IF YOU SEE ME WHEN I AM TAKEN FROM THEE

(Elijah’s pathway to heaven is our pathway too)

06-24-18 This message may be viewed live streaming video at www.tabernacleofmoses.org commencing today Sunday at 11:00 am, and repeated 24/7 for one week; thereafter, the video, audio, and study notes are archived.

(The brightness of our revelations depend upon the correctness of our doctrines, our building blocks)

(God is Thought, God is Love, God is a Spirit – Eccl 12:7)

PATTERNS

Gigal    by the way side    no sons of the prophets     not saved         “understandeth it not” (Mat 13:19) “lest they                                                                                       should believe and be saved” (Luke 8:12)

Bethel            stony ground            sons of the prophets          goats (not saved)  “have no root, which for a while believe,                                                                                                   and… fall away” (Luke 8:13)

Jericho          among thorns       sons of the prophets          sheep (saved)        “yielded no fruit” (Mark 4:7)

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Jordan          good ground            saints                       shepherds (saved) “bring forth fruit” (Mark 4:20)

GILGAL (by the way side)

(2 Kings 2:1,2)  And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up [Heb: carry up, exalt, lift up, perfect, restore] [rapture] Elijah [Heb: my God is Jehovah] into heaven by a whirlwind [Heb: hurricane] [symbolizing the action of the Holy Spirit], that Elijah went with Elisha [Heb: my God is salvation] [Elijah’s apprentice] from Gilgal [Heb: wheel] [by he way side (not saved)]. And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Bethel [Heb: house of God]. And Elisha said unto him, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee [i.e., until death]. So they went down to Bethel [on stony ground (not saved)] [Elijah and Elisha are walking, moving together; extending effort forward… ever closer to God].

1.     Commentary: The city of Gigal (Heb: wheel) herein serves as an Old Testament symbol which, in the New Testament, can be associated with “by the way side” (Mat 13:4,19); also as a center of unsavedness, which corresponds with the sea of Galilee (Heb: a circle) of unsavedness in the New Testament.

BETHEL (on stony ground)

(2 Kings 2:3,4)  And the sons of the prophets [Heb: a prophet (foreteller) or inspired man] [1] that were at Bethel [on stony ground; not saved; brazen altar] came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master [teacher] from thy head [of authority] to day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Jericho [among thorns; saved sheep; brazen laver] [2]. And he [Elisha] said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth [i.e., until death], I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho [among thorns; saved sheep; brazen laver] [walking, moving together (expending effort forward)].

1.     Commentary: the “sons of the prophets” were assembled into a school of prophets under the teaching and authority of Elijah.

2.     Jericho = Heb: fragrant /// to smell or (by implic. perceive) (fig. to anticipate, enjoy): make of quick understanding.

JERICHO (among thorns)

(2 Kings 2:5-8)  And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho [among thorns; saved sheep; brazen laver] came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head [of authority] to day? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the LORD hath sent me to Jordan [good ground (saved shepherds)]. And he [Elisha] said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth [i.e., until death], I will not leave thee. And they two went on. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view [watch] afar off: and they two stood by Jordan [good ground (saved shepherds)]. And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground [crossing the Red (reed) Sea; a type and shadow of the Bible, the power].

1.     mantle = Heb: something ample (as a large vine, a wide dress); fig. splendor: garment, glory, robe.

2.     Commentary: Elijah’s mantle symbolizes the Holy Spirit covering.

ENTERING JORDAN AND BEYOND (good ground)

(2 Kings 2:9,10)  And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away [Heb: seized] from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit [i.e., thy mantle, thy covering] be upon me [Elijah did 16 miracles, Elisha did 32 miracles]. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see [Heb: discern] me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.

(2 Kings 2:11-14)  And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire [1,2], and parted [Heb: divided] them both asunder [3]; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind [the Holy Spirit] into heaven. And Elisha saw [Heb: discerned] it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel [the Bible], and the horsemen thereof [symbolizing the writers of the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, etc., etc., and Heb: 11:1-40]. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces [representing the action of the continuing separation of Elisha’s soul from his spirit]. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back [after Elijah’s rapture; as a type of the second coming of Christ], and stood by the bank of Jordan [good ground (saved shepherds)]; And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he [Elisha] also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.

1.     (Jer 23:29)  Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

2.     (Joel 2:3-5)  A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

3.     (Heb: 4:12)  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul [Elisha] and spirit [Elijah], and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

THE MILLENNIUM

(2 Kings 2:15-18)  And when the sons of the prophets which were to view [see] at Jericho 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 [i.e., before their new teacher]. And they said unto him, Behold now, there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master [teacher]: 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 [Heb: to peck at; fig. stun or dull: press, urge, stubbornness] him till he was ashamed [Heb: disappointed] [for their disobedience; for their lack of understanding], he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but found him not. And when they came again to him, (for he tarried at Jericho [among thorns (saved sheep)],) he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not?

(2 Kings 2:19-22)  And the men of the city [Jericho, seeking a sign, a miracle] said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught [Heb: bad, evil: wrong], and the ground barren [“no fruit” (among thorns)]. And he said, Bring me a new cruse [bowl, basin (a new creature)], and put salt [symbol of God’s healing and preserving power] therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land [a miracle, the 1,000 year Millennium]. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.

(2 Kings 2:23-25)  And he went up from thence unto Bethel [on stony ground]: and as he was going up by the way [perhaps, “by the way side”], there came forth little children [pre-teens perhaps] out of the city, and mocked [Heb: ridiculed: scorned] him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare [Heb: rend, break, rip or open] forty and two children of them. And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.

Amen