Uncensored: Daring To Embrace The Entire BibleSýnishorn

Bears!

When I took my first preaching class in seminary, the professor passed around a glass fishbowl containing small folded-up pieces of paper, each containing one of the most “difficult” verses in the Bible to understand.

When I pulled out my piece of paper, I had 2 Kings 2:23-24.

What? She-bears tearing forty-two boys? I wanted to quit. In all my years of going to Sunday school, I had never heard those verses. I didn’t see that story painted on my children’s ministry wall. I thought Elisha was a good guy, and it seemed (from the text) that God had honored his “cursing” of the young boys. Certainly some ancient scribe had made an error.

But the more I studied this passage, the more I came to realize how profound and instructive it was. When I studied these verses in their historical context, the meaning of the words used, and even the social customs (such as baldness), I understood that those boys, were old enough to know what they were doing. They weren’t just making fun of a bald man; they were attacking his calling as a prophet of God. They were provoking him to “go up” like his predecessor, Elijah, who “went up” in a whirlwind and chariots of fire (2 Kings 2:11). It was an unbelieving, sneering request of a repeat performance of Elijah’s.

The young men’s attack wasn’t directed to Elisha so much as it was directed to God Himself. God had previously told Israel, “If you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me… I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children” (Lev. 26:21-22). God was simply being true to His word.

Today, we want to believe in a God who is only loving. But God’s love is just one of His many attributes. He is not only loving but perfectly loving… and just, holy, and sovereign. The verses in 2 Kings 2 show us a side of God that we do not consider enough. The character of God is more than nitty-gritty; it is true and essential for life, liberty, and happiness in Him.

As we read about those young men jeering at Elisha to “go up,” we can hear the faint echo of crowds jeering at Jesus on the cross, “Come down. If you are really the Son of God, come down.” As those boys experienced the bears’ clawing and ripping as God’s just judgment, so also did Jesus experience it all the more on our behalf. And there on the cross, where God’s infinite love and justice collided, He paid our debt in full and cried out, “It is finished.”