I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 2. 2 Kings chapter 2 and we'll begin in the first verse. And it came to pass when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Then Elijah said to Elisha, stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel. But Elisha said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. Now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? And he said, yes, I know, keep silent. Then Elijah said to him, Elisha, stay here, please. The Lord has sent me on to Jericho. And he said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho. Now the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came to Elisha and said to him, do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? And he answered, yes, I know. Keep silent. Then Elijah said to him, stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan. But he said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So the two of them went on. And 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan. Now Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up and struck the water. And it was divided this way and that so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground. And so it was when they had crossed over that Elijah said to Elisha, ask, what may I do for you before I am taken away from you? Elisha said, please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. So he said, you have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if not, it shall not be so. Then it happened as they continued on and talked that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire and separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried out, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen. So he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces. He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water and said, where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that, and Elisha crossed over. Now, when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. Thus far, the reading of God's word. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Let's pray once more. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for giving it to us this day in a language that we can read and enter into the depths of what you have for us. Open our eyes. We pray. We need your insight. We need your spirit with us. We cannot do these things with darkened eyes and understandings. May we be challenged by what we read and by what we learn from your word. May we not go home with just ideas in our heads, but may we go home with instruction from you of how we are to live, what you are calling us unto. May we live in light of it, we ask. In Jesus' name, amen. What does a healthy handoff look like in the church of God? When a minister is nearing the end of his life's work, what needs he to have done beforehand in order to be able to equip the saints and the ministers who will come after him? What does multi-generational continuity look like? Is that something that we should even be striving for? Well, in 2 Kings chapter 2, we have a gripping, vivid, and emotionally rich account of what a healthy handoff looks like. Now, this chapter here is really the culmination of the mentoring and the instruction and the charge that Elijah gives to Elisha over a period of years. We don't have a lot of visibility into all of the back and forth, but we have in great detail the culmination of it here. And we know through responsible inference that this was an elongated effort that goes all the way back to the previous Book of the Kings. And we'll look at that briefly before we're done. Well, this transition is the main point, the main theme of these verses and we want to examine it closely this afternoon. It would be easy for us to focus on Elijah's departure and consider in just earthly terms here and speculate about exactly what he was leaving behind and where his body ends up and we could enter all kinds of speculation and we don't want to do that. Even an unbeliever can be fascinated by a glittery account of the chariots of fire. Could we tell that story in a way that satisfies our carnal interest? That's not the point of the passage. That wasn't Elijah's focus, as we're going to see. Elijah's focus in the text is directed towards the Lord's work that he would be leaving behind, actually. We're going to see that up until the very end, Elijah cares about God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven. We're going to see that Elijah fought for Elisha and for the future of covenant Israel. And let's just dive into the text here and look at it verse by verse and see how this plays out. Verse 1 tells us that the Lord was about to take up Elijah. And it seems that certainly the writer of 2 Kings knows that this is about to happen as he's recounting the story for us. But I think that all of the players involved here knew that as well. This was knowledge that the prophets were privy to, that Elijah and Elisha were privy to. And it's time for Elijah to be taken up by a whirlwind. And so Elijah with Elisha go from Gilgal, they're traveling towards Bethel. And we see that in verse two, Elijah turns to Elisha and he says, the Lord's telling me to go to Bethel, please stay. And Elisha doesn't follow his advice, doesn't follow his request. He says, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. And so the two of them go down to Bethel. So the two of them know what's going on here. And so they travel from Gilgal to Bethel. And Elijah's saying, God is sending me there. And Elisha's refusing. And notice he doesn't just say, no thanks. He swears by the life of Yahweh. And by the life of Elijah. As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. Now what's going on here? Why is Elijah asking Elisha to hold back? Did he really want him to do that? Was he wanting to just be by himself in his final hours of life? Well, based on the events that unfold, it seems that Elijah is instead testing Elisha. He's testing Elisha's commitment to him. He's giving Elisha an easy and a respectable out. He's giving an opportunity to bail on him, but Elisha pushes back. And if this is a test, then Elisha passes it. He says, I'm not going to leave you. I'm not going to abandon you. You're going to have to make me leave. It's as though Elisha knew what was coming and he was there for it. And then we get to verse three, they arrive at Bethel and it's while they're still perhaps outside the gates of the city, they're coming towards Bethel, that the sons of the prophets, you could think of this as the prophetic guild or the school of the prophets that are at Bethel, came out to Elisha with Elijah by his side. And they say to him, do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? And he said, yes, I know. Keep silent. It's likely that the Lord had revealed to these prophets, to these under prophets who were being schooled by Elijah and others, that today was the day he would be taken up. That's likely, perhaps they had heard about it from some other source, might have been directly from God, might have been from a different source. Whatever the case, they know about it and they're wanting to make sure that Elisha knows about it. You remember that there were 7,000 in Israel that God had promised that would not bow the knee to Baal. And when we come to this verse three and these sons of the prophets here, We can safely conclude that Elijah had been busily discipling and strengthening these schools of the prophets in Bethel and as we'll see in a moment in Jericho. And now as Elijah and Elisha are coming towards the city and as these students, these sons of the prophets come out, they have this question. And this question is top of mind for these students. Elijah's departure is the first question they have for them. And this is very understandable. A man who was likely their principal teacher was about to be forever removed from their lives. Now, did they really think that Elisha didn't know that Elijah was going to be taken from him? Well, they almost certainly knew that Elisha already knew. I mean, how would they know and Elisha not know? That doesn't make sense. They certainly, surely at least, didn't have insider knowledge of Elijah that Elisha didn't have. But I think it's a very natural question to ask. Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you? Take away your head, literally in the Hebrew, from over you today? And think about this. If you saw two men walking along side by side, They've known each other for years, and you know that by the time the sun sets, they're gonna be gone forever. They're not gonna be with each other. It would beg the question, wouldn't it? Do you know that this is gonna happen? I mean, here's Elijah and Elisha, perhaps deep in the weeds of biblical discipleship, and these students can't help but ask. You know this is about to all end, right? I love Elisha's answer in verse 3. Yes, I know. Keep silent. He's not interested in dialoguing with these sons of the prophets about the imminent departure of his master. It's already top of mind for him. He already knows it and he doesn't need to be reminded about it. He doesn't want to get distracted from talking with Elijah. Time's precious at this point. Today's his last day with Elijah. There'll be plenty of tomorrows to talk with these sons of the prophets. Well, verse four, Elijah once again tries to get Elisha to stay now in Bethel. Elijah said to him, Elisha, stay here, please. For the Lord has sent me to Jericho. But he said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho. This is almost an exact copy of verse two. Just the cities have changed. So by now they've gone from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho. And now for the second time, On the way to Jericho, you have Elijah inviting Elisha to hold back. And again, he gives him an easy out. He says, please, and this Hebrew word that translates please, it could be rendered beseech or implore or beg. I implore you, Elisha, stay here. Yahweh has sent me to Jericho. And Elisha's response is the same. I mean, he's saying literally not on your life. It's going to take more than begging on the part of Elijah to get Elisha off his tail. And so they come together to Jericho. Verse five, the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho now come to Elisha. Similar to verse three. And what do they ask? Do you know? Had they been comparing notes with the sons of the prophets in Bethel? They asked the same question. Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? And he answered, yes, I know. Keep silent. If you'll indulge a brief rabbit trail here, it's interesting to me that this conversation is happening at Jericho. And it's interesting that there's a school of prophets, a prophetic guild in Jericho. If we go back to where we started two years ago when we began this study in 1 King 16, towards the end of the chapter during the inaugural comments of Ahab's reign. It was such a godless time that we read in verse 34, the last verse of chapter 16 of 1 Kings, in his days, that's Ahab's reign, Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. Jericho had been cursed. Joshua had put a curse on Jericho. He said, cursed is he who builds Jericho. He will lay its foundation in the death of his firstborn. He will set up the gates with the death of his youngest. It's exactly what happens during Ahab's reign. Hiel lays its foundation with Abiram, his firstborn. What does that mean? Abiram dies, his firstborn, when they lay the foundation. And then his youngest son, Segub, dies when he sets up the gates, according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken through Joshua, the son of Nun. This accursed city that had been destroyed by God through Joshua, as one of the first cities, the first city, when they crossed from Jordan heading west into Canaan. The godlessness was at such a height during Ahab's reign that the word of God meant nothing to those people. And Hiel builds this city, and it costs him every single one of his children. They die like clockwork as he's building the city. And his youngest dies as he finishes the city gates, according to the word of the Lord. So that's the backstory of Jericho. But now what's happened? Towards the end, that's the beginning of Elijah's ministry under Ahab. Now, back to 2 Kings 2, as Elijah's finishing his walk on earth, this city that had been built as an act of rebellion and unbelief is now a marvel of God's grace on full display. The city whose gates had been set up at the death of Seagum, Hyal's youngest son, is now a place where submission, not rebellion, and faith, not unbelief, are practiced by the sons of the prophets, by this prophetic guild. I'm reminded of the words in Revelation, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Here in Jericho of all places. there's a school of the prophets. And they come out to meet Elijah and Elisha as they approach it, as they approach the city gates. And they ask the same question that was asked in Bethel. Do you not know that this is it? This is the day the Lord will take away your master from over you? And while they're at Jericho, Elijah once again says to Elisha, stay here please, verse six, for the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan. But he said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So the two of them went on. Have you noticed the repetition in this chapter yet? He keeps asking him, stay, please. He's begging, imploring, beseeching him stay. And Elisha is saying, not on your life, not on the life of Yahweh. And so the two of them keep going. The cities changed, but the people keep saying the same things. So now they've gone from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to Jordan, to the Jordan River. This is becoming quite a trek. It's a distance of at least five miles this day. And we're seeing that Elijah keeps imploring Elisha to hold back, and Elisha keeps sticking to his guns. He will not be put off. I'm not going to leave you, not on God's life, not on your life. It was not going to happen. You're going to have to make me. And now over 750 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance while the two of them stood by the Jordan. I don't think that the sons of the prophets knew exactly how Elijah was going to be taken away from Elisha this day. But what they did know as they kept their respectful distance was that these two men are edging their way towards the Jordan river. And I think that piqued their curiosity. When you, when you see two men approaching a river, you know, one's going to be taken. You don't know what's going to happen next, but what are they about to do? When the text in verse seven says that they stood by the Jordan, That denotes that they come to the river and then they're obliged to stop as one does at a river. You could render this, they watched from a distance as Elijah and Elisha stopped beside the river Jordan. And then the most remarkable thing happens. Verse eight, Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up and struck the water. And it was divided this way and that. so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground. River Jordan flows north to south, and so you have it divided on the north side and on the south side, and they're able to cross from west to east on dry ground. As Matthew Henry says, this was, quote, the preface to Elijah's translation into the heavenly canyon as it had been to the entrance of Israel into the earthly canyon, end quote. Well, they crossed over on dry ground. It was so verse nine, when they had crossed over that Elijah said to Elisha, ask, what may I do for you before I am taken away from you? Now, there's a theme here that I don't want us to miss in this, in this chapter. And one of the things I don't want us to miss is the connection between verse nine and verse 10. between verse 8 and the first part of verse 9. Notice that Elijah has just demonstrated the powerful sovereignty of God with the dividing of the River Jordan. I mean, we can't do that. That's God's doing. That is the power of God. A miraculous event. And then right after that, you have Elijah asking, To Elisha, what can I do for you, brother? What would you like me to do? Did the sovereignty of God cause Elijah to become fatalistic or apathetic towards the church? I mean, here's on display a great power of God's sovereignty. Did that make him go, you know what? God's in control. Isn't that great? Now we can just be indifferent, fatalistic, apathetic towards the church. No! Ask what I may do for you before I'm taken away from you. Now, is this what he may do for him? Is this what Elijah can do for Elisha? Isn't it God who's in control? Yes, God's in control. He just demonstrated that by going through the Jordan River on dry ground. But yet he's asking him, ask what I may do for you. He has a healthy theology of God's sovereignty. There's work to be done and there's things I can do for my brother. What may I do for you? And I don't think this is the begrudging of a man who had wished that Elisha just would have left him go three cities ago. I don't think that's what's happening here. I think that he had been testing Elisha and all that testing had been in anticipation of this very moment. It culminates here in verse nine. Ask what may I do for you before I am taken away from you? You remember Demas who had left Paul. He deserted Paul because he loved the things of this life, this passing age. And yet here, Elisha had remained with Elijah until the very end. And now Elijah is saying, ask, what can I do for you? What's Elisha's response? Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. I want to make sure we understand what he's saying here. I don't think that Elisha is asking to be twice the man that Elijah was. I don't think he's saying, I want to be Elijah 2.0. I want to be like you, but like twice as good as you, twice as much as you. No, the idea is this. There's the 50 sons of the prophets on the West side of Jordan watching, and all of them have been under the school, under the teaching of Elijah. strengthening the hands of the prophets in Bethel and Jericho. And all of them would have the imprint of Elijah going forward. All of them had the teaching and the instruction of Elijah. But what Elisha is asking here is he's saying, I want that portion from you toward us to be doubled in my case. You remember how in Israel, the firstborn received a double portion of the inheritance. And it's in this way that Elisha was asking to be the firstborn son, if you will, of Elijah's ministry. He's asking to be equipped with the leadership as the one who leads the sons of the prophets. He knew that Elijah had walked with his God and he wanted what he had. He's saying, Elijah, if there is any of your spirit to be had, then if I can ask one thing from you, it's that I have two portions of that. I'm reminded of when Joseph gives Benjamin five portions at the meal at that banquet room in his palace in Egypt. He gives all of them one portion, but Benjamin gets five portions. Elisha's asking for a double portion for the symbol of being the firstborn heir. Elijah answers in verse 10. He said, you have asked a hard thing. In other words, what you're asking for is hard to obtain. It's rarely come by. Few are favored in this way by God. Nevertheless, if you see me, when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if not, it shall not be so. Now I think what Elijah is saying here is this, if Elisha sees Elijah when he's taken from him, it would be a token or a confirmation that his request had been answered, that he could anticipate that what he had asked for was indeed coming to pass. In other words, I think that there's not something mystical about him seeing him as he goes up that's the imparting of that. It's rather the token to him that his prayer has been answered. And verse 10 is key to understanding verse 11. You see, there's a real danger here. There's a real possibility that Elisha is in fact not going to see Elijah when he's taken up into heaven. It's not this empty hypothetical. There's a real possibility of him missing Elijah ascending into heaven. And this token of confirmation of him seeing that, I don't think there's a magical imparting from that, but it does reflect the difficulty in obtaining this. In other words, you're asking for a hard thing. The confirmation is going to be hard. And that informs us as we enter into verse 11, it happened as they continued on and talked that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire and separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. I don't think that Elijah knew specifically how or that Elisha knew specifically how Elijah would depart. I knew I was going to confuse the two of them here. But I want you to put yourself into Elisha's shoes here. Imagine that you and your friend are walking together. And there's two things that you know. One is that by the life of God, you are not going to leave your friend if you can help it. The second thing you know is that more than anything else in the world, you want a double portion of your friend's spirit. But that in order to get that, you have to see him when he departs. As a token that God has answered your friend's prayer. So you're walking along and you're talking and then perhaps mid-sentence, seemingly out of nowhere, a chariot of fire comes barreling towards you with horses of fire in full gallop. And this chariot is coming directly towards you and you and your friend that had just been by your side are now suddenly separated by the chariot. That's what's in the text in verse 11. It says the horses separated, the two of them. The Net Bible provides this literal translation in its margin. They made a division between the two of them. In other words, this chariot is coming right towards them and divides them. Now, if you're in Elisha's shoes here, I think that your first reaction in a situation like that is not to just calmly stick around and see what happens next. You're probably going to run for your life to get away and jump for the bushes. And remember that encounters with angels are not calm or casual affairs in scripture. There's times in scripture where the saints are so overcome by the sight of the cherubim and seraphim that they inadvertently fall down on their face and start worshiping them. That happened to the Apostle John in Revelation. Angels frequently appear as consuming fire. That's in the etymology of their very names as they, they appear as consuming fire. And this denotes their purity. It's like they're refined by fire. So that's the setting in which you need to see your friend apart. Well, indeed, Elisha had asked a hard thing. The token of his having obtained his request would only be gotten through much difficulty. While exercising himself to get out of the way of this oncoming chariot, he would need to keep his eye on his friend. He needed to see Elijah when he was taken from him. Well, how did he manage? Verse 12, and Elisha saw it. Despite the difficulty here, Elisha sees what happens. He sees Elijah going up by a whirlwind. Worth noting, by the way, it doesn't say in black and white that this chariot carried Elijah into heaven. I think that we can safely assume that, but what it specifically says that takes him into heaven is the whirlwind in the context of the chariot dividing him and his friend. But Elisha sees it. It says that he saw it and he gives this incredible utterance. In verse 12, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen, Elijah had been like a father to Elisha. There was a, there was a father son relationship. Remember the sons of the prophets earlier, the corollary to the sons of the prophets is there's the father of the prophets. It's Elijah. He calls him his father. Elijah had been like a master to Elisha and the other students. And in that sense, we think of them as the sons of the prophets. So there's this father-son, this teacher-student relationship. And there's some debate as to what he means when he says, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen. Is he just referring to the fact that he had just seen a chariot and horsemen? Or is he actually calling Elijah the chariot of Israel and its horsemen. Well, if it's the latter, then what he is saying is that Elijah had served Israel better through his prayers than the nation's physical chariots and horsemen had. Elijah was the chariot of Israel and its horsemen. And that was symbolized in the procession that took him to heaven. It says he saw him no more. He took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces. Elijah would never be seen again on earth until he was seen with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. And this all transpired so fast. And then it was over. The chariot of fire, the chariot of Israel are gone in a whirlwind. And as we think about the dust settling on that far side of the Jordan River on that day, it quickly all comes crashing home to Elisha. His closest friend has departed. Elijah's gone. And there's a bereavement on the part of Elisha that's just as deep and just as real as though Elijah had died. Except with this difference, Elisha doesn't even have his body to remember him by. All he has is his mantle or his cloak. Elisha did not want Elijah to leave. He wasn't going to leave him. By the life of Yahweh and Elijah, Elisha had said he was not going to leave him. He was determined to not leave his master. And yet now this chariot of fire has irrevocably separated him and his close friend. Earlier, Elijah had given Elisha the choice of leaving, but in the end, the choice really wasn't his to make. Elijah was gone. And in his sadness, Elisha tears his clothes. Tore him to pieces. Verse 13, he also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. Let's go back to 1 Kings 19 to be reminded of a tie-in to this. This is during Elijah's fall, I think we can safely call it, a time of unbelief, going to Mount Horeb, not on God's instruction. God asks him, you'll recall that we saw, God says, what are you doing here? God didn't send him to Mount Horeb, to Mount Sinai. God made sure he had enough food to get there, because he was going to go there, but he didn't send him there. And he said, why are you going here? And shortly before this, Elijah had asked to be killed under the juniper tree. He's not in a good, healthy, spiritual place. And it's in this context that God tells him, I've left 7,000. It's a promise of the future. I will leave 7,000. That will not bow the knee to Baal. But notice something that he says there. In verse 16, he says, Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel, Nahola, you shall anoint as prophet in your place. So Elijah does that. Starting in verse 19, he departed there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him and he was with the 12th. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. So as Elisha is first anointed by Elijah, to be his successor here in First Kings 19, Elijah's thrown his cloak on him. He's thrown his mantle on him. And what was being promised in that location with those 12 yoke of oxen that he was driving was now taking place here in Second Kings. Now he has his mantle and he takes the mantle, verse 14. Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water and said where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is where is Yahweh the God of Elijah? Now Elisha here is appealing to the promises of God. You know, because he had seen Elijah's ascension, that was the token, that was the confirmation that his request of being given a double portion of Elijah's spirit had indeed been answered. And so he's exercising that now. He'd been given this token of an answered prayer, and this is a ripe opportunity to test that double portion. Where is Elijah's God, he's asking as he goes down to the Jordan River. In other words, does Israel have a future? Will the purposes of God continue in a world where Elijah doesn't walk? Does the God of Israel outlast the Elijah of Israel? Where is Yahweh, the God of Elijah? Second half of 14, when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that, and Elisha crossed over. And there's debate about how you render this, but it may be that it's actually God who's doing the striking in the second half. Elisha strikes it and asks, where is God? Yahweh, the God of Elijah, and God strikes the water. And it was divided this way and that, and Elisha crossed over. I recommend to you John Gill if you want to see the debates about that. Whatever the case, the God of Israel Hadn't disappeared. He hadn't gone away. Here's his answer. Yes, Elijah has departed. Elijah has disappeared, but his God has not disappeared there. There is still a God in Israel post Elijah. His promises have not failed. His purposes didn't end with Elijah. There's a future for his people. His mercies would continue to be new every morning. The work would go on. The same work that Elijah had fought for all his life and which he had carefully prepared the next generation for would go on. Neither the gates of Hades nor the winds of heaven could stop the work of God on earth. Verse 15, when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, remember they're on the west side of Jordan. They're watching this. There's a group of at least 50 of them, maybe more by now. And they see the water's part for the second time that day. And they see him cross over to the west bank. And they say, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. And don't misconstrue this as some kind of worship of Elisha, as some deity. They're showing their respect to one who has now the firstborn portion of Elijah's spirit. And that's how the story ends. Elijah, who, as I mentioned a moment ago, had once sat under a juniper tree and asked God to kill him, was translated that he should not see death. Thus, says A.W. Pink, a supernatural exit from this world is assured to all the ransom hosts of God. As different as Elijah's departure was from ours, so the death of the righteous is not ordinary compared to the death of the world." He wasn't speaking specifically of this passage, but it's in the same spirit that A.W. Tozer says, quote, what God does for one, he does for all, end quote. And by that, I mean this, if we are in Christ, we too shall experience the redemption of our bodies in the new Jerusalem. What God does for one, he does for all. And meanwhile, Elisha would then go on to a ministry that it turns out would, according to scholars, last twice as long as Elijah's, and he would have double the number of miracles. Now again, I don't think that he was asking to be Elijah 2.0, but in some sense, that's what he got. One day in 2 Kings 6, Elisha and his servant would be surrounded by an entire hillside of horses and chariots of fire as proof of divine protection against the Aramean army. Well, as we conclude our study of Elijah the Tishbite, what are we left with? What are the top highlights, if you will, of Elijah from Tishbe? Well, A.W. Pink summarizes Elijah's ministry with these seven statements or heads. One, Elijah was a man of faith. Two, he was separate from the world. Three, he minded heavenly things. Four, he was mighty in prayer. Five, he was courageous in the face of evil. Six, he experienced a sad fall. Seven, he was supernaturally exited from this world. But I think that there's one important thing that we need to add to Pink's list, and that's this. Elijah showed his love to God by his love for God's people. Like the Apostle Paul in Acts 20, he worked tirelessly to prepare the sons of the prophets for the day in which he would depart from them and for the days that would lie ahead afterward. When Elijah departed, he didn't leave them hanging. He cared about the next generation. He cared about their doctrine and their nourishment in the truth. He could say with Paul, that the goal of his instruction was love that comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. You see, it wasn't good enough for Elijah that things were just good in his lifetime. His attitude wasn't, well, as long as I get my way, then everything's good, even if it's at the expense of their betterment. Elijah is a rebuke. to modern American pastors, even conservative sovereign grace pastors who seem to be perfectly fine retiring from their churches and leaving them rudderless and voiceless with no Elishas to take up the mantle. If you've not been in a situation like that, get on your knees and thank God for that. That is a common refrain in our day and that is a sad thing. But Elijah's also rebuke to Christians who are comfortable sitting at home on the Lord's Day and who refuse to engage with and build up the Church of God. And I would go so far as to say this, how Elijah finished his life is the rebuke to how A.W. Pink finished his life. Now, I love A.W. Pink. I got a lot out of his commentary on Elijah the Tishbite. It's considered one of the primary resources for people that go through a series on Elijah. But at the end of the day, I think that Pink misses the point in the final analysis. He misses completely one of the most needful lessons that we could learn from Elijah. And that's this. Pink has a tendency towards isolationism and seclusion from the people of God that takes full display towards the end of his life. And I know that he had his reasons for why he couldn't go to church on Sunday, but they were excuses. This isn't an expose on Pink's life, but brothers and sisters, this, this behavior is sinful and needs to be repented of. And that's the surface level sin. The root level sin is a lack of love to God that manifests itself in love to the people of God. Elijah is a strong example for us. No matter what our position is, no matter what our title is, for finishing well, for keeping our neck in the yoke, for continuing to plow until our work is done, for staying in the game, I like to think of Elijah as a field officer. He wasn't in high command issuing orders from some underground bunker. And to the contrary, he's found in person on the battlefield of stewardship until the very end. It wasn't good enough for Elijah to spend his Sabbaths catching up on correspondence with his remote fan club. It wasn't good enough for Elijah to spend his Sabbaths live streaming sermon audio from his living room couch. You see, Elijah did not have a distorted view of the sovereignty of God that led him to inaction and indifferentism to the church of God. A.W. Pink, who was such an able defender of the sovereignty of God, became an abuser of that doctrine. Elijah's legacy is a corrective, a needful corrective to us. Did anyone witness the sovereignty of God more than Elijah? But that doctrine didn't disease his thinking into spiritual diabetes. No, Elijah exercised that doctrine by how he lived. Elijah believed in boots on the ground. He discipled in person, in both group settings in the prophetic guild, as well as one-on-one. He engaged, and he did so because he cared. His motive came from a fierce love to God that translated in a love for the people of God. Elijah lived gladly for God and God's people. And because of this, he didn't waste his life. His works were not burned up with fire when he entered the new Jerusalem. To the contrary, his works followed him. Let's go back to verse 11 of 2 Kings 2. What were they doing in those final moments before that chariot of fire appeared with those horses of fire that were coming barreling towards them? And there's debates, were they coming towards them from the sky? Were they coming towards them from the ground? We don't know, that's irrelevant. But right before that happened, what were they doing? Notice that little phrase, as they continued on and talked. They were discipling, they were fellowshipping. He was shepherding and discipling until the very end. He didn't retire and go gathering seashells. And Elijah of Tishbe sets a high bar for us of what biblical handoff looks like. You see, it doesn't begin the day that you're planning on retiring. No, this takes years of mentoring and discipleship of working together in teams, in the schools of the prophets, and then one-on-one with Elisha, whom God had placed in his life. And here's the point. Every Christian is either discipling or being discipled, or usually it's a mixture of both. Nobody's flying solo. That's not the Church of God. That wasn't the case in the Old Testament. It's not the case in the New Testament. Yes, there were times when Elijah was by himself. That is true. He didn't end that way. In the case of someone like the Apostle Paul, when he's abandoned by many and has almost no one with him, that wasn't his choice. I'm not saying that doesn't happen. But Elijah had a choice here, and he was with the people of God until the end. If your life circumstances by any means allow you to be with the people of God, to be building up one another in the most holy faith, Elijah is calling us to be faithful in that until the end. God is calling all of us, you and me, each of us, every one of us, to disciple and serve. And if your view of God and of God's sovereignty doesn't cause you to serve his people, Elijah doesn't recognize your God. If your view of, of God's sovereignty leads you to inaction, your own life testifies against you. The wind and the sea obey his voice. And will you sit idle? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the life of Elijah, for his faithful service to you. We thank you that he was a man of valor in the face of evil, who did not step down and compromise from the truth when it was difficult, when he spoke it to kings who had their face set against you. A man who, though he fell for a time, was strengthened. by your spirit and continued on. And we thank you for the love that you gave him for you that translated into a love for your people. We thank you that he was a useful tool with the 7000 that did not bow the knee to the false gods so that he could shepherd the schools of the prophets and Elisha. so that the works would go on, that there would be intergenerational continuity in the land of Israel. May that be so in your churches. Lord, for pastors who plan on retiring and leaving their churches shepherdless while they do pulpit supply, looking for someone to take the reins. Lord, may our thinking be corrected. May this be a challenge to your churches, we ask, to be more sanctified for the purity of your church. We thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen.