Images of the Savior (The Works of Elisha)

And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now, bands of Moabites would enter the land, in the spring of the year; and it came to pass, as they were burying a man, behold, they saw a band, and they threw the man into the grave of Elisha. And the man came to touch the bones of Elisha, and he revived, and stood up on his feet. – 2 Kings 13:20-21

We have already noted the marvelous events surrounding the beginning of Elisha’s ministry, how he received the Spirit of Elijah and began to do mighty works, taking away the bitterness of death from the waters of the land, and calling down judgment upon the enemies of God. Now, as we examine the remaining accounts of his life, we may see foreshadowed in many other mighty ways the gospel-truths of the Kingdom of Christ. Let us turn to these accounts now with a hunger to know our Redeemer, and with a prayer for that same Spirit of God to open our eyes to the riches of his eternal word.

In the next event of Elisha’s life (2 Kings 3), we see typified the spiritual warfare of the Church, and the marvelous sustenance given to her by the Father. Moab had been brought in subjection to the people of Israel, even as God had prophesied that his people would have dominion over the land; and yet she rebelled, and came out from under Israel’s yoke, and so the King of Israel was striving to bring her back into subjection. Just as Israel of old, we today are laboring to see the nations brought into subjection to Christ, Israel’s antitype, and in the same way we meet along the way with much fierce resistance. We see in this account, that the people who labor for the spread of the Kingdom are of a mixed sort, some of them genuine and some of them apostates, even as good King Jehoshaphat undertook to campaign with evil King Jehoram. We see that God is pleased to bless the endeavors of the Church only for the sake of his true remnant, as Elisha would not have interceded for Jehoram at all, save for the presence of Jehoshaphat with him. We see how God works victory for his people, through the prayers of the saints, even as Elisha’s intercessory prayers were answered; and we note how this spirit of prayer is sustained and built up by the precious gift of music, in response to which Elisha was lifted up in a spirit of worship and supplication. So today, our labors are sustained as we speak to each other often “in psalms, hymns, and spiritual psalms, singing with grace in our hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16-17). And lastly, we see how God uses these spiritual means to bring to us the sustaining waters of life and joy, in miraculous but unsensational ways. The ongoing sustenance of our spirits by the water of life, which is the Spirit of God (e.g. John 7:37-39), does not come with great clamor and tumult, as some would believe, but quietly fills the barren wilderness, not with the sound of wind or rain but mysteriously in God’s beneficent providence. And so, sustained by the Spirit of God, in response to the prayers and worship of God’s servants, God’s people are triumphant in their quest to extend the Kingdom and bring the nations into its blessed ranks.

Following this occurrence, we see Elisha’s miraculous provision of an unceasing flowing of oil, by which a destitute widow woman was relieved of her debts and enabled to provide a livelihood for herself and her family (2 Kings 4:1-7). In this circumstance, we are reminded of how Jesus pours out upon us his Spirit, who brings to us an eternal life of joy, first, by applying to our account the payment that Jesus made for our sin, and thus canceling our debt; and then, by dwelling within us, and guaranteeing our eternal life and final salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14).

Next, we see a very wondrous and outstanding miracle: for according to the promise of God, a barren woman was given a son, who later died but was raised from the dead by the effectual prayer of Elisha (2 Kings 4:1-37). So in Jesus’ day, the barren woman rejoices to find her offspring more than the offspring of the fertile (Isaiah 54:1; Galatians 4:27); and this comes about by a miracle of birth, in accordance to the promise of God, by which those who are dead are wakened to life through the Spirit of God as he responds to the prayers of God’s people and imparts a life-giving power to the words that they breathe out into the hearts of the dead and unbelieving world. We see how ineffectual the mere outward form of religion is, as Elisha’s staff was of no use in the hands of the imposter Gehazi, and we see the fervent prayers of the true ministers of the gospel, how they pour their very souls into the helpless dead of the world, and through their fervent love and self-sacrifice see them raised to life; or perhaps, what is intended is a picture of how Jesus covers us with his own self, trading our life for his, so that we might live indeed. And we see, finally, how this process is one of raising up children to the Church, Christ’s spotless bride: for we doubt not that this faithful woman serves as a type of the Church, in her receiving of a miraculously resurrected offspring.

We see next how Elisha takes away the death-bearing poison from the pot of stew, and then miraculously provides for the sustenance of all the sons of the prophets from a few loaves of bread (2 Kings 4:38-44): and how can we not fail to see thereby how Jesus removed the sting of the curse from the fruits of the earth, so that we might enjoy God’s good gifts as man was originally intended to do; and furthermore, how he provided for a crowd of five thousand men with a few loaves of bread, as a symbol of the eternal life he would provide for his people through the breaking of his body?

We see a wondrously instructive type of the Messiah in Elisha’s healing of Namaan (2 Kings 5). For just as he healed this Gentile man of a disease which signified uncleanness, which act of mercy resulted in the Gentile’s devotion to the true God of Israel; and just as this disease of leprosy clung to the wicked Israelite Gehazi, who lusted after the riches of the Gentile world; so we see in Christ’s day that he brought his gifts of healing and purification to the Gentiles, but cast into the judgment which the Jewish people supposed would fall upon the nations those Israelites who wickedly rejected him, and lusted instead after the things of the world, even their own worldly righteousnesses.

We obtain a very notable glimpse into Christ’s ministry of intercession, most notably his high-priestly prayer for his people (John 17), in the following event: for there, Elisha prays that the eyes of his servant will be opened, so that he might see the true nature of the warfare which surrounds him; and seeing in truth, he realizes that the victory is already his, through the unseen power of God, no matter how impossible the situation seemed a moment before, from a mere human perspective (2 Kings 6:8-23). So Jesus prayed that his servants would see the greatness of his glory; and so God marvelously opened our eyes to his unstoppable victory, and wrought it indeed in our behalf, crushing all of our enemies beneath our feet.

The next event in the life of Elisha is likewise very notable: for when the people’s situation seemed hopeless, when they were on the verge of starvation and hard-pressed by the enemy, Elisha promised an abundance of food on the next day. This indeed happened, for certain leprous beggars stumbled upon the abandoned camp of the enemy whom God had stirred up to flee in terror, and were loaded with many riches and food in great measure. When the beggars began to spread the news of their great riches, the people were emboldened to seize upon this treasure; but he who mocked at the word of God was trampled under the feet of the people, and hence he saw the abundance but was not able to partake (2 Kings 6:24-7:20). So God promised a great abundance of spiritual riches for his people; and when all seemed hopeless, he miraculously provided more than he had promised, sending his Son to put the enemies of the people to flight, and raining down upon them great riches. So Jesus too revealed his great treasure to unclean beggars, and through the good news that these beggars began to spread, all of God’s people were finally satisfied. And so too, they who mock will one day see the truth of the matchless worth of Jesus, and will indeed bow before his feet (Philippians 2:9-11); but they will be too late to partake of the treasure, and will be trampled instead beneath the feet of God’s true people.

We see how Elisha anoints kings to reign over the land (2 Kings 9:1-13), even as Elijah before him, concerning which we touched upon in our last lesson. And then, we see how Elisha promises great victory to the King of Israel, and how this victory is accomplished to the extent that the King asks of him (2 Kings 13:14-19). So too, Jesus has promised us final victory over our enemies; and those of us who take the arrow of God’s victory in faith, and ask for many mighty victories, will be great in the Kingdom; but those whose prayers and measure of faith is weak will accomplish little, because they have asked but little. How often we fear that we are presumptuous when we ask of God mighty things for the Kingdom; but in truth, just as Elisha was angry with the King of Israel when he asked too little, so our gracious Father would ever have us ask more of him, and never less. And that which we ask, which pertains to the spread of his eternal Kingdom, he will delight to give to us.

And finally, we must take note of Elisha’s last great miracle, and the most instructive type we have in all the Old Testament scriptures of the life-giving power of Jesus’ death: and that is, when the dead man touched his bones, he was raised again to life (2 Kings 13:20-21). We too have been led to the cross of Jesus, and when we but touched it, when we saw him there in faith, smitten for our sins, our hearts leapt up in wonder, and we were flooded with the unstoppable power of the resurrection life that Jesus had won for us. In all of Elisha’s life and ministry we may obtain many glimpses of the gospel-truths of the Kingdom of Christ; but is not this the greatest? Let us dwell forever in the shadow of the cross of Christ our Savior, whom but to touch is to live again; let us look to this man Jesus, stricken for our iniquities, whom to see is to be filled with resurrection power and life indeed.

Leave a Reply