“Elisha left Jericho and went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, a group of boys from the town began mocking and making fun of him. “Go away, baldy!” they chanted. “Go away, baldy!” Elisha turned around and looked at them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of them. From there Elisha went to Mount Carmel and finally returned to Samaria." 2 Kings 2:23-25 (NLT)
The first time I read this story I was really, really confused. I remember asking myself, “What am I supposed to learn from this? This is kind of a crazy story.” A bunch of boys make fun of Elisha, a prophet and leader of Israel, and then he calls down bears to maul them, and then he walks away like it’s no big deal. But all the Bible is important, right? So there must be some reason this is in the Bible...
At first glance it’s easy to say, “don’t make fun of bald people!” While it is true that we shouldn’t make fun of people, there is more to this Scripture than teaching us how we should use kind words. So, let’s dig a little deeper.
To do this, sometimes it is helpful to look at other parts of the Bible for context. Let’s think of the words given to us by the author of Hebrews in the New Testament.
“ Obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.” Hebrews 13:17
The message in the story of Elisha isn’t necessarily that we should obey our leaders to avoid punishment. Rather, the message is more about teaching us to find joy in loving, obeying and having confidence in those God has put in authority over us.
“But,” you might be thinking, “what happens when a leader embarrasses me?” “What happens when the person who is supposed to take care of me just doesn’t?” “What happens when a leader treats me unfairly?”
When a person who is in charge of us does something that bothers us or seems unfair, or when they do something that makes us feel like we aren’t good enough, our gut reaction is to be disrespectful and to not follow what they are telling us to do.
It is important to remember that God has given us authority figures for our own benefit. When we look at our leaders, God wants us to see Jesus. The leaders who have been placed in authority over us are representatives of God himself. This includes: teachers, parents, pastors, coaches, directors, and government. All of these people represent God Himself; they have been given authority by God. (Check out Roman 13:1 for more about this.) When we disrespect those in authority over us, we disrespect God. When the boys from 2 Kings disrespected Elisha, they were disrespecting God.
This does not mean we do something we know is wrong according to the Bible. God is our ultimate authority. But what it does mean is that we are called to be respectful.
So, ultimately, what this strange story in scripture teaches us two things:
1. The first thing is that we should be praying for those who are in authority over us and offer them grace. The reality is that people, even our authority figures, are going to fail us, even though God never does. People aren’t perfect and sometimes they’ll do things that hurt us. Sometimes they’ll fail to take care of us. This means we should ask God to help them lead, and we should forgive them in the areas they’ve failed us.
2. The second thing that the story teaches us is to apologize for our disrespect. We should confess our disrespect to God, and then we should apologize to those whom we disrespected. It is humbling to admit when we mess up; but when, after repenting, we are forgiven by our God, there is great joy.
Let’s close in prayer now.
Prayer: Thank you, God, for the authorities you have placed over me. Thank you for forgiving me when I forget to show them respect. Help me to honor and obey those you have placed in leadership. Help them to lead as your representatives and help them to teach me more about you. Amen.
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