Elisha in the Bible

Elisha was the prophet who succeeded Elijah, carrying forward a ministry marked by an extraordinary number of miracles and by deep compassion for ordinary people. His call came when Elijah found him plowing with twelve yoke of oxen and "cast his mantle upon him" (1KI.19.19). Elisha responded with wholehearted commitment, slaughtering his oxen and leaving everything behind to follow the prophet, a picture of total surrender to God's call. Before Elijah was taken up, Elisha made a bold request: "I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me" (2KI.2.9). He sought not riches or power but a greater measure of God's anointing to serve. When Elijah was taken into heaven, Elisha took up the fallen mantle, struck the Jordan, and the waters parted, as he cried, "Where is the LORD God of Elijah?" (2KI.2.14), confirming that the same God who empowered Elijah now empowered him. His ministry overflowed with mercy: he raised the Shunammite woman's son by stretching himself upon the child until "the flesh of the child waxed warm" (2KI.4.34), and he healed Naaman the Syrian leper, who dipped seven times in the Jordan, and "his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child" (2KI.5.14). Elisha also walked with unwavering confidence in God's unseen protection. When his servant feared a surrounding army, Elisha prayed, "LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see," and the young man saw the mountain "full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha" (2KI.6.17). So powerful was the life of God upon him that even after his death a corpse cast into his tomb "revived, and stood up on his feet" when it touched his bones (2KI.13.21). Elisha's life testifies to the abundant, compassionate, miracle-working power of God at work through a faithful servant.