When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”
“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”

• 2 Kings 2:9-10

Elijah and Elisha were two prominent prophets in the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings.  They both performed miracles, or really, God performed miracles through them.  Some of these miracles were unique to that prophet, but a few of these miracles were the same kind of thing, maybe done a little differently.

The question is, for each miracle listed, who did it?  And the answers are Elijah, Elisha, or both.

There will not be a Bible reference section as the Scripture above is basically the hand-off between the two prophets, anything happening prior to that would be Elijah, and anything happening after that would be Elisha, for the most part.  And if there were two Biblical references shown, it would be a dead give-away that it was both.  In fact, rather than answering the questions, the answers will be the Bible references in the columns for Elijah, Elisha, or both.

For the advanced quiz, describe what the differences were on the miracles that both prophets shared.

The Questions:

#	Miracle	Elijah	Elisha	Both
1	Ascending into heaven on a whirlwind
2	Being fed by ravens
3	Causing a barrel to never be empty of meal
4	Causing an axe to float
5	Causing fire from heaven to consume 50 soldiers – twice
6	Causing fire from heaven to consume the altar
7	Curing Naaman of Leprosy
8	Deceiving the Moabites with water that looked like blood
9	Filling a valley with water without it raining
10	Having two bears maul some boys from Bethel
11	Healing the waters
12	Making a gourd (or pot) full of bad food good to eat
13	Multiplying loaves of bread
14	Parting the Jordan river
15	Providing enough oil for a widow to feed her household
16	Resurrection of the son
17	Resurrection of a corpse that touched the prophet’s bones after he was dead
18	Smiting the Syrian army with blindness

Elisha requested a double portion of the Spirit and Elijah promised that if he saw what was about to happen he would receive it. Of the miracles above, not all that are recorded for either of them, there are twice as many attributed to Elisha alone than to Elijah alone. That is close to the ratio in the Bible itself, but I made it exactly that due to my whimsical nature.

We could probably write a post or two with conjecture as to why Elisha had a double portion. Was it that he had certainty that God was real, because he was an eyewitness to a whirlwind carrying Elijah away while a flaming chariot prevented Elisha from joining him? Or, as I can imagine, Elisha was so filled with the desire to knw God more that God granted his desire.

We limit ourselves only in the amount of desire that we express for God to fill us with Himself. We have the capacity, but do we hold back, not allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us to the brim. I ought to know people are like that. I was told by my own family to not get too crazy about Jesus, or it would hurt my business career. It is not that the others in the family were not believers, but they had been working for a number of years and they knew the problems that arise.

And it is very sad when someone puts a limit on the amount of God that they can receive and they never get to experience the amount of God that God offers.

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The Answers:

Since all answers are noted by a Bible reference from either 1 Kings or 2 Kings, an abbreviation to 1K and 2 K will be used.

#	Miracle	Elijah	Elisha	Both
1	Ascending into heaven on a whirlwind	2 K 2:11	…	…
2	Being fed by ravens	1 K 17:2-6	…	…
3	Causing a jar to never be empty of meal	1 K 17:14-16	…	…
4	Causing an axe to float	…	2 K 6:1-7	…
5	Causing fire from heaven to consume 50 soldiers – twice	2 K 1:9-12	…	…
6	Causing fire from heaven to consume the altar	1 K 18:30-38	…	…
7	Curing Naaman of Leprosy	…	2 K 5:1-18	…
8	Deceiving the Moabites with water that looked like blood	…	2 K 3:21-24	…
9	Filling a valley with water without it raining	…	2 K 3:14-20	…
10	Having two bears maul some boys from Bethel	…	2 K 2:23-25	,,,
11	Healing the waters	…	2 K 2:19-22	,,,
12	Making a gourd (or pot) full of bad food good to eat	…	2 K 4:38-41	,,,
13	Multiplying loaves of bread	…	2 K 4:42-44	,,,
14	Parting the Jordan river	…	…	2 K 2:8 and 2 K 2:14
15	Providing enough oil for a widow to feed her household	…	…	1 K 17:14-16 and 1 K 4:1-7
16	Resurrection of the son	…	…	1 K 17:17-24 and 2 K 4:20-27
17	Resurrection of a corpse that touched the prophet’s bones after he was dead	…	2 K 13:20-21	…
18	Smiting the Syrian army with blindness	…	2 K 6:8-19	…

The Advanced Answers:

The parting of the Jordan river was identical even using Elijah’s cloak in both cases.

As for the oil, both involved a seemingly never-ending jug of oil.  In Elijah’s case, the jug of oil and the jar of meal kept making more bread until the famine was over, always having enough left for another loaf of bread.  In Elisha’s case, the widow had debts to pay first, so the jug of oil was poured into every empty jar that she could find.  They sold the oil, paid the debts, and lived on what was left.

And the differences in the resurrection of a woman’s son, in Elijah’s case, he laid upon the boy three times, and the boy was the son of a widow.  Elisha had prophesied that the Shunamite woman would give birth, but after the boy died, thus the woman was not a widow, just previously barren.  Then Elisha only laid upon the boy once and the boy became warm and woke up.

Since you did so well, enjoy this Booth Brothers classic, He Saw It All.  I get chills each time I hear this song, about someone who saw the miracles of Jesus.

There are a lot of songs entitled, Miracles.  Here is one from the Newsboys.

And here is another from Colton Dixon.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.