I struggle with 2 Kings 2

[sashang]

I struggle with Chrisitianity for various reasons. One of them is the passage in 2 Kings 2:

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” 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 boys. 25 And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

I've talked to a true beleiver about this but I struggled to understand how she could just override the hideous barbarism and moral implications of it. Maybe if I could override the disgust I feel combined with shock at the the ludicrous nature of the killing, I to could become a Christian and believe. But in order for me to do that I'd have to feel happy about this passage. How do you Christians deal with this? How do you overcome your revulsion? Do you just trust in God with the killing?

 

[Clare73]

I struggle with Chrisitianity for various reasons. One of them is the passage in 2 Kings 2:

I've talked to a true beleiver about this but I struggled to understand how she could just override the hideous barbarism and moral implications of it. Maybe if I could override the disgust I feel combined with shock at the the ludicrous nature of the killing, I to could become a Christian and believe. But in order for me to do that I'd have to feel happy about this passage. How do you Christians deal with this? How do you overcome your revulsion? Do you just trust in God with the killing?

Well, there are several things at work in the believer.

The first is the Holy Spirit gives the believer to understand what it means to be God,

• who created it all, owns it all, and can do as he pleases with what he owns;
• who is lawgiver and perfect justice, punishing evil, which basis is always opposing him, and
• who loves those who truly seek him.

Second, God gives the believer agreement with his perfect justice.
In this event, they were making a mockery of God's messengers.
Despising and scoffing at God's messengers (prophets) is evil,
and was one of Israel's sins which cried up to heaven (2Chr 36:16) for retribution.

In this event, God gives Israel a pattern showing, as a warning (Lk 11:51-52), the ruin which would come upon Israel for the same sin (Lk 11:48-50). A warning which Israel did not heed.

So God gives the believer understanding of what it means to be God, and agreement with his perfect justice.
Without these works of God in the believer, they would also agree with fallen man's point of view rather than with God's point of view.

 

[RaiseTheDead]

in order for me to do that I'd have to feel happy about this passage. How do you Christians deal with this? How do you overcome your revulsion?

In reverse order:

we DON'T overcome the revulsion!

We "deal with it" by understanding the text, our burying our head in the sand. I opt for the former, and recommend that course. It's worked better for me.

We do NOT "feel happy about the passage."

If you would like to understand what's going on here, realize that Elisha has JUST (as in immediately, right then and there) become Prophet, in the pace of the mightiest Prophet Israel had ever seen, other than Moses. (Elijah)

How in the world would Elisha ever have any credibility as a Prophet? Those are some mighty big shoes to fill ...

Next, look into the Hebrew, and it's impossible that the people killed were actually children. These are people, mocking God's chosen, and in so doing, directly mocking God. God is not mocked! And I betcha it didn't happen again, either. Not in Elisha's time, anyway. Did you know that Elisha went on to work exactly twice as many miracles as Elijah did?

And finally, these stories probably never happened, as told. They likely were never written until the Babylonian captivity, and used like we might use Aesop's fables. This is what Jews have to say, anyway ...

 

[Faulty]

Did you read the previous chapter concerning Elijah and the captains with their 50 men consumed by fire for their irreverence towards Gods representative?

Elisha obtained Elijahs mantle and became Gods representative on earth. How was their irreverence different then the captains in the prior chapter. It wasn't, and their reward was the same.

 

[singpeace]

WHY DID GOD SEND BEARS TO MAUL CHILDREN IN 2 KINGS?

"And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them." - 2 Kings 2:23-24

The verses above sound very cruel and unnecessary at first glance, but a closer look shows there is a better picture of what was going on.

KJV translation "children". The Hebrew word for children is na`ar. Looking at the usage of the word throughout the Bible, it can be any age from 12-30. The NKJV uses the better translation of youths. So these young men were old enough to be accountable for their actions.

Now if 42 of them had been mauled, how many were there all together? 50,100, more?

Elisha was outnumbered at least 42-1 and they were obviously hostile. We see evidence of this by the fact that they were taunting a well respected man of God. This was clearly some sort of gang or mob. Imagine at least 42 young men in their teens or twenties coming towards you shouting insults.

The behavior of the mob is very odd because if we back up a couple of verses to keep the story in context (vs 19-22) we find that Elisha had just performed a miracle to cleanse the water supply (hardly the act of a cold hearted man who would kill children), and they responded to this by hurling insults at him. Why would they do that?

There's Jewish historical documentation of certain people making a great profit by supplying fresh water to the town. Elisha had just put them out of business by cleansing the town's current water supply. The mob had then come to confront Elisha.

With that background in mind the story takes on a much different meaning. One in which Elisha's life is at stake. We don't have Elisha calling on God to maul children, we have a mob of young men attacking a prophet who had just saved a city's water supply and we have God saving that prophet's life and judging the wicked who were taking advantage of those in need.

 

[salida]

Agree with singpeace!

 

[Kryztzyn]

SingPeace for the win!