70. Elisha's death

Enough Bread

1) A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God (Elisha) some bread ...: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He (Elisha) said (to his servant), “Give to the people, that they may eat.” His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” That would be an insult!  But he said, “Give the people, that they may eat; for Yahweh says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’” So he set it before them, and they ate, and had some left over, according to Yahweh’s word. 2 Kings 4:42-44.

There is a similar story in the Gospels. The Twelve (disciples) said to Him, Christ, Send the crowd away so that they may go ... and get food. ... But He said to them, You give them something to eat. And they said, We have no more than five loaves and two fish, ... (For they were about five thousand men.) ... He took the five loaves and the two fish. And looking up to Heaven, He blessed them and broke, and He gave to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they ate and were all filled. And there was taken up twelve hand baskets full of fragments of that left over to them. Luke 9:12-17.

Floating Iron

2) When they (including Elisha) came to the Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was cutting down a tree, the ax head fell into the water. Then he cried, and said, “Alas, my master! For it was borrowed.” The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” He showed him the place. He (Elisha) cut down a stick, threw it in there, and made the iron float. He said, “Take it.” So he put out his hand and took it. 6:1-7 WEB.  

The natural interpretation of the miracle, ... namely, that “Elisha struck (inserted a long stick into) the eye of the axe ... which he thrust into the river, (the Bible uses the word, threw but thrust means to push, not to throw.  In the Hebrew text the word is fling, not thrust) so that the iron was lifted by the wood (the stick in Elisha's hand, which according to the text Elisha was not holding on to),” needs no refutation, since the raising of an iron axe by a long stick, so as to make it float in the water, is impossible according to the laws of gravitation. Keil and Deilitszch Bible Commentary.  Obviously, this description of what happened is for those people who do not believe that the power of Jehovah can supersede the laws of nature.

Isn't it interesting that Elisha, who could predict the future, needed to ask, “Where did it fall?”

In spite of a number of Jehovah's prophets calling the people to repent and worship Jehovah, the people continue on in their own way.  2 Kings 6 to 13:14 portrays a series of wars, famines, double-crossing heroes and worship of false gods.

In v.14 we find these words, Now Elisha became sick with the illness of which he died; then in v.20  Elisha died, and they buried him.  "It is hard to keep a good man down".  Just because he was dead does not mean that he had to quit working miracles.  As they were burying a man (not Elisha), behold, they saw a band of raiders; and they threw the man into Elisha’s tomb. As soon as the man touched Elisha’s bones, he revived, and stood up on his feet. 13:21.  

Every generation in every nation needs a "superman".  Israel has had its share, and Elisha was one of them.  These people, great as they were, never could live up to the stories that were told about them.  Is it possible that with the prevalence of modern media this kind of superelevation of great servants has come to an end?  Sooner or later, all of them are shown to be mere humans.

Great servants never clamoured to be more than servants, but common attitude raised them to much higher elevations.