2 Kings chapter 6, and we're going
to continue thinking about some of the episodes in the life of
Elisha. this man of God, this prophet
of God, who was so powerfully used in his day, and of whom
we have, I trust, benefited somewhat in thinking about his life and
his works. I want to read a few verses from
the beginning of 2 Kings 6. Here we meet these men, this
group of people called the Sons of the Prophets, who appear to
have been people who gathered around Elisha in order that the
Prophet of God might teach them and direct them in their own
religious life, their spiritual life, their understanding of
God and their understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ, even in
those pre-incarnation days. So here we have the sons of the
prophets. And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold
now, the place where we dwell with thee is too straight for
us. That means it's getting too small,
it's too narrow, it's too small for us to live here. That's good,
that shows that there were some numbers being added to this group
of people. Let us go, we pray thee, unto
Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make 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 they
came to Jordan, they cut down wood. 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 God bless this reading. This is one of those wonderful
little incidents in scripture where something completely unexpected
happens. and you find yourself saying,
really? Did that just happen? Is that
possible? Here is an ordinary situation. an ordinary circumstance that
would happen at anywhere at any time. Anywhere in the world almost
you could imagine such a situation. We need to build something bigger. People are building things all
the time. And suddenly out of that very
ordinary set of circumstances, something very extraordinary
comes to pass. The sons of the prophets needed
a new place to live. And they said to Elisha, come
with us, come with us, and we will go to the Jordan and we'll
cut down every man a tree, every man a beam, and we will take
those beams, those trees, and we will build ourselves a new
home. And there's something lovely
about the words of these prophets and this man especially who asked
Elisha to come with them because it recognises that they did not
want to go without the prophet of the Lord. They did not want
to go alone without him. And we've seen already that Elisha
in these Old Testament stories, these Old Testament accounts
from Scripture, these revelations that God the Holy Spirit has
given us today to read of God's workings at a time before the
Lord Jesus Christ came. The presence of Elisha with the
people was a picture of the presence of God with those people. Elisha was God's representative,
Elisha was God's man, and God was with the people, and God
spoke to the people, and God acted for the people as his prophet
represented him there at that time. And here we see something
that the testimony of Scripture shows us of the wonder and the
goodness of God, even in those days, using men to help and to
encourage and to support the Lord's people. As these men went
to the river and began their work, chopping down trees, building, a very valuable iron axe broke. And the head of the axe, I don't
know just exactly when this took place, but I did a little bit
of research and I realised that when we talk about the Iron Age,
this is the very period in history that we were talking about. And
so whenever the archaeologists and the historians talk about
the Iron Age, here was an iron axe, and therefore it would be
a very rare and valuable thing. And we discover that this man
had borrowed the axe. So rare and valuable was it that
he couldn't afford one of his own. And he had borrowed this
axe. It wasn't his own. And when it
came off the shaft and left him simply holding a piece of wood
and disappeared into the water, how anxious he became. We're
told he cried. He cried. And maybe he just shouted
out, but I think he maybe wept. Suddenly, everything that he
had planned to do, everything that he'd hoped for, everything
that he had promised the person to whom he had, or from whom
he had borrowed this axe, was all crashing round about him. He called Elisha to help and
Elisha cut down a stick from the side of the banking there
and he threw it into the water and the axe floated to the surface. How extraordinary. In a very
ordinary situation, what an extraordinary thing to happen. It's just a
simple little incident in many ways. One man, a poor man, not
even a good workman, and yet how important it was to him. that the Lord was there in the
person of Elisha to help him in that moment of need. A million men have cut down a
million trees, but here was a man who needed the presence of the
Lord in that moment of distress and catastrophe, and a man who
found the presence of the Lord to be with him, with Elisha. And there's something that we
need to note about this, that where the Lord is, is power. And the very rules of nature
stand down when the Lord chooses to help one of his little ones
in need. And here is the story. Thousands
of years later, we've moved out of the Iron Age and we've moved
into the Space Age. And here is this story, and it
is still available for us to read. It happened to just one
man. I don't know how many other people
witnessed this. Maybe it was just this man and
Elisha. Maybe he went home or back to
the sons of the prophets that night and say, you'll never guess
what happened to me today. One single little incident and
yet it's recorded in the book of God as an everlasting testimony
to the way that God helps his people. The way that God exercises
his power for one poor sinner. It's a strange incident about
a river bank and yet I feel that it is recorded for us for this
primary purpose. It was to show the men and women
of that age and the men and women of ages to come that when the
Lord Jesus Christ came, when the Messiah was revealed, when
God came, not in the person of Elisha, but in the person of
Jesus Christ, the God-man, then the rules of nature would not
apply. That power would be demonstrated
in wonderful and in miraculous ways. and that he who had designed
the rules of nature could set them aside at his will. And the miracles of Jesus proved
that to be the case. In a sense, it shouldn't have
been a surprise that the Messiah was able to do these miraculous
things because the hints and the evidences were there. from
the history of God's workings with his people. The Lord Jesus
Christ changed water into wine. Explain that. He made loaves
and fishies, just five loaves and two fishies multiply to feed
thousands of people. He was able to heal the sick. He was able to raise the dead.
He was able to walk on water. Our God is the God of nature
and he is above nature. He created nature and he is supernatural. He is above nature. Nature bows
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Nature bows to our God. I said earlier that when Elisha
cut down that stake and cast it onto the water that the axe
floated. It didn't float. I made a mistake. It swam. It swam. The axe head swam is what the
Bible tells us. That axe head didn't become lighter
than water. If something's going to float,
it's because it's lighter than water. But this axe head, it
always stayed an axe head. It always was an axe head, but
it swam. Now, I don't know exactly how
that worked. But I think what it means is
that the forces that were there in the water, pushed against
that axe head in such a way that the axe head was literally pushed
to the surface. The same word is used only a
couple of times in scripture. And one of the main occasions
is when Moses crossed the Red Sea. And the water stood up on
the sides as the people passed through on dry land. And then
we're told that God made the waters to overflow on the chariots
and on the horses and of the hosts of the Egyptians. And that word there of the making
of the waters to overflow is the same word that is used here
with respect to the axe head swimming. I've got a secret to tell you. Over the years, Whenever I felt
nervous or anxious or scared and afraid, I have asked the
Lord to help me. And I have a simple little prayer
that I pray. And I don't think I've ever told
anyone this. So this is a revelation this
morning. I have a simple little prayer
that I pray in those moments of my deepest anxieties. In that moment when I'm about
to open the door. In that moment when I'm about
to stand up. In that moment when I'm about
to speak out, in that moment when I'm about to go into that
situation which causes me to be afraid, I whisper under my
breath, Lord, go with me. Well, that's not an amazing revelation,
really, is it? Lord, go with me. Lord, help
me. And that reminds me that it really
isn't original because Peter prayed the same prayer many years
later. Do you remember when he stepped
out of the boat to walk towards the Lord Jesus on the water.
Wasn't that an example of how the Lord Jesus Christ proved
that he had power over nature? He came walking towards his disciples
on the surface of the sea. And Peter said, bid me to come
to you. and he stepped out of the boat
and he started to walk upon the water and then he became aware
of where he was and he lost sight of the Lord and he began to look
away and he began to be afraid and he felt himself beginning
to sink and he cried out. Lord, save me. You can read about
it in Matthew chapter 14, verse 30 says, but when he saw the
wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried
out saying, Lord, save me. So here's our lesson for today.
The Lord has promised to go with and to be with his people, just
as Elisha went with these sons of the prophets. And he has promised
to help his people, just as Elisha did and just as the Lord did
when Peter started to sink. And he has given his people good
evidence to believe that when they cry out for help, Lord,
go with me. Lord, save me. Lord, help me. Pick your own prayer. Don't make
it complicated. Make it easy. Make it short. Because you will have occasion
to use it. And when you do, the Lord will
hear you and the Lord will help you. Peter cried, Lord, save
me. He could not have addressed,
he could not have asked a better person, because salvation is
of the Lord. It's an easy prayer, but one
that will prove God's faithfulness to you and to me. And so let
us all learn to pray that prayer. with the earnestness of sinners
who feel our need of a Saviour. Amen.