In the stories of Elijah and Elisha we find repeatedly told how something new comes to replace the old. This starts with the prophets themselves, Elisha succeeds Elijah. These two prophets, who even in their names are very similar, are both a type of Christ. Elijah speaks mainly of Christ in His humiliation, Elisha in His exaltation.
Elisha therefore receives a double portion of the spirit of Elijah (2 Kings 2:9), which has to do with the birthright, as a representation of Christ, who was raised from the dead as the Firstborn (1 Cor. 15:20).
One of the remarkable stories of the prophet Elisha is that of the floating axe:
2 Kings 6
1 The disciple prophets said to Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell before you is too narrow for us.
2 Let us go now unto Jordan, and take every man a tree from thence, and make us a place, where we may dwell. And he said, Go.
prophets school
Apparently there was a prophets school in Gilgal (4:32), where this takes place. These sons of the prophets, as it literally says, live in a place that they find too cramped and go looking for a new place. It is a biblical principle that God takes away the first to establish the second (Hebr.10:9). Here too you find in history how something new comes to replace the old.
old vs new
In this old creation there is suffering, it is cramped. God takes away the old creation and gives a new one in its place. This also applies to the law. The old covenant, as the law is called, hinders a person and is cramped, a person cannot meet it. God gives a new covenant in which nothing is expected of a person and all obligations (promises) lie with God.
3 And one of them said: Please go with your servants. And he said: I will go myself.
4 So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down trees.
the man of God
It is the man of God who brings about the new covenant and the new creation. He is with the believers and identifies himself with them, as is also the case in the ecclesia, the body of Christ. The building of the new dwelling is a picture of the building of the dwelling place of God in spirit (Eph. 2:22), the ecclesia, which is His body (Eph. 1:22-23)
5 And it came to pass, as one of them was felling a tree, that the iron fell into the water. And he cried out, saying, Alas, my lord! it was borrowed!
6 And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place, and he cut off a stick, and cast it, and brought up the iron.
7 And he said, Bring it to thee. And he put forth his hand, and took it.
a borrowed axe
As Moses cast a stick into the water, and the water became sweet (Ex.15:25), so this other man of God cast a stick into the water, and the iron came up. Iron in Scripture stands for strength (Dan.2:40). But this axe was borrowed, for it is not about our own strength and our own works, but about what He does through us. It is the man of God, Christ, who brings about resurrection through the wood (Acts 13:29).
Jordan
The place where this happens is the Jordan at Gilgal (2 Kings 2:1) and that is a special place. Gilgal means wheel or revolution and has to do with rebirth and new life. Earlier, Israel under the leadership of Joshua crossed the Jordan at this place (Joshua 4:19). Here the waters receded and the people had a dry passage (Joshua 3).
A few chapters earlier in 2 Kings it is first Elijah who parts these waters and later Elisha when he stands before the same water on his way back (2 Kings 2:8-14). At the time of the accident with the axe, the waters of the Jordan have already been dried up three times as a representation of resurrection from the dead (Jordan). The Jordan is of course also the place where John the Baptist appeared and baptized, which is also a rising from the water. This John proclaimed that the axe was already at the root of the trees (Matt. 3:10).
God’s work
All these stories speak to us of how an old creation will make way for a new creation and that is only God’s work. When it comes to our part, we should remember that we are ‘borrowed’ and His property.