Elisha #61

Elisha, son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah, was the prophet who took up the work of Elijah in the northern kingdom of Israel during the ninth century BC. His story fills the middle chapters of 2 Kings, beginning with his call in 1 Kings 19 and ending with his death in 2 Kings 13. His name is commonly understood to mean “God is salvation,” and the accounts of his ministry show a prophet who moves among farmers, widows, soldiers, and kings alike.

Call and Succession

Elijah found Elisha plowing with twelve yoke of oxen and threw his cloak over him, a sign of prophetic calling (1 Kings 19:19-21). Elisha slaughtered the oxen, used the plowing equipment as fuel for the meal, said goodbye to his family, and followed Elijah as his attendant. When Elijah was taken up into heaven in a whirlwind, Elisha had asked for a double portion of his master’s spirit, and he picked up the fallen cloak, struck the Jordan River, and crossed it on dry ground (2 Kings 2:9-14). The prophetic company at Jericho recognized that the spirit of Elijah rested on him (2 Kings 2:15).

Biblical Significance

The Elisha narratives are a collection of acts of provision and healing. He purifies a bad spring at Jericho (2 Kings 2:19-22), multiplies a widow’s oil so she can pay her debts and save her sons (2 Kings 4:1-7), and promises a son to a wealthy woman of Shunem who had built him a guest room, then restores that child to life after he dies (2 Kings 4:8-37). He also recovers an iron axe head that had fallen into the Jordan (2 Kings 6:1-7).

His ministry crosses national lines. Naaman, the commander of the army of Aram, comes to Israel with leprosy and is healed after washing seven times in the Jordan at Elisha’s word, then confesses that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel (2 Kings 5:1-19). Elisha’s servant Gehazi, who seeks a reward for himself, is struck with the same disease (2 Kings 5:20-27). Elisha also guides Israel’s king against Aramean raids and, in one episode, has an enemy force struck blind, led into Samaria, fed, and sent home (2 Kings 6:8-23). Prophetic action reaches into politics as well, since a young prophet sent by Elisha anoints Jehu to end the dynasty of Ahab (2 Kings 9:1-13).

Even his death is not the end of the account. When a burial party throws a dead man into Elisha’s tomb, the man revives on touching the prophet’s bones (2 Kings 13:14-21).

Legacy

Elisha is read as a bridge between the confrontational ministry of Elijah and the later written prophets, and as evidence that God’s power was directed toward mercy for the poor and for outsiders as well as toward judgment on Israel’s idolatry. Jesus himself points to Elisha in his hometown synagogue, noting that many lepers lived in Israel in Elisha’s day yet only Naaman the Syrian was cleansed (Luke 4:27). Jewish and Christian readers alike have drawn on the story of the cloak and the double portion to speak about the passing of spiritual responsibility from one generation to the next.