Daily Bible Challenge: Post #3

2 Kings 2:23-24

“Then Elisha 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!” 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 mauled forty-two of the boys.

This my third entry of the Daily Bible challenge.

Entry one is here (1 Cor 15:58): http://stevenuessle.blogspot.com/2015/03/daily-bible-challenge-post-1.html

Entry two is here (1 Tim 4:12): http://stevenuessle.blogspot.com/2015/03/daily-bible-challenge-post-2.html

In my second post I wanted to focus on the youth and setting a good example, but also hinted a little that I was starting to sense I was moving on from considering myself a young leader in the church to just a regular leader. Part of this might be from getting married, buying a house, having a child, all the things that start to happen as you get older and you start to become an adult, and not just a young adult.

Mostly, though, I feel that this change is real because I am becoming old and curmudgeonly enough that I have thought it might be appropriate to unleash a couple of she-bears on a group of unruly youths. I would like to think that it would take more than being taunted for being a baldhead (especially since I have plenty of hair), but I can appreciate where Elisha is coming from.

I think, at the moment, that this is my favorite Bible verse.  While it is badass enough on its own, what makes it especially awesome is that it has nothing to do with the narrative that is happening around it. It is just randomly inserted into the text, perhaps to show the power of Elisha. I can understand if you are Elijah and you use the power of the Lord to rain down fire on the priests of Ba’al, but unleashing a couple of bears on young boys because they are taunting you? That seems a little excessive.

Admittedly commentaries take it a little bit more seriously, suggesting that the youths taunting Elisha represent a bigger insult to the Lord with the potential to discredit Elisha’s ministry if not dealt with quickly and decisively. And baldness, for some reason, was seen as a source of scorn at the time. Still, two bears and 42 youths.

Back at it tomorrow.