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NOTABLE INDIVIDUAL PROPHETS

Text: 2 Kings 2
26 January 2010

(I) NOTABLE INDIVIDUAL PROPHETS

1. Samuel (1 Samuel 9:9)

a) Man of God (1 Samuel 9:6)

b) Seer (1 Samuel 9:9)

2. Elijah (1 Kings 17- 2 Kings 1)

3. Elisha (2 Kings 2-13)

(II) GROUP OF PROPHETS

1. Group of prophets (1 Samuel 10:5, 10)

2. Sons of the prophets (2 Kings 2)

a) Bethel (2 Kings 2:3)

b) Jericho (2 Kings 2:5)

c) Jordan (2 Kings 2:7) (“Fifty men of the sons of the prophets”)

(III) THE QUERY OF THE SONS OF THE PROPHETS (JERICHO)

1. Recognition

“The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha” 2 Kings 2:15a

a) Resemblance

c) Resonance

2. Acknowledgment

“Bowed to the ground before him” 2 Kings 2:15b

a) Acceptance of Elisha as the successor of Elijah

b) Compliance

c) Humility

3. Query of the Jericho sons of the prophets

“Look now, there are fifty strong men with your servants. Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” 2 Kings 2:16

a) Assistants of the sons of the prophets

i) These sons of the prophets had “assistants”

ii) Fifty of them were mentioned

b) Request put to Elisha

i) To search for the body of Elijah

ii) Reason: Perhaps the Spirit of God had cast Elijah’s body away

4. Elisha’s initial reply

“You shall not send anyone” 2 Kings 2:16f

5. The Insistence of the Jericho sons of the prophets

“But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, ‘Send them!’ ” 2 Kings 2:17a

a) The Jericho group of prophets insisted

b) Elisha complied

6. The search for Elijah’s body

a) Fifty people were sent out (2 Kings 2:17)

b) Failure to find Elijah’s body (2 Kings 2:17)

7. Reporting to Elisha

a) Elisha refused to go out with the search party

b) He remained in Jericho

c) The fifty men returned empty-handed

d) The retort of Elisha

“Did I not say to you, ‘Do not go?’ ” 2 Kings 2:18

(IV) SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS EPISODE

1. Leadership of Elisha tested

2. Leadership of Elisha established