2 Kings 2, in just three verses,
23, 24, and 25. This is lesson three on Elisha,
the life and miracles of Elisha. In 2 Kings 2, and the closing out of chapter
2, the last three verses of chapter 2. This is going to be a short
but a powerful lesson. It's frightening, it's scary,
it's all of that, and yet the believer is safe and hid with Christ in
God. But nonetheless, the Lord is... it's just one of those verses,
one of those sections in Scriptures that's kind of... it's not hard
to deal with if you're honest with it. But the way religion
deals with it today, they think it's just a little bit out of
character for God to do such things to children or adolescents,
however you want to term it. But what we've looked at thus
far is the Lord has called out Elisha, and He called him to
serve Elijah. Then Elijah is transported up
to heaven, he goes up, is carried by the chariots of fire, so Elijah
replaces the old prophet, and he's performed a few miracles.
We've seen the first two. The first one was the parting
of the River Jordan, in front of, or not in front of, but the
prophets, some of the prophets saw it, and then they saw that
the mantle has gone from Elijah to Elisha, and so he's taking
up the charge. And then we saw in this last
lesson last week, Elisha healing the deadly waters at Jericho.
And so now he is heading up, verse 23, and Elisha went up
from Thentz, from Jericho, 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." We know whatever's going on,
they're mocking him. And Elisha turned back and looked
on them. He didn't do it out of anger.
He didn't do it out of instant response. He wasn't upset, mad,
you know, whatever. He just 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 forty
and two children of them. And then Elisha went from Thence
to Mount Carmel, and from Thence he returned to Samaria. Now some
say that there was another school of prophets in Bethel. I don't know if that's true or
not. I didn't research it. It really doesn't have any bearing
on it, but he was going from Jericho to the next city, and
he may have been doing that. But he comes upon the town of
Bethel. Now you remember what that name
signifies. or what it used to signify. It
used to be called the house of God. But it's none of that anymore. Let's turn to 1 Kings chapter
21. The time that's been going on
here is one full of idolatry and worshiping idols and false
gods. And you could go through the
latter part of 1 Kings and see what's going on. So the whole
land, the area is given over to idolatry. As a matter of fact,
we're going to pick up our story. I believe it is Jezebel. Now you know what she was all
about. She hated God. She hated God's
prophets. She hated the gospel, therefore.
But just to give you a sampling in 1 Kings 21 and starting in
verse 25, But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell
himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel
his wife stirred up. and he did very abominably in
following idols according to all things as did the Amorites
whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. And it
came to pass when Ahab heard these words, he rent his clothes,
put sackcloth on his flesh, fasted, and lay in sackcloth and went
softly." So the area, the town, the areas of Judah, not just
the one or two towns, but the whole area is given over to idolatry. But it used to be called Back
in Genesis, it used to be called the House of God. And the Lord
was honored there, and people honored Him there. But this place
is now a place of vast idolatry, false God worship, and every
evil thing. And so, as such, the children
would have not been, as the Scripture says, trained them up in the
way they the way they should go, and they will not depart
from it. But if the parents, but it's
not all the parents' fault. We're born in sin. We're born
in corruption. It's our nature to be anti-Christ, anti-God,
anti-gospel. But where there's no fear of
God, anything goes. We see this in our country. It's
getting worse and worse and worse. So as with all human nature,
we tend to go anti-Christ. and or we are truly born this
way and when we see, note and behold sin, it is our natural
condition. We don't have to be taught to
be evil, but woe unto those who teach wickedness and inflame
others' vile natures. It's one thing just to let a
person go, either a young adult, even an older man, the whore-headed
sinner. Scripture talks about that as
a horrible place to be. but to not have any checks and
balances, not to have any, somebody saying, you know, you did wrong,
but you can't say that anymore. Everybody's a winner. There's
no losers. There's none of that. You know, it's just unrealistic.
And there's psychiatrists and anything that happens, you got
to run to these persons to make yourself feel good. The power
of positive thinking. There's no checks. There's no
balances. There's no, God and His gospel. The gospel is still very much
in the minority. Now we know quite a few folks
that preach it, quite a few folks that believe it, and that's a
wonderful thing. But this is just a sampling of
what's going on in this country. Such is the case here. He's going
up to to this place Bethel, which used to be called the House of
God, and I guess it's just in the name it's still called that,
but it's not that by any stretch. So here you have these children.
Now, I did some reading on this, and children in the Hebrew could
be ages 7 to 29. And the word little does not
necessarily mean, it means diminutive, it doesn't necessarily mean small
children. Obviously these children were outside the city, they were
of some age. But it doesn't really matter.
One, they were displaying their nature. These children, these young adults,
we call them teenagers, were displaying their natures. It says, they mocked him. Who? They mocked the prophet.
They mocked the prophet. Secondly, they also had to be
taught or brought up despising true godliness and thereby the
gospel message and gospel messengers. Remember, Elisha means God is
salvation. So they were rejecting, mocking,
spiritually, we could take this, they were mocking God. They were mocking God as salvation.
They were mocking God's people, or in this instance, God's messenger,
and they were mocking God's gospel. So, this mocking shows the hardness
of the human heart by nature. They hated this man, young or
old, it didn't make a difference. They had enmity, which the Scripture
says we all do, enmity towards the truth, towards God. That's
what the New Testament says. And then they said, not only
were they mocking him, but they specifically said, go up, thou bald head. Go up, thou bald head. Go up. So what are they saying here?
Well, everybody that I read, and I tend to agree with it before
I even read them, is this is referring back to Elisha. He
went up. He rid himself of earth. And what they were saying is,
go up. This references to the way Elisha
left the earth. They're saying, we don't need
you here. Go up. Get out of here. We don't need you here. We don't
want you here. Just go up or basically just
leave us alone. And so spiritually we can take
this as the gospel, the truth, the Lord Jesus Christ. What did
they say in the New Testament? We will not have this man to
reign over us. Just go on, just any of you apostles,
We'll kill you if we get opportunity. We'll hunt you down. But this
Christ, everything was fine in the Pharisaical and the Sadduceical
system. They had their law, they had
their free will, they had their works, they had their washing
their hands, cleansing everything outside, nothing inside. It sounds
familiar. They said, we have no king, was
the cry. But Caesar, away with it. Matter
of fact, we'll take a murderer. He'll fit into society better
than this rabble-rouser this and the Apostles that after that
they were they caught they said these are men they're turning
they're turning this world upside down leave us alone go up leave
us alone we don't want to hear this gospel this town doesn't
want to hear this gospel the truth about how God can save
sinners God is salvation No, it's God plus me. It's God plus
my repentance. It's God plus my walking in the
aisle. It's God plus. It's never just
God. Jonah said something different.
Christ said something different. The apostles all said something
different. All the prophets give witness to Him. Salvation by
grace through faith and that not of yourselves. So they are
rejecting And the trained cry from these children by their
parents perhaps, all who will not have Christ's truth or His
gospel reign over them. And that word mock in verse 23
means literally to ridicule or to scorn. My point is, they knew,
they were of aid, they knew what they were doing. They knew what
they were doing and they enjoyed it. Pilate, What does it say
in the Scriptures? Pilate, he didn't like Herod.
And Herod did like Pilate. But, they came together. They became friends over the
crucified Christ. And they enjoyed it. And they
mocked Him. And our Lord Jesus Christ, as
He went from the trial to Calvary, He was mocked. He was spit upon. He was whipped. He was innocent. And when he hung up on the cross,
they was casting lots for his garments. No respect. We will
not have this man to rule over us. Elisha, God is salvation. That's how much the gospel is
hated. And it's hated from birth until a person dies unless God
shows mercy on them. So they knew what they were doing.
Herod, Pilate, the Pharisees in our Lord's day exhibited this
exact same characteristic. These children, our young adults,
were a true picture of the sign of those times in Judah as well
as ours here. When you go out, you can be fine
if you just talk about the weather. You can be fine if you just talk
about things of the world, of the earth. But you just keep
bringing the conversation back to the gospel. And most people
do not like it. But that's what we are here to
do. They were given over to false gods, to false truths, and to
idol worship. or basically do what you want
in this community, this society, do what you want without censor
or rebuke or submission to the truth, which the truth exposes
the lies, falsehoods and pride. Christ came into the world. The
world knew Him not. Why? Because He came in the light.
The light exposes sins. And men love darkness. We love
darkness more than light. That's why we keep pointing people,
keep talking about Christ. God is salvation. Well, verse
24, what happens next is remarkable, and a lot of contemporary preachers
and contemporary scholars so-called, they don't deal with this. They
don't like it. No, surely he didn't. God is love. Surely he
didn't do it. God is a just God. He doesn't
change. Verse 24, and the prophet 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 woods, and
tear the forty and two children of them." So here's what we have. What we have here is a picture
or a truth of turn to Psalms 105. Psalms 105. Verses 13, 14,
and 15. Psalms 105. Verse 13, when they went from
one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, He
suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea, He reproved kings for their
sakes. The Lord God reproved kings for
the elect's sake, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my
prophets no harm. And this is what's going on.
God is protecting His truth. He's protecting His gospel. He's
protecting his gospel people. He's protecting his gospel ministers,
those who understand and know the truth, know what is in man.
Touch not mine anointed, not even the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
you said he was crucified. Yes, he must need suffer. He must need bleed. He must be
died to save sinners from themselves. To do my prophets no harm. And
also turn to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19, this really
isn't spoken about much, but this is where we are this evening.
Luke chapter 19 and verse 27, but those mine enemies,
which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither
and slay them before me, kill them. Put them away. Just like
they want the gospel, they don't want to hear the gospel, they
want it put away from them. The gospel, it's the everlasting
gospel, it's not going anywhere. So God is jealous over His Son,
over His gospel, and over His people. He will take any mocking
of these as mocking of Himself, and will protect His people and
his word and his truth at much cost to those who are attacking. Forty-two of them, it says. I
didn't know how many, and then it says right there, forty-two.
Forty-two of these young adults, these children, these teenagers,
were either mauled to death or mauled to disability. How could God do such a thing?
That is not the right or even the close to the correct question. God will get honor and glory
by the preaching and believing of his truth. Any who continue
to reject these and him and his truth will be eternally tormented
in hell. That is the God of justice. Now
we thank God that he's a God of mercy and a God of compassion,
but he is still a holy and righteous God. This, my brethren, shows
the justice and judgment of God against his enemies, whether
we like to talk about it or not, whether we like to see it in
the scripture or not. In another place, I believe it's
in Sam, he says, I kill, I make alive. He does this. Nebuchadnezzar, he walked out
and said, I've done all this with my hands in the Lord. He
could have killed him, smashed him right there, but he humbled
him. Turned him into some kind of a creature that eating grass
and dew on the grass. And by God's grace, he was gracious.
When it says when he came, Nebuchadnezzar came back to himself, he praised
and blessed God. But there's a lot, Pharaoh didn't.
Pharaoh's army didn't. And the Lord judged him and drowned
him in the Red Sea. So whether we like to talk about
it or not, God is right in His judgments. God is right in showing
mercy to His people. We just happened to see the former
in this lesson tonight. And it's a miracle. It's a miracle. God will be honored and God will
be glorified. And there's times that, you know,
in the martyrs that they were preaching the gospel and they
got killed and nothing happened. That was God's time. Their time
on earth was done. So He took them home and spared
them from all the stuff that they could have seen, they could
have went through. And that's God's mercy even there. But we must know beyond all shadow
of a doubt that God is just and God's judgment is real and true.
And He will slay those who do not trust in Him and will not
have Him to reign over them. So I encourage us to go to the
Lord of glory and plead for His mercy and do not mock, do not
mock, do not ridicule, do not scorn His gospel, His people,
or Him. It won't be unto us if we do. Nathan, would you close this?