ELIJAH’S DEATH

Elijah’s death was as unnatural as a death gets, but we can learn several things from it.

When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. ——The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?”

“Yes, I know,” Elisha replied, “so be quiet.”

 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. (2 Kings 2:1-12)

First it is quite remarkable that everyone among the prophets including Elijah and Elisha knew that Elijah would be taken to heaven that day. We don’t hear in our contemporary world of people being very aware of their impending moment of death. In addition, we also see Elijah being very active moving from one place to the other just moments before his death. Without a doubt, this arose from his close connection with God and the proximity of his spirit with God. Other patriarchs and prophets in the Old Testament including Moses, Jacob, etc. showed a similar pattern. When one’s life is spent in devotion to God, it possible to know the hand of God working through that person and that includes the very moment when God calls a person home.

The taking up to heaven of Elijah is quite dramatic but also understandable. We have a physical body and an eternal soul that are married together in a human being. When physical death occurs, the body that is subject to disintegration separates from the soul, which cannot die. The soul which is now separate from the body, either will go to heaven, accompanied by the angelic beings as happened with Elijah, or alternatively will go to hell as happened with the rich man in the story of Lazarus (Luke 16). 

The decision as to which course the soul takes will depend on the choices we make with our lives here on earth. If with repeated choices we decide to follow God, our souls are full of light and we ascend up to heaven. If our souls are full of darkness, again by the choices we make to do evil with what is given us in this world, we end up in hell, not by God’s decision, but by ours. Those who die in Christ will rise up at the resurrection with a new body and that process was shortened in the case of Elijah where he received a new body right away.

Elijah’s death helps us understand what happens at death and the operations of the spiritual world that comes alive at death.

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