Open Our Eyes

Come Follow Me 2026 — Week 27 — Jul 6–12 — 2 Kings 2–7

The Translation of Elijah

The transition from Elijah to Elisha begins not with death but with one of the most extraordinary events in the Old Testament: Elijah is taken up into heaven in a whirlwind accompanied by a chariot and horses of fire. He does not die. He is translated. This places him alongside Enoch as one of two Old Testament figures explicitly taken to God without dying — and it sets the stage for his later appearances in both Old and New Testament contexts, culminating in the Mount of Transfiguration where he stands with Moses before Jesus, Peter, James, and John.

Elisha had followed Elijah from Gilgal, refusing to leave him at each stop on the journey. When Elijah asked what he could do for him before he was taken, Elisha made a remarkable request: “I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.” This was not a request for twice as much as Elijah had received; in the context of inheritance law, the “double portion” was the firstborn’s share. Elisha was asking to be recognized as Elijah’s legitimate prophetic heir, the one who would carry the ministry forward.

2 Kings 2:9–10

“And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.”

Elijah’s answer tied the granting of the request to a condition: seeing the translation. This was not an arbitrary test. Elisha had to be spiritually attentive enough to witness what happened — to have the eyes to see. He did see. He cried out, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!” Then he picked up Elijah’s mantle that had fallen — the visible symbol of prophetic succession — and used it to part the Jordan River, just as Elijah had done moments before. The prophets watching saw it happen and bowed: “The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.”

The mantle of the prophet is a rich symbol throughout scripture. It represents authority, calling, and the continuity of God’s work through successive servants. The ministry does not die when the prophet is taken. It transfers. God’s purposes are not frustrated by the departure of any individual servant — He has always prepared the next person to carry the work forward.

The Miracles of Elisha: Types of Christ

The miracle stories of 2 Kings 2–7 have a distinctive character. Scholars have long noted that Elisha’s miracles are more numerous than Elijah’s, that they cluster around ordinary people rather than dramatic confrontations with kings, and that several of them deliberately echo the miracles of Moses. More importantly for Christian readers, they function as types pointing forward to the ministry of Jesus Christ.

The widow’s oil in 2 Kings 4:1–7 presents a woman on the brink of having her sons taken as slaves for debt. Elisha asked what she had. Only a pot of oil. He told her to borrow empty vessels from all her neighbors — as many as she could find — then go inside and pour. She poured, and the oil kept flowing until there were no more vessels. The oil stopped when the vessels ran out. The miracle of multiplication was limited only by what she had prepared to receive. Her faith, expressed in the act of gathering vessels, was the measure of the blessing.

Multiplication Miracles — Types of Christ

• 2 Kings 4:1–7 — Widow’s oil multiplied — type of Christ multiplying loaves and fishes (John 6)
• 2 Kings 4:42–44 — Twenty loaves feed 100 men with food left over — explicit parallel to the feeding of multitudes
• 1 Kings 17:14 — Elijah’s barrel of meal that did not waste — the same pattern through three prophets

The raising of the Shunammite’s son in 2 Kings 4:8–37 is one of the most detailed and moving miracle narratives in the Old Testament. A wealthy woman had built a room for Elisha on her roof. When asked what he could do for her, she said nothing — she was content. Elisha’s servant noticed she had no son and her husband was old; Elisha promised her a son. The son was born, grew, and then died suddenly of what sounds like heatstroke in the field. His mother laid him on Elisha’s bed, closed the door, and set off to find the prophet without telling anyone the child was dead. When Elisha’s servant came to meet her and asked if everything was well, she said only “It is well.” She held her grief inside until she reached the prophet himself. Elisha lay on the child, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hands to hands — and the child’s flesh grew warm, and he sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

Naaman: The Outsider Healed by Simple Obedience

Naaman, commander of the Syrian army, was a great man — mighty, valiant, honored by his king — and a leper. His healing was initiated by the testimony of a young Israelite slave girl who served his wife: “Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.” One small voice of faith by a captive nobody set in motion the healing of a powerful Gentile general.

Naaman arrived at Elisha’s house with horses and chariots, an official letter from the king, and ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten sets of clothing. He was prepared for a dramatic encounter. Instead, Elisha sent a messenger to tell him to go wash in the Jordan seven times. Naaman “was wroth, and went away”: Was not the Jordan inferior to the rivers of Damascus? Had he come all this way for such an unremarkable instruction?

2 Kings 5:13–14

“And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”

Naaman’s servants reasoned with him: surely if the prophet had asked something grand you would have done it. How much easier, then, to do this simple thing? He went. He dipped. He was healed. His flesh became like the flesh of a little child. The healing was complete — and it came through exactly the kind of humble, obedient action that his pride had nearly prevented.

Naaman’s story is among the most richly typological in the Old Testament. The outsider healed by obedient simple action, his flesh restored to the innocence of childhood, is a pre-image of baptism and of the Gentile mission of the gospel. Jesus specifically referenced Naaman in his synagogue sermon at Nazareth (Luke 4:27), pointing out that of all the lepers in Israel in Elisha’s day, only the Syrian was healed — a statement about God’s willingness to heal across all boundaries of nation, rank, and expectation.

Naaman as Type

• Luke 4:27 — Jesus cites Naaman as the outsider God chose to heal — a statement about the universality of grace
• Baptism — Washing in water seven times, flesh restored as a child — explicit type of the ordinance
• 2 Nephi 9:29 — To be learned is good if you hearken unto God’s counsels — Naaman’s learning almost prevented his healing

The contrast between Naaman and Gehazi is instructive. Gehazi was Elisha’s servant who ran after Naaman to collect the gifts Elisha had refused. His greed brought upon him the very leprosy from which Naaman had been cleansed. The miracle story is bracketed by two stories of human failing: Naaman’s pride (healed by humility) and Gehazi’s greed (punished with the disease pride had caused). Together they teach that the gifts of God cannot be commodified, and that proximity to the miraculous does not automatically produce transformation of character.

The Axe Head That Floated: God Recovers What Is Lost

One of the smaller miracles of Elisha is among the most theologically suggestive. The sons of the prophets were cutting timber near the Jordan to build a larger meeting place. One man’s axe head flew off its handle and sank in the river. He cried out to Elisha: “Alas, master! for it was borrowed.” Elisha threw a stick into the water, and the iron axe head floated.

The miracle is unusual precisely because it is small and practical — no one was dying, no nation was at stake. But its theological meaning is clear: God is interested in recovering what is lost, including things that seem permanently beyond recovery. Iron does not float. But God is not bound by what iron normally does. The man’s anxiety about the borrowed axe head — his honesty about the obligation, his turning to the prophet — was met with exactly the kind of gracious provision that answers honest need. God does not only perform the spectacular. He is present in the small recoveries too.

Open His Eyes: The Angelic Army

The most memorable verse of 2 Kings 6 comes when the Syrian army surrounded the city of Dothan where Elisha was staying. His servant woke early, saw the army, and was terrified: “Alas, my master! how shall we do?” Elisha’s response was calm: “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” Then he prayed: “LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see.”

2 Kings 6:17

“And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”

The angelic armies were there the whole time. The servant simply could not see them. His fear was based on incomplete information — the visible army surrounding the city — while remaining unaware of the invisible reality that surrounded and exceeded it. This is one of the most powerful images in all of scripture for the condition of the faithful disciple: surrounded by opposition that seems overwhelming, while being simultaneously surrounded by a divine reality that makes the opposition insignificant.

The prayer — “Lord, open his eyes that he may see” — is a prayer for spiritual sight. It is a prayer that asks God to give another person access to the reality that faith perceives. It is not a prayer for the circumstances to change; it is a prayer for the perception to change. When the servant’s eyes were opened, nothing about the situation had changed objectively. The Syrian army was still there. But the whole meaning of the situation had been transformed, because he could now see what had been there all along.

Spiritual Sight — Cross-References

• D&C 76:12 — The Spirit opens the eyes of understanding to things unseen and eternal
• Moses 1:11 — Moses sees with his spiritual eyes what his natural eyes could not have beheld
• Revelation 5:6 — The Lamb with seven eyes — the fullness of spiritual perception
• D&C 38:7 — “I am in your midst and ye cannot see me” — the divine presence is always closer than we perceive

The Ministry of the Ordinary

What distinguishes Elisha’s ministry from Elijah’s in the texture of the stories is the prevalence of ordinary people: a widow, a Shunammite woman who built a room on her roof, a student who dropped a borrowed axe head, a Gentile soldier who almost missed his healing through pride. These are not kings and generals (except Naaman) — they are the people who make up the bulk of any congregation, any society, any generation of believers.

God’s power through Elisha was not reserved for the dramatic confrontations with apostate kings. It flowed into the ordinary circumstances of ordinary lives — debt, death, disease, loss. The miracle was always proportioned to the need. The multiplication of oil stopped when there were no more vessels. The axe head was recovered so a borrowed thing could be returned. The child was raised because a grieving mother had nowhere else to turn.

This is the pattern of divine ministry: meeting people where they actually are, in the circumstances they are actually living, with provisions exactly suited to their real need. Not spectacular, not overwhelming, not designed for display — but precise, personal, and sufficient. The God of Elisha is the same God who notices sparrows and numbers hairs. He is not too busy with the cosmic drama to attend to the borrowed axe head at the bottom of the Jordan.