Conformity

2 Kings 2:16 ESV

“And they said to him, “Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please let them go and seek your master. It may be that the Spirit of the LORD has caught him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” And he said, “You shall not send.”

Elisha has just experienced a life changing event. He watched as God caught Elijah up in a chariot of fire. Swooping down, separating him from Elijah, and then taking Elijah to heaven. To be present when this event transpired could be nothing but the most fearful, awe inspiring, event of his life. The mantle of Elijah then fell to him. Having known what would transpire he refused to leave his masters side. Until eventually God simply took Elijah and left his cloak for Elisha. Then the text continues and shows us how God would now work through Elisha in a similar way to Elijah by having him preform the same miraculous crossing of the Jordan as Elijah had.

Then we reach the other side and the prophets of Jericho were aware of what had happened. They new that God was going to take Elijah (2:5) and they watched Elisha return and noted that the same spirit rested on him. Then we come to verse 16 were they want to go look for Elijah. Listening to this should make your skin crawl a little. Here are “the prophets” men charged with delivering God’s messages to the people, men who we are never told bad of, they are not called “false” prophets, and God had already given the spiritual insight to know Elijah would be taken. Yet they do not know God.

Yes, they know of him and yes, they are good men, but their perception of God is completely shadowed, colored, and clouded by the false beliefs of their society, so that they have no real understanding of who God is. To believe that God was so faithless as to chose to take someone to heaven and then simply through the body on the ground is beyond simple misjudgment of God. This is letting all the tales of the Baals and other God’s of the region distort their vision of even the God revealed in the Pentateuch! God did not leave the people at the shore of the Red Sea to be destroyed by Pharaoh, He did not leave the to wander alone in the desert, nor did he abandon David’s line!

Yet, their error was such that they persisted to shame Elisha until eventually he allowed them to go look, just in case God was so faithless! “What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?” (Rom. 3:3) These prophets would answer that yes it does nullify God’s faithfulness but praise God “By no means!” (Rom 3:4) is this true! God is faithful despite our faithlessness. He preserves us when we don’t deserve it, and when we can’t preserve ourselves! He has chosen to take us to heaven with him in his time and “neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation” will hinder the good he plans for us!

Yet, also note that this world will try and color your understanding of God. It will try and make you believe that God is too loving to judge, that he would not let bad things happen to good people, or that knowing him means a beautiful view or moving song rather than words written on a page! “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12:2). If you want transformation it comes through knowing God, and that comes through reading his word!

CORAM DEO