This article is part of a series on Old Testament Christophanies. For important background information, see An Introduction to Old Testament Christophanies–with Justin Martyr.
There are no direct references to the Lord being present on earth when Elijah was taken to heaven. There are, however, good reasons to think that the Lord may have personally arrived to take the prophet. At the opening of 2 Kings 2, we read that Yahweh was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind (v. 1). Then, in verse 5, Elisha was asked if he knew that Yahweh was going to take his master from him that day. Elisha answered, “Yes, I know; be still.” The Lord could have taken Elijah without coming to earth. But as we continue, you’ll see that there are good reasons to think that the Lord came down to earth.
Elijah told Elisha that the Lord had sent him to the Jordan River, and Elisha insisted on coming as well. Elijah and Elisha found themselves standing on the banks of the Jordan. Elijah struck the river with his folded mantle; the water parted, and the two men crossed to the other side on dry ground (vv. 6–8). Back when the Israelites first came to the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stepped into the river (which was overflowing that time of year). Immediately, the water upriver was prevented from flowing and the nation crossed over into the Promised Land on dry ground (Josh 3:14–17). Moses had earlier revealed that Yahweh would cross the Jordan ahead of the Israelites (Deut 31:3). When the priests stepped into the Jordan, it was the Lord who stopped the water as He crossed over ahead of the people. Likewise, the water parting for Elijah signaled the Lord’s nearby presence. Both miracles are reminiscent of the parting of the Red Sea. (Elijah striking the Jordan with his mantle even corresponds to Moses stretching forth his staff over the Red Sea in Exodus 14:16.) The divine Angel and the pillar of cloud were present with the Israelites at the time the text states that Yahweh parted the sea (Exod 14:19–21). The Son of God, who walked on water in the New Testament, parted water in the Old Testament.
After they crossed the Jordan, Elisha asked Elijah for a double portion of his prophetic power. Elijah answered that it would be so if Elisha witnessed him being taken (vv. 9–10). It wouldn’t be long until Elisha got his confirmation:
As they were going along and talking, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven (2 Kgs 2:11).
The “whirlwind” (Heb. seʹarah) can also be translated as “tempest” or “windstorm.” This was a Shekinah storm, a manifestation of the glory of the Lord. The “chariot of fire and horses of fire” seems to describe an extension of the Lord’s glory (possibly in such a shape),[1] separating Elijah and Elisha. Similar manifestations of the glory of the Lord were accompanied by His presence. Yahweh had regularly appeared in a pillar of cloud and fire during the Exodus and during the forty years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness (e.g., Exod 13:21; Num 12:5; Deut 31:15). Yahweh later answered Job from a whirlwind (Job 38:1). And the Son of God would later appear to Ezekiel in a storm wind with fire flashing forth from it (Ezek 1:4, 26–28). The Lord’s way is “in whirlwind and storm,” and “clouds are the dust beneath His feet” (Nah 1:3). With these passages in mind, the natural inference is that the Lord was in the whirlwind that took Elijah.
Elisha saw Elijah being taken and he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” (v. 12). Elisha called Elijah “the chariots of Israel and its horsemen”[2] since the prophet did more for Israel than the greatest military force at the time, chariots and horsemen. The Targum has Elisha saying that Elijah “did more good for Israel by his prayer than chariots and horsemen.”[3]
After Elisha cried out, Elijah was gone. Elisha tore his clothes and he picked up Elijah’s mantle, which had fallen off the prophet. Elisha struck the Jordan with the mantle and said, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” As before, the river parted, and Elisha crossed to the other side (vv. 12–14). Elijah was a mighty prophet because the Son of God was with him. The Jordan parting again made it known that the Son was now with Elisha. Elisha proved to be as critical to the nation as Elijah had been. When Elisha was about to die many years later, Joash the king of Israel wept over him and repeated a familiar line: “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” (2 Kgs 13:14).
The Lord didn’t take Elijah because his work was over. Rather, Elijah was taken because he still had some important work to do. Alongside Moses, Elijah later appeared at the transfiguration of Jesus, where He glowed with the glory of the Lord (Matt 17:2–3). The Lord will send Elijah before the Day of the Lord, at which time Elijah will cause the Jews to trust in the Messiah, uniting them in faith with many of their ancestors (Mal 4:5–6; Matt 17:11).[4] And Elijah is almost certainly one of the two witnesses in Revelation 11[5] (the other likely being Moses[6]). The two witnesses will prophesy for 1,260 days[7] before being killed by the beast from the abyss. Their bodies will lie in one of the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days. After which, the witnesses will be resurrected and then taken to heaven in a cloud (Rev 11:3–12). Elijah will be taken to heaven for a second time!
The Lord taking Elijah foreshadowed Jesus gathering those in Christ at His coming:
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:16–17).
The Son of God will descend to personally gather His people to be with Him. All things considered, it seems that the Son of God has already descended to personally take Elijah to be with Him.
[1] The “chariot of fire and horses of fire” could have been angels (cherubim and seraphim) attending to the Lord (see Ps 18:10; 68:17; 104:4).
[2] A strange metaphor, but one likely prompted by the Lord’s chariot of fire and horses of fire. The metaphor became known enough that it was later used to describe Elisha (2 Kgs 13:14).
[3] Targum Jonathan to 2 Kings 2:12, in The Aramaic Bible, vol. 10.
[4] John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah before the First Advent (Matt 17:12; Luke 1:17).
[5] The two witnesses will have the power to call forth fire to consume their enemies and the power to stop rain from falling (Rev 11:5–6). Elijah previously stopped rain from falling (1 Kgs 17:1), and he called forth fire to destroy his enemies (2 Kgs 1:9–12).
[6] The two witnesses will have the power to turn water into blood (Rev 11:6), as Moses did (Exod 7:20–21).
[7] A period of three and a half years (forty-two months of thirty days per month). Elijah stopped the rain from falling for a period of three and a half years (Luke 4:25; Jas 5:17).
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