#49. Elijah’s Ascension, Part 3: The Method of the Lord

Published by Ben Stahl on June 3, 2020June 3, 2020

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.

II Kings 2:11 NKJV

The grace, mercy, and glory of the Lord is beyond all our comprehension. If we started listing the good deeds of the Lord we would never come to an end. The goodness of the Lord is infinite. The works of the Lord are exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or think. The promises of God in Christ Jesus our Lord are true and secure. If our finite minds were to express the high point or culmination of all God’s gifts to us, we might say with I John 2:25, “And this is the promise that He has promised us – eternal life.”

The fathers of the faith all looked forward to eternal life. They knew with Paul that to live was Christ but to die was gain, for they looked for the city which has foundations whose Builder and Maker is God. All believers who have passed from this life to the next on account of the grace of God and the righteousness of Christ Jesus imputed to them are now enjoying the pleasures and sinlessness of that city where dwells the Lamb of God. But almost all share one common trait: They went down into the Valley of the Shadow of Death before they ascended to the City of the Lord forever. Two men did not share that process – Enoch and Elijah skipped the Valley and went straight to glory.*

Elijah, zealous for the glory of the Lord, desired the Lord to allow him to die, yet the Lord honored His servant not by giving him death but by carrying him, body and soul, from earth on a chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire.

The chariot and horses of fire were angels of the Lord. We will see this later with Elisha at Dothan, but remember the words of Psalm 68:17: “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them…”

Elijah did not prepare himself for entry into glory by meditating on Mt. Carmel or hiding in a cave on Mt. Horeb, or contemplating by a stream in the wilderness. He prepared himself by ministering to Elisha (vs. 11). What wonderful words of Godly encouragement the younger prophet must have received in those minutes before Elijah’s ascension into glory.**

One day we too will be carried up by the ministering spirits of God, the angels, to the New Jerusalem, the city of God. Elijah was carried up swiftly into glory, riding on a chariot, pulled by horses of fire, and brought up in a whirlwind. Our entrance into heaven will be swift. Our eyes will close on earth and in the twinkling of an eye, will open in Heaven. What would the Lord have us to do until that time? As Elijah was going about the work of a prophet and ministering to Elisha, so may we go about the work God has called us to do for His glory, looking forward to that great and terrible day of our departure from this life to the life to come.

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*I borrowed this picture of skipping the Valley of the Shadow of Death from Matthew Henry who in turn credits a Mr. Crowley.

**This account should bring to our memory the end of Mark 16 and the beginning of Acts 1, which recounts Christ’s ascension into Heaven. Before His ascension into glory and the throne at the right hand of the Father, Jesus Christ spoke to His disciples. In the minutes before He ascended, Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commission and told them to stay in Jerusalem to await the Spirit of comfort and power that He had promised. Then Jesus was taken up in their sight into Heaven.

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