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Context No. 834 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 2:6-10: in context

6Elijah said to him, “Please wait here, for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan.” He said, “As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” Then they both went on. 7Fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood opposite them at a distance; and they both stood by the Jordan. 8Elijah took his mantle, and rolled it up, and struck the waters; and they were divided here and there, so that they both went over on dry ground. 9When they had gone over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be on me.” 10He said, “You have asked a hard thing. If you see me when I am taken from you, it will be so for you; but if not, it will not be so.”

Elijah's time is almost up, and he keeps trying to go the last stretch alone. Stay here, he tells Elisha, the LORD has sent me on ahead. And each time, at Bethel, at Jericho, at the Jordan, Elisha gives the same answer: as the LORD lives, and as you live, I will not leave you. He will not be sent away, will not go home early, will not let his master face the end without him. So they cross the Jordan together, Elijah striking the water with his rolled-up cloak so they walk over on dry ground, and then Elijah turns to him with an open-handed offer: ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.

Elisha does not ask small. Let a double portion of your spirit be on me, he says, asking for the inheritance of a firstborn son, to be Elijah's true heir and carry on his work with even greater measure. And Elijah tells him it is a hard thing, and hangs it on one condition: if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours; if not, it will not. Everything depends on Elisha staying present and watching to the very last moment. And that is exactly what his stubborn refusal to leave has been preparing him for. The double portion goes to the one who would not be sent home, who stayed close through the whole hard walk to the end and kept his eyes open when it mattered most. What Elisha receives, he receives because he did not leave early.

Elisha received the double portion because he refused to leave and stayed watching to the very end. Where am I tempted to slip away early from something hard, and what might I forfeit that could only be received by staying present through the finish?

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