The Abiding Gift of Prophecy

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Seventy-five Years of Prophetic Service

It was a long, eventful, and triumphant life that was granted to Elisha. He lived to the ripe old age of ninety. Sixty-five years of this time was entirely devoted to the cause of God. He was associated with Elijah during the last years of Ahab’s reign, and also through the two years of the reign of Ahab’s son, Ahaziah. It was in the first years of the reign of Jehoram king of Israel that Elijah was translated, and then Elisha entered upon his work alone. His ministry continued through the reigns of Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, and the first years of Joash. As nearly as can be determined, Elisha was associated with Elijah six years before his translation, and from that event filled the prophetic AGP 116.5

office for a period of fifty-nine years. How impressive is the difference in the record of the life, the service, and the influence of this prophet and the record of the lives of the kings whom he counseled for a lifetime! AGP 117.1

“Elisha’s single aim is to complete the reforms begun by Elijah—to re-establish the ancient truth, and repel heathen superstition. He is a statesman as well as a prophet. Among all the prophets, none intervene in the highest national affairs more boldly than Elisha, and none so successfully. For many years he eagerly watches every turn of events. When the nation is ripe for revolution, he summons the destined man at an opportune moment, puts an end to the Tyrian domination, and extirpates the base Tyrian superstition. After the fall of the Omrite dynasty, he is the trusted friend and sagacious adviser of the house of Jehu, and the strength and inspiration of Israel in all its trials.” “Dictionary of the Bible,” James Hastings, art., “Elisha,” p. 694. (1908.) AGP 117.2

The following comparison of the services rendered to the nation by these prophets of God should be helpful to those who are called to take up the work of talented predecessors: AGP 117.3

“Elisha was greater yet less, less yet greater, than Elijah. He is less. We cannot dispense with the mighty past even when we have shot far beyond it. Those who follow cannot be as those who went before. A prophet like Elijah comes once and does not return. Elisha, both to his countrymen and to us, is but the successor, the faint reflection, of his predecessor. Less, yet greater; for the work of the great ones of this earth is carried on by far inferior instruments, but on a far wider scale, and it may be in a far higher spirit.

“The life of an Elijah is never spent in vain. Even his death has not taken him from us. He struggles, single-handed, as it would seem, and without effect; and in the very crisis of the nation’s history is suddenly and mysteriously removed. But his work continues; his mantle falls; his teaching spreads; his enemies perish. The prophet preaches and teaches, the martyr dies and passes away; but other men enter into his labors. What was begun in fire and storm, in solitude and awful visions, must be carried on through winning arts, and healing arts, and gentle words of peaceful and social intercourse; not in the desert of Horeb, or on the top of Carmel, but in the crowded thoroughfares of Samaria, in the gardens of Damascus, by the rushing waters of Jordan.” “The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopedia,” Vol. I, pp. 590, 591.