2 Kings 2:14

ELISHA’S SUCCESSION

‘And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.’

2 Kings 2:14

Elisha was anxious to make his work in his day and generation to be one of service, and this anxiety showed itself in the petition he presented. The answer which was given by Elijah was that he could have that spirit of fitness if he had another spirit, viz. that of insight. He proved that he had that power of insight, and now the time was come when he must put into effect the powers he desired. The River Jordan rolled between him and his work. Could he break down that obstacle and enter in and take possession of the sphere of duty where his heart desired to dwell? It was a moment of crisis, but he remembered the strength which had made his master strong, and the difficulties disappeared, and the obstacles were vanquished.

I. The effort put forth by Elisha was the assertion of his own personality, and this every man is bound to make some time or other in the face of the world.—It was in the realisation of his own personality that he found power and gained the submission of the sons of the prophets.

II. It is only in a crisis of life that we are encouraged, almost coerced, to assert this responsibility.—When some change comes over our life, and we stand for the first time consciously alone, then we discover how very weak have been the resources at our command. We have been living as Elisha lived, dependent largely on the intellectual superiority and moral fervour of some great religious teacher. We have been like men trading on borrowed capital. Such a time of crisis brings its snares, and there are two temptations peculiar to it. There is (1) the suppression of personality due to vanity, and (2) the suppression of personality due to mistrust and, it may be, to imitativeness. There is danger from both these tendencies. To ignore the past is impossible, and to reach forward to grasp the heritage of the future depends on our taking our stand on the highest point to which past generations have brought us. Elisha grasped the mantle of Elijah, the legacy of the past, but he also made it his own. So it became to him a power.

III. The principle of personality is the vital principle of Christianity.—Because beneath the Christian creed an ever-living personality exists, so till He die it must live.

Bishop W. Boyd Carpenter.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Elijah’s mantle fell at the feet of Elisha. The mantle was the particular dress of the prophet, and now Elisha was to wear it. He was to take up Elijah’s work and carry it on. Ofttimes the mantle of one whose work is done falls at the feet of some young person. A father dies, and his eldest son must take up the duties which were his. A mother goes home, and on the daughter comes the care of a household. When such duties come God gives of His Spirit to help.’

(2) ‘In Westminster Abbey is a marble tablet with medallion portraits of the two Wesleys, combined, and underneath the inscription, “God buries the worker, but carries on the work.” ’