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Have you ever had a bad day, and you just want to teach someone a lesson? One of my favourite analogies is to use driving. Imagine you’re driving. Only it’s a hot day, you’ve been on the road all day, you’re tired, and frankly you’re a bit sick of everybody else on the road. They this guy comes along, swerving in and out of traffic. He gets up right behind you, wait until there a gap that’s maybe just big enough, and then BAM off he goes. And you’re sitting there thinking, “what are you doing dude? You could have got yourself and me killed!” It’s at that moment you just really want to teach someone a lesson, you know? Just get him out and shake him by the shoulders and ask what’s in there between his two ears??
This is how we could read this one story we find in…
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 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?
Don’t Mock God
The Crime
The Crime
We need to get some context on this whole thing: To do that, turn back with me to verse 13 of chapter 2 and take a look and take a look at what is happening here:
Elijah and Elisha’s conversation
Elisha’s expression
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.
Elisha’s new role as head prophet shown to three groups
Other prophets
Townspeople
Mockers and scoffers
So let’s read verse 23 again:
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!”
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.
2 Chro 36 16
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.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
God’s people were supposed to hate evil. They were set apart - holy to God, as we read in Deut 14:21. yet the people had forsaken God for idols, and Bethel had in fact become a centre of idol worship in Israel.
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! Yet this is the place that these youths came from.
If this cross section of youths represented the nation accurately - and it seemed they did - Israel was indeed in trouble. 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 Elijah 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 other, 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.
We read this and think of the humiliation of Jesus on the cross for us. As he hung there we read this:
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,
Jesus endured that for our sake. But make no mistake, He is coming again, and everyone who chooses to hold onto such kind of dis-respect for the Almighty God will receive eternal punishment.
The Consequence
The Consequence
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.” Indeed, God ios setting Elisha up in the place of Elijah. 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.
God in His mercy for a time has allowed for a time 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.
Similarly we read in Philippians 2 10-11
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Amen! May it be so! 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 mock God is no small matter. Ps 14 1
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
Think about our world today. How many people choose to mock God. To laugh at Him, or deny His existence? How we should mourn for those who are blinded in this way!
The Response
The Response
Don’t Mock God
In this world we will have trial
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.”
People will mock us.
We should not be discouraged.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Confessional time
How many of us have mocked God?
By choosing to run the other way
By choosing to scorn what God has given us
By choosing to reject Jesus.