Elijah, A Type of Christ

Elijah, the grand old prophet, sets forth the work of Christ in many particulars. He is a marvelous foreshadowing of the true prophet, as Christ Himself shows in Luke 4:2426. Elijah fasted forty days. He raised the dead. He fed the widow and her son, and performed many other miracles. But we shall consider Elijah as a type merely from the standpoint of the resurrection.

Elijah's very name is prophetic. It signifies God, the Lord, setting forth Him who is the second person of the adorable trinity, the Son of God and the Son of Man.

Elijah went down into Jordan. The Word Jordan signifies judgment. He says in II Kings 2:6-8, that the Lord sent him to Jordan, and smiting the waters with his mantle he went down into it. The going down of Elijah into Jordan is the going down of the Son of God under the judgment of the cross. On the cross "He tasted death for every man" (Heb. 2:9, 14). On the cross Christ died not as a martyr, not as one who was "torn to pieces" by the whirling wheel of sin; He died there as if He were the great criminal of the universe, as one "who was made sin, who knew no sin," as a substitute for the human race, as the last Adam, bearing the sin that was potentially in the first. On the cross the wrath of God swept down in a flood tide of billowing, overwhelming judgment. A judgment of which He bespeaks through the lips of the Psalmist when he cries, "All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me" (Ps. 42:7). It is that judgment "wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Him in the day of His fierce anger." "He hath made Him to be sin for us" (II Cor. 5:21). The real Jordan was just outside the gates of Jerusalem, where were beheld three crosses, and on the center one was the crucified Son, the perfect man, the Sinless One, the suffering substitute, rending the heavens with His piercing cry, "My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15: 34). That is the river of Jordan.

Elijah came up out of the Jordar. alive in his body. He smote the waters with his mantle, "and they were divided hither and thither, so that they went over on dry ground" (II Kings 2:8). Christ came up from under the judgment of the cross in His resurrection body (Luke 24:44, 46); His was a glorious body (Phil. 3:21 R.V.). Not a resurrection such as modern theologians would teach — a resurrection in the Spirit. Can the Spirit die? Only that which can die can be raised from the dead. The body alone can die. The body alone can be raised from the dead. Resurrection is predicted for the body alone. Christ Jesus came forth from the grave in a body, a glorified body. He was not a spirit. He settled that question forever. Listen, "A Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (Luke 24:39b). See the prints of the nails in His hands, of the spear in His side, and behold, the immense climax! He sits down at the table of their untouched supper and eats broiled fish and an honey comb. He is indeed the Christ, the risen One. The going up out of Jordan is Elijah's forepicture of the resurrection of Christ.

Elijah, then, ascended in that living body into heaven. "And it came to pass . . . . that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire . . . . and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven" (II Kings 2:11). Christ, too, ascended in His resurrection body into heaven. "When He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up . . . . And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which, also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:9-11). The ascension of Elijah into heaven is the setting forth of that sublime moment when Jesus was swept upward into shekinah glory. A man in glory! That was the meaning of Elijah's ascension in his living body to heaven. A man in glory! That is the perpetual truth now (I Tim. 2:5).

Elijah having ascended into heaven, Elisha takes up and continues his work. He took up the mantle of Elismiting the waters (II Kings 2:14), he Tecrossed and provides water for Jehoram's army (II Kings 3), augments the widow's oil, raises the dead and performs many other miracles (II Kings 4-5). When Elisha went forth in the mantle of Elijah he was going forth representatively in the character of Elijah. He seemed like a reincarnation of the old prophet. Christ having ascended into heaven, His apostles take up the work and continue it. Behold, the Holy Spirit comes upon them on Pentecost and they speak in divers tongues. Peter delivers his powerful sermon (Acts 2), cures the lame man (Acts 3:1-9) in the name of Jesus Christ, and again delivers a message to the people, offering them salvation through faith in Christ and presents to them the message of the kingdom (Acts 3:12-21). "Those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which was preached unto you" (Acts 3:19). Christ's followers go forth in His strength. They go forth representatively in the character of their Saviour. The believer, yielded and wielded by Christ, is a reincarnation of His blessed Lord.

Why, then, this lack of power among the Christians? The answer is plain. We are going forth, not in Divine strength, but in the strength of the flesh. How many churches are looking to some man as their leader instead of relying upon God? How many churches are relying upon dinners for the public and the playhouse to reimburse God's treasury rather than giving out of love as "the Lord prospers?" How many churches are looking to worldly amusement to draw the crowd rather than the power of the gospel. May God arouse His people from their awful lethargy, that we may go forth in the strength of Christ.

Elijah's spirit descended upon Elisha in a double installment. Elisha asked for this and Elijah promised that his request would be fulfilled, if he should see him (Elijah) ascend (II Kings 2:9, 10). Suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, Elijah ascended into heaven, and Elisha cried: "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof" (II Kings 2:11, 12). Elisha saw the prophet ascend into heaven and thus was his request granted; "a double portion of Elijah's spirit." Christ's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, whom He sent (John 16:7), descended upon the apostles in double portion. In the evening after His resurrection, Christ breathed upon His followers and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." And on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended upon them in power (Acts 2), sending forth the church in the authority and power of the man in heaven and of His Spirit. Christ looks to His followers now to go forth in the strength of the Spirit. "Be ye filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18). "Depart from iniquity" (II Tim. 2: 19). "Bring every thought into the captivity of the obedience of Christ" (II Cor. 10:5).

May God's children hear the call of the Holy Spirit, "Come ye out from among them and touch not the unclean thing." And again, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth" (II Tim. 2:15). Nothing so prepares His children for workers in the vineyard as the unadulterated Word of God.