The iron did swim !

2 Kings 6:6, ‘ 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.’

Elisha was the man of God who received the double portion of Spirit from God through Elijah, his master. He displayed the power of the anointment right from the time Elijah was taken up into heaven. A series of miracles were done through him and each of them were done in a unique way. Most of them included some work before the miracle was manifested. In 2 Kings 2, we see him casting salt into the spring of water to heal it. In 2 Kings 4, we note the man of God asking the widow to borrow empty vessels and close the doors to see all the vessels being filled with oil which in turn freed her and her children from the debts. In chapter 5 of the same book, Namaan was asked to dip in river Jordan seven times to see himself healed from leprosy. All these points to a great truth that, faith is displayed through works and result is manifested by the Lord in His ways and in His time. The works of faith built up the faith level of all those lives who needed an answer and then their miracles were manifested.

Here too, Elisha performed a certain work before the cry of a son of prophet, who had lost the axe head as it fell into the waters as he cut down wood.  V 5 says, ‘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.’ Let’s take note of both the statements made by both these personalities seeing the same thing. One sighs and exclaims in deep sense of loss and hopelessness. While the other immediately asks ‘where it fell’. A person of faith will never agree with words of sympathy, loss and hopelessness. His or her words will always reflect hope. Elisha’s question surely brought back the sunk hope of the son of prophet back to life. Hence, he showed Elisha the exact position where he lost. A person with no hope would not even have bothered to answer that question, thinking that it’s all in vain. A faith person speaks what he believes and does accordingly i.e his belief, speech and works i.e his heart, tongue and hands are working in complete unity. And such lives see miracles following them. Such lives are untouched by storms of hopelessness.

Elisha cut down a stick, and cast it in thither right into that place where the axe head fell. He could have prayed and the axe head would have swam. But he did some work here, for his aim was not just to get back the lost axe head, but was also to build up the faith level of the concerned son of prophet. The stick itself would only float, and it represented the axe head which was sunk. The eyes of the son of prophet and Elisha together were fixed on the floating stick now and not on the sunk axe head. This is faith in picture form. Focusing on things hoping for, yet not seen but seeing as if already seen. The axe head followed the floating stick of faith and the iron did swim.

This is what happens in a life sunk in deep darkness of sin. When we put our faith in Christ and the price he paid for our salvation, we are pulled out from the depths of bondage of sin and set free in Christ. Faith sounds to be simple but has mighty power to rise up a spiritually dead person to the heavenly places. Being one of the most powerful piece of the armor of a God’s child, it’s the most challenged area of one’s life. Seeing this, Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith life, spoke to His disciples on how to sustain in it.

Lk.18:1, ‘ And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;…’   Lk.18:7-8, ‘⁷ And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? ⁸ I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?’  Jesus always spent much time in prayer and taught His disciples to do the same. Here, he spoke a parable about a judge who did not fear God but yet he answered the persisting widow. The widow was not weary of persisting the judge but the hard hearted judge was weary of the widow’s persistant cry for justice. Her faith was not in the judge as a man, but it was in the cloak of position and authority he held as a judge. A judge’s responsibility is to give justice, whether he is hard or soft hearted. Her faith was in the law to which the judge himself was subject to. After saying this parable, Jesus spoke about the tough times ahead which might challenge the existence of even one person of faith when He would return in glory. Here we need to see our faith in the light of the widow in the parable. Her faith made her persist in her petition and so are we to persist in prayer. In other words, prayers can persist without fainting only if the faith factor sustains and grows. Every answer of  ‘wait’ for our prayer might make us weary but rising faith level overcomes such phases of life. Jesus here spoke about praying always (v 1), which alone fans the smoking sticks of faith into flames that overcome. If our prayers seems to cease every now and then, we need to check our faith in Christ and His word. Ephesians 6 speaks about shield of faith that stops every dart of unbelief and doubt from piercing our heart. V 18 of this chapter talks about praying always which in fact is like the glue which keeps all other pieces of the armor intact.

Elisha fanned his faith through earnest prayers and much prayers and he learnt this well from his teacher, Elijah, whose prayers stopped and brought rain to the earth. No storm can quench the faith of a prayerful man.  Neither the depths of water nor the weight of iron axe head hindered the faith of Elisha. His prayers had pushed up his faith level to an extent that the iron did swim. Are our prayers earnest and of faith? Are we able to pray unceasingly without fainting? Prayers represent relation with God. Unceasing prayers represent a strong and steady and passionate relation with God. Rom.8:32, ‘He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’

But true faith does not end here. Habakkuk 3: 17-18, ‘Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls—¹⁸ Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.’ In other words, even if the sunk iron axe head does not swim, I will still rejoice in the Lord. Even if our prayers for worldly blessings are not answered, yet we will love and serve our Lord. Even if our lost blessings are not restored, our faith in Christ will not waver.  Had the sharp iron axe head not swam, yet Elisha’s faith would not have been lowered, for his faith was not in getting the answers of prayers but in the One who has authority and power to say both ‘no’ and ‘yes’ to his prayers. Rom.8:35, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ Dear friends, such faith can be kept burning only through a disciplined unceasing prayer life. And only such faith can behold the much awaited glorious arrival of our Lord.

Elisha was a prayerful man and so his faith was strong enough to see the lost and sunk iron swim. Lets restore our sinking faith and hope in Christ through untiring prayer life.  Prayer is power and power of prayer is faith.

God bless us all

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