The Chosen Mantle - Part 2

     In Part One we saw how the Apostle Peter asks the question: “Has God cast away His people?” Then he proceeds give the scriptural answer based on God’s prophetic great Week of the plan of redemption. No, they have not been replaced, just cut off. This mystery of blindness will be lifted at the appointed time when they are grafted back into God’s plan. We also noted a peculiar analogy that Peter mentions, that of the prophet Elijah. His story clues us into a crucial element of the last Day of God’s plan, the Day of the Lord.
        It has to do with the gathering of the Church at the rapture when Jesus comes again and takes us to Father’s House in Heaven. And it has to do with the restoration of the earthly kingdom to Israel as promised to David. Seeing what Elijah foreshadows will clear up three vital misinterpretations of end-time events.
       (1) When Jesus comes for us, we don’t remain on the earth during the final 1,000-year Day; nor do we go up and meet Him in the air, and then come back down immediately as if we are riding a divine Ferris Wheel. We reign from above, from God’s throne room, in the place of all authority the heavenly government of Christ and His joint-heirs. Afterall, now clothed in our glorified, immortal bodies, and perfectly holy and conformed to Christ, no mortal person could bear to stand in the presence of that heavenly glory if we were to come back down to the earth.
       (2) Christ’s second coming does not mean that no one else can be saved during His millennial reign. The restrainer mentioned in 2 Thess. 2:6 is not the Holy Spirit as some guess because Scripture tells us that there is a latter rain outpouring of the Spirit during the Day of the Lord that mightily empowers the newly revived Jewish remnant that has recognized their Messiah. Though it is true that the Church is no longer on the earth to preach the Gospel to the unsaved, God has something else in mind. You have to see it, to understand it. So we will hold off on the 3rd misinterpretation until we see what Elijah has to say about it.
         The End-Time Lesson of Elijah and Elisha (2 Kings 2). Elijah is in Gilgal and his protégé is right there with him. He knows that God is about to take up Elijah to Heaven in a whirlwind, so he is sticking close. Elijah tells him to stay behind in Gilgal while he goes to Bethel. The younger prophet-in-training will have none of that, so the two of them set off on their journey. Once there, the school of the prophets likewise know that Elijah is about to be caught up to Heaven and inform Elisha of it. Already in the know, he tells them to keep quiet.
        Elijah repeats the scene, telling Elisha to stay behind because God has sent him to the River Jordan. No surprise here—Elisha refuses again and follows the elder prophet to the river, which is at full strength this time of the year so they cannot cross. Elijah takes off his mantle, his outer cloak that signifies his position and calling, and slaps it against the water. The water parts just enough so the two of them can cross over. Elisha is impressed!
          Elijah knows this is the end of the road, so he turns to Elisha and says, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elijah responds, “Please let a double portion of your spirit [anointing] be upon me.” To which Elijah responds, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.”
        As they continued on and talked, it happened. Suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them. Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Seeing this awesome sight, Elisha cries out, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” So he saw Elijah no more.
          What Elisha does next is the crucial shadow. He tears off his own clothes, symbolic of his old nature and position, and tears them in two. He picks up Elijah’s mantle that had fallen when he left. Elisha goes back to the bank of the river, strikes the waters with the mantle as Elijah had done, and gets the same result. Elisha crosses over the river and begins performing miracles. He had received not only the mantle, but a double portion of the anointing! So what’s the big deal? Stay tuned for Part 3!