And he took up the mantle of Elijah which fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of the Jordan.
And he took the mantle of Elijah which fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither; and Elisha went over.
And when the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho over against him saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
And they said unto him, Behold now, there are with thy servants fifty strong men: let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master; lest peradventure the Spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send.
And when they urged him, till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not.
And they came again to him, while he tarried at Jericho; and he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?
And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, we pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth; but the water is bad, and the land miscarrieth.
And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him.
And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or miscarrying.
So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.
And he went up from thence unto Beth-el: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth young lads out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
And he looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two lads of them.
And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.
And Elisha came again to Gilgal. And there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets.
And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof his lap full of wild gourds, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage; for they knew them not.
So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof.
But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.
And there came a man from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.
And his servant said, What, should I set this before a hundred men? But he said, Give the people, that they may eat; for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.
So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.
Last night we mentioned the call of Elisha to be a prophet, and also the confirmation of that call. The call came to him when he was plowing the field. He responded to that call. He followed Elijah all the way until Elijah was taken from him, and there he received the double portion of the spirit of Elijah. His calling was confirmed.
He was an apprentice, as it were, for several years, pouring water upon the hands of Elijah before he was confirmed as a prophet. So, from then on, he was a prophet before God.
Tonight we would like to fellowship together on the circuit of this ministry. You notice that, in the last journey, Elijah and Elisha walked together from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, and from Jericho to Jordan. Then Elijah was taken to heaven.
In this sense, this walk through the four stations represents a walk with God. As we walk with Him, we will go through what these four places represent, and then, at the last, it will be rapture.
When Elijah went through these four places, with Elisha following him, did he do anything in these places? There was no record. It seems as if he was just passing through. He did not do anything. Why? Because the emphasis is on the walk—the walk with God.
The emphasis was not on the doing. The emphasis was on life. A life with God is a life that walks with God, and a life that walks with God will go through various experiences, as represented by these four places.
So, brothers and sisters, in one sense this applies to us today. Our life with God is a walk. We walk with God, and if we do, we will walk into the heavens. The walk is always heavenward; it goes up.
But then you find, after Elijah was taken to heaven, Elisha received the prophetic ministry. Then you find he came back. As he came back, he came to the same places, but in reverse order. He started from Jordan, then he came to Jericho, and from there he came to Bethel. After Bethel, he came to Gilgal.
With Elijah, it was a walk with God. It goes upward, heavenward. With Elisha, it is a returning to the people of God. In returning to the people of God, you find things being done. There were works to be done.
So, in one sense, with Elijah it represents life. With Elisha, in returning to these places, it represents ministry. Now this is the connection between life and ministry, and this is the right order too.
If we want to have a spiritual ministry to God’s people, we must first have a walk with Him. If we do not have that walk with God which is heavenward, there will not come forth a ministry toward man which is manward.
That is why we say: gifts alone never constitute a ministry. It has to be backed by a walk, a life. And with that life, a ministry will be produced.
So, in the returning circuit, you find the principles and demonstrations of ministry. I do hope that we remember this as the ground for our fellowship tonight.
First of all, Jordan. You know, according to the record of the Word of God, the waters in Jordan were divided three times.
The first time, the waters of Jordan were divided so that the children of Israel could walk through the riverbed to the Promised Land. How was the water divided? It was divided by the ark. The ark of God was borne on the shoulders of the priests, and as their feet touched the water, the water divided.
Then the priests who bore the ark stood in the middle of the dry riverbed, and the children of Israel passed through. After they had all passed through, the priests who bore the ark also came up to the other shore. When they came up on the other shore, the water returned.
Now, that was the crossing of the River Jordan. We know that, basically, the water of the River Jordan represents death. But it is not just death; it is life out of death.
So, in the experience of the children of Israel, it is co-death, co-burial, and co-resurrection with Christ, if we want to use New Testament terms. And so far as we are concerned, this is what it is.
We need to see our Lord Jesus not only as One who bore our sins on the cross, but we need to see that our Lord Jesus also bore us in Him. With Him, we were crucified, and we were buried together with Him because we were in Him. We will be raised from the dead because we were in Him.
So, the experience of the children of Israel crossing the River Jordan is our experience of co-death, co-burial, and co-resurrection with Christ. Because of that, we come into the abiding life in Christ. That is the Promised Land.
The second instance when the waters of Jordan were divided was when Elijah, on his way to heaven, came to the bank of the River Jordan. He rolled up his mantle, smote the waters, and the waters divided so that he could go through to the other side.
I believe this is different from the first crossing. The first crossing is co-death, co-burial, and co-resurrection with Christ, so that from then on we abide in Christ. But with Elijah, it was not the ark that divided the water; it was the mantle.
A mantle always represents ministry—a work. With Elijah, it is prophetic ministry. So the water was divided by that mantle. I believe the New Testament counterpart is found in 2 Corinthians 4.
When you read 2 Corinthians 4, it seems as if it is a chapter on spiritual life. What is the spiritual life? How can this life be manifested? We are earthen vessels, but with a treasure in us. The excellency, the power, of the treasure is of God and not of us.
In order that the treasure may be manifested, the vessel must be broken. So God raises up all kinds of environments. We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed. Why? Because we have a way out. We are cast down, but not destroyed.
You find that the Holy Spirit so arranges our environment to break us, to break the outward man, so that the inward man, which is Christ in us—the treasure—may be manifested.
Paul sums it up and says that we bear in our body the dying of Jesus, the slaying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in us. How can this life, which is bound within us and imprisoned within us, be released?
The only way for the life within us, which is Christ, to be released is through the rending of the outward man, by bearing in our body the dying of Jesus. That is to say, we die daily. As the Holy Spirit arranges our environment, we choose it. We deliberately deliver ourselves to the dying of Jesus, to the slaying of Jesus, and the result is that we are broken and the real life is released.
That is represented by Elijah. The crossing of Jordan with Elijah means that he had now entered into the maturity of life. He had come to know the life of Christ—of course, we are using New Testament phrases—in such a way that he was broken, but Christ was released.
That is the apostolic life. That is the life of rapture. That kind of life is to be expected.
Now with Elisha, you find his returning. He used the mantle of Elijah, smote the water, and said, “Where is the God of Elijah?” The water divided, and he crossed over. In his case, the emphasis is ministry.
Second Corinthians 4, when you read it, your first impression may be that it is spiritual life. But if you read it again, you find that it is the spirit of ministry. Actually, what 2 Corinthians 4 is talking about is ministry, because Paul says, “We have this ministry.”
What is ministry? Ministry comes out of life.
Therefore, in the same chapter, verse 12, Paul continues to say that we bear in our body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in us. Then he says that the life of Jesus may be manifested in you. Now, that is ministry.
When the life of Jesus is manifested in us, that is life; that is real life. But when the life of Jesus is manifested in you, that is ministry. When the life of Jesus is released through us and touches other people, it is the impartation of life.
Ministry is none other than the impartation of life. I think this is a very basic understanding of what ministry is.
Oftentimes we think of ministry as doing something—acting. Sometimes we think of ministry only in terms of service. We have done something, we have served some purpose, we have accomplished some work. But, dear brothers and sisters, strictly speaking, this is not ministry.
Ministry is the impartation of life. Unless we are able to impart life to other people, there is no ministry. Of course, the life that is imparted is not our life. The life that is imparted is the life of Christ.
Whether it comes through prophecy, teaching, service, loving, or helping—in whatever capacity or channel it may come forth—you find that the real substance of ministry is the imparting of Christ.
Are we imparting Christ? This is a very serious question. We may be involved in many activities. We may be doing all kinds of work. We may be accomplishing all kinds of things. But, dear brothers and sisters, if there is not the imparting of the life of Christ in it, you have no ministry. There is no ministry.
Ministry begins with Jordan. You remember our Lord Jesus? When He was thirty, He was going to commence His ministry. Where did He commence His ministry? At the Jordan.
There you find our Lord Jesus, who had lived a perfect life for thirty years. It was a perfect life. But when He was to begin His ministry, the first thing He did was to go to the River Jordan and be baptized.
In other words, there He laid down Himself so that God might be manifested through Him. It was from Jordan that He started His ministry. Brothers and sisters, where do we start our ministry?
Jordan is the last station so far as life is concerned. Gilgal is the first one; Jordan is the last. But so far as ministry is concerned, Jordan is the first station. Do we know Jordan? Do we know the breaking of the outward man? Do we know the life of Christ manifested? Are we able to impart Christ to others?
So Elisha, in coming back, found that the first point, the starting point, was going through the River Jordan.
After he passed over the River Jordan, the sons of the prophets were watching. They did not go with Elijah through the Jordan. They were on the other side, and I do not believe they saw Elijah taken up. Only Elisha saw it.
They saw Elisha coming back. They saw the mantle. They saw Elisha smite the water, and the water divided hither and thither, and he crossed over. Immediately they knew that the spirit of Elijah rested on Elisha. So they came to him and bowed to him, because he was to be the head, the superintendent, of the school of the prophets.
Do you know what they suggested to him? It is unbelievable. They told Elisha, “We have fifty strong men here. We are ready to go through the mountains and valleys to find the body of Elijah. God has taken Elijah away, and maybe God has thrown him somewhere in the mountain or the valley. Give us permission to find him.”
Elisha, of course, knew that was not the case, because God took Elijah to heaven. So Elisha said, “No, do not do that.” But they pressed him so much that he was ashamed. He said, “All right, if you want to do it, you do it.” So they sent the men, and after three days of searching, they could not find the body.
They had the knowledge that God took Elijah, but their knowledge was mental knowledge. If our knowledge is only mental knowledge, our understanding of God’s Word is so limited. We can only believe to a certain point.
They could believe that God took Elijah, but they could not believe that God could take Elijah to heaven. That was too high. So they thought God must have thrown him somewhere else. Now, is that not true? If our knowledge of God is only mental, if our understanding of the Word is merely mental, our faith is limited. We can only believe thus far and no further. We cannot go all the way with God.
After three days, of course, they could not find him. During those days, where was Elisha? He was staying in Jericho. So you see the second station.
While he was in Jericho, the people of Jericho came to him and said, “Look here, the situation of this city is good. Everything about the city is good; only the water is bad, and so the land is barren.”
When the children of Israel came to Jericho in the first place, the walls of Jericho had to be brought down. The stronghold had to be overthrown. But here, while Elisha was in Jericho, they came to him and said that everything was good except the water. Because the water was bad, the land was barren.
What does the water here represent? You remember when our Lord Jesus talked with the Samaritan woman. He said, “If thou knewest who it is that speaketh with thee, and if thou wouldst ask of Him, He would give thee living water.” You would never thirst again, because this water would become a fountain welling up within you unto eternal life.
Of course, He speaks of His life. Then, in John 7, on the last day of the great feast, that is, the Feast of Tabernacles, the Lord stood and cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” This He spoke of the Holy Spirit.
Then, in Revelation 22, you find that in the holy city there is a river of life that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It goes around the whole city, and wherever the river flows, there is the tree of life.
Water here speaks of life. What is more basic than life? You may have a good location, a good background, a good social position, a good education, a good environment, riches—you may have anything and everything—but if the life is dead, you are barren.
Is not our life dead? Paul said, “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” But how difficult it is for us to realize that.
Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, the bad side of our flesh committed many things until we were horrified and repented. But after we believed in the Lord, we used the good side of our flesh, trying to serve God and keep His law.
We are not that bad. Our water is not altogether bad—until one day we realize that in us, that is, in our flesh, there is no good. Your good nature, your good temperament, your gentleness, and so on and so forth—no good. There is absolutely no good. Our natural life is bad water.
If the natural life is dead, no matter what you give to it, there is no production. No.
So they came to Elisha. What did Elisha do? Elisha said, “Give me a new cruse, and put salt in it.” He took the new cruse with the salt, went to the source of the water, poured the salt upon the source of the water, and declared, “Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters. Henceforth there will be no death.” And it is so until this day.
This day is not only the day when 2 Kings was written, but this day even today. If you go to Jericho today, you find that there is only one fountain, one source of water. It was the very source that Elisha healed.
When I was there over ten years ago, we went to that place and saw that water. That was the only water in that locality. Even today, women come in groups to get water. We saw women coming from a nearby Arab refugee camp. Instead of carrying an earthen pitcher upon their heads, they used kerosene cans. They came to draw water.
The water has been healed. As you approach the city of Jericho, you find it is green everywhere—green everywhere.
What is the spiritual implication of the healing of the waters? You find that the water was healed by salt. Salt is something that not only cures, but also preserves. There is a power in salt to cure and to preserve.
In the Old Testament, all the sacrifices had to be salted. You had to put salt on the sacrifice, even the meal offering. You also find that God’s covenant with the children of Israel is called a covenant of salt. In other words, salt speaks of permanence. Salt speaks of unchangeableness.
Therefore, salt in Scripture speaks of the eternal life of God. The life of God in Christ is represented by the salt.
Our Lord said, “Ye are the salt of the earth.” As to the disciples, they are the salt of the earth. But if you apply it very strictly, actually we are the salt of the earth because we have the life of Christ in us. He is the salt; we are the new cruse.
The salt must not be put in the old cruse. There is no suitability there. The salt has to be contained in the new cruse. The new cruse represents us individually and, corporately, the church. The church is a new vessel. We who are the Lord’s are the new cruses.
Brothers and sisters, if we live in the old life, it is as if the salt is diluted to the point that it becomes saltless. It would be useless; it would be cast out and trodden under foot.
But if we live in the newness of the Spirit, we are a new creation. If we live in the newness of the Spirit, we are like a new cruse, and you find the salt in there.
But it has to be poured out. Are we ready to pour out the life of Christ in us? As it is poured out, the water is healed. Brothers and sisters, here again you find that it is the pouring out of life.
It is the pouring out of life upon the deadness and barrenness of the old life. Here you find that it heals and transforms—not in the sense that the natural life is transformed into the spiritual life, but in the sense that the soul is transformed. Why? Because Christ’s life has come in to substitute for the self-life.
Here is the transformation of the soul. From then on, you find there is no more death, no more barrenness, but fruitfulness.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find that this is ministry. Ministry has a manward aspect. The manward aspect is this: when the salt in us is poured out, it cures, gives life, and makes fruitful. That is ministry.
From there, you find that you move on to Bethel. Something very strange happened there. What is Bethel? Bethel is the house of God, the gate of heaven.
If Jericho came to Elisha to ask for help, certainly Bethel would open its doors to Elisha. But, strangely enough, as Elisha ascended to Bethel, some young people came out.
Some authorities tell us that the word there does not mean little boys or little children. The word refers to teenagers, young people. A group of young people came out to meet Elisha, and they ridiculed him. They said, “Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.”
Elisha looked at them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Two she-bears came out of the forest and killed forty-two of these young people.
Bethel was originally the house of God, the gate of heaven. It was a place where God was worshipped, where God rested among His people, and where revelation was given. But at the time of Elisha, something had happened.
When the nation of Israel was divided into two, the ten tribes formed the nation of Israel under King Jeroboam. But the people of Israel still traveled every year to Jerusalem, to the temple, to worship God, because that was the place where the name of God was.
When Jeroboam saw the situation, he had a separate kingdom, but his people still went to Jerusalem to worship God. If this continued, sooner or later his kingdom would be weakened. The hearts of the people would return to Judah, and his kingdom would come to an end.
So, out of political consideration, he took a step. He made two golden calves, set one in Bethel and another in Dan. He made some people priests—not Levites, but he made them priests. He made a proclamation in his kingdom and said, “You do not need to go to Jerusalem to worship God. We have the Lord God here. You come to Bethel and worship.”
They even called the golden calf the Lord. So you find that in Bethel a counterfeit worship was set up.
Therefore, when you read the book of Amos, in Amos 4:4, he says, “Come to Beth-el, and transgress.” People went up to Bethel to transgress against God.
So, instead of pure worship, there was counterfeit worship. Evidently, the false priests instigated and encouraged these young people to come out to meet the prophet, to prevent him from coming into the city.
What did they say? They said, “Go up, bald head; go up, bald head.” Now, if you know the topography of the place, of course when Elisha went to Bethel he had to go up; that is true. Elisha might have been bald, but that itself was not the mockery.
Why was this contempt considered mocking? I think they mocked Elisha and said, “Is not your master Elijah gone up? Why did you not go with him? Your master Elijah went up, but you were left behind because you were not worthy. You could not go up. Why did you not go?”
“Go, bald head” was a sign of mourning. When people mourned, they shaved their hair. In other words, they were saying, “Elisha, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. How dare you come and try to be the prophet of God? You are not worthy. You have failed.”
Here you find that the enemy tried to put a false accusation upon Elisha. If Elisha had accepted that, his ministry would have been finished.
Brothers and sisters, is this not true? Wherever God is building His house, the enemy tries to build a counterfeit side by side. It always happens that way.
In Matthew 16, the Lord said, “I will build My church upon this rock.” Immediately He said, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” In other words, when the Lord is building His church, real and upon the rock, the enemy is busy.
All the gates of Hades will be opened to attack, accuse, frustrate, discourage, and destroy. But thank God, the Lord said, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Why? Because the gate of heaven is also open.
So Elisha turned from that. Instead of accepting the enemy’s accusation, he stood with God and cursed them in the name of the Lord. In other words, he exercised authority over the enemy in the name of the Lord, and the enemy was vanquished.
Brothers and sisters, this is authority that Christ has given to His church. The enemy is trying to discourage us. Oftentimes the enemy tries to accuse us falsely. If we do not know the enemy and accept his false accusation, our ministry is finished.
How we need to stand on the ground that Christ is our righteousness. He never changes. We may fail; He never fails. How we need to overcome the enemy with the blood of the Lamb, with the word of our testimony, and by loving not our lives even unto death.
That is what is meant when two agree on earth touching anything. If you bind on earth, it shall be bound in heaven. If you loose on earth, it shall be loosed in heaven. Why? Because there is a spiritual conflict there.
Whenever God is building something real, the enemy is always trying to attack and destroy. He wants to set up his counterfeit. But we do not need to fear. The Lord has given us authority, and we need to claim the victory of Christ—the authority of Christ over all situations. The enemy is vanquished.
So here you find that ministry has not only a manward aspect. Real ministry always has an enemyward aspect. If it does not touch the enemy, something is not quite right.
Do you think you can really minister life to people and the enemy will just stand by? If it is merely an imparting of mind to mind, he does not need to be aroused. But if it is the imparting of life, and if it is the building of the house of God, the enemy cannot afford to stand by.
There will be spiritual conflict, and oftentimes it comes in the form of false accusation. That is why the Bible says that the overcomers overcome him, the enemy, by the blood of the Lamb. We are not perfect, but thank God, we have the blood.
Because of the blood of the Lamb, we have a testimony: He is Lord. We are fully committed to Him, and the Lord is committed to us. This is the authority of the church.
Then you find that the circuit was complete when Elisha came to Gilgal. When he came to Gilgal, two things happened.
Gilgal means rolling away, because when the children of Israel came to Gilgal, they were circumcised and the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. Gilgal represents the subjective working of the cross unto death.
But here you find that Gilgal becomes a feast of life and resurrection. When Elisha came to Gilgal, there was a great famine, a scarcity of food. Elisha said, “Set on the pot. Boil the pottage for the people to eat.”
Someone went out and saw a wild vine. He gathered some gourds and shredded the gourds into the pot to add substance to the pottage. But when they started to eat, suddenly they cried, “There is death in the pot.” They could not eat it.
Elisha said, “Take some meal, flour.” They put the flour into the pot, and he said, “Pour out and eat.” There was no more death. Life had swallowed up death.
The meal represents Christ, because in John 12 we are told:
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone;
But if it die, it beareth much fruit.
It represents the life of Christ, which is so pure, so fine, so valid, and so perfect. That life swallows up death and poison.
So you find here that the cross has two sides. The cross has the side of death, of putting to death; that is negative. But the cross has another side, which is positive: life.
So, in the ministry of Elisha, you find the cross in its life-giving side—not only giving life, but life more abundantly.
The second incident was that someone came and gave Elisha twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain. Elisha told his servant, “Lay it before the people and let them eat.” There were one hundred men there.
His attendant said, “How could this little feed a hundred?” Elisha said, “Do it.” So they distributed it. One hundred people ate, and there was left over. It was just like our Lord using five loaves and two fishes to feed five thousand, with twelve baskets left over.
What is represented there is life more abundantly. Not only life-giving, feeding life, but life more abundantly. You have enough and left over.
That is always the case when ministry is in life. There is always something left over.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find that in the return circuit, the nature of ministry is demonstrated. We can stand up and say that a life with the Lord will produce a corresponding ministry to men. That ministry will be a ministry of life—resurrection life, the life of Christ.
Our heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee because Thou hast called us to ministries of various kinds, but the nature is the same. It is a ministry of life. It is a ministry of imparting life—not our life, but Thy life.
Oh, who is sufficient for these things? We do praise and thank Thee that our sufficiency is of God, that we are made ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.
Oh, we praise and worship Thee. We do ask, Lord, that every one of us here may have a life with Thee, and thus a ministry. In Thy precious name. Amen.