The end of the road II Kings 2:1-11
As I’ve said many times since we began this study of the life of Elijah he is called “a man of like passions” and keep in mind that I repeated many times that this simply means that he is like us in every way. Even though he’s a prophet of God he has all the same worries and insecurities that you and I have. He wrestles with all the same fears and phobias that bother us. And I’m glad that God has given us the opportunity to see his failures as well as his successes.
We began by seeing him coming out of the desert almost from a life of obscurity to preach to the king. After giving his message of the drought that would parallel the spiritual dryness of Israel he went to hide in the desert and there we saw him at Cherith where he was fed by birds and drank from the stream. From Cherith he was sent to Zaraphath where a widow, her son and Elijah were provided for with oil and meal. And since he was at Cherith for about a year we saw how this supernatural provision of God continued until the drought was over which was about another two and a half years. Then we saw how the widow’s son was raised from the dead at the prophets hands. And then at the end of his time he met Obadiah who Elijah instructed to tell Ahab that he wanted to meet with him. You will remember that I referred to Obadiah as a silent witness for God but not in a good sense. He wasn’t quietly testifying of his faith. He was the kind who would hide his light until he was surrounded by light. As I said he was a friend of Ahab’s but not necessarily one of Elijah’s.
From here we saw the challenge on Mt. Carmel as the prophet went head to head with the prophet’s of Baal. The false prophets went first but they couldn’t do anything but hurt themselves while Elijah was able to call down fire from heaven and consume everything on the altar including the altar itself. He led the people down by the creek bed where they killed all the false prophets. Soon after this we saw where he followed the king back into town and there he was threatened by Jezebel and ran for his life. Then he met with God where he was both encouraged and then sent out to do a different kind of ministry. He was annint leaders to replace the king and to call Elisha as his successor and then he spent anywhere from four to six years training and teaching both he and the prophets.
After spending anywhere from four to six years running the prophets school he was called back into service for the final confrontation with Ahab over Naboth’s vineyard. And this was the final straw for Ahab and Jezebel as far as God’s patience was concerned. They were both condemned to death and though it took about twenty years Ahab died in battle while Jehu had Jezebel thrown off the roof of the palace. And then the last day we saw the end of Ahaziah the son of Ahab and Jezebel who was as I said nothing less than the wicked image of his mother and father.
And so we could sum up Elijah’s life by saying he was both a man of faith and a man of failure. He could preach to the king but run from the queen. I like him because he’s was just like the rest of us. He could be as bold as brass in front of a crowd and then cower when intimidated by a loudmouth.
I think he learned the hard way that God’s blessings were to be found in the center of God’s will. His journey lasted many years and covered thousands of miles as he experienced both faith and failure but now he was at the end of the road. He knew his time to leave this world was at hand and the scripture tells us he left on one more journey. And all of the stops he made along the way were very significant. And so his first stop was Gilgal.
I Gilgal
a This was the place of beginnings. This was where Israel had their first campsite in the promised land. There was a memorial set up here by Joshua. It was to commemorate the fact that they had just finished their forty-year journey through the wilderness.
B Elijah may have come here to contemplate the origin of the nations faith because here he would have been reminded how God was so faithful in caring for, protecting and providing for Israel after He led them out of Egypt. It would have also been a good place with all that history around him to think about the beginning of his own walk with God.
Many of us have places that might be significant to us that wouldn’t mean anything to anyone else. For me, it’s a little place on the bank of the ocean off Cape Breton Island. It’s a place where I used to sit as a kid and look out at the ocean and dream about where I was going and what I was going to do. It’s good to have a private place to think.
i When it comes to the area of physical beginnings we have no choice. I used to joke with my friends when I was a kid and say, “I wish I was born rich instead of handsome.” Lily Tomlin used to begin one of her comedy routines by saying, “I did not choose to be born.” No one chooses if they’ll be born, where they’ll be born, with what they’ll have or who their parents will be. One writer describes his birth like this, “I was shoved into a bright room full of strangers and before I had a chance to introduce myself one of them slapped me.” The fact is, we have no choice when it comes to our physical beginnings. It always gets me how some people can be so high on themselves about where they were born or who their parents are. That wasn’t a matter of choice on their part. We are born where we are born and it’s got nothing to do with us.
ii When it comes to our spiritual beginnings we do have a choice. Jesus gives an invitation in Matthew 11:28 where He says, “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It’s an invitation to someone who is laboring or working hard and because of their effort they are heavy laden or straining under the weight of sin. So this is not an invitation to someone who feels bad, or they’re depressed because their cat died or they can’t find a job. This is an invitation to someone who is wrestling with the problem of sin. And we know from other scriptures that it’s an invitation that’s open to all. Romans 10:13 says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The ‘whosoever’ is anybody who has the need of salvation but we also recognize that there is the need for the person to call. As the hymn writer said, “Come every soul by sin oppressed, there’s mercy with the Lord. And He will surely give you rest by trusting in His word.” We have to call, we have to trust in His word. Do you remember your Gilgal, your place of beginning. And then left there and went on to his second stop and that was Bethel.
II Bethel
a And again this is a significant place in Israel’s history. We know that Abraham received the three great promises of God at Bethel. They’re found in Genesis 12:1-3, “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” There’s a threefold blessing here. First, there’s the land and this of course is the land of Israel. And second, there’s the seed, “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” And third, there’s the blessing which was God’s promise that all of the families of the earth will be blessed through the Jewish people. All of this was a commitment from God. Through the Jewish people we have received first the word of God and then Jesus our Savior and then we have all the great accomplishments that have come as a result of the Jewish people. I saw a book in Israel and I wish I had bought a copy it was a list of all the discoveries and accomplishments of the Jewish people.
B As we go back to Genesis 28 we find that Bethel was also a place of commitment for Jacob. In Genesis 31 God says to Jacob, “I am the God of Bethel.” So we can say Bethel was a place of commitment both from God and to God.
C Our relationship with God is compared in both the Old Testament and New to a marriage. And so we could say that if Gilgal was the ceremony then Bethel would represent the day to day commitment that’s required to make a marriage work.
John MacArthur said, “We live in a society that lacks commitment. A large percentage of society is living together without commitment and basically that means they’re living without love because love is commitment. And our churches have picked up on that. People attend but they never join. They listen but they never respond.”
D Bethel was also the place of the altar. The altar is where we offer our best to God. Now, let me ask you a simple question. What’s the best you can give? I lot of us might think I’m talking about money but it’s not your money, no matter how much you give. Let me just show you something off the topic about giving from the book of Luke 21:1-3, “And He looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And He said, of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all. For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast all the living that she had.” Any idea how much money this woman put in the offering? It was about a dollar. Jesus commended her not because of what she gave but how she gave. It was all she had. She held nothing back.
But money is not what this is referring to. What we offer on the altar to God is ourselves. And this we give without reservation. We give ourselves completely and freely. Nothing held back and no reservations. They say, “The problem with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar.” We saw this in Elijah as he ran from Jezebel but the good news is that he crawled back on later on. So, he stopped at Gilgal and then went on to Bethel and then he made his way to Jericho.
III Jericho was a great place of victory for the nation of Israel. And immediately afterward they experienced defeat at Ai and this was followed by the victory at Ai. And so here he would be reminded of both the victory and defeats of life.
A I used to live up by High Park in Toronto at one time. Sometimes when I had nothing else to do I went over to the park and visited the animals or walked on down by the lake and watched people fish. One day I was going by the ball park and there was a game on so I grabbed a Coke and sat down to watch. It was a little league game and I noticed by the scoreboard that the game was almost over. It was the end of the ninth inning. The score was nine to six and the bases were loaded with two out. Whoever came up next could be the hero or the zero depending on how well he did. It was a little fat kid. And you could tell by the expressions on the faces of his teammates that they felt they had lost the game as soon as they saw him walk up to the plate.
The first ball came in fast and he swung. I don’t think he was even looking. The second pitch came in the same way and he repeated his swing. People on his bench started to pick up their stuff and get ready for the quiet ride home. The third pitch came and somehow he connected with the ball. And when I say connected I mean he really hit it. I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it myself. He got a grand slam and they won the game. Let me ask you a simple question. What do you think of when he passed this ball park ten years later? The only thing he could possibly think about was the day he won the game.
B Joshua must have had one of the worst times of his life. He had just experienced the victory at Jericho and remember what was involved in this. God had them walk around this impregnable city with solid walls for six days and then seven times on the seventh day. And then the walls all fell down. They must have felt like they were unbeatable. And then they went to Ai. Little did they know that Achan had taken the things which God had forbidden. Now, none of the things he took were bad in themselves but they were forbidden by God at the time. Then Joshua found out what happened, they put Achan and his family to death and put away the sinful things and then God gave them supernatural victory.
As Elijah visits Jericho he’s reminded that victory follows separation from sin. Jericho was their first taste of victory and no doubt they felt as though they couldn’t lose if they wanted to and then they did. As II Corinthians 6:17-18 tells us, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
We act as though God wanted to deprive us of fun and that’s the devil’s lie. God is looking for people to bless. II Chronicles 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” I enjoy myself much more now than I did before I was saved and when I thought I had fun back then I could hardly remember it the next day.
So Elijah had gone to Gilgal, his place of beginning and we all have to start somewhere. And from there he went to Bethel and there we find the altar of God and this speaks to us of the need for dedication. I mean, it’s easy to make a decision for the Lord and say to ourselves, “Well, that’s done. I’m saved. I never have to think about that again.” And I’ve heard people talk about salvation this way. Someone was talking about their immoral, alcoholic son and they said, “Well, at least I know he’s saved. I remember when he went forward at a children’s crusade. He was only six years old but he was really sincere.” What do you think? Will there be a special place in heaven for the immoral drunks? I didn’t think so. And from there he went to Jericho and he was reminded how Israel experienced the defeat at Ai immediately after the victory at Jericho. And we too can easily find victory can be followed by defeat if we don’t keep an eye on our ego. And now he left Jericho and crossed over the Jordan river.
IV Jordan
A Crossing Jordan is a phrase that’s often used to describe the experience of death. And he was ready to go. I once heard Woody Allen describe what he called a close experience with death. He said his life flashed before his eyes. “He remembered growing up on the farm and attending a one room school house. He said he saw his uncle’s old truck stuck in the mud and then his old dog laying under a tree in the front yard. And then he realized that this wasn’t his life.”
As we go to funerals we often reflect on the life of the one who passed on. We speak of our love for them and the things about them that stick out in our minds. I remember going to my grandmother’s funeral. I may have mentioned it before. The preacher they called to do the service was from a church she was associated with but never attended. He had been there a while but I don’t think he ever bothered to visit her. As he spoke it was obvious he didn’t know who she was. He never mentioned that she had led a very hard life.
She had been widowed at fifty-five. She had raised her own three children and then four of her grandchildren. She was a great cook and couldn’t read so she never knew what a recipe was. I once asked her how she knew how much of anything went into a recipe like making bread and she said, “You just taste it as you go along and you know.” We lived in an old house that was falling apart but she kept it as clean as Buckingham palace.
And she had a sacrificial spirit. She told me how she had accepted the Lord when she was working as a domestic in Detroit when she was about eighteen years old. But, of course the preacher didn’t mention any of that because he didn’t know her and he missed a lot. And as he rambled on about the mystery of life, the riddle of death and the sifting, shifting sands of time it became obvious that he didn’t know her Lord either.
A guy once had a business card and as you turned it over the back of it read, “If you met me and forgot me, you didn’t miss much but if you’ve never met my Savior, you’ve missed it all.”
For the believer the end of life is a time of evaluation. And by this I mean it’s a time for us to be evaluated. It’s the time when the scripture says we are rewarded for how we live our lives. This is when we gain access to heaven and get all kinds of rewards for things we don’t think we even deserve. The problem is, we don’t know when the end will be. Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Have you evaluated yours lately?
One writer says Elijah’s ministry had probably lasted anywhere from fifteen to twenty years and then he was translated to heaven which means he never experienced death. The only other person this happened to in the Old Testament was Enoch. Elijah had learned earlier in his life the necessity of being exactly where he was supposed to be to receive the blessings of God. When he was in Cherith he was fed by the birds and his water came from the stream. And then he went to Zaraphath and there he was fed by the widow and all this came from the hand of God. And now he was sent to Gilgal to the first place Israel stayed when they came into the promised land. And then he went to Bethel. This is where Jacob first met God after he fled from his brother Esau. It was here where God called Jacob back after he had been with Laban for twenty years. It was a place of decision for Jacob. If Gilgal represents salvation then Bethel represents the ongoing dedication of the Christian life. And then he went on to Jericho and this represents the place of spiritual warfare. And for the Christian this goes beyond our going to church and prayer meeting. This is the one who has entered into private fellowship with God and experienced what we would call spiritual maturity.
It’s like Israel when they were brought out of Egypt. This is a picture of salvation. And then they went through the desert and this symbolizes not only that they have been separated from a sinful world but also from a sinful life. Then they crossed the Jordan and became involved in the battle for their land and this reminds us of the ministry we’re all involved in as we battle for the soul’s of men.
I’m afraid that many people in the church are like those who died in the wilderness. They mumble and grumble in the desert and not only do they not do anything for God but He doesn’t do much for them either. And this is their choice, not His. I’m afraid the fact is, we get what we want in life.
One of the last things that Elijah does is ask Elisha an interesting question. He says, “Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken from thee.” He says, “What do you want?” That’s an interesting question. It’s the same one God once asked Solomon. “What do you want?”
Back in the seventies I was singing in a nursing home with a friend of mine. As we finished the service he said, “We’re going to visit an old lady here who is a real prayer warrior. All she does is pray for people all the time. You can ask her to pray for you but keep in mind that she has a lot of people on her list so just ask her to pray for one thing specifically.” The big question then was what? I mean, if you were told you could have anything you wanted but knew you couldn’t just use the opportunity to please your flesh what would you ask for? It’s a hard question. I asked her to pray for God to show me what He wanted me to do with my life. Theodore Epp once said, “When our goal in life is to do the will of God, He will open our eyes to see what we should desire and make our purpose in life.”
Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. A double portion was the amount that went to the firstborn. He wanted to be treated like he was Elijah’s spiritual son. When Elijah cast his mantle on him at the first this was a sign of adoption. And now Elisha ia asking for his birthright. Keep in mind he wasn’t asking for twice as much of the Spirit of God because you can’t have more of Him. He can have more access to you but you can’t have more of Him than you already have. What he was asking for was to be used more of God than Elijah was. And if we took the time to study the book of Second Kings we would find that Elisha performed exactly twice as many miracles as Elijah and ministered for twice as long. And so we can see that God answered his prayer. So Elijah took this long last trip with several stops along the way and his last stop was heaven.
V Heaven
a In the New Testament Jesus mentions heaven seventeen times while He describes hell in detail or at least refers to it sixty-seven times. Why? I don’t think He had to sell heaven as much as He wants people to wake up to the horrors of hell.
We all talk about heaven as though we know what to expect but the fact is we know so very little about it. The book of Revelation describes the walls of the city being so high and the amount of light there as well as the number of gates and the foundation stones at the base but not much else. I Corinthians 2:9 says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” This says that nothing your eyes have ever seen will compare with what’s in heaven. Nothing you have ever heard can possibly get you ready for what you’re going to hear there. Nothing you have ever imagined will even come close to what God has in store for you.
Let me give you a taste of what’s in heaven from Ezekiel 1: 4-28. Ezekiel says this is what he saw when God gave him a picture of heaven. I’ll read this from the New King James simply because it’s easier.
“Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of it’s midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the soles of calves feet. They sparkled like the color of burnished bronze. They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and each of the four had faces and wings. Their wings touched one another. The creatures did not turn when they went, but each one went straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man, each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, each of the four had the face of an ox and the left side, and each of the four had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces. Their wings were stretched upward; two wings of each one touched one another, and two covered their bodies. And each one went straight forward; they went where ever the spirit wanted to go, and they did not turn when they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of torches. Fire was going back and forth among the living creatures; the fire was bright, and out of the fire went lightening. And the living creatures ran back and forth, in appearance like a flash of lightening.
Now as I looked at the living creatures, behold, a wheel was on the earth beside each living creature with the four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their works was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their works was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went, they went toward any one of four directions, they did not turn aside when they went. As for their rims, they were so high they were awesome; and their rims were full of eyes, all around the four of them. When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth , the wheels were lifted up. When ever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went; when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
The likeness of the firmament above the heads of the living creatures was like the color of awesome crystal, stretched out over their heads. And under the firmament of their wings spread out straight, one toward another. Each one had two which covered the other side of the body. When they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a tumult like the noise of an army; and when they stood still, they let down their wings. A voice came from above the firmament that was over their heads; when ever they stood, they let down their wings. And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around and within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”
You might say, what does all this mean? I don’t know. There’s an awful lot about heaven that we won’t understand until we get there.
What we look forward to most of all is not the walls that are clear as crystal, and not the gates that are made of pearl and not even the streets of gold. We look forward to seeing our friends, the loved ones that have gone on before us and most of all we’ll want to see Jesus who made the way for each of us to be there. As Fanny Crosby wrote,
When my life work is ended, and I cross the swelling tide
When the bright and glorious morning I shall see
I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side
And His smile will be the first to welcome me.
Should a Christian fear death? No! I remember reading one of Asoep’s fables once. “A man came to a raging river and the bridge was washed out. His son was afraid of the water but fell asleep in his father’s arms. When he awoke he was in his bed at home.” And so we fall asleep in the arms of Jesus and wake up at home - in heaven. Don Wyrtzen once wrote a song where he said, “Imagine reaching shore and finding it heaven. Touching a hand and finding it His.”
Conclusion
I imagine Elijah taking one last glimpse back over the Jordan and thinking to himself, “I’ve walked by faith and I’ve known some failure but through it all, God has been faithful.” And when our day is done I hope we’ll be able to say the same.
