2nd Kings chapter 6 and we're reading from verse 1. And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, behold now the place where we dwell with thee is too straight for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell.' And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go.

So he went with them, and when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe-head fell into the water. And he cried and said, Alas, master, for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick and cast it in thither, and the iron did swim. Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand and took it.

Amen. May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word. Last time we spoke, we were speaking about Naaman's healing and you might remember Gehazi's sin. Well, now that deceitful servant was dismissed from Elisha's service. And it doesn't appear that he was greatly missed.

More men were now gathering. And it's not entirely clear where this group of men were with Elisha, but it's possible that it was at Gilgal. Gilgal was a small town. where we have been previously told there was a community or a college, a house, a dwelling place where these sons of the prophets used to gather. And they would gather to study God's word. And we find from our verses today that the numbers of these men were growing. So much so that there was insufficient room for them all to stay.

Now, these sons of the prophets, we've encountered them before, but they were probably now disciples of Elisha. They had been disciples of Elijah, now they were disciples of Elisha. Elisha having that most prominent role of prophet, the prophet of God in the land of Israel at that time. And it's possible that they traveled to hear Elisha preach. Equally, it seems that Elisha travelled to where they met. So there would be perhaps these locations where Elisha would travel to, perhaps these men came in from their homes in the villages around about, and there they met together to learn of the Lord.

I don't think that this was particularly a religious order. or a priestly class of any kind. They seemed to be ordinary working men. Some, we have already learned, were married with families, and all of them appear to have been rather poor. Poverty has always been typical of the Lord's people, and so it seems here amongst these sons of the prophets as well. The Lord's people have generally just been common people, working people, not rich people, not famous people, not powerful people.

We've been studying in the book of James for a few weeks up until quite recently. And you might remember that James told us in chapter two, verse five, hath not God chosen the poor of this world? rich in faith, rich in faith because he has made us rich in faith, but God has chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to them that love him. Those who love the Lord may well be poor in this world, but they will have a mansion in heaven. Here, like the sons of the prophets, we might be poor, but we will have riches in heaven, and we have spiritual riches of which the men and women of this world know nothing of.

When the sons of the prophets needed larger premises, they couldn't go out and buy somewhere bigger. They had to go and build it for themselves. And that's what we encounter in these verses today. This is the story then of these sons of the prophets going to build themselves new places to dwell or a new place to dwell.

Now, let me just mention, we ought not to be too surprised that there was this growth in numbers of believers at this time. You'll remember, perhaps, that Israel as a nation had for many years been ruled by kings who practiced idolatry and led the people into idolatry. From the days of Ahab and Jezebel, this had been so. And it was still the case in the days of Jehoram in Israel. Even although idolatry was still widely practiced, the Lord had preserved a remnant in the land and he sent prophets like Elijah and Elisha to preach his word and maintain his witness.

And when the gospel is preached, the Lord honors his word. When the gospel is preached, the Lord honors his word. And we can twist that around about, we can turn that over as it were, and we can say that the Lord causes his gospel to be preached when he purposes to call sinners to salvation. And that's a great encouragement for me as a preacher. I believe that the fact that the Lord has caused his gospel still to be preached in these days and that he's given us access to Technology like this, like the internet to share that message and preach that message and declare that message to the ends of the earth is a testament to the fact that he yet purposes to call sinners to salvation. And that excites me.

Hard times of oppression. as was the case in Israel under these idolatrous kings. Even times of famine did not destroy the church. there in Israel. It did not hinder the growth of God's people in the land. Persecution doesn't deter men and women of God and Elisha's ministry grew to such a point that more space was needed. It's always a great thing when the Lord's people need to expand because the Lord is bringing more and more numbers in to hear his word preached.

The men asked Elisha, the sons of the prophets, asked Elisha if they might go and build a larger house near to the River Jordan. There was wood there for building and perhaps there was a patch of suitable land. And Elisha gave his permission for them to go. But it seems that the men also desired his presence with them as they went to build.

They were anxious to ensure that the venture would be attended with God's blessing. And I think that these men were wise in this respect. We all ought to seek the Lord's blessing on what we do when we are going about our business. The practical things in life, the things that we do day by day, the places that we go, the things that we become involved in, we ought to seek God's blessing on those things. Not just when we go to worship, but in all aspects of our lives. We must be careful not to run in our own strength, not to forget the Lord when we are busy doing other things, but to seek his direction for our actions and asking for spiritual wisdom for our plans.

That's what these men were doing by their approach to Elisha. Moses once prayed to the Lord. If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. And that's a lovely prayer for the Lord's people. Lord, if you won't go with me to that place, then don't take me there. Don't let me go. If you're not going to be with me, I don't want to go there. And if we have cause to doubt the Lord's purpose in a matter, We ought to be reluctant to pursue our own way, even if it appears, even if it seems attractive and desirable. If we think to ourselves, the Lord wouldn't be happy for me to go there, then that's not a place that we should go.

Elisha agreed to go with the men. And so they left, wherever it was they were, perhaps it was Gilgal, and they travelled to the Jordan. And at once they began to embark on felling trees in order to build their new college. But we discover that things did not go smoothly.

And someone might wonder why. Why, if you are doing the Lord's work, why, if you have the Lord's blessing, should there seem to be so many hurdles and problems along the way? Well, you know, I think that the Lord sends these difficulties in order to keep us humble and in order to keep us always looking to Him for help and for patience. And also to test our commitment to His cause. You know, if these men had started to build and then there was a problem and they all said, oh, forget it, we're going home. then it would have appeared that they were not committed to the Lord's work. The fact that they pressed on in their labours, even in the face of difficulties, showed where their true motivation lay for the glory of God. What was the problem that occurred?

Well, we read it together. One of the men was chopping down a tree. The Bible calls that a beam, but it just means that he was cutting down a tree in order to get a beam of wood. He was cutting down this tree, chopping down a tree, and the head of his axe, the iron part of his axe, flew off the health, the handle, and disappeared into the muddy water of the River Jordan. That was a big loss. These were poor men.

Actually, I thought about this as I was thinking about the event that occurred. This would have happened in what we call the Iron Age. So this event took place in the Iron Age and here was an iron axe. It would have been expensive. Not everyone would have had access to pieces of iron like this. And here was this man working with the iron axe and it fell into the river.

But worse, this axe was borrowed. It wasn't the man's own axe, and the borrower was greatly distressed at its loss. Had the axe been his own, he might have scolded himself for being so silly as to lose it. But because it was borrowed, and because he was a poor man, this was a great shame and embarrassment to him. And in his distress, he cried out to Elisha, alas, master, for it was borrowed. He cried out that it was a borrowed axe and it had been lost. This grand scheme, this new spiritual home, This place where the prophets, the sons of the prophets, could come together to worship had become for this man an occasion of sorrow and humiliation. But the man did the right thing in taking his trouble to the Lord's servant and thereby to the Lord.

And what we read next is a miracle which shows us how the Lord is concerned with the little things of our experience just as much with the big matters of life and death and maybe national importance. Sometimes we think about the Lord as being preoccupied with the big things in the world. But the Lord is interested in us as well. And he's interested in the little things of our lives.

Sometimes we say that there's nothing too big for the Lord. Well, that's true. But remember this as well. There's nothing too small for him either. One of my neighbours has a sign on his van that says, no job too small. And that's true for the Lord as well.

And Elisha comes to the man's aid. In verse six, Elisha says to him, or verse six says, the man of God said, where fell it? And the man who had been wielding the axe showed him the place where the axe head had entered into the water. And as I was reading these verses over, I thought it's interesting that Elisha had to ask where the axe head had fallen. Elisha was about to recover that axe. He was about to recover it miraculously. This heavy piece of iron from the bottom of the river. Did he really need to inquire where the axe head fell?

Well, yes he did. Elisha was a prophet, but he didn't know everything. And I think that this inquiry of Elisha to the man was on purpose to teach us that in times of trouble, we do what we can to solve our problems and we look to the Lord to supply what we cannot. We shouldn't just sit down and say, oh well, that's it, it's finished, there's nothing I can do. We do what we can and then we turn to the Lord and we ask him for his help. The exact location having been pointed out, Elisha proceeds to perform this miracle. And he cut down a stick and he cast it into the water where the man had pointed. And wonder of wonders, the iron did swim. The iron came up from the bottom of the river, the riverbed, and came to where the wood was put onto the surface of the water. Now that's pretty amazing. But you see miracles are amazing and they don't need any pattern. The Lord just does His miracles as He chooses to do it. He performs them as He will.

Now some people When they read these verses, they think that this was a new handle, or a haft as it's called. A new handle that Elisha had, as it were, whittled from a stick so that he was throwing a new handle into the water and the axe head came and joined itself to the new handle. Well, that's quite possible. Although I confess that I never thought of it like that. I just thought about the stick being thrown into the water and the axe head rising in this way was as it simply is stated there.

But it was unnatural and it was miraculous. And it reminds us that our God controls the laws of nature and can alter them at his will. He parted the Red Sea and caused the people to walk across on dry land. He caused the sun to stand still. In fact, it went backwards at one point in the sky and he made an iron axe head float. Elisha called the man to recover the lost tool, and the man reached out his hand and took it from the surface of the river. And there he was able to get back to his work.

Here's a couple of lessons that I want to draw from this story, this account. The first one is this, don't ever think that you are too insignificant or your troubles are too trivial for the Lord. If it bothers you, whatever it is, it's worth taking to the Lord in prayer and asking for his help. This poor man got his borrowed axe back, which was a personal blessing to him, but it was also a general blessing to everyone present who saw what had occurred. And I think that this would have been a great encouragement to the faith of all of these men. It would have confirmed the Lord's approval of this venture of the new house or the new college, whatever we want to call it. And our Lord often uses small incidents to strengthen our faith and grant us reassurance. when we have caused cause to doubt. So here's a little task for you. Let us all be on the lookout for the Lord's hand in our lives and let us interpret our small mercies as part of His big picture. Here's something else for us to think about. Did you notice that these men asked Elisha's permission to go and build their house and also asked that he go with them? That's a fine picture as well of how we ought to go forward in our own lives.

Discovering God's will and making Decisions is often a great puzzle for some people, because they imagine that God has an individual plan for them, and if they don't find that plan, then they'll be outside of his will. You know, that's the wrong way to think about God's will.

We all have decisions to make, and when you have decisions, big decisions, I guess we don't ask the Lord what we should wear when we get up in the morning. We don't ask the Lord what we want to choose when we get to a menu in a restaurant or something like that. But we do have problems when we encounter big decisions in life. Decisions that we know are going to change the course of our life. And when you have a big decision to make, the way to do it is this.

Decide for yourself with the wisdom and knowledge that the Lord has given you what you think will be best. Then ask the Lord's permission for the course that you have chosen. If the Lord does not wish you to take that particular way, that particular course, He will close the door of opportunity. And then you will know that that wasn't to be. And finally, if the Lord doesn't close that door of opportunity, and it seems that that choice, that decision that you have made, is what you're going to do. Ask the Lord to go with you. And if you have peace about his presence with you, then follow your chosen course boldly, and the Lord will bless your decision.

Here's the third lesson, and with this we're done. Elisha and the sons of the prophets are a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and his church. We are Christ's disciples. We learn of him as we spend time with him and take him with us where we go. And the Lord delights to do us good, just as Elisha was delighted to be able to help this man who lost his axe or his axe head. And the Lord Jesus Christ has given us so much He delights to do his people good. He has taken our sins. He has died in our place. He has gifted us his righteousness. He loves us with everlasting love and he promises never to leave us or forsake us. He delights to do us good and get us out of difficult situations.

That doesn't mean that our axe head won't fall into the river. You can be sure it will. It doesn't mean that we won't be embarrassed because of our foolishness or our lack of care. That will happen too. It doesn't mean we won't make mistakes, that we won't do things wrong, that we won't sin against God's goodness. Sadly and shamefully, we will do that too.

But, and here is his mercy and grace, he will help us when we call on his name. He will hear us when we cry out. And when he draws alongside and asks us, where did the axe head fall? Tell him truthfully what happened. Tell him precisely what your needs are. Tell him with hope and expectation that he will make things right and he will prove himself to be faithful to his people. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Amen.