The Passing of the Mantle
and the Double Portion
“And so it
was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Ask! What may I
do for you, before I am taken away from you? And “Elisha said, ‘Please let a double portion of your spirit be
upon me.’ So he said, ‘You have asked a
hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me
when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be
so.’ Then it happened, as they
continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses
of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into
heaven."(2 Kn. 2:9-11)
One of the
most famous and dramatic prophets in the Holy Bible is Elijah. He and Enoch are the only two men that did
not die but were taken up to heaven.
Elijah and Moses appeared with Jesus Christ in His transfiguration. John
the Baptist’s ministry symbolized Elijah’s ministry (Mt. 17:1-13). Just at the time when Israel became very
wicked God raised up Elijah to speak for Him.
He prophesied a drought as God’s punishment for Israel’s idolatry. During this difficult time of famine God
preserved his life by sending him to Brook Cherith where he could drink and be
fed by the ravens. (1 Kn. 17:1-7) God
had miraculously provided for a needy widow at Zarephath and raised her son
from the dead through the prophet. (1 Kn. 17:8-24) Elijah’s most important work was his victory on Mount Carmel
where he had defeated 450 prophets of Baal by calling down fire from heaven in
order to prove that Yahweh is God.
This event encouraged spiritual revival and ended the drought. (1 Kn.
18:20-40)
“Elijah
was a man with a nature like ours,” wrote the
apostle James. (Jas. 5:17) He had
strength as well as weakness. After his
triumph at Mount Carmel Jezebel had vowed to kill him. It is hard to imagine but Elijah was afraid of
the woman’s threat. He was so scared
that “he prayed that he might die, and said, ‘It is
enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I
am no better than my fathers!” (1 Kn. 19:4)
He went into a cave and God spoke to him. Elijah insisted twice he was the only
surviving true prophet in Israel (1 Kn. 19:9, 14). God told him: “Yet I have reserved
seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every
mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kn. 19:18, cf. Rom. 11:1-5) Here is God’s teaching
there is no favoritism or exclusiveness in world evangelism. Unawareness or ignorance of other true
congregations or ministries does not preclude they do not exist elsewhere.
The Passing of the Mantle
God told Elijah to anoint three
different people. The first was Hazael,
as king of Syria. Elijah was told to
anoint an enemy king because God was going to use Syria as an instrument to
punish Israel for its sins. The second
was Jehu who was to be anointed king of Israel. The third person was Elisha.
God said that he would take his place as a prophet. (1 Kn.
19:15-18) “So he departed from there, and found Elisha
the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he
was with the twelfth. Then Elijah
passed by him and threw his mantle on him.”
(1 Kn. 19:19) Elisha knew exactly what it meant to
have Elijah’s mantle over his shoulders.
He followed Elijah to become his servant and later to succeed him as the
prophet of Israel.
The mantle is a loose-fitting,
sleeveless outer garment that was the most important article of clothing a
person could own. It was used as a
protection against the hostile weather, as bedding, as a place to sit, and as
luggage. It could be given as a pledge for a debt or torn into pieces to show
grief. When God spoke to Elijah in a
still small voice “he wrapped his face in
his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.” (1 Kn. 19:13)
Wrapping the face with the
mantle is the sign of obedience to the voice of God and focussing on what the
LORD wanted him to do. The mantle was a symbol of Elijah’s power and authority
as a prophet as we can see that “Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water;
and it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on
dry ground.” (2 Kn. 2:8) In
the case of Elijah passing on the mantle symbolically means the transference of
the prophetic ministry to his successor.
In the context of our present church situation, passing on the mantle
may refer to a change of personnel in the church board administration.
Why did God wanted a change of
prophets? For the simple reason of
improvement and progress in the ministry.
Elijah’s single-minded commitment to God shocks and challenges us. He was sent to confront, not comfort, and he
spoke God’s words to a king who often rejected his message just because he
brought it. Elijah chose to carry out
his ministry for God alone and paid for that decision by experiencing isolation
from others who were also faithful to God.
Elijah, like us, struggled with his feelings even after receiving a
message from God that he was not the only faithful prophet. There were 7,000 others like him “all whose knees
have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kn. 18:19)
God had told Elijah this
same message three times and yet he could not fully accept it. Even today, God often speaks through the
witness and testimony of His work among faithful Christians other than
ourselves and yet we fail to accept it.
God always has more resources and people than we know about.
The Double Portion of the Spirit
Elisha asked for a double portion of
Elijah’s spirit (prophetic ministry).
According to the Hebrew custom, the firstborn son received a double
portion of the father’s inheritance (Gen. 25:31) He was asking to be Elijah’s heir, or successor, the one who
would continue Elijah’s work as leader of the prophets. Elijah’s reply was, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you can see me when I am
taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.” (2 Kn.
2:10)
What Elijah was saying that it was up to God. Elijah only told him how he would know if
his request had been granted. God had
granted Elisha’s request because his motives were pure. His main goal was not to be better or more
powerful than Elijah, but to accomplish more for God. If our motives are pure, we do not have to ask great things from
God. When we ask God for the Baptism of
the Holy Spirit or spiritual gifts, we need to examine our desires and get rid
of the selfishness and pride in our lives.
When we seek an office in the church that is to be vacated we must also
look for the purest motives of serving the Lord Jesus Christ to the best of our
abilities.
Let us take a quick look at how God
had given the double portion of His Spirit to Elisha, the man chosen to replace
Elijah as the prophet of Israel. Both
men concentrated their efforts on the particular needs of the people around
them. The fiery Elijah confronted and
exposed idolatry, helping to create an atmosphere where people could freely and
publicly worship the One True God.
Unlike Elijah who executed every one of the false prophets, Elisha
demonstrated God’s powerful, yet caring nature to all who came to him for
help. When the Syrian raiders came down
to attack Israel Elisha prayed to the Lord to strike the enemy with blindness
so that they could be diverted to Samaria. (2 Kn. 6:18-23) After the danger was over Elisha prayed for
their healing. When the king of Israel
asked him whether or not to kill their enemy his answer was, “You shall not kill
them. Would you kill those whom you
have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and
go to their master. Then he prepared a
great feast for them; and after they ate and drank, he sent them away and they
went to their master. So the bands of
Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel.” (2 Kn. 6:18-23) Is it not amazing that Elisha was
practicing the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. “You
have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy. But I say to you, love your
enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for
those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” (Mt. 5:43-44) There
were times when we dislike other congregations that do not preach the same
message as ours. Instead of killing
them with the sword like Elijah, we had killed them with our tongues. God is
showing us a superior way – the way that is taught by our Lord Jesus Christ and
that is to love them. Elisha had prayed
that God would open the eyes of his enemies.
We should pray to the Lord to open the spiritual eyes of those other
ministries and congregations so that they can receive the truths that God has
revealed to us. Instead of isolating
ourselves from them like Elijah we should have fellowship meals and interact with them. This is definitely a superior and
more effective way. When God replaced
Elijah with Elisha He was not only replacing a person but, more importantly, He
was replacing an attitude towards others.
We all need to replace our attitudes towards other Christians from
intolerance to love, mercy and compassion.
If we do not change ourselves then God will look elsewhere for people
who conform to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ and use them.
When Elijah hid in a cave he could not
see anyone else besides himself as a faithful prophet of God. He was suffering from an optical sickness I
call “cave vision”. Everything inside a
cave is dark and the only source of light is the entrance. A person having cave vision cannot visualize
God is working through other people outside the cave. He cannot see anything or anyone beyond himself. Let us look at Elisha. What a different vision that he had. When Elisha and his servant Gehazi were in
Dothan they were surrounded by the Syrian army. (2 Kn. 6:13-17) Gehazi was scared because he could not see
how the two of them could get out of danger.
What is Elisha’s reaction? “Do not fear, for
those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” To Gehazi there were only two of them. How could there be more people with us than
with them? He saw it through a spiritual
vision. “And Elisha prayed,
and said, ‘Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see,” Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young
man, and he saw, And behold, the
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha.” (2 Kn. 6:17) God was not
only replacing a prophet He was also replacing a vision. Proverbs informs us: “Where there is no
vision, the people perish:” (Pro. 29:18) We must have a spiritual vision that can see beyond these four
walls of this chapel and beyond the names of people that are written in our
church directory. The Church of the
Lord Jesus Christ is much, much bigger than we can ever see with our naked
eye. The words of Elisha must surely resound in our hearts and
minds: “For
those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
A Sermon based on this Article was preached by Paul Wong
to a Congregation in Houston, Texas on June 22, 2002
For comments please write first to: ark@pdq.net
May God bless you.
Updated on 01/14/04
Paul Wong is a Christian minister and the
President of ARK International.
His ministry also serves as an architectural service company in Houston.
The ARK Forum on the Internet is international and non-denominational.
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