2 KINGS 6 (PART 1)
Read 2 Kings 6:1-7
In this little passage we have another story of God’s servant Elisha calling on the Lord and a miracle happening. But in this case, it is all very low key. The previous chapter had the quite lengthy tale of Naaman, a high official in the occupying force of Aram, being cured. We saw the backdrop of international affairs and diplomacy between two countries and potential political ramifications. The following passages are about military engagements between Aram and Israel and Aram besieging the capital city Samaria. In the midst of all this international conflict we have a little story about one individual and his simple need of getting his axe head back. In this context it all seems a bit trivial. What is the Bible telling us here?
The story is straightforward. A man is working, cutting down trees on the banks of the Jordan, and his axe head comes out of its housing and is lost in the river. The man is distraught because he had borrowed the axe and now all he had to return was the shaft. But all is not lost as Elisha enables the axe-head to be recovered miraculously.
I think sometimes people try to over interpret the Bible. Some rationalise what’s going on here and say ‘Elisha must have fished the axe head out of the river by poking around with a stick until he successful got it into the socket’. Or people might allegorise the scriptures, ‘the axe head represents the man and the river Jordan stands for judgement, so the man is being judged for his sin, and the Elisha, representing God, restores him by his grace’. Or perhaps they moralise the situation, ‘don’t borrow things’, or ‘take good care of borrowed property’ – or make a proverb, ‘don’t cut trees by a riverside’.
The problem with all these interpretations is that they don’t take the text at face value. The story is presented in a very straightforward way as something that actually happened. It tells us of a simple human need that was met by God. The need was quite significant. We might think, ‘couldn’t he just go to B & Q and get another one?’. But in that day and age an iron tool was the peak of technology and would not come cheaply. Think if you perhaps borrowed you friend’s brand new, up to the minute, state of the art computer and then dropped it and it smashed to pieces. You would be understandably distressed, as the man who had lost the axe head was.
What the story tells us is that God cares about our needs, even if in the grand scheme of things, they may not seem that important – they are important to the individuals concerned. This story is one of an individual’s need among stories of great national and international importance. And yes, God cares about the big picture, but he cares about us as individuals and what we need: ‘give us this day our daily bread’.