June 14
Today we remember the holy prophet Elisha. Elisha, whose name means “my God is salvation,” was a prophet sent to minister in the Northern Kingdom around the years 849-786 BC. He came from the small tribe of Issachar. When the prophet Elijah feared that his years of ministry among the northern tribes had been useless, God told him not to despair. The Lord retained a remnant even among the idolatrous northern tribes numbering seven thousand. Additionally, God still had tasks for Elijah to fulfill. Among those was this: “Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place” (1 Kings 19:16).
Elijah, strengthened by the Lord’s promises, happened upon Elisha, who was plowing in the field. Elijah threw over him his cloak. Elisha understood that he was being summoned to follow the great prophet. He bid his family farewell, sacrificed the oxen and gave them to the people, and thus turned his back on farming to become a disciple of Elijah.
When the Lord was preparing to take Elijah “up to heaven by a whirlwind” (2 Kings 2:1), Elijah repeatedly asked his servant Elisha to stay behind. Elisha refused to be separated from his master. The great power of God at work in Elijah was revealed once again when his rolled up cloak parted the Jordan and the two crossed on dry ground. Before his departure, Elijah asked if there was anything he could do for Elisha. Elisha boldly asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. Elijah said this would be granted if Elisha saw him when he is taken. Chariots and horses of fire separated the two and Elijah was carried to heaven. His cloak or mantel fell to the earth. Elisha took it up and struck the Jordan, asking, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” and the waters also parted for him. People immediately recognized that the same Spirit that had worked so many miracles through Elijah was now resting upon his disciple.
The account of Elisha’s life and ministry continued to overflow and abound with the miraculous. In this he portended the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. In answer to Elisha’s prayer, God raised the dead, made iron to float (showing that grace is more powerful than the laws of nature), and healed the leper Naaman in the waters of the Jordan. Elisha saw into the unseen world with clarity and knew himself to be surrounded by the angels of the Lord, the chariots and horsemen of Israel. Even after he died, the Spirit so filled his remains that a dead man was restored to life when the corpse merely touched the prophet’s bones. Luther loved to point out that this great prophet prophesied when a musician was brought to him and music filled his ears.
Prayer: Lord God, heavenly Father, through the prophet Elisha You continued the prophetic pattern of teaching Your people the true faith and demonstrating through miracles Your presence in creation to heal it of its brokenness. Grant that Your Church may see in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the final end-times prophet whose teaching and miracles continue in Your Church through the healing medicine of the Gospel and Sacraments; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Weedon, William Celebrating the Saints 100-101