Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 32 · February 1
A Hard Thing
“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 from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.”
"Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee."
Elijah says that at the end of a long day, and most of that day has been two men disagreeing on a road. Three times Elijah tries to leave Elisha behind. At Gilgal he says, "Tarry here, I pray thee." At Bethel he says it again, and at Jericho he says it once more. Three times the same answer comes back, word for word: "As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee."
There are other voices on the road. At Bethel, and again at Jericho, a group called the sons of the prophets come out to Elisha with news he has not asked for: "Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day?" Both times Elisha gives the same reply: "Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace." He knows, and he does not want to talk about it. In the end, fifty of these men stand at a distance and watch.
At the Jordan, Elijah rolls up his cloak and strikes the water with it. The water parts, and the two of them cross on dry ground. Only then does Elijah ask the question he has been walking toward all day.
Elisha answers, "I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me." That can sound like a request to be twice as powerful, but "double portion" is an inheritance phrase from the law of Moses. In Deuteronomy the firstborn son receives "a double portion of all that he hath," because he is the heir. So Elisha is asking to be treated as Elijah's eldest son. You can hear it when the chariot of fire appears and he cries out, "My father, my father."
"Thou hast asked a hard thing," Elijah says. Then he adds a strange condition: "if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so." So the test is simply to watch. Elisha has spent the whole day refusing to be left behind, and the last thing asked of him is to keep his eyes open.
Is there something you want from God badly enough to keep walking after it, the way Elisha did, even after being told three times to stay behind? Ask Him for it plainly, as Elisha did. Then keep your eyes open, because the God who answered Elisha at the Jordan still answers the ones who will not leave His side.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 32 is His Peace (John 14:27).