- 64-
Ahaziah did not leave a son. He was succeeded by his brother Jehoram,^124 or Joram,
as we shall prefer to call him, to distinguish him from the king of Judah of the same
name. Before entering on the history of his reign we must consider, however briefly,
the history of Elijah and of Elisha, which is so closely intertwined with that of
Israel.^125
The record opens with the narrative of Elijah's translation - and this not merely as
introductory to Elisha's ministry, but as forming, especially at that crisis, an integral
part of such a "prophetic" history of Israel as that before us. The circumstances
attending the removal of Elijah are as unique as those connected with the first
appearance and mission of the prophet. We mark in both the same suddenness, the
same miraculousness, the same symbolic meaning. Evidently the event was intended
to stand forth in the sky of Israel as a fiery sign not only for that period, but for all
that were to follow. And that this history was so understood of old, appears even
from this opening sentence in what we cannot help regarding as a very unspiritual, or
at least inadequate, sketch of Elijah's ministry in the apocryphal book of Jesus the
Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus 48:1): "Then stood up Elias the prophet as fire, and his
word burned like a lamp." But while we feel that the circumstances attending his
translation were in strict accordance with the symbolical aspect of all that is recorded
in Scripture of his life and mission, we must beware of regarding these circumstances
as representing merely symbols without outward reality in historic fact. Here the
narrative will best speak for itself.
The rule of Ahaziah had closed with the judgment of the LORD pronounced through
Elijah, and another reign not less wicked - that of Joram^126 - had begun when the
summons to glory came to the prophet of fire.
This latter was known, not only to Elijah himself, and to Elisha, but even to "the sons
of the prophets." We do not suppose that Elisha, or still less "the sons of the
prophets," knew that "Jehovah would cause Elijah to ascend in a storm-wind to
heaven" - nay, perhaps Elijah himself may not have been aware of the special
circumstances that would attend his removal. But the text (vers. 3, 5, 9) clearly shows
that the immediate departure of Elijah was expected, while the language also implies
that some extraordinary phenomenon was to be connected with it. At the same time
we are not warranted to infer, either that there had been a special Divine revelation to
inform all of the impending removal of Elijah, nor, on the other hand, that Elijah had
gone on that day to each of the places where "the sons of the prophets" dwelt in
common, in order to inform and prepare them for what was to happen.^127
As Holy Scripture tells it, the day began by Elijah and Elisha leaving Gilgal - not the
place of that name between the Jordan and Jericho, so sacred in Jewish history
(Joshua 4:19; 5:10), but another previously referred to (Deuteronomy 11:30) as the
(^)