Who was Elisha in the Bible?

But there was an exception to this in the case of Elijah. He had a successor. "Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-Meholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room." Elisha was thus supplementary to Elijah. The contrast between the two was remarkable. The one terrible in his bearing, the other gracious; the one an ascetic; the other homely and accessible to all. Elijah's miracles were characterised by judgement; those of Elisha, with one exception, were marked by mercy. The very manner in which each is introduced to us arrests us by its contrast: the Tishbite bursts upon the scene abruptly, like a bolt from the blue (1 Kings 17:1); the son of Shaphat is seen peacefully ploughing a field (1 Kings 19:19).

Elijah and Elisha remind us of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus. The stern ministry of Elijah was akin to that of the Forerunner (Luke 1:17); the gracious ministry of Elisha is suggestive of that of the Saviour Himself (Luke 7:33-34). The name, too, is eloquent in its meaning: "God is Salvation."

Elisha was a much different type of prophet than Elijah. Not that he was opposed to Elijah or to his ministry; rather he was thoroughly devoted to him, and he received a double portion of Elijah's spirit when Elijah was taken to heaven (2 Kings 2:9-12). But his ministry is typical of that of the Lord Jesus in the present day, now that Christ has ascended to heaven, but works through His servants. God worked miracles through him, but his miracles were nearly all miracles of grace, not of judgment, apart from two exceptional cases (2 Kings 2:23-24; 5:27). Consider Naaman, a Gentile, being healed of leprosy (2 Kings 5), and various other cases from chapter 2 to 7 of 2 Kings.

It is well for us today to think of this exceptional ministry of Elisha, even when under the dispensation of law, for it shows what God really delighted in , even before Christ came to reveal the fullness of the grace of God in truth.

Elisha is the chosen vessel to carry this new ministry of grace to a ruined world. As one has said Elisha "completes by a ministry of grace in the power of life, what Elijah had begun in righteousness against idolatry." Elisha returns to the land that Elijah had left. The curse was there; widows are in need; hunger and famine are in the land; enemies oppose and death is over all. Into this scene of sin and ruin Elisha comes with power from on high, to display, in the midst of a dark world, the grace of heaven that can meet the need of man. Thus it comes to pass as Elisha passes on his way, the curse is removed; the needs of the widow are met; the barren woman becomes fruitful; the dead are raised; evil is averted; the hungry are fed; the leper is healed; enemies are baffled and defeated; earth's famine yields before heaven's plenty, and out of death there comes forth life.

Thus it becomes manifest that the ministry of Elisha wears an entirely different character to that of his great forerunner. Moreover, the manner of life of the two prophets, while in keeping with their respective ministries, was of necessity wholly different. Elijah led a life, for the most part, remote from the haunts of men: Elisha moved among the masses, on familiar terms with his fellow-men. Elijah was found by lonely streams, in desert ways and mountain caves: Elisha is found in the cities of men, and the camps of kings. Elijah is entertained by a humble widow of Sarepta: Elisha is the guest of the rich woman of Shunem.

Now a word as to Elisha, so rightly called the man of God. He was a great contrast to Elijah. Elijah represented the law and pressed its demands upon the people. He came to tell them that the Lord, He is God! And to urge His just claims, and to tell them what they ought to be and do, and because they did not yield to God His rights and were not what they ought to be, condemnation and judgment always accompanied his ministry among them. But Elisha came, not demanding, but giving. He showed out the goodness of God to a wretched people. He was a dispenser of grace and mercy, and all sorts of people were blest by him; nor did he turn away any who came to him acknowledging their need.

Elisha the prophet was typical of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the man whom God sent to His people—whom He sent to them because He pitied them in their poverty. And in the midst of Israel he manifested the grace of the Lord. He looked for no merit in those that He blessed; it was sufficient that they came to him bringing their need as their only introduction. In the power and mercy of the Lord he was equal to every trial. He helped kings and great captains, and he blessed bankrupt widows and loathsome lepers. No manner of circumstance baffled him, and the resources of God that he commanded were sufficient for every need he met. It is because of this that I say he stands as type of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Although Elisha is Elijah’s successor, their respective ministries stand in stark contrast to each other in terms of character:

Elijah executes judgment. He shuts the heavens, slaughters the prophets of Baal, announces the king’s death, and brings down fire from heaven to devour a captain and his 50 mighty men — twice over (1 Ki. 17:1; 18:40; 2 Ki. 1:6, 10, 12). Elisha exercises a beneficent ministry of grace, making bitter waters sweet, removing death from the pot, rescuing an army, recovering the lost axe, cleansing the leper, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, and spreading a banquet before a hostile troop. He performs the most wonderful miracles of grace — and only ever exercises judgment when grace is rejected and ridiculed.

This list may not be complete but should suffice to stir every Bible reader’s inquisitive curiosity. One feels instinctively that Elisha must be a type of Christ — but in what way, and how does Elijah fit in? Before attempting to solve the riddle, we need to look at the sons of the prophets as Elisha’s ministry is exercised, to a large extent, amongst representatives of this group.

How often in our own day, with its increasing corruption, we, with our limited outlook, may be led to imagine that the work of God depends upon one or two devoted and faithful servants of the Lord, and that with their removal all testimony for the Lord will cease. We have to learn that though servants pass God remains, and that God has other servants in preparation for His service, and, unknown to us, God has His hidden ones who have not bowed down to prevailing evils.

In obedience to the Lord's word, Elijah departs from Horeb to seek Elisha. The one chosen to take the place of the prophet is not found amongst the great men of the earth. God is no respector of persons, and in choosing His servants God is not restricted to the great and noble. He may indeed employ the rich and the learned, kings and priests, as He sees fit. But at times He pours contempt on all our pride by taking up a man from the humblest walks of life to perform the highest spiritual service. He can use a little maid to bless a great man; He can take a lad from the sheepfolds to be the leader of His people Israel; He can use the betrothed of a carpenter to bring into this scene the Saviour of the world; and having brought the Saviour into the world, He can use some lowly fishermen to turn the world upside down. Thus it comes to pass, in the days of Elijah, He calls a simple husbandman from following the plough to be the prophet of his age.

Elijah being set aside because he was despondent and discouraged, we may conclude that the prophet in his stead, will be one gifted with a character and purpose quite the contrary — even bold and enduring. We constantly find in Scripture that the notice of a man's secular employment conveys to us an idea of the man's adaptability for future service, and an intimation of the nature of his course. Elisha is found ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and "he was with the twelfth;" and doubtless a vigorous and a patient husbandman. Elijah passes by and casts his mantle on him, thus intimating, I should suppose, that he was to take the place and calling of the owner of it. Elisha evidently so understood it, but, yielding for a moment to his natural affection, he craves permission to return and kiss his father and mother. The prophet's reply is one fitted to throw him on his own responsibility. "Go back again, for what have I done to thee?" It was for him to judge whether Elijah's action towards him had been a divine call or not. That it was divine, Elisha's spiritual instincts told him; and though his response to it did not rise to the height it might, and which immediate following would have indicated, still his faith, so far as it rose, is followed up by true and suited action. His return to his home is not to remain in it, but to celebrate his surrender of it. "He took a yoke of oxen and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat." He converts the instruments of his occupation into a repast for his neighbours; he disposes of his possessions for the benefit of others; at one and the same moment declaring his readiness to surrender for the Lord, and his benevolence for his people; he, in a measure, sold what he had and gave to the poor, and "then he arose, went after Elijah and ministered to him." The first answer to God's call in the soul is very indicative of the order and character of that life throughout its course, and we shall find it thus with Elisha. Though he hesitates at first, he eventually determines and follows Elijah, and that not grudgingly or of necessity, but as one who celebrates his deed with a hearty good will. And thus it is that he enters on a course where he is to be a minister and a witness of the most remarkable of God's ways and works.

The word of the Lord had been that he was to be prophet in Elijah's room; i.e., to fill up Elijah's ministry, and the two ministries were not to co-exist at the same time; so that it is quite fitting that we should not hear of him again till Elijah was about to quit the scene, and then he is presented to us in the high character of the companion of Elijah and the witness of his rapture. As the one retires, the other is brought prominently before us, and therefore deeply significant is the education accorded to him on this the last day of the one, and (in respect to his ministry) the first day of the other; for on this day is he installed into office. The sons of the prophets with one accord tell him that this is the last day for his master, and as he walked with Elijah throughout this his last day, he is taught the zeal and duties proper to God's servant, as well as God's glorious way of removing His servant from the scene of his labours. The scene which closed Elijah's service inaugurated Elisha's. If Elisha was naturally strong and qualified for robust work here on earth, he derives from the rapture of Elijah a strength and an idea of God's ways and grace which must remain with him through all his course, because his course dates from it, and his mind is endowed, and his conceptions of God formed therefrom. His ministry must be characterized by the communications and admonitions of his installation. In all his course Elisha could not forget that the power he had received was in consequence of that union of spirit with Elijah which concentrated his attention on him, as he was carried up into heaven. "If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so," was Elijah's reply to his request for a double portion of his spirit. "And Elisha saw it,” we read lower down. Here was the spring and source of all his subsequent power. "The spirit of Elijah doth rest upon Elisha" was the immediate testimony of the sons of the prophets, and according as the Spirit of God acted in him, must he ever afterwards have been carried back to this fine beginning, just as Paul was. No doubt the dawn of God's grace on our souls and its effects on us indicate the best traits of it which shall characterize us subsequently, and we all find that the manner in which the gospel is presented to and received by any soul at first, presages the manner and character of its course.

When Elisha, the man of God, "heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him (Naaman) come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." (v. 8) Elisha in his ministry is a type, in one aspect, of the power of Christ in resurrection. Anointed to be prophet in the room of Elijah (1 Kings 19:16), the mantle of Elijah, with a "double portion of his spirit," fell upon him from his master, when ascending to heaven in a chariot of fire. (2 Kings 2:9-11.) He therefore in his ministry became the sole channel of blessing to those whose hearts grace might open in the midst of idolatrous Israel.

The prophet went to Damascus, and Ben-hadad, being sick, sent Hazael to inquire if he should recover. The answer was that he might certainly recover, yet he should die: an apparent enigma; but it was fully explained by Hazael causing his death when he would otherwise have recovered. Elisha prophesied that Hazael would be king over Syria, and he wept as he told the dreadful things he would do to Israel. Elisha sent one of the sons of the prophets to anoint Jehu to be king over Israel: he was to execute God's judgement on the house of Ahab and on Jezebel, which had been prophesied by Elijah. 1 Kings 21:23-24. What had been foretold Jehu fulfilled. 2 Kings 8, 2 Kings 9.

The time now approached for Elisha's death. He was sick and Joash king of Israel went to visit him. Elisha prophesied that Joash should smite the Syrians till they were consumed, but he was angry with the king's want of energy and said he should smite them but three times. Elisha's work was now done and he died and was buried. When a corpse was let down into the same tomb, as soon as it touched the bones of Elisha life was restored. Type that though Israel is now dead towards God (cf. Dan. 12:2), when they are brought into connection with God's true Prophet they will be restored to life as unexpectedly and as powerfully. As we have seen, Elisha's mission was grace, and his history to the end is stamped with the power of life. 2 Kings 13:14-21. He is called ELISEUS in Luke 4:27.