Introduction:
The Whirlwind (2 Kings 2):
3. never leaves. (v15-25)- God is with you: Trust His direction. (2 Kings 2:2-6)
- God is with you: rely on His Power , not your own. (2 Kings 2:7-14)
- God is with you: know that He Never Leaves. (2 Kings 2:7-15-25)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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Good morning. Let's pray before we get started this morning.
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Lord God, thank you for the time that you've given us today. Thank you for this opportunity as we're going to dig into your Word. I just pray that you would open our hearts and our minds right now to what you want to do this morning.
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To you be the glory, God. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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Open your Bibles with me please to 2 Kings 2.
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And as you're turning there, I would I just like to ask you, have you ever noticed how differently some people say goodbye? And I'm not talking about about how some people say the word goodbye, and some people say something like adios, or sayonara, or peace out.
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Not talking about that.
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I'm talking about how some people say short goodbyes, and some people say long goodbyes.
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Short goodbyes and long goodbyes, right?
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I remember just growing up, just visiting different houses with my family.
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Some houses that we visited, it would be time to say goodbye, time to say thank you.
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And that would take maybe a couple minutes and then we'd be on our way.
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And at other houses, we'd have to start saying goodbye about an hour before we actually had to leave Because with some long goodbyes, it can be a bit more of a process.
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It's almost like as you move to each room between you and the door, a new conversation just keeps beginning.
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And then, eventually you do reach the door, and then you can leave.
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Well, but with some long goodbyes, how many know that a new conversation even starts when you're outside?
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I remember my sister and I would be in the car, we would be fully buckled.
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My dad would actually have the car running, but the windows are still rolled down as we're trying to wrap up saying goodbye.
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And this is important, you have to hear me here, I'm not complaining at all.
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I'm not criticizing in any way.
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I fully support all of the long goodbyes out there.
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I'm team long goodbyes, okay?
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Sometimes that's just how goodbyes go, right?
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Especially when you haven't seen someone for a while, you miss each other.
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But my point about goodbyes is, and we are about to take a little bit more a serious turn, the reason that we say goodbye is because people leave.
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And now I'm talking about more than just leaving after a visit.
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There are many ways that people can leave.
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Sometimes it's under bad or maybe even sinful circumstances.
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Like, "We have a disagreement, and so I'm no longer speaking with you," leaving.
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Or, "I've been hurt, and I don't want to resolve it," leaving.
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Or, "Tragically, I'm not willing to stay in this marriage," leaving.
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And sometimes, the circumstances can be good, but they're still bittersweet, like moving across the country for a new job, leaving.
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You're certainly excited for them, but it still stings.
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And of course, the leaving that all of us are going to encounter is the death of an important person in our life.
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And in that case, even in the best circumstances, The death of a loved one is the single hardest thing that we have to face on this earth.
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At those times we wrestle with, "How do I even go on after this?" People leave.
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Well today we are going to study how to handle that biblically.
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And we're going to see three truths of God when people leave.
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And as I'm sure that you can already tell, this is not an easy message.
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And I realize that it's incredibly sensitive because all of us have been affected by someone leaving in some way.
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Not just to death, but in all the ways that I mentioned, and there are many more.
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So I would just ask that you would please have grace with me this morning.
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know that my intent isn't to bring back any hurt or pain or sadness at all. My only goal is to present you with what God's Word says about this. Amen? Thank you. Okay, let's turn to the text.
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Again, 2 Kings 2 and we're starting in verse 1.
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It says, "Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal." So pause there for a moment. I realize we only read one verse, but there's already a lot to process. I mean, first off, spoiler alert for one of the most amazing events in all of history. But before we get to Elijah being taken to heaven by a whirlwind, who's Elijah? Right? Who's Elisha? Well, if you want the full story on how these guys came into the picture, you'll find it in 1 Kings 17-19, but I'm going to bring you up to speed today. Elijah was a prophet, meaning he was God's representative or God's messenger on earth, and he performed incredible miracles like calling down fire from the sky that demonstrated God's power. And Elisha was Elijah's apprentice, and he was called into ministry years earlier when Elijah walked by him and threw his cloak on top of him. Seriously, that's what happened.
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Well, in the passage that we're going to read today, the time has come for Elisha to succeed Elijah, but that means that Elijah is going to leave. And that brings us to our first truth of God when people leave. God is with you and our response should be to trust his direction.
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So let's see that by picking it up in verse 2.
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And Elijah said to Elisha, "Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel." But Elisha said, 'As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.' So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, 'Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?' And he said, 'Yes, I know it. Keep quiet.' Elijah said to him, 'Elisha, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho." But he said, "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." (Sensing a theme.) So they came to Jericho. The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha and said to him, "Do you know that the Lord today will take away your master from over you?" And he answered, "Yes, I know it. Keep quiet." Then Elijah said to him, "Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan." But he said, "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on. Stop there.
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So Elijah knows that he's leaving and he's going around saying his goodbyes.
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I don't know if he was a short goodbyer or a long goodbyer, But in fact, everyone in these verses knows that Elijah is going to leave.
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Now, for whatever reason, these prophets don't think that Elisha knows, so maybe they were trying to be helpful in telling him, but Elisha is just like, "Yeah, I know he's leaving. Please just keep quiet about it." Because on top of that, how do you think Elisha felt when his mentor, the person he's been following for years repeatedly three times asked him to stay behind.
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He gave up everything to follow Elijah. And so we have to ask, why? Why would Elijah do that?
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Well, maybe Elijah legitimately just wanted to go through it alone. Maybe. But in studying the passage in context, I believe that Elijah was testing Elisha. And let me explain what I mean.
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These verses are all about the Lord directing things. Did you see that?
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Verse 1, "The Lord is about to take Elijah." Verses 2, 4, and 6, "The Lord has sent me to Bethel, to Jericho, to the Jordan. Verses 3 and 5, "The Lord is going to take your master." So God is directing things, but notice that Elijah trusts God's direction. He keeps going where God wants him to go. And in turn, I believe he's really asking Elisha, Knowing what's coming, are you going to stay committed too?
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And every time, how did we see Elisha answer? He said, "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." He's all in. Elisha flat out refuses to do anything but follow Elijah.
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He's also trusting God's direction.
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Now, for us today, not everyone who leaves us is doing so because that's where God is leading them.
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If someone's in sin, then they're obviously not following God's direction.
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But whether they are in the right or the wrong, let's be honest, trusting God's direction is not our typical response when someone leaves. I would argue the most common response we have isn't to trust God's direction, it's to give Him directions, right? "God, what are you doing?
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It's not time for this person to leave yet. Do not let this happen." Now please hear me. It is a good thing to ask God questions, to cry out to Him, and to pray for change.
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The problems come when we want to be God instead of trusting that He is God and we are not.
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Exactly. Now of course the greatest example of trusting God through difficulty is Jesus Christ himself. The Bible tells us in Luke 22 that before Jesus endured suffering like no one else would, before Jesus hung on the cross, what did he do? He asked God questions. He cried out to God.
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He prayed for change. Jesus prayed, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me." But do you know what he said next?
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He said, "Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done." And I know that there are people in this room who have lost someone in the past few years, in the past few months, and I am not minimizing the pain or the struggle or the challenge of that in any way. But we have to submit to God's will. Don't give God directions. Trust His direction.
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Our second truth of God when people leave.
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God is with you. Rely on His power, not your own.
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So let's jump back to the passage, continuing in verse 7.
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"Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went and stood at some distance from them as they were both standing by the Jordan.
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Then Elijah took his cloak and rolled it up and struck the water, and the water parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go across on dry ground. When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you." And Elisha said, "Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me." And he said, "You have asked a hard thing, yet if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you.
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But if you do not see me, it shall not be so." Stop there for just a moment.
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So with some of these other prophets watching, Elijah and Elisha approach the Jordan River.
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Elijah rolls up his cloak, hits the water, it miraculously parts for them, and they walk across.
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Kind of reminds you of when Moses parted the Red Sea, doesn't it?
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And after that, perhaps for the first time, Elijah acknowledges to Elisha what they both know, that he's going to leave. And he asks what he can do for Elisha before that happens and in verse 9 we read Elisha answer, "Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me." Now we could do a whole Bible deep dive just on that sentence but let's cut to the chase.
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Elisha is asking for what he needs to continue Elijah's mission. He's not asking for a double portion like he wants to be twice as famous or twice as powerful as Elijah. He's asking for a double portion because he's seen Elijah serve God and he wants that and then some. He wants what Elijah has with God and even more. But if Elisha's request is holy, if it's a humble request, why did Elijah say it's a hard thing? Maybe like me reading this you wondered why didn't Elijah just give it to him? And this is the key. Whose spirit is it Really? Who really has the power? Is it Elijah's power that lets him rain down fire from the sky?
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Is it Elijah's power that lets him part the Jordan like we just read a moment ago?
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No. It's God's spirit. It's God's power. And that's why Elijah says it's a hard thing, because it's not up to Elijah to give God's spirit. But Elijah does believe that if Elisha sticks with him and continues to trust God's direction, he will receive his request.
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So let's keep reading, picking back up in verse 11.
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It says, "And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, 'My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!' And he saw him no more.
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Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces.
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And he took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
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Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, 'Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?' And when he had struck the water, The water was parted to one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.
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It's absolutely incredible.
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Can you even imagine seeing something like that?
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I mean, I can't, honestly.
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But what I think we can imagine is what Elisha is going through.
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Because to some degree we all know the feeling of loss, of someone leaving.
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And I think the Bible makes it pretty clear that Elisha is overcome with emotion, overcome with grief. And he demonstrates it by tearing his own clothes. And then he picks up the cloak, probably the same cloak that years earlier Elijah used to call him into ministry.
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I mean, what do you think that cloak must have meant to him?
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Now, there are varying opinions by biblical scholars on why Elisha said, "Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?" But to me, based on the previous verses that we read, it's the grief talking. I think, I think it's the grief talking even though I know what you're thinking. Elijah technically didn't even die.
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But I think that Elisha picked up the cloak and out of his emotion he was just screaming into the air as he slammed the water. But when he did that, what happened?
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Just as they did for Elijah, the waters parted.
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And again, this is the key. Whose power parted the waters? We know it's not Elijah's power because he's not even around anymore. And the cloak is a symbol of the position that Elisha now has, but the cloak itself doesn't have any power.
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No, it's God's power, now with Elisha.
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And in the same way, when any one of us is in that whirlwind of people leaving, it's so important not to try to handle it ourselves.
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We need other loved ones' support, of course.
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God designed us to be in community, to love each other, and to help each other.
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ultimately we have to rely on God's power to restore us after we grieve. We have to rely on God's power to follow His direction through that as we just read.
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So think of it this way. I played on the basketball team when I was in high school. And one practice we're doing an outlet pass drill. So we're partnered up and one guy is just taking off running down the court. The other guy pretends to grab a rebound, turns around, launches a long court pass to him. Well we get to my turn. It's my turn to run. So I take off sprinting.
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But the problem is, when I turn around to receive this pass, it's short.
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And so I slam on the brakes, and I reach back to try to catch it.
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And unfortunately, the way that the ball landed on my finger was so precise on the finger that was extended.
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I hope everybody's sitting down.
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The top bone smashed into the bottom bone and it shattered into a lot of pieces.
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Now with a complex break like that, is that something that I'm able to fix by myself?
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No way, right?
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I have to go see a surgeon.
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I have to rely on someone with the ability to actually open up my hand, put everything back together, and close it up.
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I can't do that.
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Now of course we believe that all healing is God's healing, but you see my point.
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Just as I was completely reliant on a surgeon to fix the break in my finger, we are completely reliant on God to fix us being broken when we're grieving.
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God is the only one who can lift us out of the emotional turmoil of losing someone and at the same time enable us to serve him through the midst of that. We are completely reliant on God and we have to rely on God to do exactly what he did for Elisha in this passage.
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And having done that, now we're going to see God declare to Elisha and to everyone else, "Look, I may have taken Elijah, but I, God, haven't gone anywhere." And that's our third point for today.
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God is with you. Know that He never leaves.
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So we are going to go back to the text, picking it up in verse 15.
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It says, "Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha." And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him." Pause for just a second there.
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Remember those guys who watched Elijah part the Jordan River and get taken to heaven? Well, if there was any doubt in their minds that Elisha was carrying on Elijah's legacy, They now watch him perform the exact same miracle that they just watched Elijah do.
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And from that, they conclude something that is absolutely profound.
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The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. And this is so important to grasp.
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First off, Elijah's spirit is exactly what we saw Elisha ask for. So God granted his request, right?
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But remember, whose spirit is it really? It's God's. So another way of saying the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha is the Spirit of God rests on Elisha. In other words, immediately after taking Elijah, God demonstrates he is now with Elisha. God immediately reminds everyone, "Yes, I may have taken Elijah, but I, God, am still here." So just please keep that in mind.
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And let's keep reading.
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Verse 16, "And they said to him, 'Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men.
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Please let them go and seek your master.
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It may be that the Spirit of the Lord has caught them up and cast them upon some mountain or into some valley.
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And he said, "You shall not send." They wanted to go look for Elijah.
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But when they urged him until he was ashamed, he said, "Send." They sent there 450 men, and for three days, they sought him, but did not find him.
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And they came back to him while he was staying at Jericho, and he said to them, "Did I not say to you, do not go?" Now, Elisha is clearly a better man than me, because in Elisha's shoes, I would be looking at these guys in disbelief, like, are you serious?
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God literally told all of us he was going to take Elijah.
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But they just kept hounding him until he was so embarrassed, he let them go and look around.
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But anyway, verse 19.
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Now the men of the city said to Elisha, "Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lord sees, but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful." He said, "Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it." So they brought it to him.
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Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, "Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water.
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From now on, neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it." And so the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.
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So, Elisha is backtracking the path that he walked with Elijah, and after recrossing the Jordan, he's now back in Jericho.
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And what do we see him do?
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He miraculously heals the water of the whole city.
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God is again establishing that his power that was with Elijah is now with Elisha.
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So, in other words, God is saying for the second time since taking Elijah, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. God is again saying, "I am still here." Now, let's keep reading, and for anyone who has ever thought that the Bible is boring, better buckle up.
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Verse 23, "He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, 'Go up, you bald head!
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"Go up, you bald head!" And he turned around and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord.
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And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore 42 of the boys.
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From there, he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there, he returned to Samaria.
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What just happened?
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But seriously, this passage is one of the most controversial that I have ever studied.
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Some scholars consider this a major mark against Elisha's character.
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And I think we all, reading this for the first time, struggle with the question, "Is that okay?" What does God think about this?
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And I believe that as difficult as this event is for us to understand at first, this is God saying the exact same thing for the third time.
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The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.
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I am still here.
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Where do I get that?
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Well, the truth is God used prophets to perform miracles and to perform acts of healing.
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And we just read Elisha do both of those.
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But God also used prophets to perform acts of judgment.
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And in fact, if you read the chapters preceding this one, you'll see that God specifically used Elijah to judge hundreds of false prophets who were worshiping a false god.
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And Elisha is God's prophet now.
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Now, these boys were taunting Elisha to "go up." Go up?
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Well, it's not really common for someone to "go up" like Elijah just did, is it?
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So what they were really saying was, "Hey, Baldy, if you're really God's prophet, why don't you go up into the air like Elijah just did?" And look, even something like that might not sound like a big deal to us, but the truth is, according to the law, insulting God's prophet is exactly equivalent to insulting God himself. And they were also questioning if God had even established Elisha as his prophet at all. So it wasn't the offense to Elisha that brought out the bears, it was the blatant disrespect of God. Now, do not walk out of here thinking that it's our place to bring judgment because it is not. Judgment belongs to God.
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And I hope this is obvious, but you also can't send bears after someone who offends you.
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But what we need to focus on instead is what God repeatedly declared to Israel here, and he declares to us today through his Word that though people leave, God is always with his people.
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He's not leaving.
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But though God isn't leaving, I have to remind you that someday each one of us is going to leave.
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Probably not in the same way that Elijah did, but I guarantee you all of us are going to leave.
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And just as we're studying the truths of God when someone else leaves, we have to consider what happens when I leave. Now, you should plan for what happens to the people that you care about when you leave, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about do you know where you're going when you leave? And only you can answer that for yourself. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you recognize that through his death and resurrection he made the only way for us to leave this world and arrive into God's presence? As It's almost the same thing that God is declaring in this passage through Elisha, that He never leaves.
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When you trust in Jesus Christ, when you receive His forgiveness, He will never leave you.
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And from that point on and for eternity, He is with you.
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And praise the Lord, you are with Him.
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And you know, it just struck me studying this passage, Elijah's name means "My God is Yah" meaning Yahweh, the God of the Bible.
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And do you know what Elisha's name means?
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The name Elisha means "My God is salvation." Is Jesus your salvation today?
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In this life, Jesus is the only way that we can respond to the truths of God that we study.
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Trusting God's direction, relying on God's power, knowing that God never leaves.
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And as we close, I actually have something to confess to you.
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If you look down at your outline, it says three truths of God, but while the responses differ, the truths are really all the same.
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God is with you.
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God is with you.
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God is with you.
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And the reason for that is I believe that that is the truth that God wants us to hold in times of loss.
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Because people inevitably leave us one way or another.
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And no person is going to be with us forever.
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We have to know deeply that God never leaves us.
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God promises that even as he does allow people to leave our lives, we will never be alone.
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And that's a promise that only God can truly provide.
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So please don't let "God is with you" just be a generic or meaningless set of words.
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Because through God's actions as Elijah left the earth, we can see that when people in our lives leave, we have to act according to the truth that God is with us.
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With His presence through Jesus, we can endure as people leave us, and ultimately, we can be with Him when it's our turn to leave.
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Will you pray with me, please?
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Lord God, we thank You for who You are, God.
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We thank You, Lord, that You created this entire universe, and You created each and every one of us.
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And yet, God, out of Your love, You didn't just create everything and then walk away.
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that You chose to be with Your creation, to be with Your people.
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God, I thank You that for anyone who confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believes in their heart that You, God, raised Him from the dead, We never have to be alone.
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And God, I thank you that through your presence with us, we can endure all the trials of life, even the hardest trial, God, of losing someone that we love.
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God, as we prepare to worship you now, I just pray and ask that all of us would feel your presence, God, with us right here, right now.
39:59-40:22
And God, I pray that even as we leave today, that we would be more aware, God, of how you are with us wherever we go. Thank you God. Thank you for your love. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Kings 2
What was your big takeaway from this week’s sermon?
Did you ever have a difficult time trusting God’s direction? How can we guard our relationship with God during those times?
Ultimately God is the only one with the power to restore us, but what are ways that we can support or show God’s love to a grieving brother or sister in Christ?
It is easy for “God is with you” to become a truth that we ignore, or don’t fully absorb. Why is that? How can we avoid trivializing God’s presence, and how could that strengthen us through losing someone?
Breakout
Pray for each other that may see and feel God’s presence from within the whirlwind.