by Rev. K. D. MacLeod, South Harris
Elijah’s lifetime was a dark period in the spiritual history of Israel. But he, by the grace of God, was a remarkably bright light, even among that galaxy of saints of whom the world was not worthy, whose lives are recorded in the Old Testament. Elisha, raised up by God to be Elijah’s successor, must have felt very conscious of his godliness as he accompanied him in the service of their Master. How empty then must Elisha have felt when Elijah was taken from him, by a whirlwind into heaven. And how liable to tremble for the cause of God in Israel he would have been, especially considering how weak that cause already was.
But Elisha at once showed that he knew that Elijah’s God was still the same. Elijah had been taken away, but the Lord God of Elijah still ruled in heaven. And His power to work miracles remained unchanged also.
To get across Jordan to the place from where he was to be taken to heaven “Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters, and they divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.” Now that Elijah was gone, how was Elisha to get back across Jordan? It was enough to remember that God was still the same. So Elisha asked, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” And, in the faith that He was still the same, Elisha did exactly what Elijah had done, “he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and smote the waters . . . and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over.”
As one taught by God himself, Elisha well knew that it was not in his own strength that Elijah had worked miracles. There were indeed times when Elijah was left to feel his own weakness. That was especially true after his victory — in its essence a spiritual victory — on Mount Carmel over the priests of Baal and of the groves. He fled from the threats that Jezebel made against his life away into Judah and on into the wilderness, where he pleaded that God would take away his life. God sustained him there even in his body; the angel of the Lord came twice to show him a meal which had been prepared for him and which was to sustain him for forty days in the wilderness. And we can quite safely take this as an illustration of how God provided for his servant’s soul also, just by enabling him to feed on spiritual food. So, of course, we also are instructed by Christ Himself, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (Jn 6: 51).
James indeed reminds us in his Epistle that Elijah “was a man subject to like passions as we are”. But he at the same time makes clear to us where his great spiritual strength lay; “He prayed earnestly”, he tells us. That great prayerfulness was itself but the expression before God of a specially great degree of dependence on God; he was going up through the wilderness leaning very, very firmly on his Beloved. In everything we too must say to ourselves, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Cor. 3: 5). God had proved Himself all-sufficient in the life of Elijah; what we see Elisha now laying hold of is that He could be all-sufficient in his life also.
For it was most certainly not in despair that Elisha asked his question, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” It was in confident expectation of an answer. But let us stop for a few moments to consider the question itself. God Himself supplies an answer to such a question by asking, “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” (Jer. 23: 24). Elisha’s question, however, goes further than this, for when God at this time gave him an answer it was not to declare His omnipresence. The question took to do with God continuing to work as He had so wonderfully done in the times of Elijah. Fundamental to Elisha’s whole attitude was his knowledge of the unchangeableness of God, who is “unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth” (Shorter Catechism Q6). This is the God who was to reveal Himself in the words, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Mal. 3: 6). And the particular way in which Elisha was able to apply to himself his knowledge of God was to realise that God is unchanging in His ways of working.
Elijah’s question is still a topical one, and capable of many relevant answers, answers which vary according to our state of soul. So if the unconverted ask where God is, the answer must be that “they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from any one of us” (Acts 17: 27f). Now that is not something that is to be done blindly, for God has indeed revealed Himself. And in our unbelieving generation this fact needs all the emphasis that can possibly be given to it, that the only source for any reliable knowledge of God is the Bible, inspired as it is throughout by God the Holy Spirit, and therefore in the whole of its contents perfectly infallible, perfectly reliable and totally authoritative. In the Bible we have been given an accurate and reliable revelation of how we may come to God though we are the sinners that we are. It may be summarised in the words of Paul, “It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1: 15).
God’s children may feel the need to ask Elisha’s question, particularly in times of darkness or difficulty. He most graciously assures them that “the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth” (Ps. 145: 18). Though they may be conscious that the ways that they must follow in the world are ways that they knew not and paths that they have not known, yet these paths are not unknown to the God that is always nigh to His children, and, however long it may be before they get a consciousness in their souls that He had heard them, the fact still remains that “the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and His ears are open to their cry” (Ps. 34: 15).
So when the Church of God asks this same question she may well listen to the assurance, “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God shall help her, and that right early” (Ps. 46: 5). However low the cause of Christ may become in any particular generation it is by God’s help alone that she never disappears out of existence altogether. God’s Church is never completely left to herself.
But when shall that help be given so that the Church generally will be powerfully revived? When shall the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ? The answer quite simply must be, “Right early”. But we must allow the Lord Himself to determine when it is that He should work in that way. Besides, “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3: 8). We have to learn, whether we think of the Lord’s dealings with ourselves or in wider spheres, that always “He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” (Dan. 4: 35).
We have already noted Elisha’s confidence that God would make a passage for him through the Jordan on his return. But what was his confidence based on? Quite simply, that he had been given a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, for he fully expected that God would fulfil Elijah’s prophecy, “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee.” He could thus go on in the confidence that God, not only would be with him in a miraculous way at that point in time, but that throughout his whole time on earth God would never leave him or forsake him. It was with that attitude of mind, then, that he asked the question, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” It was no echo of the taunt of the heathen, “Where is now their God?” It was asked in the confident expectation that God would indeed appear.
We must bear in mind that Elisha not only shared the miraculous power of Elijah, but he also shared in his godliness. He too was a man who held exceptionally close communion with God; it seems to have been something quite out of the ordinary that, when the Shunammite woman’s son died, he could say, “The Lord hath hid it from me and hath not told me.” So when he would raise the son from the dead it was perfectly natural for him to pray unto the Lord. A sense of dependence on God is always necessary, a dependence that will lead us to say, “I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only” (Ps. 71: 16). God’s children are always to have a prayerful eye to the promises, such as, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13: 5f).
So often God’s command of long ago is still relevant, “Speak unto the Children of Israel that they go forward.” The Israelites at that point were hemmed in on both sides, so that escape seemed impossible. But what God was doing in issuing the command which he gave was to indicate the only path of safety. They were to go on without overmuch regard to outward circumstances, but to give implicit obedience to God’s directions. Time and again individual believers have found that the only safe course of action was to go on in reliance upon God, although they could not see that their path could lead them to safety. And He has shown in the event that His hand was not shortened that it could not save — and it never will be.
Even in our age, Elisha’s attitude is to be the attitude, not only of individuals, but of the Church as a whole also. Today more than ever the Church should ask, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” — not in any despairing spirit, but in the full knowledge that the Lord God of Elijah is still the God of the whole earth and that He is completely unchanged in His ways of working and in His purposes. And His purposes for His church on earth have in some measure been revealed in the Scriptures. One thing He has made known is that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16: 18). Therefore, however strong the forces of atheism, false religions, Roman Catholics and all the mass of heresy in the Protestant Church, may become, we can be quite sure that the Church of God will not be overcome. The truth is, as Elisha realised when he saw the huge Syrian army which had come against Israel, that “they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (6: 16). When God’s time will come for reviving His Church nothing will stand in the way. In particular, nothing will prevent the universal spread of the gospel at the time that God has appointed. The means that God will then use to turn the hearts of multitudes of sinners at once to Himself will be exactly the same as are now used in the conversion of ones and twos; the means will be the gospel of the grace of God applied by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Church of God is thus to go on trusting in nothing but the power of the Lord God of Elijah to bless His own Word. She is to go with Elisha’s attitude, confident that God is in the midst of His Church and that His Word will not return unto Him void but that it will accomplish just what He pleases. Thus there is no need whatever to resort to any unscriptural methods of spreading the gospel. The crucial factor in the spread of the gospel in apostolic times was plain Scriptural preaching applied by the power of the Holy Spirit. It has been the same in every subsequent revival, including the Reformation. It will be the same in every future revival, and in particular at that time we know as the Millennium, when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Is. 11: 9). Thus, whether in a particular generation the blessing is great or small, it can be said to the servants of God, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 15; 58).