Elisha Succeeds Elijah

From this school Elijah and Elisha went to the Jordan. Elijah parted the waters with his mantle, and the prophets passed over. “And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off.” Verse 7. The parting hour had now come. Elijah, who for long years had battled with the forces of evil in the nation, knew better than did Elisha what he was facing. As the unfinished task was now to pass from him to Elisha, the burden must have pressed upon him with all but crushing weight.AGP 103.3

“With yearning heart Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee.’ And the young man looked up at him and saw the scars of all the fights, saw the lines upon his face, read the records of all his troubles in every furrow in his brow and every line upon his cheek, knew that it all meant peril and danger and hardship and suffering, and his heart swelled within his bosom as he turned to him and said, ‘I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.’ …AGP 103.4

“It was a wise and noble request. It showed how true already was the spiritual insight of the new prophet…. He thought of nothing better, he wished for nothing higher, than to follow with increased zeal in his steps. He longed only to pursue the labor which Elijah had begun—pursue it with the same steadfastness and the same resolute devotion. But if he inherited the sacred burden, he must also be heir of the blessing.” “The Greater Men and Women of the Bible,” James Hastings, Vol. III, pp. 416, 417. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.AGP 104.1

He therefore asked Elijah to leave with him far more for the finishing of the task than had been given Elijah for its beginning and its prosecution. To Elisha’s request, Elijah replied: “Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee.” 2 Kings 2:10. Then the chariot appeared, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. As Elisha saw his great master, his beloved Elijah, disappearing, he cried, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more.” Verse 12.AGP 104.2