Yeshua said in Luke 24.27 that the Scriptures teach about him and the redemption, so this story is no exception. It is found in 2 Kings 6.1-7 and Elisha (God is my salvation) will be a picture of Yeshua who is sent by the Father. The story takes place near Gilgal and that is important (2 Kings 4.38). Gilgal is where the kingdom is renewed in 1 Sam 11.14-15. Saul in that story is a picture of Adam/man, the first king over the Kingdom of Yehovah (1 Chr 28.5; 2 Chr 13.8), and he goes with Samuel and is made king, but later he falls just like the first king Adam fell. Yochanon Ha Matvil or John the Immerser has his ministry in the area because the Kingdom of Yehovah has come and it is going to be renewed, and he is getting the people ready for it through an immersion of repentance, and Yeshua himself goes there for an immersion (John 1.28). Gilgal has the same root as “Golgotha” and the symbolism is even clearer. When Israel crossed over the Jordan they were circumcised at Gilgal, removing the reproach of Egypt. Our reproach of sin is removed at Golgotha by the death of Yeshua. With that said, let’s go back to 2 Kings 6.1-7.
The sons of the prophets (students of the prophets) go there to cut down some trees (a type of mankind) and want to build a place to live, all symbolic of our desire to live spiritually. The prophet Elisha (God is my salvation) goes with them, which alludes to the fact that the Lord is with us. They go to the Jordan, Hebrew “Yarden” which means “the descender” and is a type of “death.” And the trees are cut down, which indicates that we all have sinned (Matt 3.6-10) and we live near “death” at all times. While they were doing this, an axe head falls into the Jordan through an error (sin). The axe head is also symbolic of man (Prov 27.17). So man (the axe head) has fallen into death (the Jordan) and can’t be used. They cry for Elisha (Yeshua). In 2 KIngs 6.5 it says “it was borrowed” which symbolizes that our lives are “borrowed” and we must give an account to God (Deut 19.15; Acts 17.28). Elisha wants to know where it fell, alluding to the fact that man fell in the Garden of Eden among the trees, and Yehovah asked, “Where are you?” in Gen 3.9.
The sons of the prophets showed them the spot and Elisha cut off a branch. This alludes to Yeshua, the Branch in Isa 11.1; Zech 6.11-13; Jer 23.5, being “cut off” in Dan 9.26 and Isa 53.8. The branch is thrown into the Jordan, like Yeshua was thrown into death (1 Pet 2.21-24; Psa 69.1-14, 88.6-7, 16-18) and the axe head (man) floats, or was resurrected, and that which was lost is useable again. Elisha tells them to “take it up for yourself” which alludes to how each person must reach out by faith and take his new, useable life back up again for himself. Others can’t do it for you.
So, the presence of the wood (Messiah the “Branch”) thrown into the water of the Jordan (death) leads to a change in the nature of the iron and it floats (John 3.3-16; meaning our nature must be changed and we must be “born from above”). If that happens, man cannot be taken down to death and remain there, because his nature has changed (1 Cor 15.51-55). We will be raised by faith and made useful again. In Matt 14.25-33 this story is repeated in another form when Yeshua, the Branch of Zech 6, is in the water with a sinking Peter (the axe head), and he raises Peter out of the water and he is made useable again.
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