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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
The Miracle of the Floating Ax Head
II Kings 6:1-7
Introduction
The raising of Lazarus. The 10 Plagues in Egypt. Walking on Water. Feeding the 5,000.
There are lots of miracle in the stories that are pretty well-known, even by non-Christians. Most of them are done by Jesus, but Moses and Elijah have their fair share as well.
But there’s a miracle in II Kings 6 that’s just a bit harder to categorize. It’s not nearly as dramatic as other miracles; it doesn’t solve a problem that seems nearly as dire as something like parting the Red Sea. And it can leave us scratching our heads wondering what it’s even doing in the Bible.
II kings 6:5-7 has this story of some men chopping down trees by a river
5 But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, “Alas, my master! It was borrowed.” 6 Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. 7 And he said, “Take it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it.
So a man is distressed that he broke an ax, so Elisha throws a stick in the water, which makes the iron ax head float back up to the surface. A miracle, sure…but kind of mundane compared to the rest.
In fact, another element of this story I’d like to study today is that Elisha is only given a limited amount of miracles to do, and this is how he chooses to use one of them.
I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to II Kings 6, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
A Double Anointing
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about the miracle of the floating ax head in II Kings 6.
This is probably not the most pressing question on a lot of our minds as we ponder the deep mysteries of scripture, but it is something that always stands out to me as I read through my Bible.
Then a friend of mine at church, Dustin, brought this passage up to me as an idea a few weeks ago, and it struck a chord with me because as I just said, I’m also often questioning why this story is here and what it means.
So let’s dig into that today, and I actually want to start with the beginning of Elisha’s solo ministry at the beginning of II Kings. Most of you probably remember that Elisha was a companion of the prophet Elijah. I’m not always sure if the Holy Spirit put these two guys together because their names were so similar, or what, but they were partners in ministry up until II Kings 2 when Elijah was taken to heaven without dying.
But before Elijah departed from this earth, he made an offer to his faithful companion Elisha:
II Kings 2:9-12
Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” 10 And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.” 11 And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12 And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.
So Elisha’s request is granted. Virtually all scholars agree that Elisha was given the grace and power to perform twice as many miracles as Elijah did.
Now, as far as a specific number goes, that’s where it becomes a little debatable. One of the two schools of thought on this are that Elijah performed 7 miracles and Elisha did 14. The other is that Elijah did 8 and Elisha did 16.
Without going through an exhaustive list of all of each man’s miracles, Elijah’s potential eighth miracle is right here when he was picked up by the heavenly uber. But it’s a little hazy whether you could consider this a miracle that Elijah literally did, or more of something that just happened TO him. Elisha has a couple of miracles that are ambiguous in this way as well. But roughly, Elisha can accurately be said to have performed twice as many miracles as Elijah did.
Now, Elisha’s miracles weren’t usually as big and flashy as Elijah’s miracles. Elisha was like the movie sequel that’s supposed to outdo the first one, but it doesn’t have as big of a budget for special effects. And so even though Elisha did more, he’s not as famous as Elijah is.
A Wasted Anointing?
So here’s why I start by making that point: Elisha knows there are a limited number of miraculous works he’s going to be able to perform. Whether it’s 14 or 16, it’s not unlimited power.
So I’m a little surprised that he uses one of them for the rather mundane task of locating a broken ax head. I mean, I’ll admit that in those days, replacing a broken ax was not as simple as driving over to Lowes and buying one for $20. Or $19.50 with your Lowes Advantage Card. Things weren’t mass produced; it took a little more time and craftsmanship to construct tools back then.
But still, it was not something that difficult to do, either. So why- of all the miracles Elisha was going to be allowed to perform- why did he use one for this?
I think of it kind of like the analogy of being given a genie and three wishes. Maybe you’ve thought about this before: if you had three wishes to receive whatever your heart desired, what would you wish for?
I think most of us would use our three wishes for something pretty big: saving the life of someone we loved, or fixing one of the major problems in the world, or getting our dream job, or for a second season of Firefly.
If you were to use one of your precious three wishes to do something like wish for the Lord of the Rings boxset in 4K resolution, that would be considered a waste of a wish. It’s something anybody with a hundred bucks could buy at Target any day of the week, not something you’d use one of your only three wishes on.
Although it would make a great Christmas gift. Just saying.
So, Elisha is going to be granted the ability to do a bit more than three miracles, but there’s still a significant limitation being placed on how many he can do. So how does he decide to use one here in II Kings 6? Well, let’s read the whole story and just get a gist of the context.
The context
II Kings 6:1-2
Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and let us make a place for us to dwell there.” And he answered, “Go.”
So who are the sons of the prophets? Well, one interesting aspect that we see going on in Israel during the days of Elijah and Elisha is that there are two groups of prophets, and they are true and false prophets. The true prophets follow God, and it’s unknown how many of them there are, although I Kings 18 mentions about a hundred being hidden by Obadiah.
Then there are also the false prophets, such as those who tell the king what they want to hear. I Kings 22 mentions 400 of those. Then there are false prophets who try to get Israel to follow false gods, and I Kings 18 mentions 850 of those. So the true prophets are far outnumbered and seem to be oppressed in comparison with the false prophets. And so here in this story, some of the true prophets are saying to Elisha: hey, the ministry is growing! wouldn’t it be a good idea if we built ourselves a house where we could all study the things of God and band together and probably become more effective? And Elisha says, go for it.
II Kings 6:3-4
3 Then one of them said, “Be pleased to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I will go.” 4 So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.
They’ve requested that Elisha come along with them as they get started on chopping down the trees for this house, and it’s a good thing they do because here’s what happens next.
Verse 5
But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, “Alas, my master! It was borrowed.”
So his distress is rooted in the fact that not only did he lose his ax head, but that he had borrowed someone else’s ax, and so he had broken someone else’s tool.
Now, again, we can look at this as kind of a bummer, but not something that would be the end of the world. But I think we can put ourselves in this guy’s shoes pretty easily. Here he is, trying to do something for God: build a school for the prophets. And he isn’t going out half-cocked; he asked for the leadership or blessing of the man of God- the greatest man of God- of their time. And Elisha has given them the go-ahead.
So he’s gotten approval through all the right channels, he’s doing work for God in God’s way. You would imagine that God’s got His hand on the process. And right off the bat, something goes wrong. And I can relate with that- the frustration of trying to do something FOR God, getting your leader’s blessing to pursue it, putting your hand to the task, and then immediately stuff starts going wrong.
This guy is chopping away with his friend’s ax. Maybe all the other guys had their own ax, but he was borrowing one. And then of all the axes that break that day, guess whose it is? I can imagine his exasperation and perhaps even confusion at this turn of events.
II Kings 6:6-7
6 Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. 7 And he said, “Take it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it.
First Elisha asks where it is. I have heard it said- and it certainly appears this way in the pictures I’ve seen- that the Jordan River is a muddy river. Not necessarily brown, just kinda murky. It is not clear water you can see through to the bottom.
Then Elisha does a strange thing. He throws another stick into the water near where the ax head landed, and somehow this causes the iron ax head to rise up to the surface. I say “somehow” but it’s clearly a miracle. The heavy iron floats like a rubber ducky. The prophet picks it up and can now fix the broken ax and get back to work.
And that’s really all there is to the story. Verse 8 is going to go on to talk about something totally different. This little brief episode is never referenced again anywhere else in the Bible. There would be nothing of note about this little story at all, other than that it’s one of the 14 (or 16) miracles of Elisha.
So what does it mean?
So what can we take away from this little episode? Well, the story and it’s details are so mundane on their own that commentators have a little fun with this story. And I am not here to say that they’re wrong, but I’m a little skeptical about some of these interpretations.
J. Vernon McGee likens this to a demonstration of the gospel. He says the ax is like man, which is fallen. Part of it breaks off and falls to the bottom of the water, useless. Total depravity.
And then Elisha throws a stick into the water, and this wooden stick represents the wooden cross of Christ. And this causes new life to enter that sunken man, and he rises through that dirty water up to the surface, and all this represents new life in Christ and being washed clean from your sins.
Jon Courson also has an interpretation I found a little more interesting where the ax head represents the Holy Spirit, and the wood of the ax handle represents the flesh. This man lost the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and so he knew his ministry would be infective. That when he shouted, “it was borrowed,” he was acknowledging that the Holy Spirit’s power in his life was not something he could generate, and that it was something that didn’t belong to him. And so Jon Courson says that when a fresh stick was cast toward the ax head for a renewed partnership of the Spirit with the flesh, the ax head came back to the wooden stick, representing the return of the Holy Spirit to our lives.
And Jon Courson connects this to the concept of how we can grieve the Holy Spirit in our day-to-day lives and cause His anointing to depart. I’m not saying to lose your salvation, just to cause the Holy Spirit’s presence in your life to diminish because of sin or getting lazy in our spiritual walk.
Now, I like Jon Courson’s interpretation a little more, but neither of these really satisfied what I felt that I took away from the story as I read it. So I’m going to give you my interpretation of why this weird little miracle is in the Bible, after this short break.
[music]
Next time and Mailbag
Let’s talk about what’s coming next on the podcast. As I was working on this lesson, I realized that there are two more weird things in the Bible that I’d like to talk about on this podcast that also appear in this very chapter of the Bible, II Kings 6. So for the next couple of episodes, I want to just take the next verses directly after the story we just read and continue right along with the weird prophet Elisha. Join us next time as he uses his next miracle to find his lost car in the parking lot at Food 4 Less.
To Dustin, thank you for the suggestion today, and for giving me fuel for the next couple of episodes. And also a shoutout to his wife, Alana, who acknowledges me as a weirdo every Sunday in church. It makes me feel seen.
Also, I am really excited about what’s ahead. In October, we will reach the one-year anniversary of this podcast. I am blown away by the support of everybody who has listened and reached out with compliments and suggestions on the podcast, and I am thankful for your feedback. So for the one-year anniversary of the podcast, I have a few exciting interviews lined up to share with you. I am so excited to release those next month. They’re going to deal heavily with the supernatural realm, and I wouldn’t have had the courage to reach out to these people for their time for interviews if I didn’t feel like I had the listenership to make it worth their while.
So thank you for listening and subscribing. Please make sure you’re subscribed today if you aren’t already, and then you’ll also be able to hear these upcoming interviews I have planned.
Closing Thoughts
So, in closing today, I just want to give my thoughts on what this passage in II Kings 6 means to me. And I was thankful that some of the commentaries I looked at said something similar as I dug into them.
What I got out of this passage was the love and concern that God shows even for the small matters in life.
There are some issues that seem so small that I don’t bother to pray about them. If I’m stuck in traffic and running late to an appointment, I probably won’t think to pray for green lights ahead. If I ever lost my car keys, I probably wouldn’t pray to find them if I expected to find them in the next 5 minutes. If I broke my wheelbarrow while doing yard work, I’m probably not going to consider praying for a divine healing on my gardening tool.
Those kinds of situations seem so earthly, so common, so non-spiritual, that it just wouldn’t be my natural response to look for spiritual solutions.
And yet, this brief little passage in II Kings 6 reminds me that God cares about the little day-to-day issues of life, too. We already established that this guy’s ax head being lost was a bummer, but it wasn’t gonna cause Bonnie Tyler to belt out a chorus about needing a hero. Yes, he was upset that his ax was broken, and his emotions were a little heightened by the fact that he had borrowed someone’s ax and so now he had some explaining to do. But this was far from a life-or-death situation.
And yet, Elisha used one of his miracles to retrieve this lost item. And I don’t believe Elisha could have done it if it wasn’t something God was empowering Him to do. And so this story reminds me of the fact that God cares about the smaller issues of life, and that when we bring them before Him in prayer, He’ll answer those prayers, too.
There is nothing too small for God. God cares about everything. That means the things on the macro level and the things on the micro level. And that also means everything in-between.
In fact, it was hard not to compare this to a famous miracle in the life of Jesus as I studied this passage: turning water into wine. If you think about it, that was also not a life-or-death situation. Yes, it would have been embarrassing to run out of wine so early in the wedding at Cana. And that was more of a shame-and-honor culture back then, so it would have heightened the emotions of the family.
But you can’t tell me that would have ruined anybody’s life. It would have been a social faux pas, but it would have meant the end of a party, not the end of the world.
And yet, Jesus performs a miracle to save this event from disaster. And not only that,
John 2:11 tells us that
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory.
This was his first miracle. His inaugural event as the Son of God, you might say. We place a lot of significance on the first of something. The first speech a candidate makes when running for office. The first sermon a pastor preaches when he takes a church. The first time your little boy can use the bathroom on his own without needing my help. I haven’t experienced that last one yet, but I’m sure it’s going to be a very significant “first” when we finally get there.
Well, Jesus is about to embark on a ministry of massive miracles. Raising people from the dead. Cleansing lepers of their leprosy. Opening blind eyes, paralytics getting up and walking. When Jesus does a miracle, it’s typically because someone’s life situation has gotten pretty desperate.
And yet, for his first miracle ever, Jesus turns water into wine to save a new young couple from some embarrassment. And yet we see that God cares about the small things in our lives, too. The situations that aren’t necessarily life-and-death. They can be as small as a broken ax, but we can still bring them before the Father, and sometimes you might be surprised at what He’ll do.
So I encourage you today to take everything before the Lord of Heaven and Earth. Not just the big things, but to regard nothing that’s troubling you today as too small to not be worth His attention.
And if talking to God about all the big and small things that you’re dealing with today sounds weird, I hope you’ll be a little more weird today, too. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.