Go Up, You Baldhead!
A Sermon by the Rev. James P. Cooper
As he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and
mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you
baldhead!” So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced
a curse on them in the name of the Lord. (2 Kings 2:23-24)
T
he second book of the Kings is one of those books that speaks of one
important event after another in just a few words. It begins with the events
immediately following Elijah calling Elisha to follow him. They travel from
Bethel to Gilgal to Jericho, and finally to the fords of Jordan, looking for God
to call Elijah into heaven. Once Elijah causes the river to stop flowing and they
cross over to the other side, he is indeed taken up in a whirlwind.
Elisha knows that he will have a “double portion” of Elijah’s power because
he has been permitted to witness Elijah’s ascension. He immediately tests his
power by striking the Jordan with the mantle he had received from Elijah, and
the waters stop so that he may cross over into the land on dry feet – just as it
happened when Joshua led the children of Israel into the land for the first time.
Elisha begins his ministry by entering Jericho. There he hears from the
men of the city that although the city itself is pleasant, its water supply is bad,
and the land surrounding the city is barren. Elisha solves all their problems
simply by asking for a new vessel filled with water, and then adding salt to
it. We’re told that by this Elisha healed the water of Jericho for all time. The
Heavenly Doctrines explain the miracle this way:
Elisha represented the Lord as to the Word … ‘Waters’ signify the truths of faith,…
thus ‘evil waters’ signify truths without good, and ‘a barren land’ signifies the good
of the church consequently not alive; ‘a new cruse,’ that is, a new vessel, signifies
knowledges of good and truth; ‘salt’ signifies the longing of truth for good; ‘the
outlet of the waters’ signifies the natural of man which receives the knowledges of
truth and good, and which is amended by the longing of truth for good. From all
this it is evident that this miracle infolded within it the amendment of the church
and of the life by the Lord through the Word, and through the consequent longing
of truth for good; which amendment is effected when from such a longing the man’s
natural receives truths from the Word. (Arcana Coelestia 9325:9-10)
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