Key Character Qualities for Successful
Believers. 2 Kings 2:1-25
What we see in this chapter
is the transition of prophetic power that goes from Elijah who has been the
major prophet in the northern kingdom up to this point, probably for some
thirty years or longer, to a younger man, Elisha. There are some unusual events
that take place in this chapter, as well is the coming chapters, because the
ministry that God has, especially through Elisha, really expands that which He
had through Elijah. In Elijah we saw a number of extremely powerful miracles
but we will see even more, perhaps double the amount of miracles, in the
ministry of Elisha. But what is highlighted in chapter two is not the miracles
but the character of Elisha. That is important because too often people become
distracted by the miracles of God in the Scriptures, by the miraculous gifts in
the church age, and they forget that the real issue in the spiritual life is
character transformation—the transformation of our characters as fallen
sinners: that one we have been regenerated, have become new creatures in
Christ, then there is to be a character transformation that comes through the
study of the Word of God under the teaching ministry of the Spirit of God so
that we become conformed to the image of God in Christ. That is what is
described as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:21ff. Those character
qualities are the character qualities of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is the
ministry of God the Holy Spirit in every one of our lives to transform us into
that character. That means that if we are interested in our spiritual life and
spiritual growth and we are positive to the Word then we will in some sense be
cooperating with God the Holy Spirit in terms of His achieving the mission that
God the Father gave Him, i.e. to transform us into the character of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But if we are just a lukewarm believer and a casual Sunday-only
Christian and the Word of God is not the primary focal point of our life then
we are going to be at loggerheads with God the Holy Spirit, and that is just
going to mean that our life is never going to be what we think it should be and
we will be plagued by one problem after another, both externally and in terms
of the unsettled, unhappiness of our own souls. God the Holy Spirit’s mission
is to conform us to the character of Christ and if our objective is to keep
ourselves conformed to the world system around us then we are constantly going
to be fighting what God the Holy Spirit is trying to do, and that is never a
pleasant thing to experience.
As we come to look at this
chapter we are going to see some of these4 characteristics and character
qualities emphasized in the character of Elisha, and these qualities mark him
as a successful believer—not successful as the world counts success in terms of
numbers, popularity or financial success, but in terms of his ministry for God.
God’s definition of success is that we are to be faithful and obedient. The
character qualities to be summarized here are in four terms, terms that are
synonymous. They overlap, there are slight differences but they do define an
important dimension in anyone who is going to be a success in the spiritual
life.
The first word is “perseverance.”
We are to press on in spiritual growth in spite of difficulties,
discouragement, adversity or prosperity. In the New Testament, especially in
the epistle of James and in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews this is marked out
by a Greek word hupomone [u(pomonh] which means to endure, to stay under. It is the idea
of staying under the pressure, staying in the pressure cooker of difficulty,
opposition and whatever, and consistently applying the Word of God. It is in
those times that we grown and we learn about the faithfulness of God.
The second word is
“persistence.” It is very close to perseverance and we use it to emphasize the
idea of continuing doggedly or obstinately, even spiritually stubborn, that no
matter what difficulty we face, what opposition may come or what failures we
encounter we are not going to let any of that deter us from our primary mission
in life which is to be conformed to the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is through the study of God’s Word to let God the Holy Spirit have the
tools He needs in order to work in our lives and in our souls.
Third, this means that we
must be spiritually tenacious. That means we are unwilling to let go, unwilling
to give up.
Fourth, we are to be
spiritually aggressive. We really see all of these in Elisha’s attitude and in
the way he is handling himself in this chapter. By spiritual aggression we are
emphasizing the word “zeal.” That sometimes has a negative connotation that
comes from the world system that always wants to make someone who is totally
committed to the Word of God into some sort of fanatic.
But in terms of what those
words really mean that is what we are supposed to be—completely, totally sold
out, dedicated to God’s mission for our lives. So in this category it is showing
a tremendous energy and enthusiasm for learning the Word of God, applying the
Word of God in our spiritual life, and growing to spiritual maturity. All of
these are seen in Elisha in this chapter.
2 Kings 2:1 NASB
“And it came about when the LORD was about to take up Elijah by a whirlwind to heaven,
that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.” This is at the end of Elijah’s life
and ministry. The Hebrew word for whirlwind just means a storm. We must
understand it in the backdrop of the ministry of both Elijah and Elisha because
they are dealing with the enemy attack on
We read in verse 2 that there
is a preparation that Elijah is going to take toward the one God has already
designated as his successor, i.e. Elisha. One point of observation: Even though
Elijah knows what God’s will is and that Elisha is God’s intended successor to
Elijah that doesn’t absolve him of responsibility for training and challenging
Elisha for the task. Elisha also knows that it is God’s will to transfer the
ministry and responsibility of Elijah to himself, but that doesn’t give him the
right to say that this is God’s will so I am going to just sit back and let it
happen. There is no passivity in either one of them towards the will of God;
they don’t use the sovereignty of God as an excuse for irresponsibility in
terms of carrying out the spiritual life in terms of their respective ministries.
In verse 2 we see the first of three motivational tests, we might say, from
Elijah towards Elisha.
2 Kings 2:2 NA’B
“Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here please, for the LORD has sent me
as far as
If we look at Joshua
So when we think of the
significance of Gilgal in this journey of Elijah it is not just that the writer
of Scripture is saying this is just a little travelogue, he names these places
because of their spiritual significance. There is a spiritual significance to
these locations, he is not just going there because they are on the way, he is
going there and stopping to make these statements to Elisha at these points
because he is connecting Elisha’s ministry for God to the Abrahamic covenant
and to the land promise. So the first place they go is to this location at Gilgal
which is at Mounts Ebal and Gerizim where the nation had recommitted itself to
the Mosaic Law and where Abram had first built an altar to sacrifice to God
when he came into the land, and where God first clearly stated that this was
the land that He was giving to Abram and his descendants.
In 2 Kings 2:2 Elijah is
testing Elisha. Do you have what it takes to continue the journey or are you
just going to stop here and rest and stay inside your comfort zone? But Elisha
said: “As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave
you.” He makes an emphatic comment: I am not giving up. He is showing
persistence, spiritual tenacity, and is being aggressive toward his spiritual
life. He is not going to give up or fade out because the journey is going to
get a little longer, he is going to stay committed to the mission. What we are
going to see in this series of tests is that Elisha is not going to be
dissuaded or distracted by any of the circumstances of the journey. He knows
that he has been appointed by God and he is not going to take the
responsibility of his spiritual life or his spiritual gift lightly. He
recognizes that as a believer he needs to exploit the grace of God in his life
to the maximum because he has been saved, just as we are, for a purpose, and he
is going to focus his life and his mission on fulfilling that purpose to the
greatest degree.
There are all kinds of
different spiritual gifts in the church age, all kinds of ministries that
different believers have within the local church, and the only way we will
maximize our ministry and our own spiritual gift is to grow to spiritual
maturity. We don’t even have to know what our spiritual gift is because as we
grow to spiritual maturity we will naturally gravitate to areas of our
spiritual life. Our attitude, by way of application, is to do the same as
Elisha. We are not going to stop. We are going to demonstrate the same kind of
perseverance and tenacity that Elisha demonstrated here.
Elisha knows that Elijah
is about to be promoted to heaven and one of the reasons he is so dogged is
that he understands this cultural dynamic that went on that when a person died
they would bestow a blessing on their heir. Cf. Genesis 49. Elijah is limiting
this to the pursuit of Elijah; he understands the doctrine behind this related
to the role of the prophet and the transfer of that responsibility to him, and
so he is going to stick with his mentor and the one who is his leader. For us
this spiritual tenacity is going to manifest itself in different ways.
Generally there are five things that we ought to emphasize that ought to be
present in our life if these character qualities are present. First of all it
is just regular Scripture reading. Every believer should be regularly reading
through the Bible. Secondly, memorizing Scripture. Thirdly, every believer
should be going to Bible class. Fourth, there is the need to develop a
disciplined and consistent prayer life. This means developing a regular prayer
time, one’s own personal prayer list, and it also involves coming together for
prayer meeting at church. The fifth thing is the three basic laws of spiritual
growth: application, application and application.
2 Kings 2:3 NASB
“Then the sons of the prophets who {were at}
One of the reasons they go
down to
As part of the ministry of
the prophets was that they had this group called the sons of the prophets. This
would indicate that they were also prophets. We don’t know a whole lot about
them; the first time they show up in the Scriptures is in 1 Samuel 10:10-12.
They are found again in 1 Samuel 19:20. They are alluded to as the sons of
Isaiah in Isaiah 8:18. This idea of the sons of the prophets brings in another
important dimension and that is that any leader that is worth the title of
leader is preparing and planning for his future departure. He is preparing the
next generation of leaders to take his place. Elijah has been preparing Elisha,
but not only that but there are these other prophets being prepared for the
future. One thing that is found lacking in many leaders is that they never
answer the question: what if it doesn’t work? What if there is failure? What if
this happens? What if that happens? If we don’t have a worst case scenario then
we are not prepared. There always has to be a training and a preparation and an
apprenticeship to prepare for leaders in the coming years.
There are two areas that
can be emphasized here when we think about this company pf prophets and sons of
the prophets. First, it is an association for mutual encouragement and
edification—in an informal sense which is developed through friendship,
participation in meetings, conferences that provide material for pastors. A lot
of times what pastors benefit from going to these things isn’t just the content
they learn from the speakers but just the opportunity to spend some time with
other pastors who think the same way they do, and that they can interact with,
learn and get ideas on how to handle different situations and circumstances. Different
men have different gifts and strengths and specialties and so there is that
special ministry that can occur. One of the greatest dangers that a pastor can
fall into is the trap of isolation where they are isolated from other pastors
and trends that are going on in their generation and culture, and today with
the multiplication of so much heresy and error and garbage out there it is
amazing how there have been pastors over the past thirty years drop by the
wayside and fail in the ministry because they don’t know who they were reading
and had no clue as to who was who and what was what and who the players are and
what the positions are. So they get distracted and are defeated by some kind of
error because of their own arrogance and isolationism. It is a terrible thing
and one of the reason we have conferences.
Another area that needs to
be emphasized is education, the benefits of going to seminary, not just staying
home and taking correspondence courses in theology or religion or whatever. If
one is going to be a pastor he needs to have the spiritual gumption to trust
God and move across the country and go to seminary because sometimes the things
learned in seminary are important for training a person to be a pastor that
don’t have anything to do with Greek or Hebrew or theology. It has to do with
trusting God to pay your bills, trusting God to provide a job, to find the
right place to live, and if we don’t learn to trust God for those things when
we are in seminary how are we going to learn to trust God for those things when
we get out as a pastor and we have a congregation?
2 Kings 2:4 NASB “Elijah
said to him, ‘Elisha, please stay here, for the LORD has sent me to