https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ZGiUG6NV8DfviwiBf8zuV?si=a1ZrV-xrRXCOBSoaO66AwA

Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
2 Kings 2:13-14 (NIV)

In the early years of my career I spent a lot of time on the road presenting custom produced training in our client’s call centers. I was new to the work and to the profession. Our company’s founder, who was also my mentor spiritually and professionally, accompanied me on every trip. Chuck handled the travel arrangements, the logistics, and assisted me in numerable ways. Our time together on the road also afforded countless organic lessons in both business and life. Then came a tragic turn of events.

Chuck’s wife and busines partner was diagnosed with late stage cancer. Only a few months after her diagnosis she passed into eternity. Things changed. I wasn’t even able to attend her funeral. I was in Kansas presenting a week long training event to a client – by myself.

I remember not long after that telling Chuck that I really wished he would continue accompanying me on my business trips. It never happened. A transition had taken place. Things had changed. They would change a few years later when Chuck passed the business over to me and my business partner. They would change again a decade later when Chuck passed away.

Life is full of transitions. That’s what today’s entire chapter is about.

During his ministry, Elijah had been the prophet of God in Israel. The “company of prophets” numbered in the thousands, but Elijah stood alone as the man who stood up to Ahab and called down fire from heaven. Back on Mount Horeb, in a suicidal depression, Elijah handed God his resignation. God accepted it, tellling Elijah to anoint Elisha as his successor. That’s was chapters ago. While the text isn’t specific about the timing or process, Elijah has been mentoring his protégé Elisha.

In today’s chapter, everything changes. Under the surface of the text, the rather arcane series of events in today’s chapter echo back hundreds of years to a previous leadership transition, from Moses to Joshua. Elijah takes his cloak and strikes the water of the Jordan River with it. It parts. He and Elisha cross on dry ground just as Joshua and the Israelites had done in entering the promised land. In one of the Great Story’s most iconic scenes, Elijah is taken to heaven in a whirlwind.

Elijah is gone. Elisha tears his clothes. There’s genuine grief here. His spiritual father has disappeared before his eyes. And now he’s standing there holding this old cloak. He walks back to the river – alone. He asks: “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?”

What a great question. Eventually every generation of faith has to ask it.

Moses dies. Joshua has to cross the river. David dies. Solomon has to sit on the throne. Elijah disappears. Elisha has to pick up the mantle. Jesus ascends. The disciples have to leave the mountain and become witnesses.

Our mentors die. Pastors retire. Parents age. Institutions change. Churches change. Businesses change. Families change. Seasons end. And sooner or later I find myself holding something handed down to me, staring at a river I’ve never crossed without the person who taught me how to cross it.

Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?

Then something subtly powerful happens. Elisha strikes the water, and it parts. The answer is not “Elijah is irreplaceable,” nor is it, “Elisha is the new Elijah.” The answer is, “God is still here.” The Story continues.

That’s the spiritual truth flowing underneath the chapter. Chuck had been such a strong presence in my life for years. One of the lessons I had to learn is that it is possible for faith to quietly become attached to the people through whom I experienced the things of God rather than to God Himself.

A parent.
A teacher.
A pastor.
A mentor.
A church.
A movement.
A particular season of life.

Those vessels matter enormously. Elisha isn’t stoic about Elijah’s departure. He cries “My father!” and tears his clothes. Grief is appropriate. But Elijah’s God did not leave with Elijah. That’s why Elisha’s mantle is such a powerful image. There are things others can place upon me when I’m young. Calling. Wisdom. Faith. Responsibility. Example. But eventually comes the moment when I have to pick up the mantle myself.

Back when Elijah anointed Elisha, he threw the mantle over Elisha. Now Elijah isn’t there to do it. Elisha bends down…and picks it up. He walks to the water, and strikes it himself.

Despite my grief that Chuck stopped accompanying me on my business trips, and my request that he continue doing so, Chuck never did again. That in itself became one of the most important lessons God taught me through my mentor. At some point along the journey inheritance must become ownership. At some waypoint somebody else’s faith must become my own. Following in a mentor’s footsteps becomes the forging of my own personal path in the larger mission.

And perhaps most importantly, Elisha doesn’t ask, “Where is Elijah?” Everybody else does that. They send fifty men looking for him. Elisha asks the better question: “Where is Elijah’s God?” And, in the quiet this morning, I find that an apt question for a Monday morning staring at a busy week ahead.

I can spend enormous energy trying to recover and reclaim people, institutions, experiences, and seasons God used in the past when God Himself is already waiting for me at the next river. The mantle lying there waiting for me to pick it up. And the God who was faithful then is still God now.

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