Axe heads, Angel Armies, and a God who cares.

INTRO

If you have your Bible today you can open to 2 Kings chapter 6. Feel free to use one of the Bible’s around you or follow along on the screen. Today we are going to look at 2 stories today that may seem very different and almost out of place being so close to each other. But I am hoping by the end of this message you see why they are so close together and how both stories can help us live supernaturally in a complacent culture today. So we are going to just jump into it today, so hopefully you are there ready to go.

BODY

6 Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and let us make a place for us to dwell there.” And he answered, “Go.” 3 Then one of them said, “Be pleased to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I will go.” 4 So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. 5 But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, “Alas, my master! It was borrowed.” 6 Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. 7 And he said, “Take it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it.

So without raising your hand, how many of you are thinking, why is this even in the Bible? Kind of seems like a pointless story, right? Okay, ya it is kind of cool that Elisha was able to make the axe head float, but out of all the miracles Elisha has done and will do, why add this one? Well, it was somewhat important to this student that was living with Elisha. He was one of the students of Elisha’s school of ministry that were getting cramped in the living quarters and so they start a building project with their own skills. One of them was so poor he had to borrow an axe, which was not a cheap thing. So loosing this axe head was a little like us borrowing something of decent value and then losing it. Not a great feeling, right?

Yet here is what we can see in such a short story as this.

GOD WAS SHOWING THROUGH THE PROPHET OF ELISHA THAT HE CARES ABOUT SMALL THINGS.

Many times people read through the old testament and say, God is not loving and not caring like he is in the New testament. And yes, there are times when God is just and does bring punishment. But there are many stories like this one that show the kindness, mercy, and care that God has for people. Jesus would tell us this very thing about God caring about us in his sermon on the mount in Matthew 6. You don’t have to turn there because we will be reading more in 2 kings, but this is what Jesus tells us about how much God cares about us.

English Standard Version Chapter 6

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Food and clothing are important things, right? Small but important things in someone’s life. Yet God cares enough to take care of you and me. He knows the hairs on your head.

Is this not an encouraging reminder this morning that the Lord of heaven and earth is concerned about your day to day situations. Things that might even feel small and unimportant, like an axe head, but God cares.

I thought I would share a story from my own life of how this has played out where something that seems small, yet important to me, God took care of it.

Wedding ring story?

But God does not just care about the small things, he cares about big things and unseen things. Let’s read the next story.

8 Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, “At such and such a place shall be my camp.” 9 But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, “Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there.” 10 And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice.

11 And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, “Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?” 12 And one of his servants said, “None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” 13 And he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him.” It was told him, “Behold, he is in Dothan.” 14 So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city.

So, this almost feels like Elisha is a superhero with this kind of power. The king of Syria, which is a huge nation at this time, would be in his bedroom discussing war details and Elisha would know about it. He then would go and tell the king of Israel about it and the king of Syria got so mad at this he thought someone was a spy in his counsel of people. But somehow they knew it was Elisha doing this and so, of course the king did not like that, and wanted Elisha to be killed so he sends his huge army to go get this one guy. A little overreacting in my opinion, but that is what he does and this is what happens next.

15 When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city.

Man, just picture that for a moment. You step outside of your tent to go start the fire to make some coffee and you see a whole army around the whole city. How would you rate this situation, a small worry or a big worry? Ya, big worry and big uh oh moment. SO he runs inside and does this.

And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

I’m sorry I keep stopping and starting this, but I just don’t want us to read this but imagine this situation. What would you say if you were the servant here? Man, Elisha, you are crazy! There is not one prepared for battle right now. We are in for some major destruction right now and you are not worried?! What have you been drinking man! Right? Yet, Elisha did actually see differently than his servant. And thankfully, God helps the servant see what Elisha sees so that he doesn’t run away or report Elisha to the local psych ward.

17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 18 And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD and said, “Please strike this people with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. 19 And Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” And he led them to Samaria.

20 As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.” So the LORD opened their eyes and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. 21 As soon as the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “My father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down?” 22 He answered, “You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.” 23 So he prepared for them a great feast, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel.

Okay, lots to discuss here but the two big thing we need to see again was 1) the spiritual army and 2) the way God brought victory.

So first, let’s talk about the spiritual army that Elisha prayed for his servant to see. In verse 18, Elisha has no fear about a whole army against him because he knows there is something more than what is seen. He prays for his servants eyes to be opened to it and he see the chariots of fire all around the mountains.

This is where our western, post enlightenment mindset needs to bow down to a biblical worldview. In our world, we are very physical and materially minded. The Bible shows us that the physical matters but so does the spiritual. That there is more going on than our eyes can see at times. Ephesians 6 tells us that we are in a war and that we should continue to put on the armor of God to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy. This is the reality we live in. There is a spiritual world, and if you are a believer that is not aware of that, you may want to read your Bible again to see that God is trying to help you see this. I don’t mean that in a demeaning or sarcastic way, I think it is just helpful to know the war you are actually in otherwise you will fight a war that you are not in. Yet, God brought victory through this spiritual army and God blinding the army.

So, secondly, God brings victory for Israel in such a strange way. He blinds them, Elisha leads a whole army to the king of Israel (just picture one guy leading a whole army, that is crazy). And the king of Israel is freaking out a little bit. He asked Elisha twice, should I kill them? Should I kill them? And Elisha again is like, calm down, don’t kill them, feed them. What a strange strategy. Some would say this is counter cultural. How do you get someone to stop attacking you? Feed them. The saying goes kill them with kindness? But what is this story really communicating to us today?

But just like God cares about the small things, we also see a wonderful truth in this story too.

GOD WAS SHOWING THROUGH THE PROPHET OF ELISHA THAT HE CARES ABOUT BIG SITUATIONS AND SPIRITUAL SITUATIONS.

This was a pretty big situation with a whole army coming to get Elisha, wouldn’t you say? And yet God was able to not only deliver Elisha out of this, but to stop the constant pressure of a whole nation coming to attack them anymore. That sounds like a powerful God. This sounds like a God who cares about big situations going on and doing some incredible things in the spiritual realm to help us.

So with these two truth’s before us, the fact that 1) God cares about the little things going on in life, and 2) God cares about the big and spiritual situations, we can be empowered to live supernaturally in a complacent culture. These two truth’s should bring freedom to us today. That is my prayer, so let me show you how they can bring you freedom today.

We are no longer orphans.

When you think about how an orphan mindset plays out, you can narrow it down to the fact that they think they are all on their own. They fend for themselves, no one cares about them and that they will never be loved. Does God really care about me? Does he actually care about the axe head going into the river? Does he really care about an enormous army surrounding my city? And the answer that we can confidently say is yes. We know that we are not orphans anymore. We may have thought that way in the past but with the Word (since we are reading it all the time) renewing our mind we know that we are not orphans anymore. Romans 8 reminds us that we have been adopted, we are not orphans anymore when it says this,

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

Let me communicate it this way.

God cares about your car keys and your chaotic situation at work.

God cares about your muscle pain and your marriage problems.

God cares about your lack of money, and your lack of peace in your life.

God cares about your future as and cares about your fear.

Every situation, he is a father that wants to help you.

If you find yourself realizing you have more of an orphan mindset than a son mindset, it may be because you have forgotten that God cares about you. And I get it, even when we read about how we should look at the sparrow and the lillies, God takes care of them so God will take care of you. Well what happens when you see that lilly die, and that bird laying on the ground after running into a window? Did God forget? No. In all seriousness, I believe this is where we need to say is my experience with life governing how I view God or is His word? Yes, birds die and flowers fade but that was the result of us, not God. The curse when God gave the blessing. And he says we are of more value than they are, so he will take care of you, your marriage, your children, your issues that are going on. But here is the kicker, we need to seek him first and trust Him that he is a a good father that knows what we need.

He is a God who is for you and not against you. He is wanting to have the anxiety and fear that you feel melt away and have you stop bowing down to those things. He is a God of freedom and life and he cares for you.

The second way that these two stories help us to live supernaturally in a complacent culture is

2. He protects us in the spiritual realm.

What would your response be if we prayed for God to open our eyes, like Elisha did, to the spiritual realm and he did it? If he showed your the angel armies surrounding you as you every day? How he has been protecting you from the demonic attacks against you. We have no idea how much the Lord actually protects us and helps us in the physical by helping us in the spiritual. Some of you, like I said before, may be uncomfortable with this because the spiritual realm is not a believable for you. However, angels and demons are a part of your worldview now if you follow Jesus. They always have been, but now as you continue to read the Word, you see that they are a lot more involved in your life than you realized before.

But you don’t have to worry because he has given us everything we need in this spiritual war. He has given us the armor of God, he has given us His Spirit who is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4) he has given us His word and His word is truth which exposes the lies of the evil one. You have everything you need to fight this war. But I want to pause here for maybe someone who has been feeling weighed down spiritually recently. Maybe you don’t even know why you have felt the way you have felt but even as I have been talking God is opening your eyes to realize the enemy has been surrounding you and you have not stood firm. I want to pray for you right now, so if that is you, just open your hands like you are receiving a gift, or better yet, receiving power from the Lord to stand firm.

So he surrounds us even when you don’t see it. He cares for us. And lastly,

3. God gives us victory in strange ways

Remember the army being defeated by a meal? isn’t that kind of weird? Yet this should remind you of another story, where God delivered a people through a meal. Think back to Egypt with the passover where God prepared a meal for the Israelites that also set them free from the Egyptians. If you are not familiar with with this story, the Israelites were in Egypt as slaves, Charlton Heston, I mean Moses, came and said let my people go. God sends plagues to show them he is God and their gods are not gods. And for the final plague God kills the firstborn sons if they do not have the blood of the lamb over their doorpost. And the lambs blood was not just because they killed a lamb, but because it would be the main course in this meal to remember God’s faithfulness to them, that God cared for them so deeply that he not only protected them but delivered them too.

How do these two things connect together?

This idea that God gives victory through a meal is actually seen all over scripture. And in the end, when we are in the new Jerusalem we will actually be eating a meal with God with the best meats and the finest wines you have ever had. And while we look forward to that day, we also have communion as a time of remembrance of Jesus’ forgiveness of sins, his return, and I would say, how much he cares for us.

CONCLUSION

So as a way to end today we are going to take communion as a group of believers to remember this meal gives us victory, that God protects us spiritually, and we are no longer orphans. We are bound to him in covenant by the blood of the lamb. If you are a visitor here, we only ask one thing for taking communion together. You do not need to be a member you just need to have a relationship with Jesus.

I’m going to read from 1 Corinthians 11 to reminds our hearts about why we take this meal.

English Standard Version Chapter 11

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.