Kings chapter 2. When we were leaving the Sunday
school class last week, Greta said, I can't wait to hear what
you've got to say about this next passage of scripture. Well,
let's read it together. Verse 23, 2 Kings chapter 2.
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. Now before I go on, that little
children could be young men. It's not talking about six or
seven year old kids. It could be up to, somebody said
up to 39 years old, this could be. referring to, but at any
rate, there came forth little children out of the city and
mocked him. They scoffed at him, they made
fun of him. And they 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 tear 40 and two children
of them. And he went from thence to Mount
Carmel and from thence he returned to Samaria. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence only in the name of thy son,
pleading only his merit and his precious blood And we pray that
we might be enabled to hear your gospel. We pray that we might
be enabled to worship you. We pray that we might be enabled
to confess our sins. We pray that we might be enabled
to rest completely in thy son and look to him only. We pray
that we might be enabled to praise you and that we would be given
your spirit and your blessing. Lord, we thank you for who you
are. And we thank you for that great salvation, that great grace. Bless us for Christ's sake. Be
with all your people wherever they meet together. Those that
are sick and ailing. We ask for your hand of mercy
to be upon them. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Quite a picture, isn't it? Quite
a picture. We have these young men coming
up. Let's see what happened right
before this, verse 19. And the men of the city said
unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is
pleasant, as my Lord seeth, but the water is not, and the ground
barren. And he said, bring me a new cruise and put salt therein.
And they brought it to him. And he went forth under the spring
of waters and catch the salt in the air and said, thus saith
the Lord. Isn't that what a prophet is? Thus saith the Lord. He brought the word of God. I have healed these waters and
there shall not be from thence any more death, no barren land.
So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying
of Elisha, which he spake. Now here's the point of Elisha.
He brought the word of God. Thus saith the Lord. And he went up from thence unto
Bethel. Now, if you'll remember, Bethel
is one of the cities where Jeroboam set up the golden calf. It was
a place of idolatry. It was a place where Baal was
worshiped. And these young men had grown
up with this. And these young men did not like
Elisha or what he had to say. And he went up from Mimson to
Bethel, and as he was going up by the way, there came forth
little children out of the city and mocked him. Now, I've been
mocked because of my bald head before. I've had people make
fun of me. I think of poor old Steve. Dave. The point is, people do that. I've had people make fun of my
bald head, and I didn't turn around and curse them in the
name of the Lord. And yet, look what we have going on here. This
prophet curses them in the name of the Lord, and two she bears
run from the woods. Now, this is important, a she
bear. A she bear. What is a she bear? It's one
who's been robbed of her cubs, and this is about the most dangerous
thing you can think of. If a bear, a sow, is that what
you call them? A woman bear? She's been robbed of her cubs
and anything that comes in her way, she's gonna tear into pieces.
And that's what happens at this time. The Holy Spirit points
out that it's a she-bear to let us know what's going on. I guess
these kids got close to their cubs and they came out of the
woods and tear 42 children. And here, They say to Elijah, go up, thou
bald head. Now there might be more to this
than just making fun of his bald hair. In the scripture, hair
speaks of strength. Remember Samson? The vow of the
Nazarite, they had that long hair and if it was cut off or
shaved off, they would lose their power. A woman's glory, the scripture
says, is her hair. So hair represents something
to do with strength. And they were saying to him,
you have no strength. Won't you go up like Elijah did?
They knew about Elijah going back up into heaven. Everybody
knew about that. People witnessed it. And they're saying, Don't
you have the same power he does? You go up like he does. What's
wrong with you? You are somehow inferior to him,
or perhaps they're saying, we wish you'd go up like he did
and get rid of you. We don't want you here anymore.
Leave. Go up, thou bald head. Go up, thou bald head. And Elisha turns around and curses
him in the name of the Lord. Now, this is a passage of scripture
that all my life, it's troubled me. That seems kind of severe,
doesn't it? Go up thou bald head and he turns
around and curses him in the name of the Lord and 42 children
are killed as a result. Two bears come out of the woods
and tear them. I think it's interesting that
I read several commentaries on this, none of them knew what
it meant, but they were saying perhaps they were just injured
and not killed. I would have never thought that
reading this passage of scripture. The 42 children were torn, and
with God, the punishment always fits the crime. Amen? With God, the punishment always
fits the crime. Now, the key to understanding
this is a she-bear. If you get in between what's
most precious to her, you're in trouble, aren't you? Everybody
is aware of this. This is about the most dangerous
position anybody can be in. If you get in between a bear
and her cubs, you're in trouble. She's gonna rip you to pieces.
And so the thought behind all of this is what is most precious
to God? Well, you could say his glory
and you'd be telling the truth. You could say his son, you'd
be telling the truth. You could say his people, you'd
be telling the truth. You could say his word. Would
you turn with me to Psalm 138 for a moment? I don't even know
what to say about this verse of scripture. Verse two. I will worship toward thy holy
temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy
truth. Now look at this statement. For thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. Now I wish I knew what to say
about that, but I think it's best, there it is. The Lord God
has magnified his word. above all His name. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
called what? The Word of God. Now, how would
we know that without the written Word? And how would we know that
without the Word preached? The Word, the message from the
written Word that reveals the living Word. And God says, thou
has magnified thy word above, beyond all thy name. Now, is there any question how
precious God's word is to him? And it's precious to the believer
as well. Oh, I wanna hear his word, don't you? I don't wanna
hear the word of a man I don't want to hear the word of religion.
I want to hear his precious word. Now, what was Elisha? What did he do? He brought the
word of God. Thus saith the Lord. He brought the word of God. Now, these people came out of
Bethel and they had no appreciation for the word. And so what do
they do? They begin to scoff at Elisha. They began to criticize Elisha. Criticizing his ability to be
like his predecessor, Elijah. Criticizing his weakness, you
don't have any hair, you're just weak like other men are. They
begin to criticize Elisha. Now, with regard to any man,
Me, you, if you want to look for something to criticize, sky's
the limit. Sky's the limit. If you would
want to criticize me, man, stay around me for an hour and you
could find all kinds of contradictions and inconsistencies and say,
man, what? But I can do the same with you, too. I don't have any
problem. That's the way men are. We can
all, but they, these fellas, did not like the word of Elisha,
so they began to criticize him. I think any preacher can tell
you, I've heard this so many times, I've heard other preachers
say it, when somebody gets, they don't love the truth, they don't
love the gospel they're hearing, if they begin to turn away, they
can't find a scriptural reason to justify what they're doing,
so they start, I can't hear you. I can't hear you, you're bullheaded.
You've lacked some kind of strength. I can't hear you. I've had people write me that
and tell me that. I've had letters written to me where they said,
the reason I'm not coming is because of you. You're not handling
this situation right. I've heard that many times and
every preacher has. And I have no doubt that this
is what is being taught in this passage of scripture. Now, the
she bears is what tells me that. That when someone, God is so
protective of his word and they were making fun of it. Now turn
with me to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. Verse 16. And this is the Lord speaking
to the 70. He's not just talking about the
12 apostles. You remember when he sent out
70 disciples to go and preach the gospel? Look what he says.
He that heareth you, heareth me. Now when I'm hearing a God
called preacher, I'm hearing Christ himself. Are you saying
all of his words are infallible? No, I'm not saying that. But
this is what the Lord says. With regard to the preaching
of the gospel, he that heareth you, heareth me, and he that
despiseth you, despiseth me. Now what these fellas who were
making fun of the prophet were doing, they were despising the
one the prophet represented. Not the prophet. Elisha didn't
need to take this personally. They were despising the word
of the Lord. Now, I want to warn myself. I found
myself before becoming critical of the man I'm hearing, seeing
faults, seeing inconsistencies, seeing contradictions and thinking
I can't hear him. And whenever I do that, whenever
I've done that, it's really my problem. Because in this thing
of being critical, or the way they were doing the prophet,
in this thing of being critical, like I said, it's easy to criticize
anybody. And it's not love. If I become critical of you,
it's because I'm not practicing love toward you. That's the only
reason. And so that is what is taking
place. God's prophet is nothing, but
he is bringing the word of God. And when these people are criticizing
him, it's not really him, it's the word. Now somebody says,
can that happen with a believer? Can believers get into a mess
like that? Well, turn with me to Numbers chapter 12. Numbers chapter 12. And Miriam and Aaron spake against
Moses because of the Ethiopian woman he had married. For he had married an Ethiopian
woman. Now, they had a scriptural reason
for disagreeing with Moses. Moses should not have married
an Ethiopian woman, only a Jew. Only a Jew. The Jews were forbidden
to marry outside of Jews. You termed other gods. And he
married an Ethiopian woman. And so they thought they had
a gripe against him. And somebody could look at it and say, well,
they did have a legitimate gripe. Did they? Verse two, and they said,
here's what really was behind their their criticism of Moses,
and they said, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses?
Hath he not spoken also by us? You're taking too much on yourself,
Moses. You think you're the only man the Lord uses. This is their
criticism of him at this time. And the Lord heard it. The Lord heard it. Now the man
Moses was very meek. above all the men which were
upon the face of the earth." He wasn't going to reply to them.
And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses and unto Aaron and to Miriam,
come out, ye three, unto the tabernacle of the congregation.
And they three came out, and these were all believers. And
the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood in the
door of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both
came forth. And he said, hear now my words.
If there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself
known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.
Him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark
speeches. And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.
Wherefore, then, were you not afraid to speak against my servant
Moses? And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against them, and he departed. And the cloud departed,
from off the tabernacle and behind Mariam, and behold, Mariam became
leprous, white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Mariam,
and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas,
my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherewith
we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. Let her not be
as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed, and he cometh
out of his mother's womb. And Moses cried unto the Lord,
saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee. And the Lord
said unto Moses, if her father had but spit in her face, should
she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the
camp seven days. And after that, let her be received
in again. And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days.
And the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again.
And afterward, the people were moved from Hazaroth and pitched
in the wilderness to Peralta. Now, we see the Lord was displeased
with their criticism. He was very displeased. And you
see what took place as a result of that. Now, what do I want
to learn from this? First of all, don't you hate being critical? I hate being critical toward
people. Lord hates it. It's the thing that is, anytime
I'm like that, I'm just, I'm being judgmental. And if you
know yourself, you know you don't have a throne to stow it, throw
at anybody about anything. If you really know yourself,
and the, idea of becoming critical of somebody. If I become critical
of you or you become critical of the preacher, it's wrong.
It's self-righteous. It's just flat-out wrong. And the thing that is, let me
remind you, if you want to find fault with me, the sky's the
limit. Somebody thinks, you ought not
be that way then. Well, I agree. I agree. But same goes for you. And I want to have a gracious
attitude, and I want to say, Lord, speak to me. Yes, the instrument
is a man, a sinful man, a weak man, just like me, just like
you. No difference, no difference.
However sinful you are, that's how sinful the preacher is, and
every preacher knows that. and painfully aware of it, painfully
aware of it. I like, I think this is funny
to say this. I wanna take heed, I want you
to take heed with this critical spirit to where you can't hear
lest two she bears come out of the wood and devour you. I just
like saying that. But that is the teaching and
may the Lord deliver me from a critical ear and give me an
ear hungering to hear the gospel. I love what James said, and this
is his word to me, this is his word to you. Let every man be
swift to hear. Slow to speak, slow to respond,
slow to wrath. slow to popping off at what they
are hearing in disagreement, if it's the truth. And with regard
to Elisha, these young children, they couldn't defend their position
scripturally. They couldn't say, well, this
is wrong because the Bible says this, and they couldn't. So what
did they do? They just started criticizing
his character, his person. You know, people do that in every
walk of life, even in politics. If somebody disagrees with somebody
politically, well, they'll just start attacking their character.
That's going on so much right now between the Democrats and
the Republicans, trashing each other's character in disagreement. And maybe not even able to give
an intelligent defense of what they're saying, but they just
trashed their character. They're just bad people, you know. May
the Lord deliver us from that immature, childish way of thinking. And may we be swift to hear,
slow to speak, and slow to wrath. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you will take this word and bless it to our hearts and
be with us in the service as we go out. In Christ's name we
pray. Amen.