WHEN THINGS MAKE YOU GO ‘AH—!’

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 27, 2022 under 2022 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday Sermon Message; November 27, 2022 from 2 Kings 6:1-7

Theme: The story of ‘the lost ax head’ teaches us some important spiritual principles to remember during a time of crisis.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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^{Note: This is an adaptation of a message first preached at Bethany Bible Church on February 26, 2012}

I’m going to begin today by teaching you an important Old Testament word. In the version of the Bible that I’m using, it’s translated, “Alas—!” Another version translates it simply, “Oh—!” But I think that the actual word as it is in Hebrew says it the best: “Ah—!”

We don’t say “Alas—!” very often today. We might occasionally exclaim, “Oh—!” But we all very often cry out “Ah—!” You don’t need a Hebrew dictionary to know what it means, either. It expresses a feeling of fear or panic or desperation whenever a sudden, unexpected crisis strikes—the kind of situation that makes you cry out, “Ah—!”

There’s an Old Testament story at the beginning of 2 Kings 6 in which this word has an important part to play. It’s a story about something that made someone panic and literally cry out, “Ah—!” But it also goes on to tell us about the miracle that God performed in that situation through one of His greatest Old Testament prophets Elisha.

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Elisha was the prophetic successor of another great Old Testament prophet named Elijah. God had raised Elijah to be His spokesman during the very wicked days of the northern kingdom of Israel. The older prophet Elijah had served his people faithfully. But the time finally came when God called His prophet to Himself—taking him up to heaven in “a chariot of fire”. And before Elijah departed from this earth, God had called and commissioned his successor Elisha.

Now; before Elijah was taken up to heaven, a community of students had gathered around him. They are often referred to collectively in the Bible as “the sons of the prophets”. It appears that they had formed into something like a ‘seminary’ or ‘school’ for prophets. These young men were taught to walk a holy walk before God, and were trained to speak forth God’s message to His people during those spiritually dark times. And after Elijah was taken up to glory, his successor Elisha was looked upon as the new head of this “school of the prophets”.

In time, the number of these “sons of the prophets” who had gathered around their mentor Elisha had apparently grown so large that they needed more room. And that’s when we read this morning’s remarkable story in 2 Kings 6:1-7:

And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See now, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us. Please, let us go to the Jordan, and let every man take a beam from there, and let us make there a place where we may dwell.” So he answered, “Go.” Then one said, “Please consent to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I will go.” So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, “Alas, master! For it was borrowed.” So the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float. Therefore he said, “Pick it up for yourself.” So he reached out his hand and took it (2 Kings 6:1-7).

As you can see, something had happened to one of the “sons of the prophets” that had placed him in a real fix. It was a crisis that made him cry, “Alas!” (or more accurately, “Ah—!”).

As a student in this ancient school of the prophets, he was a poor man. (And believe me!—even today, most seminary students are very poor!) When it came to building a meeting place for their school, the general fund was so low that the students had to build it themselves. And this one particular student was so poor that he had to borrow an ax. An iron ax head was an extremely precious and valuable commodity in those days. And when he was swinging the ax, and the ax head slipped off the handle and flew into the deep water of the Jordan River, it created a real crisis for him. The Old Testament law taught that whenever a man lost or damaged something that he had borrowed, he had to replace it and make the loss good to the lender. And this poor man—training as he was to be a godly preacher to his people—had no financial means of replacing this valuable item. It could have meant that he would no longer be able to continue his training in the school. It might even have placed him in a serious condition of indebtedness.

And that speaks very much to the kinds of situations that often fall upon you and me in the course of life. Through no fault of our own, we may suddenly find ourselves in a crisis like that of the poor “son of the prophets”. Something very valuable is entrusted to us that is lost or broken. Or we become somehow unexpectedly responsible for a financial obligation that is far beyond our means of paying. Or we may become the cause of something that was never intended by us or meant to bring harm to anyone. Or something may suddenly come upon us such as an accident, or an illness—or upon someone we love—that upsets our whole world and leaves us wondering what we will be able to do. Such times make us cry out “Alas!” “Ah—!”

Those crisis times will come upon us, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. But that’s what makes this morning’s passage so valuable to us. In it, we learn some important spiritual principles to remember during those times of crisis.

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Let’s look at this passage a little closer; and notice, first, how it teaches us that …

WE BEST PREPARE FOR A CRISIS THAT MAY COME LATE WHEN WE HABITUALLY INVITE GOD’S PRESENCE INTO OUR LIVES NOW.

The best time to start preparing your heart to trust God in crisis is not right when the crisis strikes. It’s certainly a good thing whenever someone finally turns to God in the midst of a time of crisis; but that’s not the best time to do so. Trusting God effectively in a moment of crisis is the byproduct of making a regular habit of seeking God’s involvement in every area of your life—long before the crisis ever comes.

Take a look at how our passage begins. We read, “And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, ‘See now, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us. Please, let us go to the Jordan, and let every man take a beam from there, and let us make there a place where we may dwell’” (v. 1-2a). More and more men were gathering around the prophet Elisha to learn from him; and in time, the place where they were gathering had become crowded and cramped. Perhaps some had thought back to the spacious places along the banks of the Jordan. It was a place that was dear to their memory; because it was there that Elisha’s predecessor Elijah had been taken up to heaven. And so, they asked Elisha’s permission to go there and construct a college building—a place at which they could live comfortably and learn together from him. “So he answered, ‘Go’” (v. 2b).

But just going away with permission from Elisha to build a building was apparently not enough for them. A request was made that, as it turned out, was crucial to effectively facing the time of crisis later. We’re told, “Then one said, ‘Please consent to go with your servants’” (v. 3a).

Elisha, you see, was God’s representative to His people at that time. He was—as it says in verse six—”the man of God”. It was through Him that God was conveying His message to His people. It was through Him that God was performing His mighty works. It’s different for us in this age of God’s grace. Each one of us today who are in Christ by faith has full access to God the Father directly. But at that time, for this student to ask God’s representative to consent to go with them was as much as asking God Himself to go with them. They didn’t want to go away to the banks of the Jordan River, or begin the work of building a place for themselves, without the blessings of the presence of God with them through His representative prophet.

And Elisha, the “man of God”, graciously consented to their request. “And he answered, ‘I will go.’ So he went with them” (v. 3b-4a). It turned out to be a good thing that he was there. Because he had been invited at the very beginning, he was able to then be the instrument of God’s faithfulness in when the crisis came later on.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; I don’t think I can stress the importance of this principle enough! When we habitually disregard the Lord in the daily matters of life—or even deliberately choose to exclude Him—we set ourselves up for terrible difficulty when crisis finally strikes. But when we make it our habit of life to pause at the beginning of each new day—and in fact, as much as possible, at the beginning of each new task or project or circumstance or meeting—and pray, “Dear Lord; thank You for being with me; I welcome Your good presence in, and invite sovereign hand on, what it is that You have now given me to do. I ask you to go with me, bless my work, and empower me to do what pleases You”—we do the absolute best thing we can possibly do to prepare ourselves for any crisis that may come along our way in the future. After all; the promise of Proverbs 3:5-6 is just as true in a time of crisis as at any other;

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).

We best prepare ourselves for any crisis that may come later by making sure to invite God’s presence in our lives now—long before the crisis comes!

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So then; permission was sought and given. The prophet Elisha—as “the man of God”—was invited and went along. And the work of building had begun.

But it’s then that the crisis struck. We’re told, “And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water …” (v. 4b-5a). We’re not told; but I’m supposing that the part of the river into which the ax head fell was too deep—and perhaps the river bank far too steep—for the ax head to be retrieved. Otherwise, this man and his companions would have simply stepped in and gotten it.

Finally, the prophet Elisha walked by to see what all the commotion was. The poor man saw him; “… and he cried out and said, ‘Alas, master! For it was borrowed’” (v. 5b). And it’s here that I’d like to suggest a second principle we learn from this passage …

NO CRISIS IS EVER HOPELESS SO LONG AS WE CRY OUT TO GOD FOR HELP IN THE MIDST OF IT.

The poor man’s cry may have been desperate; and perhaps even offered up with a sense of hopelessness and frustration. His cry may have been little more than, “Alas!”—little more than “Ah—!” But we can see why it’s so important that we make it our habit of inviting God’s presence in all that we do. Even though it was a desperate cry of “Ah—!”, it was a cry that was nevertheless sent in a God-ward direction.

Dear brothers and sisters; the moment we turn to God in our crisis—even if it’s with a less-than-perfect faith; even when it’s with an attitude of desperation and fear and panic; even if it’s little more than “Ah, Lord!”—our loving Father will hear our cry and come to our aid. We have His own promise on it! In Psalm 50:15, He Himself says,

“Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15).

One of my favorite prayers in all the Bible is the prayer that the apostle Peter prayed when he walked out of the boat and onto the water to the Lord Jesus. He had turned his eyes away from the Lord and began to sink beneath the waves in the midst of a storm. He didn’t have time to write his prayer out in beautiful words, or to check to make sure it was theologically accurate. All he had time to do was cry out, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:30); and that was enough. The Lord Jesus came to his rescue.

Let’s first make sure that we habitually invite the Lord’s involvement in all the different areas of our lives. And then, when crisis strikes, let’s be sure that—as the very first thing we do in the moment of crisis—we cry out to Him. Let’s not worry about whether or not our heart-attitude is perfect. Let’s just cry out to Him—imperfect as we are; feeling as helpless as we may feel—because no crisis is truly hopeless if we cry out to God in the midst of it.

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This poor man, then, cried out to Elisha. And we read; “So the man of God said, ‘Where did it fall?’ And he showed him the place” (v. 6). Perhaps he pointed to the general spot in the water where it fell; and perhaps his companions even stood around and confirmed it.

But look at what Elisha does. We’re told, “So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float” (v. 6b.) You’d be truly amused, by the way, at the silly things that some unbelieving Bible scholars have written in an effort to offer up some natural explanation for it. Their commentaries usually begin by letting us know that iron can’t float. (That’s always very helpful information; isn’t it?) Then, some go on to suggest that Elisha must have inserted a very long stick into the river while keeping hold of the other end of it from the river bank. Then, the other end of this very long stick was skillfully slipped by him through a hole in the ax head; so that he could simply lift this heavy iron ax head out of the flowing river and fling it onto the dry ground. (Must have been a pretty strong stick!) Another commentary explained that Elisha must have thrown this stick into the water like a spear so that it went right into a hole in the ax head. That way, when the stick itself floated to the surface, it brought the ax head up along with it. One of my favorites was that Elisha threw a stick of a special kind of wood into the river that—somehow—changed the chemical composition of the water to such a degree that the iron ax head was temporarily made to float like a bar of Ivory Soap.

No, dear brothers and sisters. The iron ax head floated—plain and simple. How did it happen? It was a miracle. It was not something that Elisha brought about. It wasn’t even something that necessarily required a stick. It was something that God Himself did.

But I don’t think that it’s an incidental matter that—of all the things that “the man of God” could have thrown in—it was a stick that he had cut off. After all; what was it that had brought this crisis about in the first place but the chopping down of trees? Wouldn’t it seem likely that Elisha simply walked up to one of the trees that was being chopped down, cut off a stick, and threw it in?

And this leads us to a very remarkable principle about God’s work in our lives at times of crisis …

GOD IS ABLE TO USE THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CRISIS ITSELF IN ORDER TO BRING ABOUT A SOLUTION TO IT.

This is something that—if you’ll think about it for a moment—our sovereign God seems fond of doing in times of crisis. Think back to when the apostle Peter came to Jesus at a time when the temple tax was due. Apparently, Peter didn’t have the money for it. But Jesus didn’t tell Peter to go look under a rock somewhere and find that the required money would be under it. Peter was a fisherman. He had hooks, and he knew how to catch fish. And so, He sent Peter out to cast in a hook, and open the mouth of the first fish that came up. And in it, he would find the required money (Matthew 17:24-28). Or do you remember the feeding of the multitudes? Our Lord didn’t just make food appear out of the sky. Instead, Jesus asked His disciples what they had; and when the disciples told Him that all they had for 5,000 men were five loaves and two fish, He said, “Bring them here to Me”. And once they brought those items to Him, the problem was solved. Everyone ate bread and fish until they were full.

I believe that the greatest example of this principle is found in our own salvation. As human beings, we are fallen before God. Our first father Adam sinned. And in that sin, he brought the whole human race into a state of alienation from God along with him. But how did God solve our “crisis”? He sent His Son to become a member of the very same fallen human race—taking our own sin upon Himself and dying in our place. God used the very substance of our crisis in order to resolve it and save us.

Dear brothers and sisters; let’s never fret in a time of crisis. Our mighty, sovereign God is able to use the very circumstances of our crisis itself in order to bring about a solution to it—and all to His glory! In fact, that even seems to be a way that He loves to work!

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Now; there’s one more lesson for us to learn from this passage about God’s faithful work in our lives in a time of crisis. And it’s that …

GOD WILL ONLY MEET OUR NEEDS IN A CRISIS AS FAR AS IS NECESSARY FOR US TO DO OUR PART.

I’m sure you’ll agree with me that the very same mighty God who could make iron float in water could also have made it drift up to the river bank and up to dry land. He could have even made it float out of the water and into the air. In fact, if God had wanted to, He could have even had Elisha throw the ax handle itself into the water, have it marvelously join itself to the ax head, and have both of them rise out of the water and into the air, drift over to the trees to do some chopping all on its own, and then form all the fallen logs into a beautiful school building—fully furnished and equipped with a beautiful cafeteria and espresso bar. No one else would have had to do a thing—if that had been what God had wanted.

But apparently, that’s not what God wanted. Instead, after Elisha threw the stick in, and the iron floated to the surface of the water in the sight of the poor man who had lost it, we read, “Therefore he said, ‘Pick it up for yourself.’ So he reached out his hand and took it” (v. 7). God made the man who was in the midst of the crisis do some of the work of resolving it.

I have often imagined what that must have been like. Did the man have to get another stick and try to draw the floating ax head to the river bank so he could reach it? Did he have to have a couple of his friends hold on to the back of his shirt so he could reach out over the ledge to grab it? Was it surprisingly heavy when he picked the bobbing ax head up from the water; and did he have to exert some effort to lift it? Would he have had to do some work of fitting it back onto the handle, and of then securing it so that it wouldn’t fall off again? I’m supposing so. God didn’t do all of the work for him.

But what God did do for him in this crisis was what he could not do for himself. This was not a matter of “God helps those who help themselves”; which is a saying that is often used in a very unbiblical way. Rather, this was a matter of God helping a man who could not help himself. The man could not bring the ax head up from the bottom of the river. Only God could do that. But that’s all God did for him. And once that was done, the man had to take it from there.

Have you ever noticed how, when the Lord Jesus healed the paralyzed man, He followed it up by telling the man, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house” (see Matthew 9:6)? Jesus didn’t carry his bed for him or get him a ride home. We never read that He did for people what they could justifiably do for themselves. He only made it possible for them to do what they should do for themselves by first doing for them what they could not do for themselves. Similarly, God didn’t make the ax head drift into the man’s waiting hand. Instead, He put it within the man’s capable reach; so that the prophet could say, “Pick it up for yourself.”

I believe that, in a time of crisis, our loving heavenly Father does not want us to be passive spectators. Instead, He graciously allows us to be partners with Him in what He does to solve our problems and meet our needs. He does for us what it is impossible for us to do; but then calls upon us to rise up afterward and do what we justifiably can do in response.

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So; as you can see, this story teaches us some very valuable lessons about how God faithfully works on our behalf in a time of crisis—in those times when we cry out “Ah—!” And I have a strong feeling, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that we’re each going to need to put these principles to work sometime soon. We’re all ‘enrolled in school’ for these lessons; aren’t we?

May God help us to take these principles to heart and learn them now—long before the crisis comes … when the ax head falls into the water, and we cry “Ah—!”

AE