25 "Come down from the cross!"

Again we turn to Elisha, whose life and ministry typify the Divine testimony of the last days.

So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, 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 fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim. (II Kings 6:4-6)

The sons of the prophets had asked Elisha permission to go to the Jordan and cut down trees so they could build a larger house. The "larger house" speaks of the desire to make progress in the Kingdom of God.

In the Scripture, the Jordan River typifies death to self—the death we must die if we would cross over to resurrection ground.

The axe head represents the iron of the Holy Spirit, the strength by which the saints are able to live a life of victory over the world and sin.

The axe head, representing strength, fell into the water of human ambition.

The sons of the prophets had lost the iron, the power of the Holy Spirit. They lost it in the waters of human concerns, human activities, human talents, human energies, human attempts to construct the Church, the Kingdom of God.

The axe head was borrowed. The little spiritual ability the churches have today is borrowed. It has been borrowed from the saints of the past who possessed the iron because they ministered from the cross, because they prayed, because they lived holy lives, because they feared and obeyed God.

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