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‘Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.’
2Ki_2:11
I. Elijah’s work was done; his long controversy with Israel, with an apostate king and a rebellious people, was drawing to a close. He was to be withdrawn in a wonderful way from the earth. Our thoughts carry us on to One Who, like the prophet of the elder dispensation, had finished the work which His Father had given Him to do, and Who now, about to leave the earth, announced to His faithful disciples that legacy of love, that double portion of the Spirit, which He would bequeath to them.
II. Compare the actual translation of Elijah with the ascension of our Lord.—Elijah is translated; a chariot of fire and horses of fire are commissioned to snatch him away from the earth and carry him to heaven; but our Lord is borne upward by His innate power. He is not translated; He ascends. He came from heaven, and He returns to heaven, as to His natural home.
III. In what follows after Elijah has been taken up, we have a dim foreshadowing of the history of the Church.—above all the Apostolic Church, after the ascension of its Lord.—(1) Elisha wrought a miracle with the mantle of Elijah; the mantle of our ascending Lord has fallen upon the Church. (2) Elisha wasted not his time in idle lamentations; he girt himself to his own work. The Apostles returned to Jerusalem; and when they received the promise of the Father, they became witnesses to Christ ‘in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.’
IV. Notice: (1) Christ’s ascension is the complement of His resurrection. (2) We have not now a King only sitting on the throne of power, but a High Priest as well, Who has passed within the veil, there to appear in the presence of God for us. (3) We should find in the contemplation of our ascended Lord a motive to heavenly-mindedness, for where our treasure is, there our heart should be also.
—
Archbishop Trench.
Illustrations(1) ‘Elijah’s was one of the most wonderful departures from this world that history records. Enoch is the only other one of whom we know who had this high honour. Of course, Elijah’s body was changed into the spiritual body. It is a most interesting fact that centuries after leaving the world Elijah was seen on the mount of transfiguration, active still. Death is not the end of a good man’s life. Death is a door, not a wall; we do not stop, we pass through.’
(2) ‘He passed the day joyfully—thus it is narrated in the old Chronicle about the Venerable Bede—till the shadows of the evening began to fall, and then the boy who was writing his translation of St. John said: “Dear master, there is yet one sentence to be written.” He answered: “Write it quickly.” Soon after the boy said: “The sentence is finished now.” “Thou hast well said it is finished! Raise my head in thy hands; for I wish to be facing the holy place where I was wont to pray, and as I lie to call upon my Father.” And so he lay upon the pavement of his little cell, singing, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.” And when he named the Holy Ghost, he breathed his last, and so departed to the Heavenly Kingdom. May my end be like his, because my life too has been spent in learning and proclaiming the Word of my Lord, in choosing and bearing and fulfilling Christ’s will. Then, in my hour of need, may my Good Shepherd say:—
Yea, I have sought thee, yea, I have found thee,
Yea, I have thirsted for thee,
Yea, long ago with love’s bands I bound thee;
Now the Everlasting Arms surround thee—
Through death’s darkness I look and see,
And clasp thee to Me.’