.

Do you need to hear from the LORD? Try listening to an anointed musician. And make it instrumental. No lyrics. Just the music. If you’re trying to hear the Lord’s words, don’t be cluttering up your attention with song lyrics.

So the Lord directs Elisha to do another water miracle. The previous miracle involved putting salt in a spring. Now he has the whole army digging ditches all over the valley.

And it’s a two-for-one miracle. Not only does the Lord send a flash flood in the middle of a cloudless sky to supply the whole army with much-needed water, but the next morning, the Moabites see the morning sunlight reflecting off the water in what is usually a dry valley and they think – blood. They recklessly race out to collect spoil and they run right into a trap.

Sadly, the king of Moab is SO desperate to turn the battle in his favor that he sacrifices his own firstborn son; presumably to appease Chemosh.

Bibles translated from the Masoretic Tex have “great wrath” coming upon Israel, but the Septuagint reading has “great remorse” coming upon them because of the king sacrificing his son. And it is this remorse that causes them to withdraw from Moab and go back home.

It’s like a dark, upside down foreshadowing of the Heavenly Father who offers His only begotten son in order to turn the tide of the battle with sin. And when we look upon the sight, we are filled with remorse for our sin which causes us to turn around (repent) and withdraw from sin and return to the Lord.