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SMORGASBORD

The comments below were first given by a pastor to his congregation in the Sunday worship service bulletin.

* AN AXHEAD FLOATS (AND MORE)

A few weeks ago reference was made in the sermon to the miracle of an axhead floating. The next week one of the confirmation class children asked pastor where that was found in the Bible. Here it is:

“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 live. 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, 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).

Besides the miracle itself, there is something else noteworthy about this. Evolutionists and other Bible skeptics would have us believe that people who lived back before “recorded history” were mostly brute beasts and weren’t advanced enough to make–not to mention use–functional and efficient tools.

However, if you look even farther back in the Bible (see Genesis chapter four), we find this told us about the sons of Cain:

“Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. Zillah who had a son Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron . . . ” (Genesis 4:20-22).

Yes, for those of us who take the Bible as God’s Word there is no question that “pre-historic” man was as “advanced” as modern man, able to carry on ranching, to create and use musical instruments, to forge metal tools and weapons! Think also of how the Old Testament people constructed the tower of Babel (Genesis 11); think of ancient engineering wonders like the Egyptian pyramids.

It’s true, of course, that man today has been allowed to discover, invent, construct, and manufacture many other things as God allows him to “fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28ff).

And with all this we would yet mention that there is one other thing that man today has in common with his ancient ancestors: both alike are described in these words which tell the spiritual condition before Noah’s flood: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5).

In other words 21st century man has nothing to boast about compared with the ancient peoples. All alike are children of Adam and Eve who fell into sin, and with that Fall placed all their descendants–including you and me–under the curse of sin and its wages.

And where is the escape from sin and death? Where but in the Woman’s Seed, Jesus Christ (promised in Genesis 3:15), who would crush the devil’s head with His innocent suffering and death on the cross for our sins. “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).

(Bulletin of Grace Lutheran Church, Sleepy Eye, Minn. Pastor Paul Fleischer)