Elisha, God Is Salvation

“So he (Elijah) departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, ‘Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you’ And he said to him, ‘Go back again, for what have I done to you?’ And he returned form following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.” I Kings 19: 19-21 (ESV).

Elijah the prophet was growing old. The Lord had instructed him to go and anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as his successor. Elisha was in the field, plowing oxen, “with twelve oxen”—so he must have been a farmer of some means, with servants handling some of the yokes of oxen while he himself plowed one yoke. Elisha received Elijah’s cloak as a sign of his being set apart as a prophet of God. He asked Elijah to allow him to bid his parents farewell, but
Elijah, wanting no half-hearted service, asked, “What have I done to you?” This reminds us of the Lord who told those who would follow Him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62, ESV). Elisha sacrificed a yoke of the oxen, boiled the flesh, and gave to the people to eat. This act of Elisha’s was his first recorded religious ceremony after he was singled out by Elijah to be his prophetic successor.

Elisha began his prophetic ministry in the last years of King Ahab’s rule (about 850 B. C.) and served through Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and Joash. Elisha asked Elijah, his mentor, for “a double portion of your spirit” (2 Kings 2:9). Elijah told the younger prophet that if he saw him “go up” he would indeed inherit a double portion. Elijah was there observing when the miraculous whirlwind received Elijah into heaven. A double portion was, by Hebrew law, awarded to the eldest son. Of the fifty sons of the prophets who were with Elijah and Elisha at the Jordan River when Elijah’s cloak parted the waters, it was Elisha who crossed over with him and saw Elijah translated into heaven in the whirlwind. Elisha received the double portion of blessings—twice as much as any of the other “sons of the prophet” (in the school of prophets) in the group.

Elisha’s ministry was one of power and miracles. Several of the miracles were a foretaste of the miracles performed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Elisha increased the widow’s supply of oil and saved her sons from being sold into slavery. He increased the food supply and fed a hundred men on a small amount of food. He made a poisonous food safe. He supplied enough water for a thirsty army to drink. He made an iron axe head float. He raised the Shunamite woman’s son when he died while working in the field. He healed Naaman from leprosy. The Syrian soldiers were made blind then their sight restored again. Even after Elisha died, when he was in his grave, a dead man was thrown onto Elisha and the dead man was revived. He was a prophet, a miracle worker, a statesman. His name means “God is salvation,” and his life was a demonstration of God working in miraculous ways to show the nation that God was indeed the powerful God Whom the nation needed to heed and follow. We may not see the miracles today such as Elisha performed in “the double portion of the spirit” he received. But God who brings us salvation stands ready to demonstrate His power to those who believe and follow.