Can wood sink?

"And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, Behold now, the place where we live with you is too small for us. Please let us go to Jordan. And let each man take a beam from there. And let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go. And one said, Be content, please, and go with your servants. And he answered them, I will go. And he went with them.

And they came to Jordan, and they cut down trees. And it happened as one was felling a log, the axe-head fell into the water. And he cried and said, Alas, master! For it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where did it fall? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick [translated gallows] and threw it in there. And the iron swam. And he said, take it up to you. And he put out his hand and took it" (2 Kings 6:1-7).

Although the Scripture does not explicitly say that the stick sank to the bottom of the water, I submit that it did.

I believe that the stick and the axe traded places! I submit that this is a beautiful picture of the Cross of Jesus Christ taking our curse.

It is just as much a miracle that the stick sank, that the axe swam! If the stick stands for the Cross of Jesus Christ, then the axe stands for our lost hope. Jesus takes our curse on the Cross. We receive the undeserved miracle of regaining what we have lost and what we cannot pay back.

Notice the man who lost the axe was only attempting to serve the Lord by building a new dormitory for the school of the prophets. He was in the way of serving the Lord. He had borrowed the axe. In those times, losing what was borrowed was a shame to the borrower and a dishonor to the lender.

I can imagine what this man thought when he saw his axe hit the water. This was the river Jordon, which always stands for "death." The Jordon was muddy and was probably running fast. All hope was lost in this man’s mind. He saw the splash of the water and he thought, "Oh man, that is gone for good." He experienced the "dark night of the soul."

The dark night is when all hope is gone! What seemed to be a horrible loss for this man turned out to be bread for you and me. Little did he know that this loss of hope, this dark night, would be recorded in Scripture as a testimony to God’s resurrection power to encourage you and me.

What have you lost? See God throwing His Cross into the water for you.

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone having been hanged on a tree’)" (Galatians 3:13).

Larry Chkoreff February, 2000