Context No. 2824 of 4322 · 2 Kings

2 Kings 2:11-16: in context

11As they continued on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12Elisha saw it, and he cried, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” He saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. 13He also took up Elijah’s mantle that fell from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. 14He took Elijah’s mantle that fell from him, and struck the waters, and said, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” When he also had struck the waters, they were divided apart, and Elisha went over. 15When the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho facing him saw him, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” They came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. 16They said to him, “See now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please let them go and seek your master. Perhaps the LORD’s Spirit has taken him up, and put him on some mountain or into some valley.” He said, “Don’t send them.”

As Elijah and Elisha walk and talk, a chariot of fire and horses of fire come between them, and Elijah is carried up in a whirlwind. Elisha cries out, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen, and sees him no more. He tears his own clothes in grief, then picks up the mantle that fell from Elijah, goes back to the Jordan, strikes the water, and cries, Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?

That question is the one that matters at every handoff of faith. The great man is gone; is his God still here? Elisha does not try to become Elijah. He takes up the fallen mantle and calls on Elijah's God, and the water parts, and the watching prophets see that the same spirit now rests on him. The mantle was only cloth. The power was always the LORD's, and the LORD did not depart with the prophet.

When the people whose faith once carried me are gone, do I still ask, where is the God of Elijah, and find that he remains?

Sources

2 Kings 2:14: "Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah? When he also had struck the waters, they were divided."
Hebrews 13:8: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
Joshua 1:5: "As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you."