Is God Still There?
It says WHAT? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!”
And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys.
We often look at this passage and think “What is going on here? Was Elisha having a bad day maybe?” It almost seems as though Elisha was feeling sensitive and got angry so he uses his prophetic power called out these two bears. It has an air of comic relief to it at first glance, because the consequence seems to far outweigh the actions of these youths.
We also tend to picture (or at least I do) these boys as not more than 5 or 6 years old. Ok so what they did wasn’t nice, but why have two female bears come and maul them?? This is one of those times when what appears to be at first glance, and what is actually said as we get into it are different, and help us to understand the gravity not just of these young people’s disbelief, but the consequences of mocking not man, but God Himself.
It says WHAT? Schpeel.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
How does this fit into the grand story of the Bible?
God cares about his people.
How does it communicate the truth of the gospel?
And he took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.
Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
And they said to him, “Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please let them go and seek your master. It may be that the Spirit of the Lord has caught him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” And he said, “You shall not send.”
But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, “Send.” They sent therefore fifty men. And for three days they sought him but did not find him.
And they came back to him while he was staying at Jericho, and he said to them, “Did I not say to you, ‘Do not go’?”
Now the men of the city said to Elisha, “Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.”
He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him.
Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, “Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.”
So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.
He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!”
And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys.
The big idea this morning is that…
God is still here, no matter our circumstances.
To The Sheep
To The Sheep
Within the larger section of this passage, we find three groups:
The Sheep
The Needy
The Mockers
In this larger section we see the zeal and power of Elijah bestowed upon Elisha as the next one to serve God and lead those who are His voice in the nation. Three groups witness firsthand the anointing of the Lord on Elisha - as it was on Elijah: The other prophets, the ordinary townsfolk, and some young men who are steeped in a culture flippant toward God.
First is the other prophets. My Bible translation terms them in verse 15 as the “sons of the prophets.” This is not to say that they are somehow Elijah’s direct children, but instead they are prophets were lead by Elijah. Only now… Elijah is gone. God has taken Him. This is why I call them sheep. In reality here they are sheep without a shepherd. No one to lead them. Look back a little earlier in the chapter and you see that not only has God revealed to Elisha that Elijah would soon be taken to heaven, but God had also shown this to the other prophets. Now, with Elijah gone, who is it that will lead them?
We start in verses 13-15 with this demonstration: Elisha performs the same thing Elijah had done not long before. He comes to the river, and slaps the mantle of Elijah on the water. It’s possible, given the way the original text is written, that nothing actually happened the first time. Elisha then asks a telling question:
“Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?”
The answer is clear: He’s right here. The water parts, even as it had for the venerated leader of the prophets of God. Elijah might have been taken, but God was still present - clearly with Elisha just as he had been with Elijah. How amazing, how comforting, how empowering this must have been.
But even as the shepherd needs to see that God is still near, so do those who follow the shepherd. So in verse 15 we read:
Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
Yet, they pressure Elisha to this point of being “ashamed” to go and make sure Elijah isn’t just somewhere they don’t know about. It wouldn’t be the first time that Elijah had been whisked away by God. In other words, they pressured him to the point where he wouldn’t refuse. Of course, there is no finding Elijah, he is gone. These other prophets had already acknowledged Elisha as the new lead, yet they needed to figure out if Elijah was really gone. Partly in case his body was lying somewhere, but there is some amount of doubt in this as well. With Elijah really gone, they would have to now look to Elisha to lead. Yet again we see here this truth: God is still here. He may have ushered in a new chapter under Elisha, but the author is still the same, and He is totally active in the story.
To the Needy
To the Needy
A second group - those we could call the “needy” see the anointing of Elisha: Those in the town of Jericho.
I’d like us to flip back for a minute to Joshua 6 26
Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, “Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. “At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates.”
The water in Jericho is called “bad” which could also be termed evil or foul. The explanation for this is usually taken from Joshua 6:26, the cursing of Jericho. Elisha reverses this curse. Through the ritual cleansing of the water as the law of God described, Elisha brought God’s healing to this place. Notice something here: This is not about the glorification of Elisha, but rather to help the people. See, God is still present, for the needy He sent someone who would act in His Spirit and power in order to bring healing. Remind you of anyone else we know? Was it not Jesus Himself who came, not for the well, but as He tells us in Mark 2 17
And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
He speaks here of a spiritual unhealth that can only be solved by the freeing sacrifice of Jesus. Grace given to us through faith. Yet God in His mercy chooses to touch the water and heal the city reverse the curse through Elisha. God, in His great love, mercy, and grace, has chosen to become one of us, to die for us, to buy us back, so that we might be saved from the sin-sickness that we contracted at the fall, and have no way of getting out of, without the help of Jesus Christ. For the needy in Jericho, God sent His messenger to make it make it clear that He was still very much at work, and through this man. For sinners of humanity - each one of us, God sent His only Son, to make it clear that He would not leave us on our path to hell, but save all who will believe.
To the Mockers
To the Mockers
Then there is a third and final group. This group I call “the mockers.”
Our Bibles call these persons “small boys.” We get this picture in our heads of a load of 6-year-olds seeing a guy without hair or a monk’s ring or something and laughing their heads off at him, as little boys might be prone to do. Obnoxious, but not a threat.
The Hebrew terms here lend themselves to young men of early marital age, than anything else. About 12-30 years old.
These young men are out roaming, and could actually pose a threat to the prophet. Yet it is not their physical threat that is concerning here, but rather their mocking.
The reality is that these boys chose to mock not just the man, but God who was with him and had bestowed upon him the same spirit as Elijah. They exercised arrogant disbelief - a trait common to the people of the land.
But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.
If this cross section of youths represented the nation accurately, Israel was indeed in trouble.
The word Bethel means “the house of God” (Pulpit commentary). God had placed His name at this sacred spot, as we read in Genesis 28:16-19
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.
He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
Bethel, the place that was sacred to the Lord. A legacy of Yahweh was in this place. Yet as Hosea 10:5 tells us:
The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the calf of Beth-aven. Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests— those who rejoiced over it and over its glory— for it has departed from them.
The name had been changed from Bethel - the house of the Lord - to Beth-aven - the house of the idol. How sad this was! But this is the attoitude Israel had taken towards God.
The judgment upon these young people was justly deserved. Their prideful taunting using Elijah’s going smacks of disbelief and reminds me of the disbelief and mockery Christ endured upon the cross.
This jeering was directed at Elisha not necessarily because of lack of hair, but because of who he represented and his station. It’s like the mockers at Jesus’ cross saying “He saved others, Himself He cannot save.” They say to Elisha, “go on, go do that trick Elijah just did.” Their contempt for what God had done, who He had raised up, and even for Bethel, this once a holy place is amply proven. It is a sad state, one that speaks to the depravity that this nation had fallen into.
So we read this in verse 24:
And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys.
Remember the story from the beginning? It almost seems like Elisha just had enough and wanted to teach them a lesson. In truth though, he pronounced judgement in the name of Yahweh, the only true God, upon these arrogance mockers and disbelievers. As I studied this passage, it was suggested that Elisha even waited a time, bearing their insults before turning and cursing them.
Doubtless this is from God, because His judgement is swift and sure. This would have gone back to Bethel. The people would have figured out “oh, maybe we better not toy with the new guy.” But more importantly - though they may not have learned it - God is not to be mocked or trifled with. This world chooses to mock God every day, to spit in His face. It is the result of a world cursed with sin.
Remember when Jesus was hanging on the cross? What did they say to him?
And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads
and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”
So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying,
“He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
Our lord, in His mercy, took that ridicule for us. They mocked God with their taunts toward Him. Even now this sort of mocking of God continues, and God in His mercy for a time has allowed evil to remain, but we know He’s coming again! In Rev 1:7 we read this:
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
That’s what we wait for! But even as these mockers received judgement, so those who mock God today had best understand the dire consequences of such actions and repent.
To those who choose to laugh at God, He reminds them that He is still very much present, and that the error of their ways will cost them dearly. Even a warning to a nation that has forgotten their God and has spit in the face of the One who delivered them time and again, and cared for their needs.
Our Response
Our Response
God is still here, no matter our circumstances.
In this passage, we see Him distinctly work through Elisha three times to prove that while Elijah was gone, God was not, but had raised up a new prophet to take Elijah’s place. Filled with the same spirit as Elijah.
Now let’s take a moment and carry this over to today, right now. August 18, 2024.
Think about all the stories we have in the Bible. Stories of Elisha, or Elijah. Stories about great floods and big arks. Stories about slaves who were freed by miraculous intervention of God! Stories of the One who healed the sick, raised the dead, and Himself died on our behalf. Ask the question, “Is God still here?” The God of Elijah, Elisha, King David, Abraham? Where is the God who calmed the storm from a boat in the middle of a sea? Is the God who healed the leper, raised the dead, or chose the worst possible people - prostitutes and thieves - to eat with still here?
Elisha asked “where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” God answered, not just Elisha but an entire nation. Everyone, from God’s faithful servants, to those who needed help, to those who chose to arrogantly mock God. God made it clear that He was not done, that He was still very much present, and that Elisha was His new representative.
In the same way, we can ask - humbly - is God still here? Is He still here in Leask? Does He care about what happens in a village of 350 people in rural Saskatchewan? How about Marcelin, or Blaine Lake, or Misty? Or Muskeg? And the resounding answer is YES! He does care, and He is still here. He hasn’t left. The God of the Bible, who did all those amazing things, who came down to earth for us, is the same, unchanging God who is with us today!
We find the gospel in the hope for salvation now, and the coming kingdom and power of God in fullness.
We see Him at work even now. Every time someone is touched with healing, when God grants the chance to pray for someone on our prayer walks, or when someone accepts Jesus! We see Him in everything from baptism to camp, to Bible study, to all kinds of different circumstance.
So too, in our individual lives we see God working. For those who are in need, perhaps financially, or for healing, or something else, God hears and sees. Many of us here have stories of provision, protection, healing, deliverance, strength, etc. When humanity could not fix themselves, when we like sheep had wandered away from God, God sent His only Son, who is the great shepherd of us, His sheep. He cares for us, leads us, guides us, and protects us. And He has given under-shepherds, those He calls and equips to serve, lead, and care for God’s people.
To those who would mock God, He responds. Even now God sends judgement on those who mock Him.
Yet in His mercy, He hears the cries of the hurting. Often it is when we have reached the lowest of lows, when our mocking and our arrogance and our pride has run out, that we find Jesus, waiting for us, right beside us even, in His love for us.
God is still here. Circumstances change. People change. Hard times come, good times come. Pastors change, needs change, families change. But through all of it, God stays the same, and sends His servants forward to proclaim God’s presence, to meet needs, and even to be a voice to those who would mock God and disrespect Him.
Much like Elisha, we will experience times when those who we have leaned on are taken from us. Much like the needy at Jericho we will experience hardship because of a circumstance we cannot control. Much like Elisha, people will mock us or criticize us. It’s ok, Jesus has overcome the world. This is what we read in John 16:33
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
So I want to say this, if you are perhaps listening online or here in person. Maybe you do have a need. Maybe the circumstances you find yourself in cause you to ask “Is God still there?” Or perhaps you are seeking, asking if God is even real. Or maybe you have come to a place of lowness - beyond everything you had to give. You’ve pushed God and spit in His face and railed against Him. And now, you don’t even have a want to do that anymore. When you reach the end of yourself, Jesus is waiting. When you experience hurt, hardship, or hangup, Jesus is faithful to be with you. When your circumstances change and you’re left wondering “what’s next?” God is still present, and He remains constant.
I’d like to give anyone who does not know Jesus as Lord and Saviour a chance to accept Him. There’s no special formula. Simply, you must say “God, I am sorry for my sin and turn away from it. Please forgive me. Come into my life. Jesus, I place my faith in you alone for salvation, and believe in you. I believe in your death and ressurection, and that your sacrifice is enough. Please make me your child too.” In this moment, when you receive Jesus, God pours out his Spirit upon you, and indwells you. God can change your life. He is waiting for you.
For all of us who know Christ as Saviour, Lord, and friend, trust Him, even when the road gets bumpy. God is still here, even when life’s circumstances go strangely ary. Even when we don’t understand, someone is taken from us, or it seems like God isn’t present or powerful. He’s still here, and He is moving in this place. Let’s praise Him for that.
pray.