Elisha was not the only prophet but had a "supporting cast" in the form of the company of prophets, literally it says "sons of prophets". It seems that there numbers had grown and they needed a larger place to meet. So they went to chop wood in order to build a bigger hall. In the course of this one of them lost an axe head, and this axe belonged to someone else. We can all imagine the anguish that the man felt. Elisha did another miracle and the axe head was retrieved. Note how trivial this was, and that it could have been put down to the carelessness of the man, yet God still intervened. God truly does care about all the details of our lives, as Jesus said, all the hairs on our head are counted. This is not an excuse for a lackadaisical approach to life, but nor should we get neurotic about things. God's concern for our lives goes far deeper than we ever imagine.
Note also that God puts these stories in the Bible. There are accounts of kings and prophets, great battles, the moral degeneracy of the nation, and then these seemingly trivial matters. God is involved in all things.
People sometimes mock Christians who pray for a parking space or some such thing. There is nothing wrong with doing this! Of course, if that is all I ever pray about there is a problem and I should pray for other matters as well. Moreover it betrays a deep misunderstanding. If God blesses me it does not mean that He has less to bless someone else with! There is also another side to this. When God blesses someone else it does not mean He has less to bless you with! We can sometimes think "why has such and such been blessed and I haven't". We should never be envious of others, instead we should rejoice with those who rejoice, we should rejoice when others are blessed.
No comments:
Post a Comment