«It happened that while they were walking and talking, a chariot of fire, with horses of fire, separated them both, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind». (2 Kings 2:11)
Elijah contemplated great miracles of God throughout his life. But the most extraordinary happened at the end of his passage through this world, since the Lord snatched it in a chariot of fire where it ascended to the heavens in an imposing whirlwind. The religious reform was practically finished, the new kings of Syria and Israel anointed and Eliseo, his successor, had already been in his company for several years. The time to seal his brilliant ministry had come, but not as he had requested in Horeb wishing death, but with all the glory that is promised to the faithful children of God. There, in the solitude of the mountain, the presence of God manifested itself to the dejected prophet in the calm and delicate whistle; this time by the Jordan, in the sight of his servant Elisha, in a flame of fire and great storm, anticipating as in a miniature the glorious return of Jesus to this world.
The verisimilitude of the fact does not offer place to doubts. There was a witness who saw him, Elisha, and who, being separated from Elijah in such an extraordinary way, exclaimed: "My father, my father! Cart of Israel and its cavalry! And he never saw it again "(2 Kings 2:12). Fifty strong men of the sons of the prophets sought him for three days everywhere, but to no avail. He did not see Elias again; nevertheless, he appeared centuries later on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses resurrected and Jesus glorified. Elijah had not died, rather, he had been purified and clothed with immortality by the divine fire, raptured to heaven to live eternally, as Paul says will happen at the Second Coming: "Then we who live, those who have stayed , we will be caught up together with them in the clouds to receive the Lord in the air, and thus we will always be with the Lord "(1 Thessalonians 4:17).
God, who never leaves things unfinished, granted Elisha a double portion of the spirit of Elijah. Ellen White says: "When in his providence the Lord sees fit to withdraw from his work those to whom he gave wisdom, he knows how to help and strengthen his successors, provided they expect help from him and walk in his ways"
