And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us.
2 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.
3 And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go.
4 So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood.
5 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.
6 And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim.
7 Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it.
8 Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.
9 And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are come down.
10 And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice.
11 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?
12 And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.
13 And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.
14 Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about.
15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?
16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
17 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
18 And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
19 And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.
20 And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.
21 And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them?
22 And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.
23 And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.
24 And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.
25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.
26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.
27 And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?
28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow.
29 So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.
30 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.
31 Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.
32 But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?
33 And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer? 2 Kings 6 KJV
The colleges were not so complex then, but the thoughts ran so much deeper. These sons of the prophets had grown large, and the school is not yet big enough to hold those who want to learn the words of God. They ask Elisha to come with them, and as they are cutting down poles, the ax head is
loosed from the handle and it falls into the river. He is in despair who dropped it for it is not his own but borrowed, and iron is probably more scarce in these times. They are not men with surplus incomes, and there is no Harbor Freight nearby, so this is a precious and expensive loss. Elisha cuts stick and throws it towards the place where the ax went in, and the iron floats. Now, I know I will wonder about the stick and it will not be the first time, for you may recall in Genesis that Jacob laid rods before the cattle and stripped the bark at intervals. So I ask, does the Jordan river cleanse men of their leprosy and I wonder how many have tried such in desperation, dunking themselves in it 7 times and to no avail? Has everyone who has ever prayed for a thing received it? Do we eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of what our Lord has done for us, or do these means bear a natural power? So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, but some like we have noted before, in hearing do not hear. It does not say why he chose to use the stick, but we are told to pray without ceasing, we are taught by Christ to pray in God's will, to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are told to study the word of God, to preach the word of God, and that His word will not return void. It will always accomplish what He has in His sovereign will ordained. Now I think and I said I, that it does not matter that it is a stick, but that he did what God directed him to do, to trust and obey. Don't walk to the Jordan, run.
Now the present king is presently not hunting Elisha, as his father hunted Elijah, and some times it is that true religion does receive a break from the mob, but it does not last forever. There is presently a worse possibility than the present rule, and that is the king of Syria. He is waging war against the king of Israel, and he thinks there must be a traitor in his company, because Israel continues to out whit him. How do they know? It is Elisha, this is how, and Israel is grateful to Elisha for this, that he protects them, like superman, from their physical and worldly enemies, but not so much for the warning and call to repent. They are yet dead in this and already slaves in that way, but know no other master and so they are content that the prophet only contend with their earthly situation. Deal with Syria, but leave the high places and the other idolatries, suffer us our superstitions, make fireworks for us to marvel at, yet call down fire upon our enemies. I think again that Elisha only helps in obedience and to show that there is a lesser of two evils here, not a noble and righteous king, leading a faithful and pious people, but a jug so watered down that you must call it milk for anyone to know. Now the Syrian king is bold, but his view of prophets is a bit skewed, did he not hear that it was not by favors of silver or gold that this prophet worked? Did Gehazi's actions somehow taint the story of what had happened to Naaman? Or did Naaman come to understand that money was nothing to this Elisha, and the king would only have force left to deal with him? He sends an army out for one man and he would probably like to have him for his own, for he is a valuable commodity, yet so underappreciated is his call. And this is all for a marvelous lesson here, his servant sees a great force, that they are surrounded and without hope, but what he doesn't see is that there is more with him than there is without. If God is for us, who can be against us? If He tells me to throw the stick, then I am amazed when the ax head floats to the surface, but not surprised, for that is what he told me. Elisha tells his servant this with words that may be known by faith, but he cannot see them, yet when he prays for his eyes to be opened, it does not become real then at that moment when he sees, for the truth can be believed or not. It is still there, but we should always pray for others that they may see, and we should not take it for granted that we can. Now for those that are against him, he does not ask for their death, but rather ask that they be made even more blind and then marches them till they are hungry and thirsty. When their eyes are opened to their state, and it is within the grasp of the king to destroy them, instead if thine enemy is hungry, feed him, if he thirst give him drink, for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire upon his head. Now send them home. He is as the intermediary for these gentiles, and now his kindness and mercy must have some effect, and they do stop the raids, but later their king will come and take siege of the city.
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 16:17
We make cities and fortresses to keep our enemies at bay. The shepherds do not invite the lions and the wolves to come in at their pleasure and see what may happen. We know what will happen, and so they make their city in such a way to keep them out, but if the force outside is great enough, this also works to keep you in. They will cut off all means of resource, no trade will be allowed, the enemy will cut off any stream that would bring you water. He will not allow the farmer to bring his goods to sell. You will be brought to the point of starvation and here it is for what amounts to breakfast a man will pay a month's wages. For the head of donkey, which has not so much meat and is unclean, a man will find his gold worthless. In times of plenty people should be grateful, because you can buy that which sustains life with that which amounts to paper, an idea. It is all useless to them now, and the king is renting his clothes in disgust at the situation, for not that long ago his wealth made it easy to feed a whole army. Does God not say I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy? The woman with the boiled baby puts him over the edge. I am a king and I cannot fix the smallest thing, this is what I have come to rule over. He is the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 28:
Because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you. 54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, 55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. 56 The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter 57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities. Deuteronomy 28: 53-57
This was all spoken by Moses before and the message to repent has not changed, God is useless in our privilege, they will not acknowledge Him in their plenty, for that only tells them that they are somehow responsible for their good. We can't see this is from God either way, but though again here it is, time once more to take the head of the messenger, Elisha doesn't flinch, and the king is running behind the one he sent for he knows this much, that this is not Elisha's wish, it is not in his heart, but this is from the Lord. I don't want to kill the messenger; I want to thank him. God only owes you one thing, and we will eat our children in our pride before we ever confess it. God, open our eyes, come in and prepare the ground that is our heart. Please. It's not the prophet that we hate, that is who we can see since we are spiritually blind. We hate God.
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love[f] toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1: 15-23
David Platt
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