Naked Miracles and Floating Iron
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.
And he said, “Take it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it.
The number of prophets in the school that followed Elisha was growing, and the building they were living in was too small. So they decided to build another; they got Elisha’s blessing on it, and even got him to come along to the building site beside the River Jordan. They had evidently borrowed at least one axe with which they were felling trees.
I can imagine the scene – a group of men working on the building, one man with his back to the river whacking away at a tree on the river bank; he lifts the axe fast intent on the down-stroke, and the head slips off the handle and flies off into the river. It’s almost comic when he brings the haft back down without the head – but the realization that the borrowed axe is at the bottom of the Jordan is of great concern to the worker. An iron axe is precious. He rushes over to the boss to ask for direction.
Elisha throws in a stick and the iron floats to the surface!
If you were to rate all the passages in Scripture that you found strange, surely this one would rank well up on the list. It is, you might say, a ‘naked’ miracle – there’s no cover for it being coincidence or caused by any other device. You cannot explain it in terms of regular experience – it either happened, or the Bible was just plain lying. Other stories of naked miracles in the Bible come to mind – Jesus walking on water or calming the storm; Noah’s ark and the flood, healing the beggar at the Gate Beautiful, Elijah on Mt. Carmel.
And yet in one way, I find it strange that we find the passage strange.
The thing that troubles us with this passage is that natural laws are suspended – iron’s specific gravity is 7.85 (it is 7.85 times heavier than water). To make the axe float, a fundamental property of either the water or the iron (or both) has to change, or perhaps gravity in a very localized area has to reverse. There’s no question of natural solutions or coincidences here – the axe had sunk when it fell into the river; it floated when Elisha threw in the stick. And a stick does not affect iron.
Here’s what I find strange. The world is full of people who believe in God. Vast numbers of people who say they believe that (1) He created the Universe, (2) He continues to be involved with His creation, and (3) He both listens to and answers prayers. They pray for something (let’s use healing as an example) and when it happens they publicly attribute the miracle to God and are grateful. And yet many Christians and Jews look at this passage and doubt its veracity – why? Because iron doesn’t float! – that is, because the events in the story are outside the documented laws of nature. What this suggests is that for many people who call themselves Jews or Christians, their private (and carefully unspoken) assessment of the healing that they prayed for and that actually took place is that it was natural and coincidental. They think of catching a cold – not a big deal, and you’d be healed by biological process; so if the healing being prayed for is bigger, life-threatening and looks certain to be fatal, then when the healing does take place maybe God really didn’t do anything special, it’s just like having a cold. It’s easier to believe in the documented laws of nature than it is to believe in the intervention of an unseen God. Thus their prayer was motivated more by passive superstition than active faith.
Almost as if you are taking responsibility for making the person better: by your own personal power of prayer and belief you are going to pull the person into wellness. You use ‘the force’ – very Star Wars, Luke.
Or like trying to believe six impossible things before breakfast.
Been there, done that.
1. But while praying for healing is “Something You Can Do” (and when confronted by a loved one’s illness or hurt you just want to DO something), prayer is not a mantra to appease some primitive god, on the off-chance that he exists despite obvious fables and falsehoods in his holy writ. On the contrary, prayer itself is one of the biggest miracles of all! The idea that a Being of such Immensity as the One who created the universe chooses to pay attention to the needs, hurts, words and desires of a bunch of wretched, microscopic, rebellious creatures called human beings should be absolutely staggering to us.
2. On the constructive side, being confronted with these naked miracles gives us a chance to identify areas in which we are at odds with Scripture. This is a rich gift, because – as we recognize that Scripture is indeed inerrant – we are drawn inexorably to the conclusion that something must be wrong in our understanding. And what is wrong is this: that just as God can float iron, He can adjust cell chemistry in the human body, and there are no coincidences involved in the miracle; just purposeful, deliberate Divine intervention. Helping us to move from passive superstition (where we ‘invoke’ God’s impersonal help) to an active faith (where we connect with our Father) may well be why this strange miracle was brought about and this passage was placed into Holy Writ in the first place.
Mike Killiany (Mike Roots)
fred
Frank Ramsey
