1. Elisha takes up Elijah’s cloak, a sign that he is now the top dog prophet in Israel. He’s got big shoes to fill.
2. And, of course, now he can part water too.
3. I wonder how the sons of Jericho could “see” Elijah’s spirit in Elisha.
4. Those Jericho guys want to send out a search party to make sure that Elijah didn’t get flinged on the top of some random mountain. You know, that’s kind of funny.
5. Elisha didn’t want to them to go looking for him; but, in the end, he reluctantly let them look. Guess what! They didn’t find him.
6. Elisha models the “I told you so” approach to leadership.
7. Elisha’s first miraculous act (besides parting the water) was to make all the water clean. Apparently it was contaminated, and people were dying and women were miscarrying from it. Elisha spices up a bowl of water with salt (maybe symbolic of God’s word?) and makes it clean again. Hmm…I wonder if there was a larger-scale message in this…
8. “Go up, you baldhead.” OK…kind of like Romeo and Juliet here (with the whole thumb-biting thing), I think it might be important to understand the context of this insult. “Go up” would probably have a little to do with the fact that his master just “went up” into heaven. Maybe they’re just saying, “Hey, why don’t you get lost like Elijah did?” Also, the baldness of Elisha’s head isn’t really that noteworthy except for the fact that these youth might be trying to pick on the fact that they think Elisha can’t hold a candle to Elijah…”Look, his head doesn’t even have any hair on it. He’s too young. He hasn’t been around.” Either way, more than likely this wasn’t just an insult for him being bald. It was more of a challenging and mocking of God’s work in Elisha.
9. And then, the bears show up. This would have sealed the deal for most during this time. Mauling by large animals was considered to be the judgment of God in this culture. So…I guess Elisha’s not so “bald” after all.
