2:1 Just before the Lord took Elijah up to heaven in a windstorm, Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal.
The monarchy of Israel had replaced the Word of God with paganism. Israel had no temple, no Levitical priests, and no teaching of the Word of God. Therefore, God spoke to Israel through prophets from Judah. The miracles of these prophets would authenticate that their messages were from God. Elijah was preparing Elisha to become the next prophet of Israel.
The windstorm could have been the Shechinah Glory. The Lord’s presence was connected with a whirlwind in many verses of Scripture (Job 38:1; 40:6; Jer. 23:19; 25:32; 30:23; Zech. 9:14).
There were at least two cities names Gilgal in Israel. This was most likely the Gilgal which was located in Ephraim.
2:2 Elijah told Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.
Bethel means “house of God,” but it was no longer a house of God. Los Angeles is called the “city of angels,” but there are not very many angels there. Bethel was the place where Abraham first met God. Bethel was now a place of false worship. It was named as one of the two worship centers of Israel. The golden calf was worshiped there. There was also a school of false prophets getting their education in this city.
2:3 Some members of the prophetic guild in Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that today the Lord is going to take your master from you?” He answered, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”
Levites were responsible for teaching Israel the Word of God. However, during the Book of Judges, the Levitical priesthood had become corrupted. Therefore, Samuel began a school of prophets. He taught these prophets the Word of God, so that they could teach Israel. These students from the school of prophets knew that Elijah was going to be taken up to heaven. Elisha already knew about Elijah's coming departure, so he asked them not to talk about it. He wanted to learn as much from Elijah as he could. The students needed to be quiet and learn from the man of God.
2:4 Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” But he replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho.
The city of Jericho was cursed by Jeremiah. There was no curse for citizens living in the city, but there was a curse for the one who rebuilt it. Hiel attempted to rebuild the city and he lost his two sons.
2:5 Some members of the prophetic guild in Jericho approached Elisha and said, “Do you know that today the Lord is going to take your master from you?” He answered, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”
There was another school of prophets in Jericho. These students also knew of Elijah’s departure.
2:6 Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they traveled on together.
Elijah wanted to go to Jericho alone, but Elisha wanted to learn as much as possible from Elijah before he left this earth.
2:7 The fifty members of the prophetic guild went and stood opposite them at a distance, while Elijah and Elisha stood by the Jordan.
The Jordan was a large river which was difficult to pass. When Israel came into the Promised Land, Moses had to divide the Jordan so that they could cross it. This miracle scared Jericho, because they did not think that Israel would cross during the spring floods. They thought that Israel would not cross until the River went down in summer.
2:8 Elijah took his cloak, folded it up, and hit the water with it. The water divided, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
It had been over 500 years since Moses had divided the Jordan. Elijah repeated the miracle of Moses in front of the school of prophets.
2:9 When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “What can I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of the prophetic spirit that energizes you.”
Before a father dies, he leaves his inheritance to his son. He would leave a double inheritance to his eldest son. Elisha was the spiritual eldest son of Elijah. He asked for a double inheritance of the prophetic spirit which energized Elijah.
2:10 Elijah replied, “That’s a difficult request! If you see me taken from you, may it be so, but if you don’t, it will not happen.”
Elijah did not have the authority or the power to grant this request. Elijah promised Elisha that if Elisha was able to observe Elijah’s transfer to heaven, then God would grant his request.
2:11 As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a fiery chariot pulled by fiery horses appeared. They went between Elijah and Elisha, and Elijah went up to heaven in a windstorm.
The Hebrew word for “went up” is הָלַך (halak), meaning to take up, grab up, or vanish. The Greek Septuagint translated it as ἐπελάβετο (epilabeto), meaning to take up. This same word was used of Enoch’s translation to heaven in Gen. 5:24.
Elijah was placed inside of the Shechinah Glory and taken up to heaven. The Shechinah Glory was one of the methods in which God sometimes visited the earth. It was the physical presence of God. This was the same Shechinah Glory that Moses saw at the burning bush, the Tabernacle, and Solomon’s Temple. The fiery horses did not take Elijah to heaven. They stood between the earth and the Shechinah Glory. They followed the Shechinah Glory into heaven. At the Rapture, believers will be taken up to heaven to be with the Lord in a similar fashion.
2:12 While Elisha was watching, he was crying out, “My father, my father! The chariot and horsemen of Israel!” Then he could no longer see him. He grabbed his clothes and tore them in two.
Elisha tore his clothes into two, mourning not the death of Elijah, but his departure from this earth. Elisha knew that his ministry to Israel would be twice as potent as that of Elijah. Israel was about to go into the Assyrian Captivity, so they would need to experience this type of strong ministry. The miracles of Elijah and Elisha would be imprinted in their minds during the captivity.
2:13 He picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen off him, and went back and stood on the shore of the Jordan.
Elijah’s cloak had no magical powers. It was the symbol to Israel that Elisha was now God’s spokesman to Israel.
2:14 He took the cloak that had fallen off Elijah, hit the water with it, and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” When he hit the water, it divided and Elisha crossed over.
Elisha divided the Jordan River, just as Moses and Elijah had done. The purpose of this miracle was to authenticate to the school of prophets that Elisha was the new prophet of Israel.
2:15 When the members of the prophetic guild in Jericho, who were standing at a distance, saw him do this, they said, “The spirit that energized Elijah rests upon Elisha.” They went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.
The school of prophets recognized Elisha’s prophetic office.
2:16 They said to him, “Look, there are fifty capable men with your servants. Let them go and look for your master, for the wind sent from the Lord may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys.” But Elisha replied, “Don’t send them out.”
The school of prophets thought that the whirlwind had killed Elijah and blown his dead body somewhere in Israel. They wanted to go search for the dead body and give Elijah a proper burial. Elisha told them not to search for it, because there was no body to be found. The Shechinah Glory had taken the body, soul, and spirit up to heaven. This was very similar to what God had done with Enoch before the flood.
Many theologians teach that Enoch and Elijah will be the two witnesses of Revelation 14. In Hebrews, it states that “every man must die once, and then the judgment.” The author was not speaking about Enoch and Elijah in this verse. He was talking about the normal lives of men on earth. Enoch and Elijah were delivered from this judgment by the grace of God. There will be many believers raptured into heaven who will not face physical death.
Malachi predicted that Elijah would become “before” the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is the Great Tribulation. Elijah will arrive before the Great Tribulation to prepare Israel to meet her Messiah.
2:17 But they were so insistent, he became embarrassed. So he said, “Send them out.” They sent the fifty men out and they looked for three days, but could not find Elijah.
The school of prophets did not believe their new prophet, who was God’s new spokesman on earth. Elisha was embarrassed for them that they did not have enough spiritual maturity to possess faith in him as of yet, so he allowed them to begin this search.
2:18 When they came back, Elisha was staying in Jericho. He said to them, “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t go’?”
Elisha most likely had the opportunity to explain to these students that Elijah’s physical body was translated up to heaven, similar to that of Enoch.
2:19 The men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, the city has a good location, as our master can see. But the water is bad and the land doesn’t produce crops.”
The city of Jericho was cursed with a bad water supply. The water was undrinkable and the crops would not accept the water.
2:20 Elisha said, “Get me a new jar and put some salt in it.” So they got it.
Salt was used in Levitical sacrifices as a symbol of purification. Symbolically, it would turn the impure sacrifice into a pure sacrifice which would be accepted by God for atonement of man’s sin.
2:21 He went out to the spring and threw the salt in. Then he said, “This is what the Lord says, ‘I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or fail to produce crops.”
Salt will usually make the water turn more bitter. However, the water became pure enough to drink and grow crops. The cities water supply was saved. The curse from Jericho had been removed. Elisha saved the city of Jericho, authenticating his office as a prophet of God.
2:22 The water has been pure to this very day, just as Elisha prophesied.
Modern visitors will often go to Jericho and taste the sweetness of the water.
2:23 He went up from there to Bethel. As he was traveling up the road, some young boys came out of the city and made fun of him, saying, “Go on up, baldy! Go on up, baldy!”
The Hebrew word for “young boys” is וּנְעָרִ֤ים קְטַנִּים֙ (wa-naarim katonin). Together, these two Hebrew words mean “young men,” not “little boys” as some English versions translate it. These were not children, but infidels and idolatrous young men in their late teens or twenties. They were most likely a gang from the school of false prophets in Bethel, This was an imitation school who trained false prophets in Baalism. Many of these false prophets told King Ahab that he would be victorious against the Syrians. One of these prophets ran around with horns on his head, spouting out that King Ahab would triumph.
The Hebrew word נַ֫עַר (naar) was used of the Sodomites who attacked the home of Lot, of Isaac when he was twenty-eight years of age, of Joseph when he was thirty-nine years of age, of Solomon when he became king, and of Rehoboam’s young advisors (who were about forty years of age). This gang of young hoodlums was organized and they were planning on causing this new prophet some problems.
Baldness was usually associated with lepers. This young gang of hoodlums was cursing Elisha with leprosy. They were telling him to leave Israel the same way that Elijah did. They were telling him to go up in the sky and leave them alone.They were attempting to stop the Word of God from coming out of the mouth of this new prophet into the land of Israel. It was evil for 42 young men to organize and attempt to eliminate the Word of God in their community. This was a capital offense crime.
2:24 When he turned around and saw them, he called God’s judgment down on them. Two female bears came out of the woods and ripped forty-two of the boys to pieces.
Skeptics like to use this verse to show that God is a murderer of little children. Skeptics do not have enough bible doctrine to pick out a verse like this and prove that God is unjust. Man is born totally depraved and evil, so unless God opens man's eyes, he will be born as a skeptic. Man is so gullible that marketers spend millions of dollars on a thirty-second commercial, because he knows that he can persuade man to buy his product. Man is so gullible that he will believe anything that a man in a scientific coat and glasses spouts out on television as the “scientific approach.” Man is a stupid, arrogant, and gullible creature. Without bible doctrine, he will believe any cult, ism, or atheist. He cannot believe the Bible, unless the Holy Spirit opens up his closed mind.
Elisha did not attempt to argue, debate, or fight this gang of hoodlums. He prayed to God to judge them. God sent two bears to tear this gang to pieces. Their body parts would be left in the road for all of Israel to see. God’s message to apostate Israel was “do not mess with my prophets.”
2:25 From there he traveled to Mount Carmel and then back to Samaria.
Elisha returned to the place of Elijah’s showdown with the 450 Baal priests. Afterwards, he traveled to Samaria. Samaria was the capital of Israel. Therefore, his circuit included Bethel. Mount Carmel, and Samaria. These were three of the most important political and religious regions in Israel.