ELIJAH ---DEALING WITH SEPERATION –Crossing Over Jordan
II Kings 2: 7-13
As we look out over the Lake.
I want you to imagine it being the river Jordan.
I want you to imagine that we are the Israelites on this side.
And right behind the pavilion is the Egyptian Army.
We can’t move forward because of the water.
We can’t move back because of Pharaoh’s army.
So we are stuck.
But God is faithful and when Moses prays
AND THE priest carrying the ark step into the water- it parts.
Throughout the long night they cross over.
In the morning Pharaoh is enraged.
He takes his whole army down into the water.
And God closes the water over them.
Saving the Israelites and destroying the Egyptians.
Water from that point on becomes a symbol of parting, of separation.
Water has been a symbol of life and death for a long time.
Notice the associations: "Jesus...living water."
Psalmist talks about going through the water, through the flood.
And now today as Elijah gets ready to die.
He too is to cross over the Jordan.
It is in his death that the Jordan move from only being a symbol of separation.
To a symbol of crossing over in death.
Poem goes:
"A swelling Jordan rolls between,
A timid pilgrim I;
But grace shall order all the scene,
And Christ himself be nigh.
He shall roll back the foaming wave,
Command the channel dry;
No sting has death, no victory grave,
With Jesus in my eye."
We all realize that we will be crossing over someday.
I. THERE IS A TIME OF SEPARATION
DEATH AND SEPERATION COMES TO ALL OF US.
In my experience some families talk about death.
Some husband and wives talk about what would happen if one died.
One husband growing older was concerned and asked his wife?
“Dear if I died would you get married again?”
She said: “I suppose so.”
HE said: “Would he sit in my spot at the table?”
She said: “I suppose so.”
”Would you sleep in the same bed with him?”
’’Well, it’s the only bed in the house, so I have no choice.
Then he summed it all up:
Would you give him my Honda Gold wing Motorcycle?
She said: Noooo, no, nooo!. He only drives Harley’s
II Kings 2:1 When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 2 Elijah said to Elisha. “Stay here: the lord has sent me to Bethel. 3But Elijah’ said: “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you. “So they went down to Bethel.
Vs. 4 Elijah said to him.”Stay here, Elisha; the Lord has sent me to Jericho.”
“As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.”
So they went to Jericho.
Elijah said: 6 Stay here’; the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.”
Elisha replied as surely as the Lord lives and as you lived, I will not leave you.”
So the two of them walked on.
Elijah was getting ready to lay down his role and life as a Prophet.
Where was it to happen?
Gilgal?
Bethel?
Jericho?
Jordan?
Elijah doesn’t know where it’s going to happen.
He reminded me of the way an old dog decides to lay down to rest.
Goes round and round on the bed.
Pull the blanket with its paws and
Moves it with his nose.
And then finally lays down.
God has only told him that he is going to die, not where
Elijah knows he needs to began to prepare and separate himself.
So we read that Elijah goes to the different schools of the prophets
to give them his last exhortations and blessing.
Now the prophets being men of compassion
Know that death is coming for Elijah.
So they want to warn Elisha, the prophet who will take his place.
Vs. 3 Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?
Elisha knows it but doesn’t’ want to talk about it.
Vs. 3b“Yes I know, but do not speak of it.”
In my visits to those in Hospice care.
I know that the person doesn’t have long to live.
I have said to a wife.
“You know you husband is dying.”
“Yes I know but I don’t want to talk about it.”
They go to Jericho
Vs. 5 The company of prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him. “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?
5b. Yes I know but do not speak of it.
Now to give them credit. They must be concerned about Elisha.
What was to become of him when Elijah is gone?
So the bible says they stayed with him but it says at a distance.
Vs. 7 We have fifty men of the company of the prophet went and stood at a distance, facing the place were Elijah and Elisha has stopped at the Jordan.
Elisha doesn’t’ want to talk about it.
He has been the pupil of Elijah.
HE is to be his protégée
But he didn’t want him to die.
And if he was going to die he wanted to be there when it happened.
Well they come to the Jordan river. That should have given him a clue.
I. THERE IS A TIME FOR SEPARATION
II. THERE IS A JORDAN TO CROSS.
All I know is that there is a Jordan to cross.
All we know it is too wide to jump.
Too deep to walk.
Jordan always seems to need divine help to cross.
Vs. 8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it.
The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
Suddenly the conversation changes.
Elijah moves from trying to get away from Elisha to including him.
Vs. 9 “Tell me what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”
There comes a point in dealing with separation and death
we must allow the person who is going to die,
to be able to talk about it.
To allow them to include us.
We don’t hear Elisha saying: “I don’t want to talk about it now.
This is the time to listen.
This is the time to speak.
Elisha answers. 9b”Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.”
Elijah said: Vs. 10 You have asked a difficult thing, yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise not.”
We don’t know what else was said as they were talking and walking along.
But 11”suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
Vs. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out. “My Father, My father! The Chariots and horsemen of Israel.” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.
Seperation
Elisha tore his clothes.
His clothing represents how he feels inside.
Torn and ripped apart.
Many of you have felt this renting tearing.
We have seen it so vividly in our day as
Soldiers, Reservists, and the National Guard, have been called up.
They are separated from mom and dads.
They are separated from Wives or husbands.
Separated from children.
We see it in the death of loved ones.
Sudden or long term expiration.
We feel the same.
That loss of life
That loss of the wonder in the lives which God has created.
Seperation
Even in Jesus death the Veil of the Temple was rent in too.
It is symbolic of things ending.
And of new beginnings.
THERE IS A TIME FOR SEPARATION
THERE IS A JORDAN TO CROSS
III. THERE IS A LIFE TO CARRY ON.
Elisha got to see it all happen.
And as Elijah predicted he gets a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.
Vs. 13 Elisha picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
We who are still alive must cross the Jordan twice.
Elisha discovers the water is running again.
The way back to life is not going to be easy.
Its one thing to go through the dying and the funeral.
Its another to go back into life.
One of our men in the grief support group said:
When I lost my wife it wasn’t as if half of me died.
It was if all of me died because we are one together.
Vs. 14 Then he took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah? “ he asked. When he struck the water it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
The waters of Jordan, yielded to the ark;
The waters of Jordan yielded to Elijah’s mantle.
Now it yielded to Elisha’s prayer.
What we discover is we need Supernatural help dealing with death & crossing the Jordan
We need more than just ourselves.
Or Jordan will sweep us away into a godless eternity.
This summer one of our youth went to the Kayak camp.
The camp is spent on the water in a Kayak
They paddle and navigate up and down on the Missouri river.
The last day of camp a number of people joined them
who hadn’t been on the river all week.
A father had come along with his 3 year old and his 7’ year old son.
But the current and the wind were too much for him.
Coupled with the fact that he was inexperienced.
His Kayak with the kids overturned.
HE grabbed his 3 year old.
But the 7 years old wasn’t as lucky.
One of our youth jumped out of her kayak and
Swam upstream against the current over to reach this 7 year old.
And keep him from drowning.
She saved his life.
We are sure proud of her self sacrifice.
God had her there at the right place, at the right time.
We need more than just ourselves.
We need divine intervention to cross over Jordan.
Or Jordan will sweep us away into a godless eternity.
Gods presence today is not represented
by the ark, or mantle, or even a church building.
It is represented in the Holy Spirit, in the person of Christ within us.
Our mantle of salvation comes when we accept Jesus Christ
As our personal savior.
When we put on his atoning power of his blood.
When we believe and receive the victory at the cross.
Romans 6:5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
O death, where is thy sting, thy hurt, thy terror!
Where is thy victory?
54-55 Death has been swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you’re afraid of death.
If you’re afraid of dying.
Then invite Jesus into your heart
Trust him as the resurrection and the life.
And Let him remove your doubts
forgive your sins and
set your free from your fears forever.
Our closing hymn reminds us that at that river crossing,
We will lay every burden down,
We will receive a robe and crown,
And meet the saints who have gone before us
As we gather at the throne of God.
