Elisha and a Very Small Yet Big Miracle

If you got your Bible, turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 6, 2 Kings chapter 6 as we make our way through miracle number 12 in the ministry of Elisha.

If you're counting, if you're not counting, it's still miracle number 12. And so we want to let you know that that's where we're at. And let me read to you the first 7 verses of 2 Kings chapter 6 to set this story in your mind as we begin our time together this evening.

Verse 1, 2 Kings 6, Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, Behold, now the place before you where we are living is too limited for us. Please let us go to the Jordan, and each of us take from there a bean. And let us make a place there for ourselves where we may live. So he said, Go. Then one said, Please be willing to go with your servants. And he answered, I shall go. So he went with them, and when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was felling a bean, the axe head fell into the water.

And he cried out and said, Alas, my master, for it was borrowed. Then the man of God said, Where did it fall? And when he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. He said, Take it up for yourself. So he put out his hand and took it. Now you read that and you think, Okay, nice little story. Little miracle there by Elisha. How is that ever going to apply to my life in the 21st century? Now we know that the Bible says that all scripture is profitable, right?

All scripture that God breathed truly is profitable for you and me. That is, there's something advantageous for you and I in the scriptures because it speaks to us about the character and nature of God. Whenever you read your Bible, whatever verse it is, whatever paragraph it is, whatever chapter it is, whatever book it is, it's always about God. It's always about the Christ. So when you read the scriptures, you read them to understand about the character and nature of God. You don't read the scriptures to figure out how to get a better marriage or how to get a better relationship or how to have a better lifestyle.

That's not why we read the Bible. The Bible is about God, the character of God, the nature of God. As you begin to understand who God is, you rightly understand then who you are in light of who He is and then you know how to live your life for the glory and honor of His kingdom. So you read the Bible because you want to understand God. When you come to understand Him, it is so profitable for you that it changes and transforms the way you live your life. So the question comes, how is this paragraph, this miracle, this twelfth miracle, that really is nothing compared to all the other miracles that Elisha has performed.

It's still a miracle because iron doesn't float, but in this case it floats. It allows the man who used that axe to find that axe head and put the axe back together again. But it's nothing compared to a resurrection. And we've seen Elisha do that. It's nothing compared to healing a man who had leprosy or even giving Gehazi leprosy as we saw last week. I mean, those are miracles. Those are supernatural events. And this is a supernatural event as well. It defies the law of gravity. But when we compare it to what has already taken place with Elisha when he would take the contaminated porridge or stew, pot of stew, and cleanse it or take the waters of Jericho and cleanse them or divide the waters of the Jordan, this kind of pales in comparison.

Unless, of course, you're the guy who borrowed the axe and lost the axe handle. For you, it's a big deal. For us, it's not so big a deal. So we need to understand what it is that God is going to show us in His Word tonight because it speaks volumes to every one of us. And that's what I love about the Scriptures. You never open the Scripture without it speaking to you. God has a message for all of us, has a word for every one of us to understand. It's our job to study it, to understand it, that we might apply it to our lives.

Now understand that for this man in this miracle, God is helping you see that no matter how small you think your problems are, He is still interested in them. No matter how routine or common you might think your problems are. You see, we tend to think that God is really going to be with us when there's a tragedy. When something big happens, like our house burns down with all of our kids in it. That's a tragedy. And we expect God to rise up and do something great. Or we go to the doctor and the doctor says, you've got three months to live, you've got cancer.

And we think, whoa, man, this is headline worthy. See? But this isn't so much headline worthy. A man loses an axe head in the Jordan River. I'm not so sure it's going to be in front of the Jericho News or the Jerusalem Journal on the next day. But the fact of the matter is, is that God is really ultimately concerned about everything that happens in your life and mine. But we don't understand that. That's why Paul said, in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known to God.

In everything. Don't worry about anything. But in everything, let your request be made known to God. You see, God is concerned about everything that we do. Not just the big things that we do. See, we tend to think that God is really concerned about the big problems. But you have to realize that God doesn't have big problems. In fact, God doesn't even have a problem. See? So you can't even define it as a little problem for God because he has no problems. He's in control of everything. And when you're in control of everything and you can do whatever you want, say whatever you want, and make it happen, you have no issues, no problems at all.

And our God has no problems. So whether we have a big problem in our mind, or a little problem in our mind, God already knows about it. And God truly is concerned about it. That's why in Psalm 55, verse 22, it says, Cast your burden upon the Lord and he will sustain you. Cast your burden upon the Lord and he will sustain you. Peter says it this way in 1 Peter chapter 5, verse number 7. Casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Cast all your anxiety on him for he cares for you. And your anxiety is going to be different than my anxiety.

Your burden is going to be different than my burden. And what you see as a burden I might think is, that's no big deal. Or you might think, what my burden is heavy for me is no big deal to you. So God says, cast all your anxiety, cast all your burdens upon me.

I will sustain you. I will take care of you. But you've got to cast them upon me. In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. You know, when I was a kid, my parents taught me to pray about everything. So we did. We prayed about everything. We prayed about the weather. Now, I can't control the weather. I can't make it rain or make the sun shine. But we prayed about the weather. We prayed about school. We prayed about tests. I can recall one day growing up and my dad taught me to pray about everything.

And I said, you know, Lord, I pray that you'd help me remember the things that I study. And Lord, on top of that, I'd ask you to help me remember the things that I didn't study. God said, now, what do you mean asking the Lord to help you remember the things that you didn't even study? Well, you said that. I said, Dad, you said pray about everything. So I thought that would be a good thing to pray about. That if I didn't study it, that maybe he would help me know it so that I could get an A on the test.

He says, listen, if that was the case, you'd never have to study for anything. And just ask the Lord to bring to your remembrance the things you never studied anyway. And then you'd go to school and never have to do any work. What's going to happen is that the Lord's going to answer your prayer by showing you that if you don't study, you're going to flunk. So you better study. But my mom and dad taught me to pray about everything. No matter what it was, just give it to the Lord. Tonight, some of you have major problems, major issues, major conflicts, major problems.

And that's okay, because God knows about them. Others of you have them, and you might think, that's just not such a big deal. I'm not so sure you should even talk to God about that. That's not the case. Because the story of 2 Kings 6, 1 to 7 is about a man who loses the head of his axe. And Elisha steps in and performs a miracle. Because it becomes, listen carefully, a major teaching opportunity for the men in the school of the prophets. Now this is the fourth miracle that Elisha performs when it comes to the men, the sons of the prophets.

The first was with the widow and how he gave her the oil that would sustain her. And she was a widow of one of the sons of the prophets. And then you have the situation with the bowl of stew that was contaminated, and that was purified by Elisha. And then you have the loaves that came to the 100 men, the sons of the prophets. And they were multiplied to feed them all, even though they were little small loaves of bread. He multiplied them so all could be fed. This is the fourth in the school of the prophets.

Why is that important? We know that Elisha is a prophet, right? He's a spokesperson for God. God's going to speak to him, and he's going to speak to others. But Elisha's ministry and the teaching of his ministry is not as much recorded in scripture as the miracles of this man. Because every time you open the pages of scripture when it comes to Elisha, there's another miracle being performed. But Elisha had a very strategic ministry. He and Elijah, probably started with Elijah, began this school of the prophets.

There was one in Bethel, one in Gilgal, and one in Jericho. There were three places. And they would teach these men the truths of God's word. And that's a good thing. Because Elisha knew and understood that the only way he could combat the apostasy in Israel, the immorality in Israel, the heresy in Israel, the idolatry in Israel, the only way he could combat all that was to teach the truth to men who then in turn could teach the truth to other men and to other people. The only way to combat evil is through that which is true and pure and holy.

The only way to combat the apostasy of the day, the Baal worship that ran rampant throughout Israel, was to teach people the truth about God, who he is, and what he was about. So Elisha would spend his time doing that. And he would alternate from one school to the next school to the next school, going and teaching his men the truth of God's holy word. It helps us understand how we combat the apostasy in our age. How do we combat the idolatry and immorality in our land? How do you do that? You do it through teaching the truth of God's holy word.

Proclaiming the message of God's word. That's why the Bible speaks so much about this. Remember it was David who said in Psalm 71, he said in verse number 17, O God, you have taught me from my youth, and I still declare your wondrous deeds. And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to all who are to come. David knew that the impact, the legacy of his life centered around how he could communicate the truth and the power of God to the generation that was about to come.

I wonder if we had that same conviction. If you go over to Psalm 78, it was the Lord God who said these words. Psalm 78, it says, We will not conceal them, the truths about the Lord, from our children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wondrous works that he has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and he appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

God had a plan, and that plan was to teach fathers, to teach their children so they could teach their children's children, so that the legacy of truth would pass from generation to generation. How is it that we can deal with the apostasy in our schools unless we teach our children how to defend the faith, how to stand for God, how to proclaim the truth of God? They must be able to do that every single day. How do we teach our children to stand up at work and to proclaim the truth of God? Not how to handle the immorality and idolatry at work, but to proclaim the truth of God and to live that truth in front of others.

We must prepare the next generation to do that. To do so, we must become the teachers of this generation. Elisha understood that. Elisha got it. I'm afraid that for most of us, we've missed that, because we're not, quote, a prophet like Elisha, or a pastor, or an elder, or a, quote, a teacher. But we forget that the command to go into all the world and make disciples is a command given to all of us, and that we are to teach those disciples to observe the commandments of God. But how do they observe them unless we teach it to them?

That's why Jesus said in Matthew 5, verse number 19, that the greatest people in the kingdom are those who keep the word and teach the word. You want to be great in God's kingdom? You want to be the greatest person in God's kingdom? You better keep what God says, and you better teach what God says.

Because God holds a premium on truth. And those who are able to keep that truth and proclaim that truth, so others then will be able to keep it and proclaim it. That's why John said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. The greatest joy we can ever have as a parent is to know that my children walk in truth. It's not that my children get a good education. It's not that my children get a good job. It's not that my children grow up and are great at this or great at that.

It's that they might walk in truth. That's what leaves the legacy, a lasting legacy, that impacts generation after generation after generation. And every one of us in this room needs to realize that I need to be involved in training and teaching someone else the truth of God's word. Maybe it's your children. Maybe it's your grandchildren. Maybe it's a study school class. Maybe it's a friend of yours. Pick one person, teach that person the truth of God's word. Teach them how to follow God. Teach them how to honor God.

Be involved in passing down a legacy of truth to the next generation. Don't miss the opportunity for greatness in the kingdom of God. Don't miss the opportunity to be involved in investing in people's lives. Paul told Timothy that he was to teach what he had learned from the apostle Paul to faithful men that they in turn could teach others also. That's the ministry of the church. That's the ministry of the family. That's why over in Deuteronomy chapter 6, Deuteronomy chapter 6, these words were given.

Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command you all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly just as the Lord the God of our fathers has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.

And he goes on to say, this you do in order to survive in the land of Canaan. You don't do this, you're not going to survive. You're not going to make it. How many families you know aren't making it today? They're not surviving. Their families are floundering. Their lives are in chaos. The Lord set the pattern. You teach your children. You teach them compellingly because you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You teach them convincingly because you live out that truth.

And if you are convinced about it, it's so much easier to convince them of it. You teach them compellingly. You teach them convincingly. You teach them conspicuously. You tie them as frontals on your forehead. You keep them right before your eyes. You keep them right on your wrist so that whatever your hand does, whatever your eyes look at, they look at it through the truth of God's Word.

You make sure that you teach them continually. You teach them diligently, day after day after day after day. Never get tired of teaching the truths of God's holy Word. You teach them completely all the commandments I've given to you. If you do that, you will survive. If you don't do that, you're not going to make it. That simple. It's not rocket science. It really isn't. You don't have to have a PhD to accomplish that. You just got to be a faithful steward of the gospel. That's it. Now, see, this is Elisha's ministry.

He knows that crusades are not the answer. How does he know that? Because the biggest crusade was on Mount Carmel with Elijah. Talk about a crusade. Talk about a miracle. Calling fire down from heaven. When the prophets of Baal could do nothing. And Elijah became that incredible prophet in the land of Israel. But with that great crusade, that great miracle crusade, Israel was not changed. They still worshiped Baal. They still were steeped in idolatry. When Elisha followed Elijah, not much had changed in the land.

Crusades are not the answer. It's the consistent development. The consistent teaching of day in and day out. In individual people's lives. That promotes change in people. The consistent diet of the word of God. Where they see it lived before them. Hear it taught to them. That's what promotes change. See. So Elijah and Elisha developed these schools of prophets. These men would come and they would hear and be taught by these great men of God. And that's what they were. They were men of God. Elisha was a man of God.

And so he began to teach and teach and teach. He did. But today's lesson would be a monumental lesson. Would be a fulfillment of Deuteronomy chapter 6. When you walk by the way, when you sit by the side, when you lie down. They become the most powerful lessons. It's one thing to put people in a classroom and teach them, right? We do that. It's called school, right? You ever been to school? Of course you've been. We have Sunday school. Put them in a classroom. We have seminaries. We have colleges.

We put kids in school and we teach them. But the way people learn the best is when they go through an everyday experience. And at that moment, a lesson is taught to them that will never leave them because of the impact of the moment. And that's what happens in 2 Kings chapter 6. So let's look at the mission and its work.

The man and his woe and the miracle and its wonder. Three simple points. First 20 minutes was all just introductory stuff.

Okay? So three simple points. First of all, the mission and its work. The sons of the prophets said to Elisha. Behold, now the place before you where we are living is too limited for us. Please let us go to the Jordan and each of us take from their beam. Let us make a place there for ourselves where we may live. So he said, go. There was a need. What was the need? Their school was growing. More and more men were coming. People were seeing the folly of Baal worship. Others were hearing the truth about the Lord God of Israel.

And the school began to grow so much so that it could not house the number of people at this particular facility. Now, it was either Gilgal or Jericho. We know it wasn't Bethel because that was too far from the Jordan. So it was one of these two. And so they gathered together and they realized we don't have enough room. We need more space. We're crowded in here. Now, in contrast to Gehazi from last week, they weren't materialistic. They were ministry-minded. It's not like when you drive down the road and you see the nice houses and say, oh, wow.

Man, I wish my house was like that house. I wish my house was bigger. I need more room in my house. Look at that guy's garage.

It's huge. He's got a workbench in his garage. He's got a work area in his garage. I need a garage like that guy's got. I need a house. Look at their backyard.

Oh, wow. If I had a backyard like that, I could put a pool in it. It wasn't like that. They didn't have any more room. They'd outgrown the facility. They needed a bigger place. Gehazi was materialistic. These guys were ministry-minded. He was filled with hypocrisy. These guys were filled with supreme sincerity. Gehazi was a man who coveted other people's goods. These men weren't coveting a bigger place, a nicer place. They weren't saying, wow, those guys at Bethel, man, they got a nice facility. They got a training room.

They got a track. They can run around at lunchtime. They have a Starbucks machine there in their waiting area. We don't have anything like that. We got nothing like that. We got to get all these goods in it. The point is, we just don't have enough room to house everybody. They see a need, and they want to meet the need. In order to meet the need, they got to share the load of the need. Let's all go down, and let's go down and chop down some trees. Every man a beam. Maybe that was on the front of their T-shirt.

Every man a beam, or the back of their T-shirts. I don't know. They all had the same color T-shirts. They all went down, every man a beam. Maybe they sang a song when they went down to the Jordan. I don't know what they did, but they gathered together, and they said, Look, we got to do this. Can we do this, Elisha? That's a great thing, because they asked permission. They asked the man of God if this was the right thing to do. Now remember, the man of God would communicate the word of God to them.

It's like us today going to the word of God and seeking wisdom from God as to what the next step should be. Our facility is not big enough. What do we do? And these guys got together, and with great enthusiasm and great energy and great joy, they would go down, and they would work together, because they wanted to expand the facility. They wanted to have enough room for the sons of the prophets, however many there may be in weeks and months ahead, to have the space available to be able to hear Elisha speak and to be taught the truth of God's word.

They saw the need. They were willing to meet the need. They were on a mission, and they wanted to work for that mission. There was great enthusiasm that was there, and every one of them would get involved. It says, Please let us go to the Jordan. Each of us take from there a beam. Every one of us. Every one of us are going to be involved in this effort. Now, I can recall 22 years ago when our church first started, okay?

The enthusiasm and the excitement and the energy in the room was unparalleled because everybody was working. Everybody was bringing chairs because we were in a park. Didn't have enough chairs. Everybody was involved in setting up the chairs, setting up the equipment, setting up the facility, making rooms for kids so they could have a place to meet. And then we moved to a school, and we had to set up every single Sunday morning, and so people had to set up chairs and tear down chairs. The enthusiasm in the room was so electric.

That's the way it was with these guys. It was electric because they all wanted to participate. You know, we had no problems getting people to serve in our children's ministry, our nursery ministry. Today, you know, we've got to put a gun to your head and get you to serve in children's ministry. But in those days, man, it was no big deal. Everybody wanted to serve. Everybody wanted to be involved in it because it was something that was exciting, and people were excited about the ministry, and they couldn't wait to come to church on Sunday, and they couldn't wait to be involved in the ministry.

No matter what it was, passing out a bulletin, greeting people in the parking lot, whatever it was, they could do what they wanted to do. And the excitement was off the charts. That was 22 years ago. Things a lot change when you get your own building and people get settled in. Things change a whole bunch, okay? And these men, and this was a church project for them. So they wanted to go down, and they went to Elisha and they said, Should we do this? He says, Go. Go. And then they said, We want you to come with us.

Wise choice. Wise choice. We want you to come be a part of this with us. So what does Elijah do? He goes with them down to the Jordan. Can you imagine the scene? We don't know how many sons of the prophets were in this school. Maybe it was 50. Maybe it was 100. Maybe it was 200. We don't know. But they went down to the Jordan. They began to chop down trees. So each man would have his own beam, carry it back, and do what they needed to do to expand their facility so more could hear the Word of God and more could grow in their walk with God.

Great day. Great day in 2 Kings 6. So we move from the mission and its work to the man and his woe. They begin to chop down trees. And one guy, one guy is involved in the work. One man is honoring the Lord, like all of them are. One man is doing his part. He's not lazy. He's not sitting under some palm tree drinking Diet Coke, hoping everybody gets the work done. He didn't have to do anything. No, he's involved in the mission. He's involved in the work. He is participating like everybody else is participating.

And he is doing his share. He is pulling his load. And he's chopping away. And maybe he's chopping faster than everybody else is because evidently his axe head goes flying off into the Jordan River. Simple as that. The text says very simply, So he went with them as Elisha, they came down to Jordan and cut down trees. But as one was felling the beam, the axe head fell into the water. It just fell off. Now, you have to understand the Jordan River. Okay? Some might think, well, you know, the Jordan River is just a river, like any other river.

It's not. Down by Jericho, it is a muddy, murky mess. It's a nasty place. We did baptisms there one year instead of where everybody else does, up north in the Galilee, which is where Jesus wasn't baptized. We went down to the place where he was baptized in Jordan River. And it was, the water was just like chocolate milk. Okay? So I get in there with my robe, and I walk out, and I have no idea what I'm going to step on because I can't see the bottom. Okay? And get out about waist deep, and then everybody else lines up, and they come in with me, and they go down, come back up out of the water.

Once a white robe, now is an orange robe. Okay? Their hair is filled with all kinds of grit and grime, and it's just nasty. Okay? That's the Jordan River. And so, whether it was overflowing its banks, whether it was how full it was, how deep it was, how wide it was, we don't necessarily know. It doesn't tell us that. But we know what the Jordan River is like down by Jericho. And so, this man is chopping away. Axe head falls into the river. Now you say, well, if he knows where it fell, which he did, why doesn't he wade out into the water and go get it?

I don't know. Did you ever think that maybe he can't swim? I'm not sure the sons of the prophets went down to the local aquatic center and learned how to take swimming lessons. Okay? I'm not so sure they did that. So maybe the guy couldn't swim. Maybe the water was flowing rapidly, and he was afraid. Don't know. Don't know. Maybe it was so deep that he couldn't get down that deep, and if he could, he couldn't find it anyway, because it was too deep. We don't know. All we know is the axe head falls off.

Alas, my master, it was borrowed. Borrowed? It wasn't even his own. It wasn't even his own. Which is very important to the story. Why? Because, you know, these were the school of the prophets. These weren't wealthy men. Okay? It wasn't like you could go down to your local hardware store and pick up a new axe. There was no Home Depot. There were no Lowe's. There were no Ace Hardware stores. So they couldn't go down there and just pick up another axe or an axe head and put it back on the wooden part.

They couldn't do that. In fact, these tools were lean and few and far between. But it was borrowed. It was borrowed. Now, there is an interesting comment way back in the book of Deuteronomy. Chapter 19. It says this in verse number 5. When a man goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies, he may flee to one of these cities and live. In other words, they're talking about the cities of refuge, and the illustration is given as if you go out to the woods, and you're going to chop down a tree with your friend, and the axe head falls off and hits him in the head and kills him, well, you've got to have a place to go.

It was an accident. Right? That leads us to think that this happened quite frequently. That there would be a law about it in the book of Exodus or the book of Deuteronomy. Also, in the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter 22, verse number 14. If a man borrows anything from his neighbor, and it is injured or dies while its owner is not with it, he shall make full restitution. Okay, so that's a law that's been given and handed down. So if this man loses the axe head, he must make full restitution. He's a student in the school of prophets.

He has virtually no income, if any. How is he going to replace the axe head if he loses it? Knowing he has to make full restitution for that which he borrowed. See? He's a little bit of a pickle here. What am I going to do? Alas, my master! It was borrowed! Now this shows a man's great integrity. Okay? Great integrity. He felt bad about it. So bad, he needed Elisha to get involved. It wasn't like he said, You know what? Look at this.

Who put this together? Somebody didn't do very good. This guy, whoever put this together should get out of the business because he stinks at what he does. I'm not going to give this guy back. The guy should have done a better job of putting it together. Could have laid blame on the guy who put the axe together. He didn't do that. Because he had great respect for that which he borrowed. You know, so many times we borrow things. We had a rule in our house. Growing up. It's this. Don't borrow anything you can't replace if lost, stolen, or broken.

So, don't borrow somebody else's car. Because if you wreck it, you've got to replace it. Can you replace it? Can you have the money to replace it? If you don't, you don't borrow the car. Okay? Don't borrow someone's lawnmower. Don't borrow someone's tool. Don't borrow someone's anything. Because if you borrow the car and you scratch it, do you have the money to fix the scratch? Will you make full restitution? See? Will you do what needs to be done? And so many times we think, well, it's just not a big deal.

Well, it's not a big deal to you, but it was to the owner. And maybe the owner only had one axe. He lets you borrow it. He needs it to cut wood down for his family. He needs it for his family, but he lets you borrow it. And you go out, and what do you do? You're just wheeling the axe. Head falls off. Now the guy's without an axe. How are you going to pay your restitution? What are you going to do? Alas, my master, it was borrowed. I'm in a whole heap of trouble here. I've got to make restitution.

I have no money. I have no means by which to give this man another axe. What am I going to do? I'm in a heap of trouble. That's this guy. So, you move from the man and his woe to the miracle and its wonder. So, the man of God said, I love how it says that. It begins, it's Elisha, now it's the man of God, because he's going to go to work. The man of God said, where did it fall? He knew exactly where it was. When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick, there's Elisha, and threw it in there, and made the iron float.

Wow. Very simply stated. It wasn't like Elisha threw the water and divided the waters. Had the man walk through on dry land and pick up that axe head, put it back together again. No, he said, where did it fall? The guy knew exactly the location, the vicinity in which it had fallen to the Jordan River. Elisha cuts off a piece of wood, throws it in there where that is, as a symbol, like when he took the salt and put it in the water in Jericho. Salt water didn't do anything, but it was symbolic of what was going to happen to the water.

Takes the stick, throws it in the water, and all of a sudden, that iron, axe head, rises to the top and floats, defying the laws of gravity. Elisha says, pick it up. He goes and picks it up. Now whether it floated back to him or not, I don't know, but that's what he did. Miracle over. Story over. Wow. Wow. What does that mean? You know, we could miss the obvious, but Elisha would use this, presumably, as a teaching tool for all of his men, to help them understand that the miracle of the axe is how God uses everyday situations, everyday circumstances, everyday issues, to teach us about himself and the providential purpose that he has in every situation and to help us grow in Christ-likeness.

Let's say you're in the School of the Prophets, and let's say you go back to Jericho or Gilgal, and Elisha sits you all down. So let's pretend you're in the School of the Prophets, and let's just pretend I'm Elisha, okay? You're going to have to pretend, because I have no miracles to do for you. Sorry. What is Elisha going to tell them? Elisha's going to say this. I want all you guys to know that God knows you intimately. He knows everything about you. He knows everything that's going to happen in your life.

The big ones, the little ones, when it comes to problems, he knows about them all. Psalm 139 says it this way. You know it well. O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar. Now, God didn't accumulate a bunch of information to know that. He just knows it, because he is intimately acquainted with all of our ways. You see, God knows more about you than you know about you. It's hard for you to understand that. He knows everything about you.

Everything. He knows everything that's going to happen to you. Big or small. He knows. He knows how you're going to react. He knows how you're going to be anxious and worry and fret. He knows all those things, because he's intimately acquainted with all your ways. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there's a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all. Wow. He knows what you're going to say before you even say it. He knows what you're going to say before you even think it.

That's scary. He says, You have enclosed me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is too high. I cannot attain it. My friends, if I was Elisha, and you were in the School of Prophets, I would say what happened today is the lesson you need to understand. That God is intimately involved and acquainted and knows everything about you. For while the rest of you were chopping down your beans and collecting what you needed to have, we had one of our brothers who had a trouble.

But yet God would show himself faithful, trustworthy. See, God knows you intimately and God will always show you he is trustworthy because he is. He's absolutely faithful in everything. So because God knows you intimately and wants to show you that he's trustworthy, God will bestow upon you his unique ministry at just the right time. For our God, as Paul says, is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ever ask or think. Do you believe that? When the young prophet, the son of the prophet, lost his accent, he was a little anxious, a little worried.

What am I going to do? Master! Elisha! Goes to the right guy. Who else are you going to go to, right? He goes to the right man. Now Elisha knows exactly what to do. And Elisha could have done anything he wanted to do. He could have had the axe head just jump out of the water. Just snap his finger and boom, out it comes. He could have done that. He could have divided the waters, like we said earlier. Had the man walk through, pick it up. But instead he wanted to do something unique and cause the axe head to float so that he could go out, pick it up and watch what was happening.

Knowing that even though, from our perspective, and we don't understand this because if we lose something, we just go to the next store to buy it. We don't have enough food, we go to the grocery store to buy more. Got enough gas, what do we do? Go to the gas station. There's one on every corner. If we don't have this, don't have that, we go to the store and buy it. Need shoes? Pick up shoes. We just do that. These guys weren't like that. These guys were poor. They didn't have what we have today. They didn't have the accessibility of things around them.

Stores, convenience stores. They didn't have any of that stuff. So they really had to trust something we have a hard time doing because we have a hard time understanding because we are so self-sufficient. But God is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all that we can ask or think. God is able to do great things because God is in the business of doing great things. He's able to save us to the uttermost, Hebrews 7.25. He's able to supply every one of our needs, 2 Corinthians 9, verse number 8 and following.

He is able to satisfy every desire that we have because He is God, He's our creator. He's able to stabilize and to sustain us until the day when He comes back again, Jude 24. He's able to do all that stuff. He is able to do anything He wants to do. That's our God. Why would we not cast our cares upon Him? Why would we not cast our anxiety upon Him? Why would we not cry out, Alas, my Lord! Alas, my Master! Why not? Why would we do that? When the Bible makes it so clear in everything that your requests be made known unto God.

How about you? What are those things that you're not making known to God that you don't bring before Him? It's never too big a problem. It's never too little a problem. God has no problems. We are His children. He is our Father. He wants His children to come to Him and ask. Come to Him and ask and beseech Him. And we, because He's able, need to understand that He's always available. Right? He's always available. Come unto me all you that labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. It's not that God's unavailable.

It's not that God is so busy that He is unavailable to you and me. He's always available. And so He comes to make sure that you and I know where He is. Now, if He is able and available, He's approachable. Right? We are to draw near with full assurance, with great confidence and great boldness. We are to draw near to God because He is our sympathetic high priest. And if He is able to do whatever He wants to do, He makes Himself available whenever we need Him. And make sure that He's approachable, not just available, but He's there for you, that you can approach Him.

Then we need to go to Him. And we need to make sure that no matter what the situation is, we say to Him, Lord, I need You. I need You to do this. And beseech Him. Ask Him. Seek Him. Pursue Him with all that we have. Elisha would, I would suppose, use this as a teaching opportunity for all his men to say, you know what? God is sovereignly concerned about every situation you're in. Every situation. And he'd use this as an opportunity to teach and to lead his men because as they would go by the way, as they lay by the side, it would be an everyday experience where they would learn the greatest lessons.

It becomes a unique teaching opportunity for all the students. The same thing is true for you and me. Looking for those opportunities, those avenues by which we can teach our children about things. When they go through disappointments, we teach them about what God is doing. That they might learn to handle the disappointments in life. Handle the difficulties in life. Because when you're a kid, things look so big, don't they? As parents are like, that's no big deal. Been there, done that. I lived, I survived.

You can do it too. Right? But at the moment, it's huge for them. And so we need to teach them what God has taught us. That we might be able to help them grow when they walk with the Lord. A very, very little miracle. But yet, it looms large in the lives of the sons of the prophets. May we, today, understand that God is concerned about everything that happens in our lives. No matter how big we might think it is, or how small we might think it is, God is concerned. He is intimately acquainted with all of my ways.

He knows. He knows before it's going to happen. He just wants us to come to Him as our Heavenly Father. Beseech Him. And ask Him to do a great and mighty work. Because that's what He wants to do. Let me pray with you.

Father, we thank You for tonight, a chance to be together. We thank You for Your Word. We pray, Lord, that it would stick in our hearts and minds that we might apply it to our lives. Help us to be the kind of people that cast all our burdens upon the Lord. For You care for us. May we withhold nothing from You. You know about it anyway. It's not like we're hiding it from You. You know about it. You have just told us to come and beseech You. Approach the throne of grace that we might be able to receive mercy in our time of need.

We thank You for those who are here tonight, Lord. We pray You bless them in a very special way. That, Lord, they would learn to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ our Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.