Where Did It Fall?

Where Did It Fall?

—2 Kings 6:6

This question came from the lips of the prophet Elisha at a critical moment. His school of the prophets had outgrown its facility, so in a great team effort, the students began to construct a new building alongside the Jordan River. As they were cutting down trees for lumber, one of the young men swung his ax with such force that the ax head flew off the handle and sank to the bottom of the river. Everyone then focused on recovering the lost ax head. In the midst of the confusion, Elisha appeared and asked a simple question: “Where did it fall?” The student “showed him the place” (2 Kings 6:6). Elisha then took a small tree and threw it in at the spot where the ax head had sunk. And Scripture says, Elisha “made the iron float” (v. 6). The ax head floated to the surface, the young man picked it up, and the work continued.

The ax head is the cutting edge of the tool. Metaphorically, the ax head is the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit within us that gives us the cutting edge in life. All the education in the world will never suffice for the cutting edge. All the natural ability and giftedness in the world will never match the cutting edge. This is because the cutting edge is the life of Christ made real in us through the Holy Spirit. But if we lose the cutting edge in life, how can we recover it? Today’s amazing story shows us the way.

THE PROBLEM SIMPLIFIED

As one young man was swinging his ax, the ax head flew off, and the man cried out the news that he had lost it (2 Kings 6:5). The fact that he even acknowledged the problem is significant. Too many of us who lose our cutting edge are too proud to admit it. Instead, we compensate for the loss. We go off to seminars to learn how to swing the ax handle, we polish the handle until it shines, we motivate our fellow wood choppers with positive thinking, and we often come up with a clever little slogan. Then we go out and beat on the trees with our ax handles and come back as bruised as the trees themselves. But too often the sound of falling trees is absent. Why? Again, some of us have lost the cutting edge but are too proud to admit it.

One more important point. Note that this young man lost his cutting edge in the midst of keeping up a busy schedule for God. Ironically, this is one of the most common places our cutting edge is still being lost today—when we get too busy doing things for God. And we will never recover our cutting edge until we, like this young prophet-in-the-making, admit that we have lost it.

THE PROBLEM CLARIFIED

The young man cried out, “It was borrowed” (2 Kings 6:5). The ax wasn’t his; it belonged to another. Similarly, this is the way it is with us. We don’t possess the Holy Spirit; He possesses us.

No wonder there was desperation in this young man’s voice. He prefaced his confession with, “Alas!” The fact that the ax did not belong to him made him more desperate to find it. May you and I be as desperate to walk with the Holy Spirit!

THE PROBLEM IDENTIFIED

When Elisha came upon the scene, his first words were the question, “Where did it fall?” (2 Kings 6:6). The young man “showed him the place” (v. 6). After all, the place to start looking for something is the place where we last had it!

If you are among those who may have lost the cutting edge in life, the first step to getting it back is to admit it. You must then go back to the place where you lost it. Did you lose your cutting edge when your busy schedule squeezed out your morning quiet time? Or when the Bible you once opened each night remained closed on your nightstand? Perhaps you lost your cutting edge when you judged another or when bitterness took root in your heart. Or maybe you lost that ax head in the waters of worldliness or the pools of pride. The place to recover the cutting edge is to go back to the place where you last had it.

THE PROBLEM NULLIFIED

When Elisha saw the spot where the ax head was lost, “he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float” (2 Kings 6:6). This man of God was willing to receive God’s supernatural power. Are we? After all, iron does not float. Go to the physics department of your local college or university and the professor will explain to you the composition of iron, the composition of water, and why iron cannot float. In fact, floating iron is a scientific impossibility. And if the professor stops with that statement, he or she apparently doesn’t know about the tree on which our Savior died, our Savior who can still make iron float today.

The supernatural power of God—will we receive it? We hear all around us today, “You can’t heal that broken heart,” and that’s the same as saying, “Iron doesn’t float.” “You can’t restore that broken home” is the same as saying, “Iron doesn’t float.” “You can’t recover those broken dreams” is yet another variation of “Iron doesn’t float”—and the list goes on and on. The stick—that little part of a tree—that Elisha threw into those waters, bringing about that miracle, was a foreshadowing of the tree on which Jesus won our victory, and it was a victory not just over sin but over life’s hard circumstances as well. After all, our problems lose their hold on us when we believe that God still makes the impossible possible.

THE PROBLEM RECTIFIED

After Elisha threw the stick into the water, the young man had something to do. Elisha said, “ ‘Pick it up for yourself.’ So [the young man] reached out his hand and took it” (2 Kings 6:7). Again, it is not enough to simply acknowledge that we have lost the cutting edge, to admit that the power belongs to another, to go back to the place where we last had that power, and to receive the supernatural power of God if we ourselves don’t—in an act of faith—reach out and take it back. The outcome of the whole story hinged on whether this young man would reach out and take the ax head. The outcome of your story hinges on whether you will reach out and take the Source of your strength and power. The young man did. Will you?

Once when Jesus was walking through a large crowd of people who were pressing in all around Him, He stopped, looked around, and asked, “Who touched me?” A woman in the crowd desperately needed healing, so she had simply reached out and touched the hem of His garment . . . and was made whole (Luke 8:43–48). Will you receive Jesus’ power today by reaching out and touching Him?

Q & A: “Where did it fall?” The ax head is the cutting edge—it’s the dynamic life of the Holy Spirit in a believer like you. Don’t be content to swing just an ax handle at the trees in your path. Go back where you lost your edge . . . and pick it up. You’ll be glad you did because there is a world of difference in something done for God and something done by God! The supernatural power of God is there for you: reach out and take it.