The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to meet.” And he said, “Go.” Then one of them said, “Won’t you please come with your servants?” “I will,” Elisha replied. And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!” The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. “Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it. 2 Kings 6:1-7
“Miracles are done to be a sign, indicator, a witness to so great a salvation that comes only in Christ our Savior. The ensign in this episode with Elisha is that it was the wood of a tree that was cut off (a representation of the work of Christ) that was the key to resurrecting the iron from the depths of the river Jordan. The same portrait of wood that we can see when the children of Israel thirsted in the wilderness, and the Lord told Moses to cast a tree (same word) into the poisoned water to make it sweet and drinkable (Exodus 15:25). The wood stick of the tree represents the efficacious power of Christ in the water whereby Christ redeems it making it clean. Elisha, a type of Christ, uses this same stick cut off so that the axe head can be redeemed from being lost. In other words, it was because of the stick cast into Jordan (representing death) that the iron did float and thus could be retrieved by God’s servant.”
Tony Warren in “The Miracle of Elisha and the Floating Axe Head.”
This miracle illustrates the work of Jesus Christ for us on the cross. What does it have to do with generosity?
The tree serves as a sign, indicator, and witness to the payment of the debt we could not repay, that is, generous deliverance from death to life.
Notice how Elisha tossed the tree on the spot where the axehead fell. Likewise, may our generosity go toward lifting the lost as a sign, indicator, and witness to our faith.