At the end of Elijah’s life, he asked his friend Elisha if he had any final request. Elisha said, “Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me” (2 Kings 2:9). This sentence has been interpreted as a request to be Elijah’s successor, but I read it as a plea to have the divine help that Elijah had enjoyed. I think Elisha already sensed that he would be the next prophet and that he would need God’s help to carry forward the work Elijah was doing.
Elijah responded with a challenge: “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so” (2 Kings 2:10). Elisha did see Elijah’s departure:
There appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
2 Kings 2:11-12
And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more.
Elisha took up Elijah’s mantle, and when he returned across the river (again on dry ground), the sons of the prophets said, “The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha” (2 Kings 2:15). He had seen Elijah’s miraculous departure, and he was filled with the same Spirit which had accompanied Elijah.
Later, the Syrian king sent his army to surround the town of Dothan, where Elisha was living. His servant arose early and found the city surrounded by horses and chariots. “Alas, my master!” he cried, “how shall we do?” (2 Kings 6:15). Elisha first reassured the servant, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (2 Kings 6:16). Then, he prayed, “Lord … open his eyes, that he may see.” God opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw the mountain “full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17).
In both of these stories, the main issue wasn’t the presence of the chariots of fire, but people’s ability to perceive them. Elijah was going to heaven whether Elisha saw it or not, but his ability to understand what was happening was a manifestation of the prophetic gifts he sought. The town of Dothan was safe, but Elisha’s servant was terrified until he was able to recognize the heavenly protection that surrounded them.
Near the beginning of the Book of Mormon, Nephi relates a vision in which an angel shows him our day. He sees that the Gentiles would be in an “awful state of blindness” (1 Nephi 13:32). In the first edition, Joseph Smith translated that phrase as “state of awful woundedness.” But in the second edition, he updated that phrase from woundedness to blindness, matching the earlier statement that some people would transmit the Bible inaccurately in order to “blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men” (1 Nephi 13:27). The purpose of the Book of Mormon, he saw, was to help us overcome that blindness (1 Nephi 13:35-42).
A descendant of Nephi, also named Nephi, participated in a dramatic experience in which people overcame darkness to see God’s power. He and his brother were imprisoned for preaching the gospel. As a group of people entered the prison intending to execute them, they saw Nephi and his brother “encircled about as if by fire.” They didn’t dare touch the prisoners, “lest they should be burned,” but Nephi and Lehi stood “in the midst of fire and were not burned” (Helaman 5:23). The people were surrounded by a thick cloud of darkness until they pleaded with God to remove it. In response to their prayer, “the cloud of darkness was dispersed from overshadowing them,” and “they saw that they were encircled about, yea every soul, by a pillar of fire” (Helaman 5:43). God helped them to see and experience the divine power which was available to them.
My favorite movie is Chariots of Fire. The title of the movie comes from the William Blake poem “Jerusalem,” in which the poet pleads for the empowerment Elisha received. “Bring me my Chariot of fire!” he prays. At a pivotal moment in the movie, Eric Liddell, an Olympic athlete, refuses to compete on Sunday, and the English Olympic committee finds a solution which enables him to run on another day. Afterward, two members of the committee have a private conversation, and one of them explains what the other had missed:
The “lad” as you call him is a
Chariots of Fire, Colin Welland, 131
true man and a true athlete.
His speed is a mere extension of
his life, of its force. We sought
to sever his running from his self,
He saw what his colleague had failed to perceive: Eric’s devotion to God was integral to his athletic success. He saw the fire and recognized its source.
Today I will strive to see the chariots of fire which surround me and those around me. I will recognize that we have help which we often don’t see, but that as we overcome our blindness, we can both recognize and receive God’s power and light more fully.
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