Elijah & Elisha: Types of Another Picture in Picture
We have the story in the bible of Elijah and Elisha. You can read about it in 2nd Kings chapter two.
In this story God is about to take Elijah off the scene. He’s about to be caught up by a chariot of fire into the heavens. So he and Elisha are walking. They’re at the Jordan and Elijah says to Elisha,
“Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from the.” And Elisha said, “I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.”
Elisha is asking for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.
The disciples of Elijah are standing on the banks and they’re watching this event unfold when suddenly chariots of fire come down out of the heavens to catch Elijah up to the heavens.
Elisha is left standing there, but he has now been blessed with a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.
The disciples of Elijah go on to follow Elisha. There’s a transition of power from Elijah to Elisha at the Jordan.
In 2nd Kings chapter two, that very same chapter, the first miracle that Elisha performs after he leaves the Jordan is that he heals water so that the people of this particular city can drink it.
Collect Biblical Pictures and Match them Up
Photo-theology, what is it? It is a study of the Word of God through the use of pictures. Let me explain.
When I was little I used to play this game called Concentration.
In this game you had all the cards of the deck facing down. You would turn a card and then you would turn another card trying to find a match.
As the game went on, you had to remember where you saw that picture before, where you saw that card before, it would help you to find the match.
So it was a game of concentration, a game of memory.
Well, Bible study is just like that.
It is the comparison of the different pictures of the Bible. When you find a match, that’s when you experience that moment of excitement, that moment of joy.
You see, as you were listening to (or reading) the story I just shared, the story of Elijah and Elisha, you may have begun thinking,
“Wait a minute. I’ve heard something like this before. I’ve seen, seen that picture before.”
So if you started to think about Jesus and John the Baptist, you have just experienced photo-theology.
You see, just as there was a transition of power from Elijah to Elisha at the Jordan, so there was a transition of power from John the Baptist to Jesus at the Jordan.
And just as Elijah was more powerful than Elisha, remember, John the Baptist himself said,
“I must decrease that he may increase,” speaking of Jesus.
Just as Elijah was taken off the scene after this transition of power, so John the Baptist was taken off the scene after their transition of power.
You’ll remember that the disciples of Elijah went on to follow Elisha, just as the disciples of John the Baptist went on to follow Jesus.
In fact, the Bible tells us that Jesus himself said of John the Baptist that he was Elijah. In Matthew 11 Jesus actually likened John the Baptist to Elijah.
Here’s a question. If John the Baptist was a type of Elijah, then who was Elisha? And you begin to see the picture come together. You see, Elisha would have been a type of Jesus Christ.
Now, I want you to think about this.
You’ve heard the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” I want you to start approaching the Bible as God’s picture book.
When you read the Bible, I want you to see not just the words, but I want you to see the pictures.
Imagine it like this.
In your mind is a hall, and let’s call that hall memory’s hall. And every time you read a story in the Bible, I want you to hang that picture in memory’s hall.
What’s going to happen is you’re going to begin to see similarities between the story you’re reading and the pictures that you have hanging on memory’s hall.
While you’re studying one topic or passage, you’ll run down memory’s hall and say, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, I’ve seen that picture somewhere before.”
Before you know it, you’ll have one of those aha moments where you see something in the scripture that you’ve never seen before.
Bible study is the bringing together of the pictures of scripture to form a beautiful tapestry.
After all, I want you to think about it. God is an artist. He’s a creator. And that’s how he put the Bible together.
Train your eyes to begin to see the pictures of the scriptures.
Fear Suffocates Your Bible Study. Faith Liberates It.
Let me talk to you just for a moment about attitude.
In Luke 5:3 the Bible says, speaking of Jesus,
“He entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon,
‘Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught.’
Simon answered, said unto Him ‘Master, we’ve toiled all night and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.’
And when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.”
I want you to see that story, and I want you to understand that for many of us are afraid of launching out into the deep of the scriptures.
We stay by the shores, we stay by what we have heard other people say, and we don’t go out any further because of fear.
Jesus himself says,
“Launch out into the deep, because when you launch out into the deep and let down your nets, I’m going to bring you a multitude of fish, I’m going to bring you a find so huge, a find so amazing that is going to break your nets.”
That’s how Bible study ought to be.
When you take your net every day and you cast it out into the deep and you say, “Lord, open my eyes, help me to see that which I have not seen before,” and the promise is that your net will break.
You will be excited about what you see in the Word of God, you’ll be excited about what you find in the deep.
So listen.
The ocean is beautiful on the surface. It’s magnificent when you see the Sun just shining down and the light glimmering off of the waters.
But as beautiful as it is on the surface, the true beauty of the ocean is beneath the surface, and the deeper you go is the more beautiful the ocean gets.
That is how many of us approach the scriptures.
We enjoy the surface, we stay on the surface, fearful… or maybe even thinking that we can’t go into the deep.
“I’m not trained enough to understand the deep. I’ve never been in the deep before. I’m not a scholar or I don’t have the kind of training that would allow me to catch anything in the deep.”
Well, that is a lie.
Because with God on your side, with the master telling you launch out into the deep, He’s going to be there to help you.
Look, you see what Simon responded?
“We’ve toiled all night and have taken nothing.” How many of us approach the scripture and kind of throw our hands up because we’re saying,
“You know what?
- We have toiled and toiled at this. We have worked and worked at this.
- I have tried to study the Bible in different ways and I can’t find anything.
- I don’t want to launch out into the deep.
- I don’t want to let my net down anymore.
- Just let the pastor feed me.
JUST LET THE PASTOR PROVIDE MY FISH!”
Beloved, let me tell you. Just like Simon obeyed the word of the Lord and said, “Okay, I’m going to launch out into the deep,”
Matthew 7:7, this is what Jesus says.
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
Listen, I want you to imagine the scripture in that very way.
When you approach the text, when you approach the story, ask and it shall be given you.
Seek, look deeper beyond the surface of the text and you shall find.
Knock on that text from various angles, keep knocking, keep knocking, and God says,
“It’ll be open.”
Why? Because everyone that asks will receive, he that seeks will find, and he that knocks it will be open.
Those stories we read in the scriptures, those texts where we feel,
“Man, this text is locked to me!”
God says knock. And I want you to knock persistently. I want you to seek and search because the Bible tells us that if we search for God with all our heart, we will find him.
Practical Tactics to Amplify Your Bible Study.
You’re asking, “Okay pastor, what do I do? How do I start?”
Well, it’s really very simple.
I just want you to start by reading the Word.
I want you to start by collecting the pictures of scripture.
Read those stories of the Old Testament and get those stories, visualize them. I want you to sense the story, to smell it, to taste it, to see it.
Read it as if you were there. And as you begin to gather these stories in your mind, it’s really going to unfold in a very natural way.
You see, we don’t often train our eyes to view scripture in this way, and that’s going to take a little bit of practice.
But I want to encourage you that the more you do this, the more you approach the scriptures looking for the images, looking for the pictures that God is painting…
The more powerful your Bible study is going to be.
Many of us struggle with the Books of Daniel and Revelation, the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation.
Let me tell you. In reality the Books of Daniel and Revelation are full of pictures, and
That’s what we’re going to do in this podcast. We’re going to learn how to find these pictures, how to unlock your eyes so that you can see in a new light.
Many times after I have delivered a sermon or preached somewhere or someone has seen one of my videos or presentations, they’ll say to me,
“Pastor, I’ve never seen that in the scripture before. It’s as if I’m looking at that story, I’m looking at that verse with new eyes.”
Well, that’s what Photo-theology is.
Photo-theology is giving us new eyes to behold the Scriptures with.
Beloved, when we begin to see the scriptures through those new eyes, the scriptures will come alive to us.
Elisha’s first miracle after leaving the Jordan, after that transition of power was that he provided water to the thirsty.
It should come as no surprise that Jesus’ first miracle after crossing the Jordan and returning from the wilderness was that he went to a wedding and he turned water to wine.
In John 2 where that story is told, the people at that wedding said,
“The best wine was saved for last.”
That’s what Bible study is. It’s turning the plain and flavorless into the best thing you’ve ever tasted. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Launch out and I’ll see you at the next episode.
By, Ivor Myers