So WHERE did the whirlwind carry Elijah? Doesn’t the text clearly say, “Elijah went up by a whirlwind (not a fiery chariot) INTO HEAVEN?” Yep, it sure does, but then one must ask which heaven, as the Bible clearly indicates that there are THREE heavens. The apostle Paul mentions “a man in Christ….caught up to the third heaven,” calling the same “paradise.” (See 2 Corinthians 12:2). The man he speaks of is himself. Read the entire chapter. It is only a matter of conjecture and deduction that one surmises the second heaven must be that limitless expanse of outer space wherein are the billions of galaxies and other heavenly bodies (asteroids, comets, etc.) The first heaven would then be the atmosphere around this planet, what we normally call the sky. And THAT is where the whirlwind took Elijah, and, like the 8-year-old boy mentioned in Part 4 of this series of articles, Elijah may well have been lifted only a hundred feet, or so, into the sky. Maybe not that high, maybe higher. At any rate, you will soon see from the scriptures that Elijah was transported to another place on earth, not heaven.
I must tie up some loose ends in this account before looking at the text that proves Elijah did not ascend to the heaven of God’s throne in a whirlwind, a fiery chariot, or even a space shuttle.
One must consider the meaning of the Hebrew word “shameh” that is translated by the English word “heaven” in the 2 Kings 2 account. That same Hebrew word is translated “air” in Genesis 1:26, 28, as well as Genesis 2:19-20, Deuteronomy 4:17 and Proverbs 30:19. It should also have been translated as “air” in the 2 Kings 2 text. Translating shameh as heaven in that text has led to a world of confusion. The whirlwind caught Elijah up into the air – NOT heaven, at least not the third heaven, the abode of God.
Many fail to realize that the Old Testament books of 1st and 2nd Chronicles and 1st and 2nd Kings are parallel accounts and must all be consulted in order to get the fullest picture presented in these texts. Elijah doesn’t surface again in the book of 2 Kings, leading many to think that having been caught away by the whirlwind Elijah is forever gone and gone to heaven. Hold on, folks. Elijah does surface again but only the Chronicles text provides this revelation. As Paul Harvey would have said, you need to hear the rest of the story.
In 2 Chronicles the 21st chapter, beginning with verse 12, we read these words: “And a letter came to him (King Jehoram of Judah) FROM ELIJAH the prophet, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God of your father David, because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of Ahab, and also have killed your brothers (in order to secure the throne), those of your father’s household, who were better than yourself, behold, the Lord will strike your people with a serious affliction – your children, your wives, and all your possessions, and you will become very sick with a disease of your intestines, until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness, day by day'” (2 Chronicles 21: 1-15, New King James Version).
Due to the blow-by-blow describing of what King Jehoram had done, and considering that his reign lasted only eight years, it is obvious this letter was written toward the end of his short reign, yet Elijah’s catching away by a whirlwind took place around the second year of Jehoram’s reign! Elijah is well aware of what is happening in Israel and Judah years after being separated from Elisha, even writing a letter to King Jehoram long after the 2 Kings account. It is also interesting to note that this account in 2 Chronicles is the ONLY mention of Elijah in all of Chronicles and that Elisha is not mentioned at all in Chronicles.
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley