Elijah comes before Elisha. Elijah is the mentor, if you will. He breaks the ground with respect to the kings of Israel. He is the one who faces Ahab who would like to imprison him, if not kill him. He is the one who is carried to heaven. And Elijah is the one who is to come before the Messiah.
But what can be said
of Elisha is that he received a double portion of the Spirit of Elijah. As you read through 2 Kings 2-13, you see a
prophet who benefits from Elijah’s ground-breaking ministry. Elisha had influence with many kings
(references are from 2 Kings):
·
Kings of Israel: Jehoram (3:1); Jehu (9:13);
Jehoahaz (13:1); Jehoash (13:10)
·
Kings of Judah: Jehoshaphat (3:11-14); Jehoram/Joram
(8:16); Ahaziah (8:25); Athaliah (11:1-3); Joash (11:12)
·
Kings of Syria: Ben Hadad (6:24); Hazael
(8:7-13); Ben Hadad (13:3)
If you will become familiar with the times of
Elisha you will see he was significant in God’s workings. He was instrumental in establishing Jehu as
King of Israel. Jehu was the one who
fulfilled several prophecies in the destruction of the house of Ahab. He had great respect for Jehoshaphat, even
though he had aligned himself with the wicked Jehoram. And, amazingly, Elisha was instrumental in the
change of kings in Syria, from Ben Hadad to Hazael.
Now, I don’t believe
in “Bible Trivia.” The Bible is NEVER
trivial. But I do believe in “Bible
Quizzing.” And Elisha gives rise to some
great quiz questions, by virtue of some great miraculous signs he performed
with the double portion of the Spirit of Elijah. I will state four questions, and give the
answers in the next post.
1.
Identify 7 Bible women who were barren, and then bore
children later in life.
2.
Identify 3 times a large number of people were fed with
a small amount of food.
3.
Identify 7 people in the Bible who were raised from the
dead.
4. How
many times were the waters of the Jordan divided?
Lastly, here’s a
comparison of Elisha and Jesus.
- o Similar names (God is salvation; YAHWEH will save)
- o Ministries begin at the Jordan
- o Raised women’s sons from the dead in the same area of Israel (Shunamite, widow of Nain)
- o Fed large number of people with small amount of food
- o Turn a small quantity of liquid into abundance (widow’s oil, wine at Cana)
- o Healed lepers (Naaman, 10 lepers)
- o Made things “float” that should sink (ax head; Jesus walking on water)
- o Betrayed for love of money (Gehazi, Judas)
- o Gave sight to the blind (Syrian army, Jesus several times)
- o Death of each brings new life (raiders toss body into Elisha’s tomb)
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