Elijah's Last Words Before He Left This Earth Series

Yet even in the midst of this warped theology—what, really, did the worship of Baal or Jeroboam’s calves have in common with the worship of The LORD?—there was a “school of the prophets” even in Bethel! Here there were any number of men who stayed true to the LORD, the God of their fathers, and were trying to keep that worship going even in the darkest of days. Elijah stopped here in Bethel, although we have no explanation except the LORD had sent him there. Pure speculation but maybe he encouraged these sons of the prophets and maybe he meditated over Bethel’s history.

Elijah once again asked Elisha to remain at Bethel because the LORD was going to send him to Jericho. But Elisha said, no, I’m going with you regardless.

Bethel wasn’t the final stop on this final journey for Elijah. His next destination was Jericho, and then, the Jordan River.

3 From Jericho to the other side of the Jordan

Text, 2 Kings 2:5-8, KJV: 5 And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. 6 And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the LORD hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on. 7 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan. 8 And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.

Elijah and Elisha have now covered a lot of territory. Gilgal—whichever one was in view—was north of Bethel, and both were north of Jericho. To reach Jericho, these men would have had to maybe walk 20-30 miles, going downhill as they approached the Jordan River (use the link to the map for Gilgal provided above). But think of what had happened to Israel since the days of Joshua, and it all started at Jericho!

Jericho was the site of Israel’s first conquest in their possession of the land God had promised them. Joshua 2-6 has the story how Israel followed the LORD’s commands and Jericho fell just as the LORD had promised. Rahab, a harlot from Jericho, became a believer in the God of Israel, then married Salmon, and their son Boaz was a leader in the tribe of Judah. Boaz later married Ruth of Moab and their great-grandson was King David! Both Rahab and Ruth had the amazing privilege of being mothers of the Messiah!

There was something else about Jericho, though, because the city or area around Jericho was cursed. Joshua had placed a curse on Jericho, that if anyone did rebuild the city, that person would lose his firstborn son when the foundations were laid and would lose his youngest son when the gates were set up (Joshua 6:26-27). That curse fell on Hiel the Bethelite when he rebuilt Jericho (1 Kings 16:34) some years later.

Elijah and Elisha walked along the same paths, I suppose, that Israel’s warriors had traveled many times before. In some cases, a united Israel had fought enemies such as the Philistines, Canaanites, Miidianites and more (see the books of Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 Kings). Sadly, there had been times a divided Israel—north and south—had fought against each other and many Israelites of all tribes died needlessly due to the misdeeds of kings and the worship of idols.