As you read the epic stories of Elijah and Elisha, you will quickly note some similarities. Both men were prophets of God. Both faithfully served the Almighty in the Northern Kingdom during the dark days of evil King Ahab and his equally-evil successors. Both ministries are marked with miracles. In fact, both parted the Jordan River, and both raised the dead. Even their names are similar.
A careful reading of the Scripture also reveals some striking differences between the two great men.
Elijah resembles the Old Testament priest, Melchizedek, who was “without father, mother, or genealogy” (Hebrews 7:3). Elijah jumps onto the pages of God’s Holy Word without introduction. Who was his daddy? But Elisha was the “son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah” (1 Kings 19:16). While Elijah bounds onto history’s stage and immediately wags his finger in the face of Israel’s wicked king (1 Kings 17:1), when we first see Elisha, he’s plowing in his father’s fields (1 Kings 19:19).
The Bible records a major failing in Elijah’s life. Fearful and faithless, we catch a glimpse of Elijah hiding under a bush, wishing that his life would come to a quick conclusion (1 Kings 19:3-5). Concerning Elisha, the Bible doesn’t reveal his failings. In this, he’s like Joshua, faithful to the end.
Elijah was a fierce opponent of Israel’s king, inflicting the kingdom with God’s just judgments. In response, Ahab wanted to kill the Prophet. Elisha’s ministry was different, and in response, when Elisha lay upon his deathbed, “King Jehoash of Israel went down and wept over him and said, ‘My father, my father!’ ” (2 Kings 13:14).
Even in their deaths, they are different. “Elisha died and was buried” (2 Kings 13:20). Like Enoch (Genesis 5:24), Elijah didn’t die. He was translated from earth to Heaven without going through death’s doors. “A chariot of fire with horses of fire suddenly appeared and … Elijah went up into heaven in the whirlwind” (2 Kings 2:11).
Elijah and Elisha were different, but both were mighty messengers for the Almighty.
Is there an application for our lives? Yes. We are each called and equipped for service in God’s Kingdom…. but we are all different. Like parts of the human body, some of us are hands, while some are feet.
“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).
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