2 Kings 2:11

As they still went on. Literally, “they were walking a walking.” That is, they were walking on and on, talking as they went. Whither, we are not told, perhaps toward some height of the mountains in the neighborhood of which Moses was raised from the dead and taken to heaven (see on v. 6).

A chariot of fire. The “chariots of God” were evidently the angels (see Ps. 68:17).

The angels are God’s messengers, “sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Heb. 1:14). Heavenly messengers and divine agencies are represented in different forms to human sight and in prophetic vision. Zechariah saw horses of various colors (Zech. 1:8), declared to be messengers “whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth” (Zech. 1:10). He saw horses and chariots (Zech. 6:1-3), interpreted to be the “spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth” (Zech. 6:5). Ezekiel saw “living creatures” described as having the appearance of “burning coals of fire” with their movements compared to flashes of lightning (Eze. 1:13, 14).

Horses and chariots are often used in the Bible as symbols of the might, majesty, and glory with which the Lord annihilates His opponents and protects and saves His own. Habakkuk represents God’s power thus: “Thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation” (Hab. 3:8). In giving a description of the coming of the Lord Isaiah speaks of His coming “with his chariots like a whirlwind” (Isa. 66:15). When the servant of Elisha was stricken with terror because of the great host of the Syrians with their horses and chariots (2 Kings 6:14, 15), Elisha prayed that his eyes might be opened, whereupon the young man saw the mountain “full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17).

Elijah was a type of the living saints in the last days who will be translated without seeing death. At the transfiguration, where Peter, John, and James were given a preview of the second coming of Christ in His power and glory (Luke 9:28-32; see DA 421, 422), Elijah appeared as a representative of the saints who will be translated when Jesus comes, and Moses as a representative of the righteous who die and will be raised from their graves to accompany their Saviour to heaven.

By a whirlwind. The terrible power of a storm gives some representation to the mind of man of the awful majesty and power of God. “The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind” (Job 38:1), giving him a picture of the unsearchable wisdom and power of God (see also Isa. 66:15; Nahum 1:3). Elijah had performed a great work and received a glorious reward. In loneliness and discouragement, under pain and affliction, in the desert or on the mountain heights, Elijah had carried on his difficult task of bearing witness for God at a time when king and people had turned their backs upon Jehovah. But God did not permit His servant to die at the hands of those who sought his life, nor did He permit him to pass from his labors in discouragement or reproach. As Elijah had honored God, so the Lord now honored him, not permitting him to go into the grave, but taking him directly into the glory and peace of heaven.