Youth mauled by bears for calling the prophet of God "baldhead"
2 Kings 2:23-24 Then [Elisha] went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the LORD. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
In case you thought that cursing others was wrong, please note that the prophet cursed the kids "in the name of the Lord" which resulted in the mauling by the bears. Interesting power to have and I would not be too keen on using it.
11 comments:
Just wondering-
Does god usually take 2 hours to get back to your requests? Does he respond more quickly to curses then swears or vice-versa?
While seemingly efficient in the days of yore, a prayer for help in an emergency would most certainly fail.
Perhaps god needs an upgrade to the p-mail(Prayer Mail) system.
Hi, I believe it's 2 Kings 2:23-24 instead of 1 Kings. Cheers. - a passerby
A, Thanks. Fixed it.
When I read this I had no clue what to think in fact it made me upset and confused but I thought about it and looked into the reasoning and here is what I found.
1.This is no minor offense because these young men held God's prophet in contempt.
2.Since he was the mouth of God to His people, God was being insulted in the person of His prophet.
3.These were not small innocent children but wicked young men, almost like a gang. Knowing this, its obvious that his life was in danger by the obvious disrespect of the young men.
4.Elisha's actions were designed to put fear into the heart of mockers.
5.This proved Elisha's claim as a prophet. The young men challenged it by essentially saying " If you are a man of God, why dont you go up into Heaven like Elijah did?"
6."baldhead" Lepers (outcasts) shaved their heads and were noticed by this factor.
7.It was not Elisha who took the youths lives but God who directed the attack. These young men were not showing their attitude towards Elisha but revealing their wicked hearts against God. Such contempt for the Lord was punishable by death.
8.Scripture does not say that Elisha prayed for this to happen but it was God's way of delivering judgment on the gang.
All of the Scripture on this site have solid answers. Just because it's confusing at first does not mean your confusion and lack of understanding out rules or dismissed Gods reason and action.
Terrin,
Your response is one of the most idiotic and wicked things I have ever read.
Replace the word "God" with any other name and there is no way in the world you would approve of the mauling of youths just because they called some guy a false prophet - which he was since all of the prophets in the Bible didn't even exist !
Obviously God nor any "fallible" human could not think of a better way to deal with insult than to maul them with bears. And this is what we are teaching children! I think just about anyone can think of about 100 solutions to this problem which do not include murder or even injury of anyone. Anyways, on to Terrin B's ridiculous justification:
1. Uh huh. I suppose that's what Obama does every time he sees a Tea Party rally.
2. And by his action he was intending to show the extent of God's mercy?
3. First, if these men were really "wicked" like you say, why does the Bible exclude this detail? Second, Elisha could not use a self-defense defense in court because the bears were not defending him, but obliterating them.
4. I'm pretty sure the only time people mock prophets and magicians and fortune tellers and such is when they are obvious fakes. Plus, there are obviously more peaceful ways to demonstrate power.
5. Elisha didn't need to demonstrate his validity at this point. in Ch 2 verse 15, a group of other prophets bowed to him.
6. Yeah, and any true god interested in alleviating suffering would have given humans the simple cure to leprosy. It would have been proof we could use today that Jesus was more than just a man.
7. That's right--God directed it. Which makes God even more evil.
8. Ask yourself: if anyone unleashed bears which killed 42 people, do you think anyone would see that as just? Do you think a judge would agree that "they deserved to die because they made fun of me"? No, and it's pitiful that your religion includes defense of such obviously immoral acts.
Hey Guys, I just find it implausible that 2 bears(not even tigers or lions) are physically able to catch and maul 42 young healthy people in the same time. Had anyone thought about that? Just imagine the picture and you will know it is impossible. Unless these were flying kung-fu panda bears.
There are two assumptions people seem to be making on this passage.
1. The first is not so much an assumption as a blind spot, but it is that they refuse to be intellectually honest when reading the passage, which is the only way you end up with bears mauling children.
2. You seem to feel that you are equal with God. This is like a child supposing they are equal to a parent or an ant thinking they are equal to a human and are entitled to the same rights. Now consider that while insulting an equal would not warrant a punishment beyond the fact that they may not like you anymore, while insulting a police officer or a judge could land you in jail. If you insult a king the punishment could be yet worse. Now perhaps you can see that a group of young men (that is what is meant by "youths") insult God's spokesman, they are essentially insulting/defying Him and therefore deserve punishment. If you are being intellectually honest, you should be able to momentarily lay aside your own personal beliefs as you analyze this passage.
@Daniel
In a civilised society, you can insult a police officer or a king without fear of retribution. This is a form of free speech and is considered a healthy property of a society as long as it does not become violent threats or a few other protected forms of speech.
It is baffling to me that anyone could see the following:
Boys: "You have a bald head"
Prophet: (summons bears to murder boys)
and conclude that the boys deserved death and the prophet was blameless. Surely such decisions must be made with empathy closed off.
In response to the person above, As previously mentioned, Elisha never explicitly called out the bears. The Bible says he cursed God's name and then the bears came out. He did not say "bears come out." Elisha is completely blameless because he did nothing to call the bears out.
In response to the example of a police officer, there have been many civilized society's where a police officer being insulted is very punishable. Not that it matters, God is greater than a king. Insulting a king in many civilized nations has been warranted as death. Depending on how he context is read, it is possible that Elisha may have feared for his life. Considering God knows everything, maybe that was His way of stopping them from attaching Elisha?
Interesting thoughtts
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