And it came to pass, when the Lord was about to take Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Then Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel. And Elisha said, As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? And he said, Yes, I know. Keep silent. Then Elijah said to him, Elisha, stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho. And the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came to Elisha and said to him, Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today? So he answered, Yes, I know. Keep silent. Then Elijah said to him, Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan. And he said, As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So the two of them went on. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan. Now 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. 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. However, 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 with horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Now Elisha saw it. And he cried out, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its war horses. And so he saw him no more. And he took hold of his clothes and he tore them into two pieces. He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water. And then he said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he had also struck the water, it was divided this way and that. And Elisha crossed over. Continuing verse 19. Then the men of Jericho said to Elisha, Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lord sees, but the water is bad, the ground is barren. And he said, bring me a new bowl and put salt in it. So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the source of the water and cast in the salt there, and then he said, Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water, and from it shall be no more death or barrenness. So the water remains healed to this very day, according to the saying of Elisha, which he had spoke. And he went up from there to Bethel, and as he was going up the road, some young men came from the city, and they mocked him. And they said to him, Go up, you bald head. Go up, bald head. So he turned around and he looked at them, and then he pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the youths. Then he went up from there to Mount Carmel and from there he returned to Samaria. Thus ends the reading of God's word. Please be seated. From a recent newscast, you would know that one of the world's richest men has a net worth. That means all the things that he owns, all the stocks, everything, his net worth is $54 billion. Now think about that for just a moment. $54 billion. if out of your whole life you worked and got a million dollars or won it on some game show, that would be a lot of money, wouldn't it? Well, what's $54 billion compared to that? Well, it's 54,000 times more than a million dollars. That's how much this man has. And I'm sure everybody's going, Wow, that's impressive. But so what? What does that have to do with me? Well, suppose that same man called you up. Called you on the phone and said, You know, I've decided to dedicate my life and everything I have to ensuring that you are never without anything in this life. For the rest of your life, I will use everything I have to make sure that you are never without want, at least as far as the things of the world are concerned. Well, all of a sudden, that $54 billion will change in your mind, won't it? It won't just be a lot of money that doesn't apply to you. All of a sudden, all that money is now directed towards your life. All of those riches are for you. And so the glory of that money, that amount, is one thing. But it doesn't mean much to you, does it? But if it is suddenly for your sake, then that glory changes its whole perspective. And now it's for your good. So the glory of that money changes from just being there to being there for your good. And you know, you think, $54 billion is a lot of money. But how about God? You know, we read in scripture, he owns the cattle of a thousand hills or more. It's a quaint way of saying it. But God is the God that made everything. Fifty-four billion dollars doesn't mean anything to him. He doesn't need it. He's the God that said, let there be light and it's there. Just that simple. He's the same God that said, if it were possible for me to be hungry, I wouldn't tell you. I own everything. well if you're not in Christ that doesn't mean anything to you but if that God is for you if Jesus Christ is your Savior then what then all the riches of God are suddenly directed towards you and that's what we see here in this passage the glory of God's holiness gets magnified by the glory of his salvation his prophet Elijah shows God's glory his is-ness I'm God, you're not I don't need you I'm powerful I'm everything and yet what does he show us through Elisha as we will see he's for his people if you're in Christ he's for you this holy righteous powerful God is for you if his son is your savior I'd like you to see then that we'll see how this works out and how God's relationship to his own is going from this impressive power of God to this wonderful knowledge that this God is for you. And we see that by the relationship he has between the ministries of these two prophets, Elijah and Elisha. So we can see that the glory of Elijah's ministry will be magnified by the glory of Elisha's ministry. Elijah's glory in some respects will decrease and then Elijah will be replaced by Elisha and then Elisha's ministry will increase. So Elijah's ministry will decrease. Elisha will replace Elijah. and then Elisha's ministry will increase. Well, Elijah's ministry, what was it? It could be characterized in many ways, but I'd like us to focus on one, and that is that his job throughout his ministry was to fight. Elijah's whole life was fighting something. And what was he fighting? He was fighting Baal worship in Israel. At least from what we read in Scripture, That was his whole ministry. It was fighting Baal worship. Now Elijah's name is, My God is Yah. Eli, my God, Jah, or Yah. Yahwah, Yahweh, Jehovah. So you have a prophet walking around saying, My God is Yahweh, Yahwah. This is my God. The God that says, I am. There is no other. And that was what Elijah did for his whole ministry, was to show the people of Israel the true God, their God, is Jah or Yah, Yahweh. And so Elijah wanted to show his uniqueness. He wanted to show Israel that there is no God but Yahweh. And during his career, for lack of a better term, he did fight against this pagan worship. And how did he do it? But he fought against the family that brought in pagan worship into Israel. And that family was Ahab's family. Up until Ahab, King Ahab, until he became king, Israel did worship. The ten tribes of Israel did worship God. They just did it wrongly. How did they do that? They worshipped golden calves in Dan and Beersheba. But at least they were saying, well, this is how we worship God. This is our way of worshipping God. But at least they could say they were worshipping the God of Israel. But when Ahab became king, All pretense went away because Ahab's wife was a Sidonian earth mother priestess. And she was very strong-willed, and Ahab wasn't. And so, through her influence, through that family of Ahab, outright pagan worship, worship of Baal, who is no god, Just a figment of people's imaginations. Kids, what that means is something people make up in their head. And people are worshipping that. And it was sanctioned. It was ordered by the king of the land. And Elijah's whole ministry was against that. And although Elijah had successes, Elijah got discouraged. And during one of these discouragement periods, he told God, I'm tired. I've had it. Look what I've done to show these people who you are. It gets nowhere. It's not going anywhere. Take me out. And God tells him, alright, then I will bring another who will finish the job, who will wipe out through his ministry. this pagan worship of Baal. And so in this part of the scriptures, we see that Elijah is now leaving. The part where he said, I'm done, and God finally said, all right, now is the time for the transition. And the man who said, my God is Yah, he's now leaving the land, literally. You can see it in verses 1 through 6. He goes from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, from Jericho to the Jordan River. That's the route that Elijah and Elisha with him took. And if you notice, that's the reverse route, basically, that Joshua took when he came into the land with the Israelites to conquer the land. And now, Elijah is taking the reverse route. So Elijah's ministry is diminishing. But it's important that it does. About 850 years after this, another one like Elijah, John the Baptist, will come. And like Elijah, he will prepare God's people For the way of Jesus Christ's work of saving his people from their sins. And what did John say? He said, my ministry must decrease. So that what? Jesus' ministry will increase. It must be that way. Because John couldn't save anybody. No man can. Only the Lord Jesus himself. So the glory of Elijah's ministry is diminishing as he leaves. And now we see that Elisha is succeeding Elijah. In verses 8 through 15, we can see that Elijah baptizes Elisha and then Elisha asks Elijah for something called the blessing of the firstborn. Well, Elijah does baptize Elisha. And you're thinking, wait a minute. Okay, so they went through the Jordan River, but nobody got wet. How did that happen? Well, the reference is to what Moses did to the children of Israel. And in 1 Corinthians 10, 1 and 2. Remember when Moses took the children through the Red Sea? What was that? For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And in this same way, Elijah baptized Elisha. he brought him through the testing of the waters. And then what does Elisha do? Well, Elisha says, okay, what do you want before I leave? And Elisha says, I want the blessing. I want the blessing. The same blessing that Esau traded in for a bowl of chili. This is what Elisha wants. The blessing of the firstborn. Because what does he say? Verse 9. Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. Now how in the world does that become the preeminent firstborn blessing? Well, it's in Deuteronomy 21.17. But he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For he is the beginning of his strength. To him belongs the right of the firstborn. Elisha is saying to Elijah, I want to be your spiritual son. I want to follow after you. I want the blessing, the preeminent blessing, the double blessing of everything. Of all the prophets in Israel, I want to be the one. The one that everybody knows is the special one. The preeminent one. The number one prophet. That's what Elisha is asking. And Elijah says, I don't pass out the Holy Spirit, son. But, if in God's mercy he decides to give it to you, you'll see me taken up. did Elisha get that blessing? Well, of course he did. What did he see? He saw Elijah taken up in that fiery chariot with the fiery horse right up into heaven. He saw that. And because he saw that, and God had promised, he got that double blessing. And Elisha was recognized by all the prophets that he is the number one prophet. In verse 15. Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. The schools of the prophets said, you know what? That's him. The spirit of Elijah is on this guy. But just like in the double blessing, Not only did he get the preeminent blessing, he literally got the double blessing, the double spirit, if you will, of Elijah. How so? Well, it's not directly here in this particular text, but if you read to the rest of 2 Kings and you read Elisha's ministry, do that this afternoon and count up how many miracles God does through Elisha. And then count up how many miracles God does through Elijah. And see if there isn't a two-to-one correlation. And this is all interesting, but this is important as well, because Christ, who is the better Elisha, he went through the same thing. He was baptized by one who was even a better prophet than Elijah. John the Baptist. And what did Christ receive? He received the blessing of the firstborn, but much better than Elisha. Because what did he receive? The blessing from God the Father himself through a voice from heaven. And what else? The spirit without measure. Do you get that, children? The spirit without measure. The Lord didn't just get some spirit that filled him up. He got the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, without measure. All of the Spirit of God is in Christ. So we've seen that the glory of Elijah's ministry is decreasing. And Elisha has just succeeded Elijah. And now we shall see that the glory of Elisha's ministry increases. Elisha's first acts, the first things he does as a prophet now, as his name shows, which is what? Elisha. Elisha, my God, shah. Yes, shah. Salvation. This is a prophet walking around saying, my God is salvation. that's his ministry. That's glorious. It's glorious when the prophet's going, my God is Yah. But isn't it more glorious when he says, my God is salvation. Yah is for you. And what Elisha's first acts are, are a foretaste of this ministry, which is to save Israel from the evil within her midst. And Elisha reenacts Joshua's conquest. He parts the Jordan like Joshua. Then he comes into the land and the first place he goes is Jericho. And there Elisha conquers just like Joshua. What does he conquer? The evil in Jericho. What's the evil in Jericho? water that kills what is water supposed to do for us keep us alive but what is the water in Jericho doing killing people and so what does Joshua's ministry start off with he mercifully frees a cursed city from the effects of their sin he mercifully frees a cursed city from the effects of their sin as you recall Jericho is a cursed city back in 1st Kings what does Joshua I mean what does back in Joshua 6 what does God say through Joshua cursed is the man who tries to rebuild Jericho with his firstborn son he'll lay the foundation which means children if you're the firstborn son and if your dad was trying to build Jericho you would die and with his youngest son he will build its gates that means if you're the youngest kid you would die because your dad is building the city this is a cursed city why why would God through Elisha do this well look how these people came to Elisha. The men of the city, the elders, said to him, please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lord sees, but the water is bad and the ground is barren. We miss a lot in this translation because really the way it would say in Hebrew is, oh please, please Elisha. They recognize who Elisha is. They might have even figured out what his name meant. And they're saying, please, save us. They come to him humbly. Save our city. In their humbleness, they come. And what does he do? He heals that city. He turns water that kills into life-giving water. Something you would expect from the Lord, isn't it? Something you would expect from someone who says, My God is salvation. And then he moves on to Bethel. Now Bethel is close to a town called Ai. You might have heard it in Sunday school called Ai, but it's the same thing, Ai. It's real close. And he goes towards Bethel. By the way, what is Bethel but Beth-el, house of God? the prophet of God is going to the house of God and as he's going there what do the people that live there do the young men from there and like I said that doesn't mean just little kids we're talking about young men who should be responsible not just say in your teens but these would be 20 year olds maybe even 30 year olds and what are they doing Are they coming out to greet the new prophet of God? No. What they're saying is, Ebaldi, going to church today? They're making fun of him. But you see, when you make fun of God's direct representative, his prophet, who are you making fun of? We're just kidding. You're not kidding. You're making fun of God. And what did God do? He gave them judgment right then and there. Those bears came out, children. And I've seen Sunday school classes in other churches where they'll say, well, the bears came and they spanked the kids. What the bears did was they got their claws and they ripped them apart. They were dead. Forty-two of them. for their sin against God. And so, what was Elisha doing here? But he's conquering the evil in Bethel. He's wiping out the evil in the house of God. Christ later would enter the world, wouldn't he? To save his people from the evil within. What is that evil within? Baal worship? Anybody in here worship Baal? Or some tree or something like that? No, we're much too sophisticated. We worship ourselves in many other ways. But Christ has come to save us from our self-worship. So in conclusion, in this passage, God is showing Israel that the glory of his holiness through Elijah was going to be magnified by the glory of his saving work through Elisha. God would use Elisha to save Israel from the sin of pagan Baal worship. And how would he do it? By destroying the source of that worship, wiping out King Ahab's family. 850 years later, the spirit of Elijah returns to the land in the person of John the Baptist. And like Elijah before him, John calls the people to repentance from their sin. And like Elijah before him, John the Baptist's work is eclipsed. Now, children, what eclipsed means is it's overwhelmed by something else. And John the Baptist's work is eclipsed by someone else whose spirit is without measure, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And through the spirit of this better Elisha, Jesus Christ, God shows his mercy to those who trust in him. And he does it in an even better way. He destroys his and their enemy, which is the indwelling sin and its consequences. And how does he do it? Destroying that sin in Christ's own body. And what else does he do? He gives them his own righteousness. That is the work that the Lord does. And we see a small picture of it here in 2 Kings. Jericho was a city cursed by God, just like I said. Why? Because they tried to rebuild the city he told them not to do. But God had mercy on cursed Jericho because they humbled themselves before God through his prophet Elisha. Now, if you don't really trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and your God, you're no different than those Jericho people. You are cursed. But, like those people in Jericho, if you humble yourself before Christ, who is the better Elisha, if you ask him to forgive you for your defiance and your sin against him, then just like Elisha healed the waters, the Lord Jesus will heal you. And in you will come springs of living water. The Holy Spirit himself will dwell. But how about if you're the type that claim you know God? Oh, I know God. Been to church all my life. But what if you really don't care for them? Beware of presumption. The young men from Bethel, the house of God, thought they were safe from judgment. Why? They're covenant people. And what's a little bit, who's going to matter if we just make a little bit of fun of this prophet? But what was their heart attitude? What was their heart attitude? You could see it by what they did. They made fun of God's prophet, and they were making fun of God. Beware of that, lest it be you. And believer in Christ, you who really do trust in God, are you encouraged by the severity of God as well as his mercy? You go, and the severity of God should. you still have remnants of sin in you. Though you be saved, you still have remnants of sin dwelling in you. And do you see through your circumstances and through your reactions to them that they're there? Sure you do. And doesn't it just drive you crazy sometimes? Don't you say, Come on, God, get it all out. Well, He does. Through his severity. He's going to take it out. He's going to destroy it. He's going to destroy that pagan worship that you like to do. That even God's people, once in a while, engage in. Because he's merciful he does this. He takes it out. Through many ways and many means. But he takes it out. the infinite resources of God with the infinite compassion of God all directed to you for your good. How can you stop then from praising Him? Because the infinite God in Christ is your God. If you're not in Christ, This is the God that calls you to turn to Him. If you're in Christ, yes, you have hard times. It's really hard sometimes. But this God is using all of His resources for your sake, for your good, and for His glory. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being our Savior, our propitiation, our righteousness. Thank you for taking us and making us your own. Help us to thank you through the things we do and the way we live. And when we do fail, remind us to confess our sins to you and turn back to you. And as you have said, you are faithful and you are just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if there be any here who are not in Christ, do not trust you and you only for salvation from eternal judgment. Lord, may today be the day that you turn their hearts to you. In your name we pray, and for your sake, Amen.