2 Kings 6.
IT does not appear where Elisha lived at this time (verse 1), nor does it matter, or we should have been told in the story. He had been at Samaria (chapter 2:25); next we saw him with the warring kings of Israel and Judah (chapter 3:11); then at another unnamed place but apparently one of those where “the sons of the prophets” lived (chapter 4:1-7); he was at Shunam, Mount Carmel, and Gilgal in the course of the fourth chapter; where he was when Naaman came (chapter 5), is not said. It is clear that he lived among the people, —quite different from Elijah who lived apart from them.
Elisha in this respect puts us in mind of the Lord Jesus when He trod this earth, as we find Him told of in His unmatched life by the four evangelists (see for example Matthew 11:19; Mark 6:56; Luke 8:1; John 4). Grace as we have before noticed, is what marked the ministry of Elisha, as law did that of Elijah.
Where the sons of the prophets lived with Elisha was too small for them, they said, and he willingly went with them to the Jordan, where before he had sent Naaman the Syrian for his cleansing from leprosy, (and for his new birth, too). And it was after the pattern seen in all its wonderful perfection in Jesus that Elisha, entering into the circumstances of the people, concerned himself with the recovery of the lost axe head.
If there be a typical meaning to this incident, it is in connection with the Jordan which pictures death. Then the house built of wood taken from the river, and the axe head’s being made to swim, would suggest the believer’s position (to be lived out, practically) as expressed in Colossians 2:11-13, 20; 3:1, etc., and the power of the cross of Christ, overcoming the power of death.
Next is illustrated the care of God for His people, and that nothing is hid from Him, (verse 12). Surely “the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil” 1 Peter 3:12, but on the other hand, both saint and sinner are too apt to forget the truth expressed in Hebrews 4:12,13: “For the Word of God is quick (living), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.”
Elisha (verse 17) prayed, but it was not now for himself; faith and dependence on God were strong in him, and he would have his servant in the same confidence and trust. No doubt, what was then revealed was a host of angels, generally invisible to mortal eyes, but none the less ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14). That there are myriads of them, is shown by the Lord’s word to Peter in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:53), and by Hebrews 12:22, but they are not to be worshiped (Colossians 2:18.) In a way wholly unlike that of the world, Elisha deals with the Syrian bands: blinded, helpless, though bent on evil, they are protected, fed and sent back to their master. God was with His people, and attacks upon them then were powerless.
But the unjudged, unrepented of evil of the nation, brought on a fresh dealing, and Samaria was made to suffer severely with the king of Syria at the gates. That word in Numbers 32:23: “Be sure your sin will find you out,” has often been proved. Things may seem to go finely for a while, but that which is sowed must be reaped.
A fearful state of things had been reached in Samaria when the people resorted to eating their children, but the godless king Jehoram did not repent; blaming God for his troubles, he would have God’s servant put to death. The despairing statement at the end of the chapter is apparently the king’s, not as might be supposed, Elisha’s.
ML 11/06/1927