Superhero Sidekicks: Biblical Characters Who Did Big and Small Things for GodSample

Elisha

Elisha started as a sidekick to Elijah, an amazing prophet of God. Elijah taught him the ropes for being God’s prophet because Elisha was going to replace Elijah when he was gone. 

But Elijah didn’t die; he was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. How cool is that? 

On the day that Elijah was going to be taken up to heaven, he asked Elisha if there was anything he could do before he left. Elisha responded with: “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit and become your successor” (2 Kings 2:9b). 

You might be wondering, “What does it mean to ‘inherit a double portion of your spirit’? And what’s a successor?” Basically, Elisha was asking that God would make him twice as powerful as Elijah, and that he’d be named God’s next prophet to Israel.

Elijah told him that was a difficult request, but if Elisha was able to see the moment that Elijah was taken up to heaven, he’d get that double power (2 Kings 2:11).

Elisha went from being a sidekick to one of the greatest prophets in Israel’s history, performing amazing miracles like bringing a boy back to life (2 Kings 4:18-37), feeding 100 people from just 20 loaves of bread (2 Kings 4:42-44), multiplying a widow's oil (2 Kings 4:1-7), and so many more.

Sometimes being a sidekick means that you’re training for the bigger task of being a superhero one day. No matter what you do, if you do it for God’s glory, amazing things can happen. 

Family focus:

• What’s one thing that you’ve trained for? Maybe it was a race, a sport, or something else.
• Is there someone in your life who could teach you more about Jesus and how to serve Him well?