Elisha becomes Elijah's successor (2 Kings 2)

Elijah and Elisha walk from Bethel to Jericho to the Jordan River all in a single day.  In all this time, groups of prophets meet them and tell Elisha that Elijah will be taken away by God.  Elisha silences any mentioning of this.

They cross the Jordan river on dry land.  On other side, it is time for Elijah to leave. Elisha's last request from Elijah is that Elisha inherit a double portion of Elijah's spirit.  Elijah says that if Elisha sees him leave, then it is done.  Otherwise, no.  

Elisha sees Elijah leave on a flaming chariot that creates a whirlwind as it moves.  It takes Elijah into heaven and Elisha tears his clothes as they disappear from sight.

Elisha goes back to the Jordan and performs the same water-parting miracle that Elijah had done.  The other prophets present see this and state that Elisha is now Elijah's successor.  I guess that they did not see the flaming chariot, just Elijah.

An interesting question is if the flaming chariot is something that all people of God get when they die, but people just don't see what happens.  Or, was it something unique to Elijah since he did not actually die before being taken to heaven.  

Elisha's first recorded miracles after the water-parting were a time when he purified the agricultural water by Jericho by throwing salt into a spring.  He may have actually been undoing the curse of Joshua on Jericho.

Another early miracle is when a group of young kids yell at him, "go away baldy!". He curses them and two bears emerge and kill 42 of them.  Yikes.  Why did this happen?  Why kill the kids?  It marks an interesting contrast to the prior incident of purifying the water.  Elisha may have felt threatened by them and feared for this life.  The northern kingdom was still ravaged in a spiritual civil war with the king (Ahab, Ahazia) leading the people to Baal and only a handful of people were loyal to God (7,000, at least when Elijah hid on Mount Sinai).  So, I think Elisha felt threatened and in similar fashion to Elijah calling down fire on the two groups of fifty soldiers, bears maul these kids.

It also shows that Elisha is powerful.  Through God's spirit in him, he can divide and purify water or kill those trying to harm him.