And he went up from thence unto Beth-el; and as he was going up by the way, there came forth young lads out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead. And he looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name of Jehovah. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and tore forty and two lads of them, 2Kgs 2:23-24.
My grandsons learned this little story when they were playing the Prophets game I had made. At first, they thought it was funny, probably because they were not thinking of Elisha but their dear old Granddad, who is bald, on top anyway. I really did not want them to get the picture of Elisha as a grouchy old man who just became angry when he was ridiculed. That's what I thought for years. But it goes much deeper than that.
In the first place, God has always commanded His people to respect their elderly. You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD (Lev 19:32). Elihu, as one of Job's so-called friends, may have been wrong about a lot, but his attitude toward his elders was commendable. And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said: “I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you" (Job 32:6). We do want our young people to feel free to talk to us and ask questions, but too many come, if they do at all, as know-it-alls who can't be told anything; they must always learn things the hard way.
Second, while God tells us to beware of false teachers and to "Prove the spirits whether they be from God," (1 John 4:1), he still expected his faithful prophets and preachers to be treated well by the people they taught. What did Jesus say to the Pharisees? Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation (Matt 23:31-36). I have seen preachers treated like garbage, to put it mildly. We may no longer crucify them literally, but some have been crucified with words and stoned with false accusations, then tossed out like rubbish along with their families, leaving them wondering where their next home or even meal will come from.
That's the lesson those 42 young men learned that day. You respect the elderly and you respect the men of God who dedicate their lives to trying to help people exactly like them. Knowing the wicked king they had in that day, God's law was not being taught as it should have been. Are we teaching our youth these lessons? Or is our example completely undoing what they hear?
What would happen to the high school class at your congregation if two she-bears showed up one Sunday morning?
Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed (Rom 13:7).
Dene Ward
My grandsons learned this little story when they were playing the Prophets game I had made. At first, they thought it was funny, probably because they were not thinking of Elisha but their dear old Granddad, who is bald, on top anyway. I really did not want them to get the picture of Elisha as a grouchy old man who just became angry when he was ridiculed. That's what I thought for years. But it goes much deeper than that.
In the first place, God has always commanded His people to respect their elderly. You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD (Lev 19:32). Elihu, as one of Job's so-called friends, may have been wrong about a lot, but his attitude toward his elders was commendable. And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said: “I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you" (Job 32:6). We do want our young people to feel free to talk to us and ask questions, but too many come, if they do at all, as know-it-alls who can't be told anything; they must always learn things the hard way.
Second, while God tells us to beware of false teachers and to "Prove the spirits whether they be from God," (1 John 4:1), he still expected his faithful prophets and preachers to be treated well by the people they taught. What did Jesus say to the Pharisees? Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation (Matt 23:31-36). I have seen preachers treated like garbage, to put it mildly. We may no longer crucify them literally, but some have been crucified with words and stoned with false accusations, then tossed out like rubbish along with their families, leaving them wondering where their next home or even meal will come from.
That's the lesson those 42 young men learned that day. You respect the elderly and you respect the men of God who dedicate their lives to trying to help people exactly like them. Knowing the wicked king they had in that day, God's law was not being taught as it should have been. Are we teaching our youth these lessons? Or is our example completely undoing what they hear?
What would happen to the high school class at your congregation if two she-bears showed up one Sunday morning?
Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed (Rom 13:7).
Dene Ward
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