1 Kings 19:16

Did He want the people of God punished for their sin? He Himself should anoint the men who carry out God's judgment — certainly painful work for someone who truly loved the people. Did he think no one could replace him as a witness? Then he must go and anoint his successor — Elisha the son of Shaphat. Did he regard himself as the only faithful man left in the land? Then he must learn his mistake. Jehovah startled him with the news that He still had 7000 loyal hearts among Israel's tribes.

God, who is as faithful in discipline as in grace, bids him anoint another in his place.

He goes back the way he had come (v. 15). He finds Elisha the son of Shaphat and throws his cloak over him — the sign that marks him out as a prophet. If he had kept to the bare letter of God's word, he would have had to start with Hazael and Jehu (vv. 15, 16). Instead he hurries to do the act that reduces himself to nothing. He, the great prophet, hands his authority over to another man. So the man who had said, "I, even I only, am left," shows that from now on he is nothing in his own eyes. As for Hazael and Jehu, it would not be Elijah, but Elisha who would anoint them.

"And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place" (1 Kings 19:16). This last one is striking. It is the only case where Scripture speaks of anointing a prophet. Elisha was Elijah's successor, so he had to be formally marked out for the post. As a rule a prophet had no successor. God called him for one specific purpose, and no one else could take his place.

God does not forget Ahab's wickedness while He gives Elijah the discipline he needs. Hazael is to be anointed king of Syria and Jehu king of Israel, and in due time both will carry out God's judgments on the house of Ahab. There was still another sword to be drawn, the most terrible of all... No one escaped Elisha's sword, and it cut far wider than the swords of Hazael and Jehu. Elisha's sword was the word of God. Its judgment caught up with the guilty house of Ahab and with the idolatrous nation, after the swords of Hazael and Jehu had been broken. "Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth." (Hosea 6:5)

Of the three, Elisha came first, with his wonderful ministry of grace. This is so like our God. If Israel had eyes to see it, Elisha's service among them was the divine pause between the sentence and the carrying out of the judgement. It was for Israel to say whether the sentence would take effect. Jehovah is always willing to turn aside the threatened blow when men truly humble themselves before Him. This is the principle He declares in Jeremiah 18:7-8, and we see it illustrated in His dealings with the city of Nineveh in the time of Jonah.

But God valued his faithful service, and would soon give him a unique and splendid honour: He would take him up into heaven. Yet in grace He planned that Elijah's faithful testimony would carry on in Elisha. So Elijah goes to heaven, and Elisha stays on earth in the same position to represent him — "in his place," as the verse says. The anointing was to fit him and equip him for this, so that he could represent the man whom God took into heaven.