Transcribed from a message given by T. Austin-Sparks in 1959. The spoken form has been retained verbatim. Words which were not clearly discernible have been enclosed in [square] brackets.
Reading: 2 Kings 6:1-33
In the second book of the Kings, chapter six: “And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell before thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan and take thence every man a beam and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. When they came to the 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, my master! for it was borrowed. 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. He said, Take it up to thee. So he put out his hand, and took it.”
I confess that I used to wonder why that story was included in the number which we have of these acts of Elisha; very interesting and of course quite wonderful, but what is its lesson? What has it to say? And in thinking about it, several things have become quite clear to me and I would like to pass on just one or two of them this morning.
Of course this, with all these other things that are recorded about the acts of Elisha, this, with them, is included in the great beginning of his life. You recall that as his master Elijah was about to be taken up into heaven, he asked Elisha what he might give him. Elisha said, "A double portion of thy spirit". More literally: the portion of the first-born. Elijah said, "You have asked a hard thing, nevertheless if you see me when I am taken up, it shall be." And as they passed through the Jordan, onto the other side, the chariots of the Lord appeared and caught up Elijah. Elisha cried, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof!" The mantle fell from Elijah and Elisha took it up.
The sons of the prophets, who come into view at that point and are mentioned so many times in this book, find the spirit of Elijah does rest upon Elisha and they bow themselves to the ground. Now that is where it all begins, for these various, shall we call them stories - they are more than stories, works of power - were the expression and outcome of that mighty anointing with the Spirit; that portion of the first-born. So that what we have here in every one, and in this one of which we are thinking this morning, is the real work of the anointing. That is, the Holy Spirit operating in the power of resurrection. Every incident, as you notice, there’s that stamp in some way or another, in some form or another: it is the mighty working of resurrection power by the anointing, by the Holy Spirit.
It would be easy, and we have done it before, we will not take the time to repeat this morning; to show how this is but a foreshadowing of the ascension or receiving up of the Lord Jesus whereupon the Holy Spirit descended upon the Church. The mantle of the firstborn, the portion of the firstborn, fell upon the Church. We want to know what the portion of the firstborn is. It is just this: the power of His resurrection. Seeing that, let us come to this story.
The sons of the prophets, again in view, and note what they represent: they represent the generation succeeding, following on, to carry forward the prophetic testimony, the next generation, the sons of the prophets. The heart of this whole thing, where they appear again and again in relation to these mighty acts of the Spirit through Elisha, the heart of the whole thing is this: that these called sons of the prophets who were in the schools of the prophets being
educated and trained to carry on the work of the prophets, to fulfil their ministry in the next generation, were not just academic students. They were being, by these various ways, brought into the closest touch with reality. And you will at once see how true that was in the case of this man and his axe-head. For these sons of the prophets expressed quite a legitimate ambition or desire when they said the place where we dwell is too strait for us and said let us have enlargement; perfectly legitimate ambition or desire, a right thing, nothing wrong with that at all. To desire to escape limitation and straitness and to enlarge and to expand for the work of the Lord; that’s quite a good thing and quite a right thing. And so Elisha raised no objection, put no difficulty in the way, but encouraged. And when some of them said to him, "Look here, we’re not just going on with this without you, we’re not discarding the old generation, you come with us, we need you" he said, I come. There was a towardness in this whole matter, and quite rightly so. But even so, with a perfectly legitimate desire and ambition, a right quest in which there is no objection at all; the thing has got to be kept very close to life. And that’s what this story is about.
Amongst the various lessons that it teaches, there are just two that I will point out this morning. But in our going on, or our desire to go on, our quest for enlargement and increase and escape from anything that is small, narrow, straitened, limited... all that is employed in the work of the Lord must be first-hand. It cannot be done with BORROWED tools. And there are many ways in which the testimony can be second-hand. It may be children brought up in it in their home. I wonder if I might refer to such an occasion in our own midst several years ago. When our brother Patterson was taken so suddenly to the Lord, his son John, who was with us at the conference time recently, passed into a very difficult phase and he came to see me. He said "I’m having a very difficult time. I have discovered that I have been living on my father’s testimony. I have just taken what he said, followed him, thinking that I was on the same ground as he. I’ve discovered that it was his, and not mine and I have got to find it all for myself right from the beginning.” It was a difficult passage. He came through of course, he’s on his own ground. It was a borrowed axe.
We may get it from our meetings; teaching that we have received over years. We’ve got it in our hand, we think, and then we imagine that we are going to use it in some way and it's going to be a serviceable thing and then something happens: we find it doesn’t work, the head comes off. It just comes off and lets us down. This is not ours, alas, it was a borrowed one. It wasn’t ours, it was someone else’s. It was the fellowship’s, the meeting’s, or the teacher’s. In various other ways it can be something borrowed, from the study and the library and the bookshelves, the commentaries and the translations and all the authorities, the godly men who’ve written it. We’ve got it, we think, and it doesn’t work. The head comes off, alas, for it was borrowed.
