A couple years ago there was a Disney movie with Shia LaBeouf about displaced teens stuck in a desert, digging holes. The movie—Holes—was not a biblical parable by any means but it was a great visual example of a character that I love in the bible.

Elisha is probably one of the most amazing and unknown prophets in the bible. He doesn’t have a book after his name and I’ve never seen him on the felt storyboards of Sunday school. But for our imagination picture the ever-cute Shia LaBeouf with gnarly faith and epic spiritual gifts! [I love him already.]

One thing that set Elisha apart was his ability to trust God for bigger things than anyone around him dared to believe. He looked at every obstacle as an opportunity to prove that God is greater than the confines of any situation!

But Elisha didn’t just believe that. He did something about it. And Elisha’s action-oriented approach reaches us that miracles aren’t magic tricks. They are divine results of small steps of faith-filled preparation. My uber fav miracle by Elisha demonstrates the principle that small steps and hard work precipitate a move of God. Like I’ve said before, human action prepares the way for supernatural stuff to happen!

2 Kings 3 [BIV version]*

King Joram was ruling a divided kingdom, when the king of Moab rebels against him. He calls his friends—King Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom—to help him. The three armies would be massive and a complete way to destroy Moab. But a problem arises: They don’t have enough water. Before they can even get to battle, they may die of thirst!

Like Hebrew history tells us, the Israelites cry out for divine intervention in times of trouble. King Joram isn’t desperate for God, he’s desperate for a solution. King Jehoshaphat  asks if there’s a prophet in the land who can consult God for them. Someone throws out Elisha’s name and BAM! It’s time for a miracle.

The three kings roll up with the entourages, but Elisha has some previous beef with King Joram. Though he has some issues with Joram, he’s still loyal to Jehoshaphat and agrees to seek God.

There are hoards of men and cattle dying of thirst on the battle field and what does Elisha do? He calls for music. [Of course! What else would you need but a harp in the middle of a drought, right?]

As the music is bumping, the word of the Lord comes to Elisha and he tells them not to worry because the drought is almost over. Amen, hallelujah, thank you, God! But he tells the kings to take a small, ludicrous first step: This is what the Lord says: Make this valley full of ditches. 

Why would anyone in their right mind dig ditches to hold rain that isn’t even in the forecast? Because that’s the way faith works. When you know God has promised you greater things, you don’t wait for a sign to appear before you respond.

It’s as if God says, If you really believe I’m going to do what I told you to do, get busy. Show me your faith and I’ll show you my faithfulness. Do your part. If you dig ditches, I’ll send rain.

And guess what? The rain came. This is the scene of the movie in my mind when Shia explains the paradox of digging holes to teach Israel this important paradox of great faith: Only God can send the rain. But He expects you to dig the ditches.

*The BIV stands for the Bianca International Version. [Hey mom, look at me! I’m writing the bible! ;)] For the real translations of this text, click here.