2 Kings 6:1-7 (Please open your Bibles to this passage which we will read in a couple of minutes)
Where does Elisha fall in the unfolding of the history of the nation of Israel?
Creation
The great flood - Noah
Abraham - Isaac - Jacob
Joseph
Moses
Joshua
The Judges
Samuel
The Unified Kingdom - Saul, David, Solomon
The Divided Kingdom
Elijah
Elisha
The rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem
400 years of silence
John the Baptist
Jesus
(Read the main Scripture at this point)
Elisha was a major prophet in the time of the divided kingdom and he was used to not only prophecy to the kings of both kingdoms but was also used to attempts to “teach, rebuke, correct and train in righteousness” the kings.
2 Kings 6:1 NIV
“The company of the prophets said to Elisha, ‘Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us.’”
Elisha was a prophet.
At the time of Elisha there were no Pharisees or Sadducees; there were Priests, Levites and Prophets.
Levites served the Lord by tending to the tabernacle and later the temple and synagogues
Priests interceded for the people by offering the required sacrifices
Prophets brought messages of instruction and correction from God and sometimes interceded for people
There were faithful prophets who were called by the Lord and obeyed
There were prophets who the Lord called to be prophets who refused
and there were those who claimed to be prophets who were not called by the LORD.
Some faithful prophets were:
Samuel who oversaw the transition from the time of the Judges to the time of the Kings of Israel. (Illustration: God said to Samuel - they are not rejecting you but Me.)
Elijah who prophesied during the time of King Ahab.
Jeremiah was a reluctant prophet - (persecuted by Pashhur the Priest)
Jeremiah 20:9 NIV
“But if I [Jeremiah] say, ‘I will not mention [the LORD’s] word or speak anymore in His name,’ His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”
King David was a man who was not a prophet per se but the Lord would move him to prophecy occasionally as he wrote many of the Psalms.
Nathan confronted King David in his great sin but never wrote Scripture
But today we’re talking about Elisha and it appears that not only was he the chief prophet in Israel and Judah but he ran a school of prophets.
There were unfaithful prophets like Jonah
2 Kings 6:1 NIV
“The company of the prophets said to Elisha, ‘Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us.’”
This would be like a Bible College for pastors today. It even might be like our District Ministerial Studies which was taught by pastors on the District.
Today there are pastors who are called to be pastors by the Lord and pastors who are not called to be pastors by the Lord.
There are people who are called by the Lord to be pastors who have refused to heed the call and others who even look on the pastorate as some sort of social work; these pastors may not even be believers just as false prophets of the OT were unfaithful to the GOD of Israel.
Lynne Blackburn is a good example of someone who has followed the leading of the Lord whole heartedly.
We did not ask her here to just tell us her life story as amazing as that is.
We asked her here because she has lived a life of total abandon to the leading of the Lord and this is a great testimony.
Since the day the Lord spoke to her about abandoning her American life and following her to some very harsh places Lynne has done her best to follow the leading of the Lord no matter what the costs. She says, in private, that it sounds like an adventure but in reality it is very hard work.
It is humbling to hear such a testimony when reflecting on my own life.
Anyway, the school of prophets that Elisha was leading was too small and they needed to build a bigger one.
So, what did they decide?
2 Kings 6:2-4 NIV
“ Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to meet.” And [Elisha] said, “Go.”
“Then one of them said, ‘Won’t you please come with your servants?’
‘I will,’ Elisha replied. And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees.”
OK. So, that’s interesting but what’s really interesting happens next.
2 Kings 6:5 NIV
“As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. ‘Oh no, my lord!’ he cried out. ‘It was borrowed!’”
Now, we don’t know how deep the water was or how wide the river was or how mucky the bottom was. (Have you ever stepped into a pond or slow running river where you sunk into the muck up to your knee?)
All we know is that from his statement he thought the axhead was irrecoverable.
I don’t know what the Jewish law was regarding borrowing a tool and then breaking or losing it but I am sure that there was one.
It is also very likely that a student prophet was poor and that axheads were expensive.
I remember one time when our children were little and we were able to just make ends meet that something similar happened to me. Just to give you a clue as to how little money we had we had two TV’s in our living room; one for picture and one for sound. And, Karenlee had a car that was given to her by her grandmother and we only filled that car up once a month and that was when gas was $.50 per gallon.
Anyway, I needed to bore a long hole of about 3” in diameter and I borrowed an expansive bit from our neighbor. An expansive bit is like a wood auger but is expandable or adjustable. The bit was old and of course it broke.
I could not take the broken one back to him so I went out and bought a new one and gave it to him. Wow. That was hard but it was the right thing to do.
I only tell you that because it gives me some empathy for the fellow who lost the axhead.
And, while we’re on the subject, replacing lost or broken tools that have been borrowed is nothing heroic, it’s just the proper thing to do.
And, while we’re on the subject, bankruptcy is the same thing, borrowed money lost and not repaid. Bankruptcy is rampant these days.
And even though bankruptcy may get you out of legally paying the lenders back it doesn’t get the Christian out of the moral obligation to repay the lender. It may take the rest of your life but if you put your hand to an agreement you did so before the Lord and are accountable to Him.
Anyway back to Elisha and his band of student prophets …
2 Kings 6:6 NIV
“The man of God asked, ‘Where did it fall?’ When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float.”
Come on!!!! You’ve gotta be kidding, right???
He threw in a stick and the axhead floated????
Here is a little story that many people will attempt to explain away or try to say it is just an analogy or illustration.
Let me ask you a question … How big is your God?
The Lord God created laws for us.
He gave us the moral law - the Ten Commandments - still in effect for us
He gave us the ceremonial law such as when a person who touches the dead body of another person shall be unclean for seven day and cannot enter the house of the Lord until he is purified - no longer in effect since Christ
He gave us physical laws such as gravity and inertia.
The Lord cannot break the moral laws because to do so would violate His holy character. God cannot sin.
The Lord has in effect nullified the ceremonial laws for us since Christ has now released us from the ceremonial law and replaced it with the law of love and relationship with Him.
But the laws of physics are another thing. It would not be immoral for the Lord to break the laws of physics.
The laws of physics tell us that gravity has an effect on water and iron and that since iron is more dense than water iron will sink when placed into water.
We’re talking about a hunk of iron here like an axhead and not something hollow like a ship.
So, if the Lord needed to violate a physical law in order to make an axhead float it would not be sinful it would just be a miracle beyond our understanding.
Or, maybe … just maybe … the Lord knows something about the laws of physics that is beyond all of the self proclaimed intellectual geniuses of our day.
So, we need to ask ourselves once again, “How big is our God?”
Could He make an axhead float in water or is He only capable of doing what we can understand which makes Him no God at all.
Actually, that would make Him a god formed in our image … idolatry …
How big is your God? Is He the God of the Bible who can …
Create the world and all in it with the word of His mouth?
Part the Red Sea?
Make water come from a rock?
Send fire from heaven to burn up a sacrifice
Cause the sun to stand still
Cause the shadow to move backwards
Is He the God of the Bible who would actually send His own Son to shed His own blood and give His very life so that you and you and you and I can be forgiven and find eternal life?
What happened when the Lord caused the axhead to float?
2 Kings 6:7 NIV says
“‘Lift it out,’ [Elisha] said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.”
The student prophet just reached out his hand and took it.
He didn’t give glory to Elisha.
In simple childlike faith he just accepted the miracle of the gift of a floating axhead from God.
The world will tell you that you are a simpleton idiot if you believe stories.
The world will tell you that you are a simpleminded fool to believe that there is any god at all let alone this absurd God of the Bible who sent His Son to save you.
So, what are you going to do with this?
Concluding comments and invitation if the Lord leads.
