Reading through the stories of Elisha, you'd be forgiven for getting a distinct sense of deja vu. Many things that Elisha does seem remarkably similar to things that Elijah did. Even the names are easily confused (double checks to make sure I've written the right name where I want to). These two men show one of the greatest stretches of God's miracles ever recorded.
Elisha is called immediately after Elijah has his God's-whisper-in-a-cave experience, as per God's instructions. He is to be a prophet in Elijah's place (1 Kings 19.16). Elisha kisses his parents goodbye, and sacrifices the oxen he had been plowing with, burning the yokes in the process. So there goes his job and his livelihood, and there can be no turning back.
He's not mentioned (as far as I can see) in the rest of 1 Kings, and is simply "assisting" Elijah. The transfer of power comes in chapter 2 of 2 Kings. Even knowing that Elijah is going to be taken away by the Lord, he refuses to leave. In fact, three times he says to Elijah "As the Lord lives, and as you live, I will not leave you". His loyalty is rewarded when Elijah tells him "Ask what I shall do for you". Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah's spirit. He has seen what God has done through Elijah, and wants all that plus more. So as Elijah is taken up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elisha picks up Elijah's cloak, and with it God's spirit.
There are many example where Elijah has performed a miracle, and Elisha performs a similar miracle twice. Elijah parted the water once; Elisha parted the water twice, once to get through, once to retrieve an axe head. Elijah provided food for the widow at Zarephath in the form of a jar of oil that never ran dry. Elisha provided abundant oil for a widow, and abundant food for the man from Baal-shalishah. Both Elijah and Elisha raised a widow's son from the dead. But even in death, Elisha's bones were able to raise a dead man to life (2 Kings 14.21). Basicly, it's like Elisha's saying to Elijah "Anything you can do, I can do better".
The lives of Elijah and Elisha raise two questions for me. First, are setting our sights too low? Elisha didn't set his vision as 'I want to do what you do', but as 'I want to do more'. Of course, the mathematics of God is not the arithmetic that we're used to, so concepts of 'more' and 'double' are not what we might expect. But God honored and answered Elisha's desire: If you've got the faith, I've got the power.
Second, are we passing the baton well? Elijah set his apprentice up to do even more than he himself. That takes courage and humility. A good teacher can teach all they know, and the student can be as good as the teacher. But the great teacher can teach so that the student far surpasses the teacher. It's like my old school motto: Lumen accipe et imperti. Receive the light and pass it on. And may the light burn ever more brightly than before.
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