Elisha Part 2: Crossing the Jordan, Healing the waters and the Children that mocked

 2 Kings 2:1-24

 In the first study of Elisha, we learned that he was promised a double portion of the spirit be upon him if he saw Elijah translated.  And so it was, that when Elisha saw that "there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." (2:12)  and Elisha "took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces" (2 Kings 2:12)  but he must carry on in the place of Elijah, as the anointed man of God.

And so Elisha took up Elijah's mantle and now we see the first miracle given that Elisha is God's own .  "he went back and stood by the bank of Jordan; and he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and he went back and smote the waters, and said Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over." (V13-14)  This is the first miracle that Elisha did by the spirit of the LORD. There were others watching, the sons of the prophets from Jericho, and they are witnesses that "the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha..and they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him." (V15) And this is the reason that the sons of the prophets knew that Elijah would be taken, so that they could see that Elisha was the anointed successor to Elijah.

The sons of the prophets thought that perhaps God had cast Elijah down again onto a mountain or into a valley and wanted to go look for them, and wanted to send fifty strong men to look for him, but Elisha said "Ye shall not send" (V16)  So Elisha went to Jericho while the men searched for Elijah but they did not find him. When they returned Elisha said to them "Did I not say unto you, Go not? (V18) And so because Elisha knew that Elijah would not be found, the men of the city tell Elisha the situation in the city, "the water is naught, and the ground barren." (V19)

Elisha requests a new container with salt inside.(V20)  This must be a new container, not an old that has been used for other things..  healing requires the new, the old is put away.  The salt is cast into the water,  and Elijah gives glory to the Lord "Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land." (V21)  The man of God makes it clear that this healing is by God's will, not his own. "so the waters were healed unto this day,according to the saying of Elisha which he spake." (V22)  




I was puzzled by the use of salt,  and found this explanation for verses 19-22..  (Marsh Bible  Commentary © 2004 John A. Marsh, used with permission)

-Salt is a symbol of purification and preservation.

-Perhaps we could reason that the salt killed an organism in the water that caused it to be bad or that the salt changed some chemical problem, but Elisha makes it clear that God's power cleansed the water.

-If the water had been cleansed merely by the physical characteristics of the salt then we might expect the problem to return once the salt had dissipated. However, the indication here is that the cleansing was permanent, which in turn is an indication of God's power at work.

After this, Elisha journeys to Bethel, and along the way he is met by a group of "little children out of the city" (V23) we do not know how old they were, but there were a great many of them as will later show, and these children were not taught to respect their elders, nor were they taught to respect God's own prophets.  They mock him, and said to him "Go up, thou bald head, go up, thou bald head." (V23)  but God will not allow his chosen to be mocked.  How will others respect Elisha if this is allowed to happen without judgment?  And so Elisha curses them "in the name of the LORD" (V24) and by the will of the LORD, two she bears come out of the woods and 42 children are killed by them. (V24)  Surely all God's creation is subject to Him, and accomplishes His purpose according to His will.   And just as surely, their parents have learned a valuable, if very sad lesson..  "train up a child in the way he should go". 

After this Elisha went to mount Carmel, and then returned to Samaria.

to be continued in Part 3:  Elisha helps two women