The Chariot of Fire

A few nights ago as I was sitting in my sons’ room as they were trying to go to sleep, my five year old asked me out of the blue something to the effect of, “Dad, when we die, do we really go to heaven in a wagon with horses?”  He had recently watched an animated Bible video of Elijah and had seen a depiction of Elijah going to heaven in a chariot of fire.  The scripture records the event this way: “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.  And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof” (2 Kings 2:11-12).  I talked with my boys about the event and how I wasn’t sure that we would go to heaven the same way.  My son suggested that perhaps great-grandma would go to heaven that way when she dies, and who knows, maybe he is right? 

               So why was Elijah taken into heaven in a chariot of fire?  One reason of course is that he needed his physical body so that he could return to the earth to lay hands on Peter, James, and John.  In the Doctrine and Covenants we read that he “was taken to heaven without tasting death” and the description of the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew records that Peter, James, and John saw “Moses and Elias,” where Elias in this translation is apparently the Greek form of Elijah (D&C 110:13, Matthew 17:3).  Elijah needed his body to be able to come back to the earth and remit keys to the apostles, and surely that is one of the reasons that he was taken up into heaven in that fashion.  I wonder if there isn’t more symbolism to the event, though.  Elisha was the one to witness this miraculous ascent into heaven, and then sometime later Elisha witnesses something similar.  In the midst of the war with Syria, the king of Syria was trying to capture Elisha, and he sent “horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about” where Elisha was.  The servant of Elisha was naturally alarmed that they were surrounded, but Elisha knew the Lord and His hosts would save them.  We read that “Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:14-17).  Those heavenly horses and chariots protected the prophet and his servant and blinded the hosts of Syria.  I have to wonder if Elisha didn’t take a quick look to see if Elijah wasn’t in the midst of those angelic chariots.  These two stories—Elisha watching Elijah going to heaven and this miraculous protection of Elisha against the Syrians—are the only two in scripture that speak of chariots of fire from heaven, and surely it is not just a coincidence that Elisha witnessed them both.  Perhaps we learn from this that the faithful who leave this life will continue to serve the Lord in the next.  And, if this story is any indication, those we have loved who have passed on just might be allowed to help us when we need it most.