Can Iron Float?

 

Can Iron Float?

Introduce myself. Retired pastor. Now a substitute teacher. Today I want to study a miracle performed by the prophet Elisha. These miracles are true historical events, but they are also symbolic of the plan of salvation. They are very relevant today to help us understand how we can be set free from sin in our own lives.

2 Kings 6:1-7

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 ax 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.

Here we find an impossible situation. The sons of the prophets were building a place to live. One of them was felling a tree beside the Jordan River. The ax head came off and fell into the river and sunk deep into the mud. Elisha found out where it had fallen, and cut off a branch of wood and threw it into the river. When he did, the iron ax head floated to the surface of the river and was easily retrieved.

Now, this is a true story of a miracle that God enabled Elisha to perform. It was a historical event, not just a parable to teach spiritual truth. Yet it does teach some profound truths about freedom from sin. The ax head is symbolic of any person who is trapped in sin from which he cannot set himself free. All sin is bondage. Whether it is pride, lust, drunkenness, anger, vengeance, laziness, greed, lying, theft, a bitter unforgiving spirit, or anything else that is against the word of God. To some degree, we are all like that ax head. Stuck in the filthy mud at the bottom of the river. Unable to rise above the muck and mire where we find ourselves.

Can an iron ax head float? You could answer that when an iron ship is built according to certain specifications it can float. But an iron ax head cannot float because it is against its nature to do so. In the same way, we cannot rise out of the filth of our sin by exerting effort because it is against our nature to do so. We are all sinners from birth. We are sinners by nature.

Psalm 51:5,9,10

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

King David was called a man after God’s own heart. Yet he committed adultery with the wife of one of his most loyal soldiers, Uriah. Then David arranged for Uriah to be killed in battle as the men retreated. These were terrible sins. Yet when David was confronted with them, he confessed his sin to God, and God gave him mercy. In verse 10, he asks God to “create a clean heart”. David’s sin was not just the outward deeds he did. He understood that he was sinful in the innermost part of his being.

David was asking God to perform a miracle. He knew his heart was evil. He asked God to create a “clean heart”. Only God can create anything. The same God who created the Heavens and the Earth and everything in them will answer this same prayer if we ask him. Just like it is impossible for an iron ax head to float. It is impossible for you and me to rise above our sinful state unless God performs the miracle of the new birth.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He was born of the virgin Mary. He lived a perfect sinless life that we could not live. He willingly offered Himself as the sinless sacrifice for sin. When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the penalty for the sins of the world.

 

Romans 6:3-11

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

When Jesus died, our sins were punished. When He was buried, he took those sins into the grave. When He rose again from the dead, he gives a new life to all who will receive it by faith. All who believe this message of the gospel are united with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. We have become new creations with a new nature.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

When God gave Elisha the power to perform a miracle, he changed the very nature of the iron ax head so that it would float. The sick thrown in the water illustrates the cross. When we receive the gift of salvation he changes our nature so that we are no longer slaves to sin. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead, causes us to no longer be dead in sin.

Romans 6:12-14

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.  For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace.

Pray salvation prayer.