2 Kings 2:15-25--Elisha Succeeds Elijah

2 Kings 2:15-25
English Standard Version

Elisha Succeeds Elijah
15 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. 16 And they said to him, “Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please let them go and seek your master. It may be that the Spirit of the LORD has caught him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” And he said, “You shall not send.” 17 But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, “Send.” They sent therefore fifty men. And for three days they sought him but did not find him. 18 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’?”

19 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.” 20 He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. 21 Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the LORD, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” 22 So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.

​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 baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” 24 And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. 25 From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

---

After Elijah was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire and Elisha crossed back over the Jordan River, he was greeted by the people that saw that the same Spirit that rested on Elijah now rested on Elisha.  However, the 50 prophets that had been watching from a distance and didn't get to experience the conversation with either the Spirit of the LORD or with Elijah thought that Elijah had maybe just been "spirited away" to another place where the Spirit of the LORD needed to send him.  They did not understand that Elijah had gone to heaven and that he was not coming back.  In fact, they wanted to form a search party to go looking for him (which is silly if the Spirit of the LORD did take him away to another place, then it would be at that place where he was needed, and they should go looking for him trying to bring him back).

Elisha told them to stand down.  No search party was to be sent, but they kept speaking this foolishness until he was embarrassed and probably just wanted to get rid of them that he told them to go if that's all they could think about doing.  They were better away from Elisha in this case as they were nothing but a distraction at this point and since they would not listen to wisdom or authority, it mattered not whether they would stay or go.  The LORD would have to deal with these fifty prophets that would not listen to the voice of the LORD speaking through the prophet He had chosen to deliver His message to them.  When they came back to him, he basically said to them, "I tried to tell you," or "I told you so."  Hopefully after this incident they would be more inclined to heed his voice as they would have heeded the voice of Elijah.

The men of the city of Jericho then come to Elisha with a problem--their water supply has been contaminated by something so that it is killing all the vegetation.  He told them to bring him a new bowl filled with salt and they did so.  Elisha then took the bowl of salt to the source of the spring that gave water to the city, and threw the salt in it and declared that the LORD promised that the water had been healed and that death and miscarriage would no longer come from this spring of water.

Elisha then went to Bethel (notice he's retracing the footsteps that Elijah took to get to the Jordan River before he crossed over and was taken up into heaven).  Here, Elisha was met with opposition by a group of small boys who were already aware of what had happened to Elijah, were happy that Elijah was gone, and they wanted Elisha to "go up" just like Elijah did, for even at this young age they did not want any prophet of the LORD to be around them.  They also mocked Elisha for being bald (we're not sure why he had no hair, but the fact that they were hurling insults at him is more important than the insults themselves).  The continued to repeat these insults and Elisha finally prayed for the LORD to deal with them (he cursed them in the name of the LORD).  I am not sure the Elisha meant for the LORD to deal with them in the way that He did, but the LORD's answer came suddenly, swiftly and in the case, immediately.  A she-bear came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the "boys" (I would say it probably would be fair to call this group a gang by today's standards), and that was the end of their thinking that they could harass Elisha 

From here, Elisha retraced Elijah's steps all the way back to Mount Carmel and then he returned to the capital city of Samaria.  The scene will shift a bit next time as the nation will be back at war, but this time the war will not be against Syria, but against a neighbor we haven't heard from in a long time--Moab.  The last time you probably remember hearing of Moab was in the book of Ruth when Naomi and her family went to Moab during the famine in Israel and Ruth the Moabite came back with Naomi to serve and obey the LORD saying "Your people will be my people and your God my God."  Ruth would be come the father of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of King David.  However, if we remember historically, Moab is one of the "cousins" of Israel in that they are descended from the daughters of Lot who had relations with their father during their escape from Sodom and Gomorrah after their husbands refused to leave the city with them.  All this is backdrop and important history for us to remember as Moab did not let Israel pass through as they were going to the Promised Land, but the LORD said it was not right for Israel to judge them yet for they were still family.  Moab has now served its purpose in the plan of redemption since Ruth came back to Israel and married Boaz, so we'll see if the LORD uses Moab to judge Israel or if the LORD uses Israel to judge Moab when we look at chapter 3 next time.