Elisha's Bones

When the body touched Elisha’s bones,

the man came to life and stood up on his feet.

2 Kings 13:21

Now there is a curious little story in 2 Kings 13. Elisha was a prophet, the successor of Elijah. In the area where Elisha's body was buried, Moabite raiders used to raid every Spring. A burial party had come to bury someone in nearby graves, and spied these raiders. So in fear, they tossed the body into Elisha's grave and ran.

When the dead man touched Elisha's bones, he returned to life.

Now this is the sort of passage that a lot of people would scarcely even pay attention to. Some miracle in some long gone time when people were superstitious. A modern person would tend to skim over this part to find some more relevant moral passage later on.

However, this passage troubled me for a long time. It does not say that G-d raised the man from the dead, because then the bones would be irrelevant. If G-d wanted to raise the man, or even keep him from dying, He could have done so long before the funeral. G-d did not raise the man directly, the bones raised him.

This is the sort of thing one could pass over easily. "The bones raised him, G-d raised him, whatever." Indeed the power could only come from G-d originally. I think though that it is a mistake to pass over this, because this in context with Elisha's life and Elijah's is telling.

G-d delegates power to those He wishes to. He then holds them responsible for the power they have been given, but it has legitimately been delegated to them. And they are responsible for how they use it. They use that power directly, themselves, because it has been given to them. Even to their bones.

We see in Samuel, G-d in no way wanted Israel to have a king. G-d should be their king, as indeed G-d should be the king of us all. However G-d found a way to use their weakness, and brought forth David to whom G-d delegated power. Arguably that power is still delegated to David, or rather to his unnamed future successor King on David's behalf.

We see this idea of inheritance in Exodus: G-d decides not to destroy the Israelites, for the sake of one long dead. For the sake of Abraham. For Abraham's sake, he does not wipe them out and forget all about the Hebrews.

From which we can draw another conclusion: sometimes G-d does not delegate power to someone because of their own merit or His closeness to them, but because of someone else. Before Elijah was swept up in a whirlwind. G-d delegated Elijah's power and more to Elisha.

Elijah was swept up in a whirlwind, he was removed from this Earth by G-d directly. He was taken alive into heaven. Only one other person in the whole Tanakh left the Earth in that way: the patriarch Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. That's pretty rarified company. Elisha was not swept up by G-d, he got sick and died like any other man. 2 Kings 13 explicitly says he got sick and died. Yet Elisha is said to have performed twice as many miracles as Elijah. G-d gave him a double portion of power for the sake of Elijah.

I don't think Elijah was much of a people person, so it may just have been that Elisha got out more. You don't get as many opportunities for performing miracles when you are living in a cave shaking your fist at the evil works of Man. ;) I definitely relate more to Elijah myself, I am not a people person either. I am trying to fix that in certain senses, but it's slow going.

So getting back on point, G-d did not raise that man directly. He delegated the power to Elisha, and Elisha raised that dead man, even though Elisha himself was dead. 

The realities of human nature are all too clear in the Tanakh. Humans are susceptible to sin and they are usually more than susceptible. They revel in it. Humans are double-hearted and selfish, liars and violent. As Psalm 14 says:

The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind

to see if there are any who understand,

any who seek God.

All have turned away, all have become corrupt;

there is no one who does good, not even one.

~Psalm 14:2-3

Given this fact, why on Earth would G-d delegate power to any mortal? Is that not a terrible mistake?

G-d delegates power because this was always His intention from the beginning. Man was intended to be the prince of the Earth in a similar way to how G-d is king over all. That is part of the meaning of the statement that we were made in G-d's image. We were meant to govern Earth, rule it benignly, to uplift the world of plants and animals and waters and earth through our wise governing. Clearly that has worked out very poorly, but that was always the plan and still is. We were meant to be gardener-kings or perhaps gardener-guardians would be a better term. Considering how evil human kings usually are, perhaps the latter term. However, humility and meekness is so great a virtue in part because humans on the whole are incapable of using power wisely. At least the humble do not err.

Which brings us to another reason why power is delegated. G-d also sometimes delegates power because a man with power who does not fear G-d is a man who is bound for his own destruction. He delegates power to someone to facilitate their destruction. He hands them the rope to hang themselves with. Success in life does not always mean the approval of G-d, sometimes it is G-d giving you the opportunity to destroy yourself. The examples are too innumerable to count. Kings, dictators, titans of industry, famous people, rich people. Their power and success is the preamble to their destruction. Sometimes he delegates power to punish someone or to allow the powerful to punish someone. One might assume that King Nebuchadnezzar was not a particularly holy man, but G-d gave him power that he might punish Israel. The Tanakh is full of such instances.

So it was the bones that raised that man, it was Elisha who raised him, even being dead. He was legitimately delegated power and was legitimately liable for how he used it. Let us all be very certain before power or success or money touches our lives that we fear G-d; only then can we use such power for blessing. It is not for nothing that it is said that the Lord blesses the meek. It is often better for us to be powerless or to not use power than to have opportunity to be destroyed by power.

But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.

~Psalm 37:11