Written by Gary L. Shultz Jr. |
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Jesus Christ came as the Second Elisha, the ultimate Spirit-empowered prophet, and he succeeded in his conquest, making it possible for anyone who believed to experience new life through the Holy Spirit under the new covenant. Elisha’s life anticipated the life of Christ, and in doing so it also anticipates the Spirit-filled life all Christ-followers are able to have. Elisha helps us understand that through the Holy Spirit we can know God, bring life and healing in a culture of death, represent the presence of God, and do even greater works than our Master (John 14:12).

In the book of Kings, Elisha is the Spirit-empowered man of God who walks with God, represents God, and shows the way to covenant faithfulness through word and deed. Elisha therefore serves as a preview of knowing God in the new covenant through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. We will see this as we examine the Spirit’s role in Elisha’s life from Kings, particularly in the narrative of Elisha succeeding Elijah (2 Kings 2:1–18), and how Elisha’s Spirit-empowered ministry points forward to the Spirit-empowered ministry of Jesus Christ, the inauguration of the new covenant, and what it means for Jesus’s followers to live in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

The primary theological truth the book of Kings communicates is that Israel’s God is the one and only God, the only true God.1 Because Israel’s God is the only true God, the people of Israel, led by their king, must exclusively worship God and keep God’s law as written in the Mosaic Covenant if they expect to experience his blessing. Lisa Wray-Beal states this about the message of Kings: “As king and people walk in the torah, they prove their identity as covenant people. But when they walk outside the deuteronomic norms of the covenant, they face discipline and ultimately exile from the land.”2 Unfortunately, as the book of Kings records, the kings of Israel, beginning with Solomon, do not worship God exclusively or keep his law, and instead of experiencing the blessings of the covenant the nation experiences its curses. Solomon commits idolatry near the end of his life and the kingdom is divided (1 Kgs 11:1–13). The subsequent kings of the divided northern and southern kingdoms follow Solomon’s example and, with few exceptions, continue to lead the people away from the one, true God.3 Both the northern kingdom (2 Kgs 17) and the southern kingdom (2 Kgs 25) ultimately experience exile for their sins. The repetitiveness of each king’s sinful reign, leading the people further and further away from God, establishes that the exile of each kingdom, the present reality of the original audience of the book, is well-deserved.4
In the midst of this history of king after king leading the people away from God we find two prophets who demonstrate God’s grace and covenant faithfulness despite the people’s sin. The narrative space and the narrative placement of these two prophets highlight their importance to the narrative as a whole. The account of these two prophets, Elijah and Elisha, in 1 Kings 17—2 Kings 13, is the center of the book of Kings, comprising roughly 40% of the narrative.5 Elijah arrives on the scene at a decisive juncture in Israel’s history, as Ahab and Jezebel are leading the people away from God and toward the false god Baal (1 Kgs 16:29–17:1), and Elisha’s ministry effectively ends when Ahab’s dynasty does (2 Kgs 9:1–3). The two prophets’ miracles, ministry, and presence serve to call the people back to the one, true God and his covenant. Elijah and Elisha remind the people who God really is, especially when compared to the false gods the people are choosing to worship, and what it means to live before this God.6
One of the primary ways that the two prophets remind the people who God is and what it means to live before him is through the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. The Holy Spirit’s presence and power is particularly noted in the narrative of Elisha succeeding Elijah (2 Kgs 2:1–18), where Elisha receives a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit (2 Kgs 2:9–10). While the Spirit’s ministry and presence is implicit throughout Elijah’s ministry (though explicitly mentioned in conjunction with Elijah’s ministry in 1 Kgs 18:12), it is in and through Elisha, as Elijah’s successor, that the Holy Spirit’s presence and power is particularly emphasized. This emphasis on the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of Elisha helps us to understand his purpose in Kings and the whole of the biblical canon, and gives us more insight into the things concerning Jesus in all the Scriptures (Luke 24:27).7 In the context of Kings, as so many in Israel have rejected God and his covenant, Elisha serves not only as a prophet calling the people to covenant faithfulness, but as the Spirit-empowered man of God who walks with God, represents God, and demonstrates the way to covenant faithfulness. As the Spirit-empowered man of God leading the people to covenant faithfulness, however, Elisha serves as more than an example of living before God under the old covenant; he also serves as a preview of what it will mean to walk with God in the new covenant in Jesus Christ, which is ultimately how God’s people will know him and what it means to live for him.
This article demonstrates this truth by establishing the evidence and importance of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in Elisha’s life and then explaining how Elisha’s Spirit-empowered ministry points forward to the Spirit-empowered ministry of Jesus Christ and the inauguration of the new covenant. I compare and contrast Elisha’s experience of the Holy Spirit with Elijah’s experience of the Holy Spirit, and then compare and contrast Elisha’s experience with Jesus’s experience, demonstrating how the Gospels explicitly draw an analogy between Elisha’s ministry and Jesus’s ministry. Elisha’s life and ministry in the Holy Spirit ultimately preview what life with God could one day look like under the new covenant. Jesus then makes the preview a reality for all who come to him. To all facing exile from God and the kingdom for their sins, Elisha is an example of how, when we trust the one, true God, all of us can know and walk with him through the Holy Spirit because of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done.
1. The Spirit in the Life and Ministry of Elisha
The center of the Elijah and Elisha narrative is 2 Kings 2, and the center of that chapter is verses 9–13, which narrate Elijah’s ascension into heaven and Elisha’s succession into the prophetic office vacated by Elijah.8 Once Elijah and Elisha have crossed over the dry ground of the Jordan, Elijah asks Elisha what he can do for him before he is taken from him (2:9a). Elisha requests a “double portion” of Elijah’s Spirit (2:9b). Jewish tradition interpreted this request as Elisha asking for a “doubling” of Elijah’s Spirit, or twice as much of the Spirit as Elijah possessed.9 Elisha’s request for a double portion, however, most likely refers to the customs of inheritance for the firstborn son (Deut 21:17). As Paul Watson notes, “Elisha is simply asking to be designated by Elijah as his true and legitimate successor. The bene hannebi’im present at the scene might be construed as other ‘sons’ of Elijah. Elisha wishes to be recognized as the firstborn of these ‘sons,’ with all the rights and privileges of the firstborn duly accorded to him.”10 Elijah responds to Elisha by telling him that his request is difficult (2 Kgs 2:10a), most likely because it is impossible for him to fulfill; only God can grant that request.11 Elijah then tells Elisha that he would know if he was Elijah’s Spirit-empowered successor if he saw him ascend into heaven (2:10b). As the two prophets walk and talk, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separate them, and Elijah is taken to heaven in a whirlwind (2:11). Elisha witnesses the entire event, indicating that God granted his request for the double portion of Elijah’s Spirit (that this is indeed the case is confirmed by the sons of the prophets in 2:15), tears his clothes into two pieces as an act of mourning, and picks up Elijah’s cloak (2:12–13). The transfer of Elijah’s cloak to Elisha, the same cloak that Elijah threw upon Elisha when he first commissioned him (1 Kgs 19:19) and with which Elijah divided the waters of the Jordan (2 Kgs 2:8), also symbolizes that God has transferred Elijah’s prophetic power to Elijah.12
As the bearer of the firstborn’s portion of the prophetic Spirit of the Lord, Elisha succeeds Elijah and does similar, Spirit-empowered acts in his ministry, just as God promised Elijah he would (1 Kgs 19:16). For example, both prophets speak the word of the Lord (e.g., 1 Kgs 17:1; 2 Kgs 3:16–20), and both prophets call the people back to proper worship and conduct before the Lord (e.g., 1 Kgs 18:17–40; 2 Kgs 6:20–23).13 The most prominent parallel Kings makes between the two prophets and their ministries, however, is in their miracles of healing, giving life, provision, controlling nature, and judgment. While Kings does not always explicitly mention the Holy Spirit’s work in Elijah’s and Elisha’s’ miracles, the central importance of 2 Kings 2 in the narrative gives us ample reason to understand their miracles as works of the Spirit, and the New Testament’s description of the Holy Spirit’s work reinforces this understanding.14
Through the Holy Spirit, Elijah does the following:

causes a drought and famine to come to Israel while ravens feed him (1 Kgs 17:1–7);
feeds a widow and her son for many days on one jar of flour and one flask of oil (1 Kgs 17:8–16);
raises the widow’s son from the dead (1 Kgs 17:17–24);
calls down fire from heaven to burn his sacrifice to the Lord (1 Kgs 18:36–38);
brings rain to end the drought and famine (1 Kgs 18:41–45);
runs ahead of King Ahab to Jezreel (1 Kgs 18:46);
calls down fire from heaven to destroy two groups of men sent by King Ahaziah (2 Kgs 1:9–12); and
divides the waters of the Jordan with his cloak (2 Kgs 2:8).

Through the Holy Spirit, Elisha performs these mighty works:

divides the waters of the Jordan with Elijah’s cloak (2 Kgs 2:13–14);
heals the waters of Jericho by throwing salt into the spring (2 Kgs 2:19–22);
curses his harassers in Bethel, which results in two female bears mauling forty-two of them (2 Kgs 2:23–25);
provides water for the soldiers and animals of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat (2 Kgs 3:9–20);
multiplies the widow’s oil (2 Kgs 4:1–7);
promises a son to a barren woman, whom she bears the next year (2 Kgs 4:13–17);
raises the woman’s son from the dead (2 Kgs 4:18–37);
heals the deadly stew (2 Kgs 4:38–41);
feeds many from twenty loaves of bread and some grain (2 Kgs 4:42–44);
heals Naaman from his leprosy (2 Kgs 5:1–14);
curses Gehazi for his greed, resulting in leprosy for him (2 Kgs 5:26–27);
causes an iron ax-head to float (2 Kgs 6:1–7);
causes the servant to see horses and chariots of fire, causes the Syrians to be blind and then causes them to see (2 Kgs 6:18–20); and
ends a famine in Israel (2 Kgs 7:1–20).

Elijah and Elisha both end famines, resurrect a widow’s son from the dead, feed people, bring judgment upon the Lord’s enemies, and divide the waters of the Jordan. Gros Louis elaborates on this similarity:
Although some of the miracles differ in nature, they are basically the same in their execution and in the means employed…. We are aware that it is not Elijah who is the powerful one, since Elisha can do the same things—either Elijah and Elisha are equal in power and magic, or their skill comes from another source. And, of course, everything in Kings points to that other source being the Lord God of Israel.15
The same God who was at work in Elijah is now at work in his successor, Elisha. As later biblical revelation explains, the presence and power of the Lord God of Israel in human beings is the Holy Spirit of God.
But Elisha not only succeeds Elijah as the Spirit-empowered prophet, he exceeds him. In Kings, this sets apart Elisha in particular, even when compared to Elijah, as the example of the Spirit-empowered man. Kings indicates at least five ways that Elisha surpasses Elijah as the Spirit-empowered prophet.
First, Elisha performs almost twice as many miracles as Elijah, and several of these miracles are intensifications of Elijah’s miracles. For example, Elijah feeds a widow and her son for many days on one jar of flour and one flask of oil (1 Kgs 17:8–16), whereas Elisha provides water for the soldiers and animals of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat (2 Kgs 3:9–20), multiplies the widow’s oil (2 Kgs 4:1–7), heals deadly stew (2 Kgs 4:38–41), and feeds many from twenty loaves of bread and some grain (2 Kgs 4:42–44). Elijah raises the widow’s son from the dead (1 Kgs 17:17–24), whereas Elisha promises a son to a barren woman, who then bears the son the next year (2 Kgs 4:13–17), and then later raises the widow’s son from the dead (2 Kgs 4:18–37).16
Second, the presence of the “sons of the prophets” (2 Kgs 2:3, 5, 7, 15; 4:1, 38; 5:22; 6:1; 9:1) in Elisha’s ministry stands in contrast to Elijah’s solitary ministry. While the sons of the prophets existed during Elijah’s ministry, and Elisha would eventually accompany Elijah as his replacement, their presence is particularly emphasized in the Elisha narrative. The sons of the prophets accompanied Elisha from the beginning, self-identifying as Elisha’s servants (2 Kgs 2:15; 4:1), living with him in community (2 Kgs 6:1–6), and sharing and supporting his ministry (2 Kgs 9:6–10).17 Drawing together disciples, creating community, and fostering unity are all works of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2; 1 Cor 12–14).
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