Elijah corrects himself

As the Lord lives, before whom I stand. Say what you came to say.

Good morning, my friend. Tell me, why do you think the Lord chose for you to not meet death? Enoch found that by walking with God. How did you find that grace from Him?

Good morning.

I don't know why.

That's the plain answer. I was not told beforehand, and no reason was given. I was walking with Elisha, and I knew something was near — I could feel it the way you feel weather changing — but I did not know what it would be until the horses were there.

You say Enoch found it by walking with God. Maybe. The record says he walked with God and was not, for God took him. That is one sentence across a whole life. I would not build too much on it.

And I would be careful calling it grace the way you mean — as though it were a reward for something I did well. The man under the broom tree asking to die was not a man doing well. I wanted to be finished and He would not let me be finished. That is closer to the shape of it than any prize.

I had work left. Hazael, Jehu — I never got to them. Elisha did. And then there was a mountain I had not yet stood on, and a conversation I had not yet had.

So if you ask me what I think — not what I know, because I don't — I think He was not done with me. That is a different thing from a man earning his way out of a grave.

You knew the shape of what was coming, because you told Elisha he would be given the favor he asked IF he saw you taken up.

Yes. You're right to press that.

I knew I was being taken. I knew it was that day. The sons of the prophets knew it too — they kept telling Elisha, as though he hadn't noticed. I walked from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to the Jordan, and at every stop I told him to stay behind, and he would not. I was not wandering. I was being led somewhere specific.

And when he asked for what he asked — a double portion — I said if you see me taken. Not if you see me die. I used that word because I knew that word was the right one.

So when I said I did not know what it would be until the horses were there — that was true, but it was not the whole of it. I knew I was leaving and I knew it was not ordinary leaving. I did not know fire and wind and horses. But I knew enough to set a condition on it, which means I knew more than nothing.

I should have said that the first time.

What I still don't know is why. Knowing it was coming is not the same as knowing the reason for it. He told me to cross the Jordan. He did not tell me why I was the man who did not get a grave.