Journey to the Jordan River
When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel…
Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, Elisha; the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” And he replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho…
Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” And he replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them walked on.
Fifty men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”
“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.” (NIV)
As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two.
Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. (2 Kings 2:2-14) (NIV)
Do you notice how hungry Elisha was for the anointing? He wanted a “double portion” of the power that Elijah had. And Elijah was well aware of what Elisha wanted, but he took Elisha on a journey first. I want to look at each of these four places that they walked to that day.
They started in a town called Gilgal. We first hear about Gilgal in the book of Joshua. Joshua had just led all the Israelites over the Jordan River into the promised land and God told them to stop in Gilgal and circumcise all the men before they moved on. In Joshua chapter 5 we read:
And after the whole nation had been circumcised, they remained where they were in camp until they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day. (Joshua 5:8,9) (NIV)
The word “Gilgal” comes from a root word that means “rolled.” “Reproach” means “shame or disgrace.” (Strong 1983)
In Gilgal, then, our shame is rolled away.
Gilgal is the starting place for every Christian. It’s the place where we first turn to Jesus, and we ask Him to wash away our sins.
And He washes away- rolls away- all our sins, our past, our shame; He forgives everything we have done in the past. He puts our sins away as “far as the east is to the west,” into the “deepest ocean.” He gives us a clean slate, calls us a “new creation,” and gives us a brand-new start.
The Israelites were never again to be called slaves to the Egyptians and we are never again to be called slaves to the devil or anyone else.
So Gilgal was the first stop for the Israelites when they came to the promised land. It was the first stop for Elisha and Elijah that day, and it’s the first stop for us as Christians.
Now that Elisha and Elijah had been to Gilgal, did they go straight to the River?
No, even though they knew they would end up at the Jordan River, Elijah took Elisha the opposite way – to the next stop, Bethel.
Bethel was the town where Abraham began to call on the Name of the Lord. And it was also the place where Jacob had his famous dream, where he saw a “stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” (Genesis 28:12 NIV)
And God spoke to Jacob in the dream. He told Jacob wonderful things like…
I will bless you
I will never leave you
I will be with you
I will watch over you
and when Jacob woke up he said,
“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it. This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven…” (Genesis 28:16,17 NIV)
Jacob named the place Bethel, which means “house of God.” Jacob had known of God all his life; his father Isaac talked about God, his grandfather Abraham knew God. But here, in Bethel, Jacob met God for himself.
If the first step to being a Christian is to turn to Jesus and ask Him to wash away our sins, the second step is to get to know Jesus.
This is a life changing step. Some Christians never make it to Bethel. They get saved, have their sins washed away, but then they see there are two roads leading out of Gilgal – one goes to Bethel, the other to what I will call “legalism.”
Christians who go to Bethel lead a life of faith. It takes faith to believe that God is with you. It’s one thing to believe that God lives way up there somewhere but it’s another thing altogether when you realize that Jesus is with you; that He’s your friend, and you can talk to Him.
Those Christians who take the wrong turn out of Gilgal and end up in legalism are under a heavy burden. I know, because I was there for many years.
Life in legalism is a roller coaster.
First you try try try to be good,
Then you fail fail fail,
And you feel guilty guilty guilty.
Then you try try try to be good….
I was stuck in legalism many years. I never felt good enough. I never did the right thing or said the right thing. I thought God would only love me if I fulfilled certain requirements:
If I read the bible 15 minutes a day…
If I prayed 15 minutes a day…
If I witnessed to 1 person a day, or handed out a tract…
If I never got angry …
But I was always messing up, wondering what was wrong with me, and I was afraid to go to Jesus about it. I was always focusing on how bad I was. But then God revealed grace to me. And I clung to some powerful verses. One of my favorites was 1 Corinthians 3:18:
But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (KJV)
Do you see it? He changes us. All we do is keep beholding his face, seeking Him, getting to know Him, and He does the changing.
And I began to believe the verses that say that I am His treasured possession, holy and dearly loved. That He threw all my sins into the deepest sea and never thinks about them anymore. (And if He doesn’t think about my sins, why should I?)
And that He is always with me, always ready to forgive, to wash, and to comfort…
When I came out of legalism into Bethel, I still sinned, but now, but instead of beating myself up, I just immediately would turn to Jesus.
I’m sorry, please forgive me,
Thank you, that you do forgive me
Thank you that you love me
Thank you that you are changing me
Thank you that I am holy and dearly loved
When we focus on our failures, over in legalism, we live in constant defeat and guilt and condemnation. When we focus on Jesus, we find hope, joy, peace, comfort…
Frank Laubach, late missionary to the Philippines, talks about how he learned this lesson in the book, Practicing His Presence. Mr. Laubach had such high hopes when he started out- he wanted to change the world!
But to his great dismay, no one wanted to hear about Jesus. He felt that he was a failure. But after some soul searching and prayer, he decided to change his focus entirely. Whereas he used to focus on how to save people, he now began to focus on one thing- Jesus is with me.
And so, he decided to dedicate his thought life to getting to know Jesus. Talking with Jesus every minute of the day. That was his goal.
He changed. He saw himself changing. Where at first no one wanted to hear what he had to say, now people were drawn to him like a magnet. Now he could tell them about Jesus. He didn’t even have to try; they came to him. They wanted to know his secret. (Lawrence and Laubach, 1973)
Gilgal is the place where Jesus becomes your Savior and washes away your sins; Bethel is the place where Jesus becomes your friend.
So Elijah and Elisha started in Gilgal, then they went to Bethel, and then Elijah said, “stay here, Elisha, but I’m going on to Jericho.” Elisha said, “I’m coming with you!”
So Elisha and Elijah went to Jericho. You remember what happened in Jericho. After the Israelites got circumcised in Gilgal, they fought their first battle – at Jericho. Jericho had great high stone walls around it. There was no way the Israelites could get through those walls.
God gave them an unusual battle plan: march for 7 days, on the 7th day give a shout. The Israelites did this, and the walls broke apart and fell down. The Israelites went in and took the city. I want to look at a couple of verses:
On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times …The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! … When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. (Joshua 6:15-20) (NIV)
In these 5 verses, the word shout is used 3 times!!! That word shout in Hebrew means to “shout for joy, a joyful noise, a shout of victory!” (Strong 1983)
This sounds a lot like Deuteronomy 28, where we learn that rejoicing in our blessings actually causes our blessings to overtake us and come upon us!
It sounds a lot like Isaiah 30, where we learn that the Lord will strike our enemies with his rod to the music of tambourines and harps. (As we praise, He fights our battles!)
And it sounds like Psalm 149, where we learn that our praise is a double-edged sword that inflicts punishment on the demons, and binds their rulers with shackles of iron.
Jericho was the place where the Israelites learned the principal of praise!!
In Gilgal, we believed that Jesus died and saved us from our sins.
In Bethel, we believed that Jesus is our friend and with us always.
And now we’re in Jericho. In Jericho, we see that there’s a wall. It’s massive, it’s intimidating, and it surrounds us like invisible prison walls.
There is no way, humanly speaking, that we can knock it down or even climb over it.
The first day that when Israelites came to Jericho, they marched around the wall. But they did not shout, because Joshua had commanded them:
Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. (Joshua 6:10) (NIV)
What happened to the wall the first day? Absolutely nothing! The wall stayed up!!
Second day, same thing happened- the Israelites marched around the wall, looked at the wall, but did not shout. Again, no change in the wall.
Third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day, same thing happened. They marched around the wall, looked at the wall, no shouting, no change in the wall.
But then came the seventh day!! And on the seventh day, on the seventh time around, Joshua yelled:
Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!
And the people shouted to the Lord, and the walls came tumbling down!!!
When we come to the place in our spiritual journey called Jericho, we also begin to shout our praise! And as we shout our praises to Jesus for having already knocked those walls down at the cross, those walls come crashing down!!
As we praise God for what has already been done in the spiritual realm, it becomes a reality for us in the physical realm. Halleluiah, that’s Jericho!!
After Elisha and Elijah went to Jericho, Elijah said, “stay here, Elisha, but I’m going on to the Jordan River.” Elisha said, I’m coming with you!
Elisha had waited all day for this!! This was the place of anointing and he somehow knew it!! He had seen Elijah, the mighty prophet of fire, perform miracles, and Elisha wanted this power too but he also wanted more!!!
Remember that Elijah had asked Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” And Elisha said, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.”
Elisha wanted twice as much anointing as Elijah had!! He wanted a double portion of Elijah’s spirit!!
Elisha hungered for more!!
God doesn’t give us what we don’t want!!! Elisha wanted more of the power, more of the anointing, more of the miracles!!
Elisha had been with Elijah for a while now, and he had seen Elijah perform miracles, but until now, Elisha had not done one miracle.
The river is the place where the supernatural river of God flows through us. In John 7:38, Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them." (NIV)
This is what Elisha hungered for!!
And God gave it to him!
After the chariots of fire took Elijah away, Elisha picked up Elijah’s cloak, struck the river with it, and the river parted so that Elisha could walk across on dry land.
The River was the place where Elisha received supernatural power and anointing to perform all kinds of supernatural miracles.
When the widow ran out of money and the creditors threatened to take her sons into slavery, Elisha prayed, and oil supernaturally kept flowing out of the widow’s jar until all her debt was paid!
When an enemy army came to Elisha’s house to capture him, Elisha prayed, and the entire army was temporarily blinded!!
After Elisha had been dead and buried for some time, another man died and was buried in Elisha’s tomb. When the dead man was placed too close to Elisha’s bones, the dead man popped back to life again!
Because of the River flowing through him, Elisha was able to help people in horrible, life threatening situations, and he seemed to have a sense of humor through every bit of it, like he loved a good challenge.
So Elisha’s journey that day took him to Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho and he made it to the River!! And I believe God had Elisha go through all these steps to tell Elisha – and us – that all these places exist in the spiritual realm.
Some Christians only make it to Gilgal. They have the faith that Jesus has washed away their sins. They never go further, and that’s fine, they’ll still make it to heaven. It’s their choice to stay there or go on.
If they decide to go on, they just need to be careful not to take the wrong turn and end up in legalism.
Some Christians want to go on to Bethel. This is where they began to have faith that God is with them. That He loves them, protects them, watches over them, blesses them, changes them to be more like Him. But they stop there. And that’s fine too, they don’t have to go on if they don’t want to.
A few make it to Jericho. They know that some strongholds need a stronger faith, so they start shouting their praise! They learn how, as they shout their praise to God, He fights their battles for them.
Very very few make it to the River. Some situations are so strong they require the supernatural power of God to flow, and the River is where the anointing, the mighty power of God begins to flow!
All Christians are in one of these places: Gilgal, legalism, Bethel, Jericho, or the River. The question for each of us is, where are we in our spiritual journey, and more importantly, where do we want to be?
References
Lawrence, and Frank Charles Laubach. Practicing His Presence. Beaumont, TX: SeedSowers, 1973. Print.
Strong, James. Strongs Exhaustive Concordance: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original, with References to the English Words. Baker Book House, 1983.
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Comments
Post a Comment