Chariot of Fire

[2 Kgs. 2:9] And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
[11] And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Elijah’s times, and the events concerning him, are as little dated as those of any great man in Scripture; we are not told of his age, nor in what year of Ahab’s reign he first appeared, nor in what year of Joram’s he disappeared, and therefore cannot conjecture how long he flourished; it is supposed about twenty years in all. By translating him, G-d gave in that dark and degenerate age, a very sensible proof of another life, together with a type of the ascension of the Messiah, and the opening of the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
This Gilgal (Jiljil) was near Ebal and Gerizim; a school of the prophets was established there. At Beth-el there was also a school of the prophets, which Elijah had founded, notwithstanding that place was the headquarters of the calf-worship; and at Jericho there was another (2 Kings 2:4). In travelling to these places, which he had done through the impulse of the Spirit (2 Kings 2:2, 4-6), Elijah wished to pay a farewell visit to these several institutions, which lay on his way to the place of ascension and, at the same time, from a feeling of humility and modesty, to be in privacy, where there would be no eye-witnesses of his glorification.
None of all the high priests were comparable to those two great men Elijah and Elisha, who, for aught we know, never attended in the Temple at Jerusalem. These seminaries of religion and virtue, he now visits, before his departure, to instruct, encourage, and bless them. Note, those that are going to heaven themselves ought to be concerned for those they leave behind them on earth, and to leave with them their experiences, testimonies, counsels, and prayers. Know we not that our nearest relations, and dearest friends, must shortly be taken from us? He takes away superiors from our head, inferiors from our feet, and equals from our arms; let us therefore carefully do the duty of every relation that we may reflect upon it with comfort when it comes to be dissolved.
Elisha knew that the time was at hand, and at every place the sons of the prophets spoke to him of the approaching removal of his master. Their last stage was at the Jordan were they were following at a distance. The revelation of this striking event to so many was a necessary part of the dispensation; for it was designed to be under the Law, like that of Enoch in the patriarchal age, a visible proof of another state, and a type of the resurrection of the Messiah.
That the miraculous dividing of the river Jordan was the preface to Elijah’s translation into the heavenly Canaan, as it had been to the entrance of Israel into the earthly Canaan. He must go on to the other side Jordan to be translated, because it was his native country, and that he might be near the place where Moses died, and that thus honour might be put on that part of the country which was most despised. He and Elisha might have gone over Jordan by a ferry, as other passengers did, but G-d would magnify Elijah in his exit, as he did Joshua in his entrance, by the dividing of this river, Jos. 3:7. As Moses with his rod divided the sea, so Elijah with his mantle divided Jordan, both being the insignia—the badges of their office. These waters of old yielded to the ark, now to the prophet’s mantle, which, to those that wanted the ark was an equivalent token of G-d’s presence. When G-d will take his children to himself, death is the Jordan, which they must pass through. And they find a way thro' it, a safe and comfortable way. The death of the Messiah has divided those waters that the ransomed of the L-rd may pass over.
Elijah makes his will, and leaves Elisha his heir, now anointing him to be prophet in his room, more than when he cast his mantle upon him, 1 Kg. 19:19. Elijah, being greatly pleased with the faithfulness of Elisha’s affection and attendance, bade him ask what he should do for him, what blessing he should leave him at parting trusting either that it would be in his power to bequeath it, or that G-d, at his entreaty, would grant it.
Elisha, having this fair opportunity to enrich himself with the best riches, prays for a double portion of his spirit. He asks not for wealth, nor honor, nor exemption from trouble, but to be qualified for the service of G-d and his generation, For his spirit, because he was to be a prophet in his room, to carry on his work, to father the sons of the prophets and face their enemies, because he had the same perverse generation to deal with that he had, so that, if he have not his spirit, he has not strength according to the day. For a double portion of his spirit; he does not mean double to what Elijah had, but double to what the rest of the prophets had, from whom so much would not be expected as from Elisha, who had been brought up under Elijah. This request was not for the power of working miracles exceeding the magnitude and number of his master's, nor does it mean a higher endowment of the prophetic spirit; for Elisha was neither superior to, nor perhaps equally great with, his predecessor. He alludes to the double portion of the first - born, 21:17. But though Elisha desired no more, yet G-d gave him more than he desired or expected; and he seems to have had a greater portion of the gifts of G-d's Spirit, than even Elijah had.
Elijah promised him that which he asked, but under two provisos.
(1.) Provided he put a due value upon it and esteem it highly: this he teaches him to do by calling it a hard thing, not too hard for G-d to do, but too great for him to expect. Those are best prepared for spiritual blessings that are most sensible of their worth and their own unworthiness to receive them.
(2.) Provided he kept close to his master, even to the last, and was observant of him: If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so, otherwise not.
Being a diligent attendance upon his master’s instructions, and a careful observance of his example, particularly now in his last scene, were the condition and would be a proper means of obtaining much of his spirit. Taking strict notice of the manner of his ascension would likewise be of great use to him.
Elijah is carried up to heaven in a fiery chariot. Like Enoch, he was translated, that he should not see death; and was the second man that leaped the fate of death.
Chariot of fire was some bright effulgence, which, in the eyes of the spectators, resembled those objects. What convoy his L-rd sent for him— a chariot of fire and horses of fire, which appeared either descending upon them from the clouds, that he may ride in state, may ride in triumph, like a prince, like a conqueror, yea, more than a conqueror. The angels are called in Scripture Cherubim and Seraphim, and their appearance here, though it may seem below their dignity, answers to both those names;
(1.) Seraphim signify fiery, and G-d is said to make them a flame of fire, Ps. 104:4.
(2.) Cherubim (as many think) signify chariots, and they are called the chariots of G-d (Ps. 68:17), and he is said to ride upon a cherub (Ps. 18:10). The chariot and horses appeared like fire, not for burning, but brightness, not to torture or consume him, but to render his ascension conspicuous and illustrious in the eyes of those that stood afar off to view it. Elijah had burned with holy zeal for G-d and His honor, and now with a heavenly fire he was refined and translated.
(3.) How he was separated from Elisha. This chariot parted them both asunder. Note the dearest friends must part. Elisha had protested he would not leave him, yet now is left behind by him.
(4.) Whither he was carried. He went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Went up by a whirlwind could be a tempest or storm wind accompanied with vivid flashes of fire, figuratively used for the divine judgments (Isaiah 29:6).
By this instance, and that of Enoch,
(1.) G-d showed how men should have left the world if they had not sinned, not by death, but by a translation.
(2.) He gave a glimpse of that life and immortality which are brought to light by the gospel, of the glory reserved for the bodies of the saints, and the opening of the kingdom of heaven to all believers, as then to Elijah. It was also a figure of the Messiah’s ascension.
When Elijah was subsequently taken up into heaven by the whirlwind of a chariot and horses of fire, his Tallit fell from him. Elisha took up that symbol of prophetic authority. One could see that the mantle had passed and that the authority that had covered Elijah now rested upon Elisha. The mantle was a material channel for demonstrating the power of G-d’s Word that he had breathed into the prophet’s life. In Elisha’s case, this authority was manifest in exactly twice the number of miracles that Elijah had performed, a genuine double portion of his mentor’s anointing. The Tallit as a mantle of anointing and authority had passed from the mentor to the student. He was going to a world where he needed not the mantle to adorn him, or to shelter him from the weather, or to wrap his face in, as 1 Kg. 19:13. He left his mantle as a legacy to Elisha, and, though in itself it was of small value, yet as it was a token of the descent of the Spirit upon him. Elisha took it up, not as a sacred relic to be worshipped; he loved this cloak ever since it was first cast over him, 1 Kg. 19:19. G-d so ordering it for Elisha's comfort, and the strengthening of his faith, as a pledge, that together with Elijah's mantle, his Spirit should rest upon him and it was an outward token to others of the spirit of Elijah resting upon him.