TEXT: II Kings 6:1-7

SUBJECT: Elisha #11: Swimming Iron

There once was a prophet in Israel whose name was Elisha. Besides preaching the Word of God himself, he taught others to do it as well. One day, the young preachers came to him with a request: their dormitory was too small, and they wanted his permission to build a bigger one.

Of course, he gave it to them. But then they wanted a second favor. Would he go with them while they cut down the trees to build the new place?

Yes he would and down they went to the Jordan River. As they were chopping away, an accident occurred. An axe head slipped off the handle and was lost in the river. The man who lost it was beside himself with worry, for the axe head was borrowed, and he had no way of replacing it!

He turns to the prophet and begs for his help. Elisha wants to know just where it fell in. ‘Right there’ replied the worried man. Elisha then picked up a stick, put it where the axe head had fallen in, and (in the quaint words of the King James Bible), the iron did swim.

‘Pick it up’, said the prophet. Which the younger man did with a great surprise and a joy even greater.

That’s the story. If it can be told in ninety seconds, ninety lifetimes would not be enough to get to the bottom of it. Not because it is choked with mysteries, but because it is rich in grace. Let’s go over the story again, this time a lot slower, and with an eye to see what God is up to in it.

The main characters in the story are the sons of the prophets and Elisha. The ‘sons of the prophets’ are men training for the ministry. They have the gift of prophecy, but the gift needs developing, and so does the character of the men who possess it. This is what Elisha is doing, helping the men grow in the grace and knowledge of God.

The mere existence of these men is worth sitting up and taking notice of. This was a bad time in Israel. For nearly a hundred years, the people had been worshiping the Golden Calves, and even Baal now and then.

And God was not silent.

Over and over He called His People to repentance. He sent a prophet of wrath, Elijah, to warn the nation, but they did not heed the warning. He sent Elisha, a prophet of grace, to woo the people, but they would not come. He sent famines and wars to break their pride, but their pride was broken. He sent blessings to make them grateful, but they kept giving thanks to the gods who did not bless them!

Israel was ripe for judgment, and there is no judgment more severe than being left alone, without God and without His Word. But the judgment did not fall on them. The Lord was still raising up prophets, not to antagonize the people, but to save them. Some time later, He said,

For five hundred years, seven days a week, the Lord had gotten up at the crack of dawn to send His Word to Israel. And He’s still doing it! Because Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.

We ought to praise the Lord for His patience! Where would you be if He were as short-tempered as you are? Peter says we’re to

The fact that these men were still in Israel—and still at work—says something about their character. The word I’m looking for is hope. They had every reason to despair! Think of the miracles Elijah and Elisha had done, and how little effect they had had on the nation. If fire from heaven won’t convince the People, how can a mediocre sermon do it?

Yet the carried on in hope. Not because things were getting better, but because the Lord is God!

Especially when all seems hopeless.

The other man in our story is Elisha, who keeps the same hope kindled in his heart. If he has done greater things than the other men, he has also suffered greater disappointments. But he has not become bitter or given up hope.

He’s teaching the young men because he believes there is a future for Israel, a future that depends on the Word of God. Instead of sulking, therefore, and taking potshots at the People, he’s working for their salvation. He, too, is living in hope.

Are you doing that? Or, have you thrown in the towel? On your own salvation? On overcoming a stubborn sin? On winning a loved one to Christ? On having a good marriage? On Revival? We can hope for these things, and work for them, and pray for them because God is writing the Story, and though we don’t know what the next chapter will be, we do know the ending,

When you’re demoralized and ready to quit trying, remember the Psalm, 42:11,

If the devil is at work in Israel, so is the Lord. While the wickedness of the nation grows, so does the number of young prophets. In fact, there’s so many of them, they need a bigger place to stay. Off they go to the Jordan River to add on to their seminary. Because they love their Teacher, they ask him to go with them. Which he does.

And good thing, too! Because, while felling a tree, an axe head slips off the handle and sinks to the bottom of the Jordan River.

To you and me, this is no more than a nuisance. But it’s a lot more than that to the young prophet! Because blacksmiths were few and far between, iron tools were expensive, the prophet had no money, and the axe head was borrowed. In fact, it was more than ‘borrowed’. The Hebrew says it was begged.

It was lent to the man, it seems, rather reluctantly, and only after he had promised and sworn to bring it back. But now he couldn’t. And the neighbor he borrowed it from would be both very mad at him, and stuck! Assuming he was a farmer, how does a man make a living without an axe? In a time of deep and widespread poverty, losing the axe head was a big deal!

So he pours his heart out to Elisha—Alas, master, for it was borrowed! This tells you something about Elisha, the young prophet, and the Lord.

It says Elisha was not judgmental; he was the kind of man you could talk to. Had he been a hard man, he would have scolded the preacher for his carelessness. But he doesn’t do that.

It says the young prophet was a man of faith. He couldn’t retrieve the axe head, and he knew good and well that Elisha couldn’t either. But, in asking the man of God for help, he was appealing to the Lord. This means He believed the Lord cared for him personally—not just for the nation, but for him! He also believed God cared about the smaller things in life and not just the big, earthshaking ones. The Lord cares as much about axe heads as He does about empires.

This means we can pray about the little things in life and expect the Lord to help us in them. If He doesn’t, we’re sunk. Because the little things make up 99% of our lives, and if the Lord doesn’t care for the little things, He doesn’t care for us! But He does care for us. To people prone to worry, He said,

His Apostles pick up on the same theme. First Paul, then Peter,

John Newton as a hymn on this passage of Scripture. Verse eight goes like this,

In other words, we don’t pray because our needs are always big, but because God is always big!

Speaking of prayers, our man’s prayer is answered. A stick is cut down, stuck into the water, and the axe head rises to the surface. Where the man picks it up, thanks the Lord, and takes it back to the owner. Safe and sound.

What did the Israelite living way back then get out of this story? He learned two lessons.

First, the Lesson of Lordship.

God is Lord over nature. I never studied physics, but I bet you axe heads don’t normally float. There is a law working against them: the law of gravity. Which axe heads always obey.

But not God! He is not subject to natural laws and, when it pleases Him, He puts them on hold, reverses them, or does whatever He wants to with them! We see that here—and not only here!

The Bible contains a long list of Nature Miracles. Think of the sun and moon standing still for Joshua, or the sun dial going back ten degrees for Hezekiah, or the earthquake that swallowed up Korah and his gang, or the fire that didn’t burn up the Shadrach, Meschach, and Abed-nego, or the ninety year old woman who had a baby!

Even though God works in all mediums, He seems to take special pleasure in asserting His Lordship over water. He parted the Red Sea to get His people of Egypt. He parted the Jordan River to get them into the Promised Land. In the Wilderness, He brought water out of a rock. He opened springs for Hagar and Samson, He stirred up the Mediterranean to get His Word to Nineveh. When His Son came into the world, He walked on the Sea of Galilee and rebuked the waves: Peace, be still! All this of points to His mastery over nature.

This was the first lesson it taught Israel: the Lordship of God over nature. The Creator of all things is also Lord of all!

Therefore, don’t worry about earthquakes or tsunamis or germs, either. God is in control of them all, and if He sends them your way, He will also work them together for your good.

In the second place, there is the Lesson of Recovery.

Israel had lost most of what God gave them. If He gave them a garden, they now had a desert. If He gave them a king, they now had a tyrant. If He gave them unity, they now had division. If He gave them a Temple, they now had the Golden Calf. Like the Prodigal Son, the Jews had had squandered their inheritance.

But what does the story say about lost things? It says they can be gotten back; it says God can retrieve them for us, and, by His grace, He will.

This was the hope of Israel. Under the Old Covenant, they lost everything—their nation, land, priesthood, king, and temple. But under the New Covenant, everything would be gotten back for them. The little nation would be more numerous than the stars in the sky; the ribbon of land would become the whole world; the priesthood would be revived and purified; the king would rule in justice and grace forever; and the Tabernacle of God would be with men; He will dwell with them, they will be His people and He will be their God.

Nothing good will be lost! Everything will be gotten back, more will be added, and this time, the people of God will keep it all. Why?

Because the New Covenant will be ratified by a Blood more precious than the blood of bulls and goats. And the People of God will be faithful to the New Covenant because their sins will be forgiven and their hearts will be changed!

This is how our story points to Christ. What we lost He got back for us. In the Garden of Eden, the whole human race lost its life and peace and hope and fellowship with God.

Adam was made alive. When he sinned he died spiritually that very day, and physically, a bit later. He died himself, and we died with him.

But Christ came to give us back our life! In the new birth, He imparts spiritual life. In the Resurrection, He’ll give us the rest of our life. Death loses its sting; the grave loses its victory because mortality puts on immortality and corruption puts on incorruption! If He lives, we live!

Adam was made at peace with himself, with his wife, and with God. But when he fell away from obedience, he also fell away from peace. He’s scared and ashamed; he blames his wife; and he blames God for giving her to him. His son commits the first murder. And before long, the whole earth is full of violence.

But Christ came to give us back our peace! By satisfying the justice of God, He reconciles God to us. By giving us new hearts, He reconciles us to God. By filling us with His love, He reconciles us to each other. By reconciling us to Himself, He reconciles us to ourselves. The command spoken first to the wind, is now spoken to us, Peace, be still.

Adam was made in hope. The future wasn’t uncertain to him, no less frightening. Whatever God had for him could only be good. But when he quit God, he quit hope. The only thing he had to look forward to was a life of hard work followed by death, decay, and returning to the dust from which he was made.

But Christ came to give us back our hope. We don’t know what will happen in the short-run, except we know whatever it is will not separate us from the love of God. But in long-run, our future could not be brighter. Writing mostly to kids in those hideous English boarding schools of his day, C.S. Lewis described heaven like this,

Loving books more than any other earthly thing, he compares heaven to a book,

Adam was made in fellowship with God; in the cool of every day, it seems, the Lord came down to the Garden to take a stroll with His good friend. I like to think those hours were not only instructive and profitable, but also fun. I’ve heard some pretty good jokes, and told one or two in my time, but I wonder how funny the Lord’s jokes are? In any event, these were good times for Adam.Then he threw them away and lost his fellowship with God.

But Christ came to restore that fellowship. And it has been restored! We are not the enemies of God; we are His children, and unlike some fathers, our Father in heaven loves nothing more than spending time with His children.

If God can pluck an axe head out of the Jordan River, He can also pluck life out of death, peace out of chaos, hope out of despair, and fellowship out of alienation.

If you don’t believe me, look into the tomb of Christ. He’s not there! He was plucked out of death and damnation. And in Him, so are we!