Respecting God and His People

I love to preach and teach the Bible. For me there is nothing really like it. The Bible has so much information, it is so packed full of wisdom, and wonder. And every week, as I preach through the Bible, I always have to leave something out. There is just so much stuff there, but there is only so much time.

So today, as we were looking at 2 Kings chapter 2, I felt I had to cut out the last part of the chapter. Up until now, I would just let it go, and hope at some time in the future I would be able to preach on it – but we live in the age of the blog.

2 Kings 2:23-25
²³ From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. “Go on up, you baldhead!” they said. “Go on up, you baldhead!” ²⁴ He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. ²⁵ And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

Elisha has taken Elijah’s place as the prophet, and God’s mouthpiece. He was the man who was responsible for representing God. Elisha, has performed two miracles up to this point. He rolled up Elijah’s cloak, struck the Jordan, and he cured the water that the people needed for their crops.

In this section of scripture something very interesting happens. Elisha called down a curse upon some teenage punks who were harassing him as he walked along a road. On the surface this seems to be cruel and excessive on the part of Elisha. But let’s go a little deeper.

First, the punks say, “go on up.” Like Elijah went up in a whirlwind, they are yelling that God’s representative, should just go away, because not only were they not respectful for God, but they were not at all respectful for His messenger. And they added, “you baldhead.” Those of us whose hair is not as thick as it used to be understand how Elisha is feeling.

2 Chronicles 36:15-16 “The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.”

Second, Elisha curses them, “in the name of the Lord.” Elisha was God’s man – and the youth completely disrespect him. So, by disrespecting him, they are disrespecting God. So when Elisha speaks, he speaks on God’s behalf. The main point of this passage is that we must have respect for God, for the things of God, and for the people of God.

It happened to be a bear, but it could just as easy have been a lion, or lightening, or whatever – the youth died because they showed no respect for God. As a parent I need to understand this. Not only must I show respect for God (and his representatives), but so must my children.

About the author

Drew Boswell wrote 813 articles on this blog.

Dr. Drew Boswell has been in ministry for over twenty years, is a husband, father, pastor, and friend.

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