Little things

I love reading about the old testament prophets in The Book. Not just their writings (like Isaiah, Amos, Micah, Jeremiah, etc), but I especially get a kick out of reading about them. Like Elijah & Elisha in I & II Kings. Just the way they lived, things they did, etc...I love it.

I've been into II Kings lately with Elisha. Most people overlook him for Elijah which is funny since Elisha had the double anointing. So I guess he was a double bad-ass.

I kept running into funny little stories that made me wonder why they were included in the overall text, other than the fact that these were stories of Elisha and there was some miraculous quality about them.

My favorite was "An Axhead Floats" (II Kings 6:1-7). Some prophetic buddy of Elisha was chopping down trees near the Jordan River when his axhead fell in the water. "Oh crap" he said. "It was borrowed".

It was borrowed? Oh goodness...we have an emergency. Call the feds. So somehow Elisha throws a stick into the water which somehow makes the axhead float.

Now I'm thinkin'...what were the consequences of losing a borrowed axhead? You gotta buy the owner a new one? Maybe some weird jewish law that made the owner throw something of yours into the water, ala "eye for an eye"?

At best, I can guess that this borrowed tool being lost would create a minor inconvenience for the guy who lost it. An INCONVENIENCE. And yet the CEO cares about the little things in our life enough to do something miraculous about them if we ask him, I suppose.

Like making an axhead float.

I don't know...maybe there's more deep theological meanings behind this story...