Several times I’ve heard people give the challenge to read Bible passages in unusual locations – up a mountain, in a hospital A&E waiting room, or on a bus. The idea is that we might see a familiar passage differently, or hear God differently because of where we are physically located.
I’m reading the start of 2 Kings 6 on a campsite! It’s the morning after our first night in the tent when none of us have slept well and there is frustration is getting things sorted for the day – everything takes longer than usual, and nothing is very convenient.
2 Kings 6:1-7 tells the story of what John Goldingay calls ‘the last of Elisha’s trivial miracles’. He’s referring to the incidents where Elisha has healed the water for the prophets, cursed the youths who called him baldy, made the dodgy stew good and, now, made a lost axe head float in the river.
These were not trivial for those concerned, but I think Goldingay is referring more to the way the incidents are related: they are told briefly, with little detail, in very matter of fact ways, even though the occurrences are quite miraculous.
In the axe head incident, the prophets are building themselves a new house when the head flies off one of their axes and falls into a river. The cry goes up, “Alas, master! It was borrowed!”
Not only had they lost an axe, so the building work was disrupted, but they would have to face the shame of telling the owner of the axe that it was lost. Elisha steps in, makes the axe head float miraculously, and all is well again.
It’s easy to dismiss these ‘trivial’ incidents as unbelievable or occurrences we can’t relate to. But reading in the midst of camping brings to life the interest God has in the ‘trivial’ stuff of life.
I can’t claim that we are in hard times on this camp site (I mean, there are free phone charging points, although you have to queue) but life is a bit more difficult than usual.
And I think these incidents from Elisha’s life illustrate how God is interested in the small things of life – we can cry out to God and, we believe, he answers.
Photo by HamZa NOUASRIA on Unsplash