Is that a bald joke?
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A couple weeks ago Martye and I were eating and our server at came to the table and presented the specials and then said, I’ll get out of your hair. As an almost knee jerk reaction I asked if that’s a bald joke. She got so flustered, I almost felt bad.
I’m not that sensitive.
My papaw, Wesley Sutton, never said anything about his hair, but he had the full blown come over.
Elisha, it appears at first glance was even more sensitive about his lack of hair than my grandfather.
RECAP
Elijah and Elisha
Elijah and Elisha
We are in the midsts of a study of Elijah and Elisha, two great prophets of our Lord. There are miracles scattered about the in the Bible. There is the miracle of creation. Then a cluster around Moses (Egypt, Wilderness) A cluster around Elijah and Elisha, and then a cluster around Jesus and the early Church.
Merriam-Webster : Miracle
1: an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.
I more narrowly define it as a suspension of natural law.
It is The Kings Seal.
So with a cluster around Elijah and Elisha, we, as believers, should seek to understand what message they were taking to the people of Isreal from God.
If God took the time to put His seal of approval on what they were saying, shouldn’t we listen and see how this applies to our lives today?
Last week we saw that Elisha was with Elijah, Elisha was the student if you will, and Elijah his teacher, mentor, friend, and spiritual father. Elijah had parted the Jordan river, by striking it with his mantle, (A cloth cloak that would signify him as God’s prophet) in the presence of 50 prophets and others and he and Elisha crossed the Jordan and then Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind.
Elisha performed three miracles rather quickly
Elijah’s mantle fell to the ground. Elisha picked it up and immediately struck the Jordan river and parted it again and walked back across. That established him in the eyes of the people, as God’s prophet and Elijah’s successor.
In Jericho, the one in the middle east, not Arkansas, he purified the waters and healed the land. People were getting sick and the land wasn’t producing any crops, so Elijah had salt put in a jar, he threw the salt in the water declared that the Lord purified the waters and healed the land.
That brings us to where we are this morning.
1 Then the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
2 The king went up to the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord.
3 The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.
4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.
5 He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of heaven.
6 He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.
7 He also broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the Lord, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah.
8 Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate.
9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
10 He also defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech.
11 He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12 The altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king broke down; and he smashed them there and threw their dust into the brook Kidron.
13 The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.
14 He broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with human bones.
15 Furthermore, the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down. Then he demolished its stones, ground them to dust, and burned the Asherah.
16 Now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were there on the mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.
17 Then he said, “What is this monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.”
18 He said, “Let him alone; let no one disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.
19 Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made provoking the Lord; and he did to them just as he had done in Bethel.
20 All the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.
21 Then the king commanded all the people saying, “Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this book of the covenant.”
22 Surely such a Passover had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah.
23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed to the Lord in Jerusalem.
24 Moreover, Josiah removed the mediums and the spiritists and the teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.
25 Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.
26 However, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.
27 The Lord said, “I will remove Judah also from My sight, as I have removed Israel. And I will cast off Jerusalem, this city which I have chosen, and the temple of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’ ”
28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
29 In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet him, and when Pharaoh Neco saw him he killed him at Megiddo.
30 His servants drove his body in a chariot from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.
31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.
33 Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
34 Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away and brought him to Egypt, and he died there.
35 So Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land in order to give the money at the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, each according to his valuation, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.
36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
37 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.
1 In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him.
2 The Lord sent against him bands of Chaldeans, bands of Arameans, bands of Moabites, and bands of Ammonites. So He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken through His servants the prophets.
3 Surely at the command of the Lord it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done,
4 and also for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the Lord would not forgive.
5 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
6 So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place.
7 The king of Egypt did not come out of his land again, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
9 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done.
10 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.
11 And Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were besieging it.
12 Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother and his servants and his captains and his officials. So the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign.
13 He carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, just as the Lord had said.
14 Then he led away into exile all Jerusalem and all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land.
15 So he led Jehoiachin away into exile to Babylon; also the king’s mother and the king’s wives and his officials and the leading men of the land, he led away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
16 All the men of valor, seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths, one thousand, all strong and fit for war, and these the king of Babylon brought into exile to Babylon.
17 Then the king of Babylon made his uncle Mattaniah king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
19 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
20 For through the anger of the Lord this came about in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
1 Now in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, camped against it and built a siege wall all around it.
2 So the city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
3 On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.
4 Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls beside the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. And they went by way of the Arabah.
5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho and all his army was scattered from him.
6 Then they captured the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and he passed sentence on him.
7 They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.
8 Now on the seventh day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
9 He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire.
10 So all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
11 Then the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the people, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away into exile.
12 But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.
13 Now the bronze pillars which were in the house of the Lord, and the stands and the bronze sea which were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried the bronze to Babylon.
14 They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all the bronze vessels which were used in temple service.
15 The captain of the guard also took away the firepans and the basins, what was fine gold and what was fine silver.
16 The two pillars, the one sea, and the stands which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight.
17 The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a bronze capital was on it; the height of the capital was three cubits, with a network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of bronze. And the second pillar was like these with network.
18 Then the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest, with the three officers of the temple.
19 From the city he took one official who was overseer of the men of war, and five of the king’s advisers who were found in the city; and the scribe of the captain of the army who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city.
20 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
21 Then the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was led away into exile from its land.
22 Now as for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan over them.
23 When all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.
24 Gedaliah swore to them and their men and said to them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans; live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.”
25 But it came about in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck Gedaliah down so that he died along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.
26 Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
27 Now it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison;
28 and he spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
29 Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes and had his meals in the king’s presence regularly all the days of his life;
30 and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.
23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!”
24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.
25 He went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
2 Kings 23-
Bethel (Luz) 12 Miles north of Jerusalem
Where Jacob dreamed of a ladder to heaven.
mentioned throughout the OT
It was also a place associated with calf worshipers.
28 So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
29 He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
1 Kings
Young Lads male: infant - young man. Old enough to know better.
Go-up: Ascend
8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
When Elijah went up in to heaven in the whirlwind. Its the same word these young lads used. They may have been saying, “show us that you are as powerful as Elijah by ascending to heaven, and while you’re at it, stay there.”
Baldhead: Hair was a big deal in early Jewish culture. It was a sign of strength (think of Samson) . A bald head was also associated with shame, humility or morning.
Job, after losing everything, tore his clothes, shaved his head and fell to the ground and worshiped.
Elijah : Elijah was described as a hairy man.
Bears: Bears were know to be in this region up until the middle ages. There are still Brown bears that live as close as Turkey.
Female Bear: (robbed of her cubs) is an image that is found elsewhere in the OT.
12 Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs,
Rather than a fool in his folly.
Hosea 8
8 I will encounter them like a bear robbed of her cubs,
And I will tear open their chests;
There I will also devour them like a lioness,
As a wild beast would tear them.
Elisha was not overly sensitive about his lack of hair.
The point Elisha was making: and the one point I will attempt to make this morning :
God will not be mocked!
God will not be mocked!
These kids were doing what they had seen from their parents. How else could you describe the calf worship in 1 Kings than a complete mockery of the one true God?
behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.
Not only were they worshiping a thing they made, but they were giving it credit for what God had done.
These lads were mocking God and were destroyed as a sign to the people of Isreal that God will not tolerate being mocked. That judgement will come.
Galatians 6:7
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
When Jesus found the y people in the temple at passover buying and selling and changing money he made a whip out of cords and started whipping people and turning over tables and said this:
For those that love God ,
13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.”
You will not mock God!
An when Jesus, the Word of God, who was with God in the beginning, and who was God and is God; when that Jesus was being beaten and crucified and mocked, He asked: Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.
Jesus knew they didn’t know He was God the son. They didn’t know the one they were mocking was the Alpha the Omega. They didn’t know that He was, the Great I AM.
And Jesus know that you cannot Mock God!
He knew that there was a bear, claws sharp and nostrils flaring waiting to rip them apart, and Jesus said, Father, they don’t know!
Unbelievers mock God today.
17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18 that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.”
19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.
Jude 17-
17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,
18 that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.”
19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good.
The Psalmist tells us that Only the fool says in his heart, there is no God.
But there is a price to pay for Mocking God.
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind;
48 and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away.
49 “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous,
50 and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 13:47
God will not be mocked forever:
Our response:
If we are not careful, we can fall into the temptation to pray for their destruction: We want to take on God’s righteous anger like King David did:
10 How long, O God, will the adversary revile,
And the enemy spurn Your name forever?
11 Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand?
From within Your bosom, destroy them!
Psalm 74:10
But Jude tells us how we should respond.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
22 And have mercy on some, who are doubting;
23 save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
Jude 20-
There is mocking within the Church.
See if you go to church every Sunday, you tithe, and you feed the poor and say the right things to the right people, and then soon as you leave you start stirring up trouble, feeding your flesh the sin it desires, letting your hate take hold, crapping on everyone that’s not like you, You are mocking God! If you say praise Jesus in here and when you leave you say, I can live how I want, and He will forgive me, You are mocking God!
14 “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
God will not be Mocked!
The consequences of those in the Church that mock God are the worst of all!
I believe that those in the church that mock God are mocked by God in that they are given a FALSE ASSURANCE OF SALVATION.
22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
There will be people on that day that spent their life mocking God, the whole time believing they were saved, when they were not!.
Are you one of them?
God home today, go in the bathroom right now. Look in a mirror. Take just a moment to pause and examine the face you see in front of you and ask, Does the person you see love God? Is that man or that woman denying them selves to follow Christ, or indulging themselves in-spite of Christ.
5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
59 I considered my ways
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.