Elisha at Gilgal
"And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into Heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal" (2Ki_2:1).
"Gilgal" means rolling. It bears its name from the journeyings of Israel. "And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho" (Jos_4:19).
1. It was at Gilgal where God rolled away the reproach of the Egyptians. Forty years before Israel had left Egypt, but they had never reached the place of victory in the wilderness. Now they had, at last, crossed the Jordan and encamped at Gilgal. No more could Egypt say, "The Lord is not able" to bring them into their Canaan.
Believers need to get out of the old life of sin’s dominion. Out of Egypt? Certainly. We came out of Egypt the day we were saved. Came out, under a true token,–the blood upon the lintel and the two side posts. But we need more than the getting out of Egypt. We need also to get out of the wilderness of defeat and despair. Gilgal is station number one. The place where God rolls off the reproaches of a carnal life. It is the place of "no condemnation in Christ Jesus."
2. As the children came through the Jordan, Joshua gave orders that twelve stones should be taken from the Jordan bed, and "those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal" (Jos_4:20).
Thus Gilgal stands also for the place where God rolled upon Israel a new pledge of full allegiance. In Ephesians, chapter 2, we are not only quickened with Christ and raised from the old life, but we are made to sit together with Him, in a new life.
Thus Gilgal pictures the place of our tryst, our promise of a new walk, a new consecration.
3. But Elijah did not allow Elisha to tarry long at Gilgal. Gilgal must be entered. It stands just over the Jordan, and marks the entrance into a life wholly dedicated to God. But Gilgal is no more than a place of departure. We must not tarry there. When we take an attitude of surrender, we must follow on to know the Lord. The act must be taken, but the life must be lived out, day by day.
It was at Gilgal that Joshua made a covenant with the Gibeonites; it was at Gilgal that Saul was chosen king; it was at Gilgal that Saul spared Agag.
So while at Gilgal we may yield ourselves to God, and know that reproach is rolled away; yet we must not, for one moment, think that our act of consecration or of yielding our all to God is enough. We must do more than consecrate and dedicate and pledge and yield, we must obey. We must live out in our daily walk what we pledge at Gilgal; or else we will soon drift back again into the wilderness of our carnal life.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR