Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

“And Elisha died … and the Man Revived”

How life springs out of death

“And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet” (2 Kings 13:20-21).

The death of Elisha was the snapping of the last link of Israel with God; after it they fell into complete apostasy, joined with an alien power to fight against their brethren of Judah, and were finally carried away into a captivity from which they have not been recovered to this day. As a people these ten tribes, and indeed the whole race of Israel, are dead indeed, morally and spiritually dead. But here comes in an amazing thing. The corpse of a dead man cast into the sepulchre of Elisha, and coming into contact with his bones, sprang into life. The miracle is a great prophecy. It tells of the resurrection, restoration, and final blessing of that dead nation. “All Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:26). This is a necessity for the glory of God and for our sakes also; for the integrity of God’s Word depends upon it. He has spoken great things of Israel’s future under the sway of great David’s greater Son, and if His Word cannot be fulfilled, what guarantee have we that His Word to us will hold good? But not one jot or tittle of His Word can fail, and “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,” and this is most conclusively proved in Romans 9:10-11. Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37), is to have a wonderful fulfilment, and “many that sleep in the dust shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12).

But by what means and upon what righteous basis will God bring this about? God has only one basis upon which He can bless them, and bring them out of death into life, and that is the basis upon which all are blest who are blest at all — THE DEATH OF CHRIST. Upon this basis He can be a just God and a Saviour. In that death His righteousness was manifest, and the effect of that righteousness is peace for all who believe now, as it will be peace for Israel when they are raised up out of the moral and spiritual death in which they lie.

We delight in Isaiah 53. What a wonderful chapter it is. Much joy and blessing have we drawn from it, for Christ and His suffering love and His great sacrifice for sin are its theme. Yet in the first place it belongs to Israel. In the day when through sore tribulation they shall be brought to deep repentance, they will say, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.” They will realise that He was cut off out of the land of the living for their transgressions, and that when He poured out His soul to death, they were the transgressors for which He made His prayer. And they will see Him Whom they pierced, and will say, “What are these wounds in Thine hands?” And then shall they mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn (Zechariah 12:13). They will realise that only through His death could they have life. They will come thus into vital contact with His death, and just as Thomas, the unbeliever, cried out when he beheld the wounded body of his Lord, “My Lord and my God,” so will they say when they see the Lord, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation” (Isaiah 25). It will be true then: “Thy dead men shall live together, with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust” (Isaiah 26: 19). But all this blessing will come to them because their Messiah suffered for them. His soul was made an offering for sin on their behalf. He died for them. Even the godless Sadducee, Caiaphas, was compelled to speak of this when he and his confreres in wickedness plotted the murder of Jesus. “Ye know nothing at all,” said he, “nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself; but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation: and not for that nation only, but that He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (John 11).

Every lover of the Lord Jesus will rejoice to know that He is yet to see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied in regard to Israel. Yes, this people who thrust Him from them, when He came full of grace and truth to them, and cried, “Away with Him! Crucify Him!” and joined hands with the pagan Romans in His murder, and by their own act apostatised from God and forfeited all claim upon Him, are yet to learn that God has raised up Him Whom they took and by wicked hands crucified and slew, and that through Him and His very death that they brought about they may be pardoned and blest, and restored to favour in their own promised land.

He has said: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely.” And no more will the Lord have to weep over them as He did when He looked on their city, and said: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent to thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens beneath her wings, and ye would not;” but to them it shall be said, “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save; He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing” (Zephaniah 3:1).

As it will be with Israel in that coming day of Millennial glory, so it is now. There is no life for any sinner except through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ crucified is a stumbling-block to the Jew, and to the Greek foolishness; but to those who are saved He is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and God’s love is commended to us in Him. Happy are all those who can say, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” And “the love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were they all dead; and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves, but to Him which died for them and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5).

Elisha is introduced to us first as a servant with a heart of love in his breast, and a great readiness to obey, and a care for those about him. For when Elijah called him, he was serving with a team of oxen, and in becoming servant to Elijah he did not forget his father and mother, or the needs of his poor neighbours, for he slew his oxen and boiled their flesh, and gave to the people, and they did eat. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and ministered to him (1 Kings 19). And by this first incident in his life we are reminded of the words of our Lord: “The Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister.” He was the servant of His Father’s will, and the Servant of man’s need, and then He added, “To give His life a ransom for many.” “Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name that is above every name: that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:8-11). And a multitude that no man can number will owe the eternal life that they will enjoy to His death, and will adore Him for ever as the Lamb that was slain.