Sometimes people get to reflecting on how they might like to depart from this world. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a morbid thought. It can be a normal thing to wonder about every once in a while.
Anyone would love to go as the prophet Elijah went! As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. (2 Kings 2:11)
Elijah sure knew how to make an exit. Although, of course, it was God’s plan . . . . and God’s power to take him up to eternal glory in that special way.
It’s amazing to think that Elijah, a human prophet, was able to escape death by God’s grace, even though Jesus, the Son of God, was not. That tells us Jesus’ death as God and man was intentional. And it was glorious, too. More glorious than Elijah’s journey to heaven in a whirlwind with chariots and horses of fire, more glorious than the moment of Jesus’ Transfiguration on the mountain, was Jesus’ sacrificial death. The greatest victory of all time over the power of sin, death and the devil.
Since almost all people born on earth will also pass through death, Jesus died. So that we are forgiven, and will go to eternity with him. Elijah’s type of “exit” is not likely to be part of our bio. However it happens, or whenever it occurs, in our case it will also be glorious! The spirit immediately returns to God (Ecclesiastes 12:7), and then on the Last Day our bodies will come out of the tombs and we will soar up in the air to meet our Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). That’s God’s promise, not for a select few, but for all those who believe in Jesus as their Savior from sin and death.
Elijah is a testament to the glorious resurrection when hundreds of years after he was taken to heaven he was still alive (and still is today) and brought by God to the Mount of Transfiguration before the disciples. We will meet him someday too by God’s grace in Christ.