Summer At Sea: Week 6 Day 5

2 Kings 2:7-12

7 Fifty men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”

“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.

10 “You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours otherwise, it will not.”

11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two.

Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, and when the end of his days came he had performed double the miracles of his mentor. I have often wondered what the silence was like when the waters of the Jordan piled up and the two men of God walked on crunching gravel to the other side. Did they talk, was Elisha sad, amazed, scared, or just thankful for his mentor and friend? I am guessing it was a mixture of all of those things. Elisha got what he asked for with the double portion, but in his grief he tore his garment, for he loved his friend and was heartbroken at his being taken up.

I have often thought accomplishment mattered most, but this story reminds me to work hard at the friendships and relationships that we are blessed to have.  Quite often the people we walk the road of life with are the mission field, and we should make sure we do not forget the gift of close friendship amid the drive to do great things for God. God is constantly working to restore relationships between us and Himself through the cross of Christ; remember that relationships matter!