Elisha, bears and 42 children dead

[_huckelberry]

EAllusion,
Of course the end of Psalm 137 is revenge fantasy. It is also the most vivid picture of the real experiece of the destruction of Jerusalem you will find in the Bible. Not every piece of material in the Bible is required to be good moral instruction. It could be about the reality which creates some of our moral questions . In a sense the entire Bible including "turn the other cheek" is reflection on the problem presented in 137.

I did not opine on the morality of the bear tale but am puzzed by your take on it. Do really mean all violence in self defense is highly immoral? Or is useing bears abusive to bears? Or perhaps violent conflict is only allowed between sides with equal weapons? Perhaps I totally miss your point.

[_Nightlion]

Okay, so I guess I will have to explain a little bit here so Sox and company can sit on it. Elisha was the NEW man of God on the scene as Elijah had just ascended in the chariot of fire. He picks up the mantel that Elijah left since Elisha was able to witness the ascension it meant Elisha would have even greater power than Elijah had. And looking over the acts of Elisha he does nearly everything that Jesus did. If you count floating an axe equal to Christ walking on water.

These major prophets are really incredible. The stand in waiting before the Lord 24/7. They refuse gifts to keep themselves sanctified in their service.

Anyways what everyone wants is an explanation of the bears mauling little children. I believe that they were little children. Probably children whose parents worshiped Baal. Not that it matters so much. They did go out to mock the NEW prophet. Everybody was expecting him to be great. That a company of so many children all agreed to go out to mock him makes you wonder exactly what the spectacle was. Seems quite a bit or orchestration went into the mock fest that welcomed the NEW prophet among the Baalites.

Elisha turns to wait upon the will of the Lord and the power of the Lord responds by cursing the children........wait......wait for it.........now Elisha did NOT call the bears out to maul and kill the children. He only spoke the curse of God upon them.

God sent the bears to kill the 42 because......wait......wait for it......it was better for them to die than to live and grow up cursed of God. Now everyday people are taken by God. In mercy the Lord took them by the violence of a couple of bears mauling them to death. Elisha was probably more shocked than anyone else that bears came to devour so many little children.

Giving the weight of the purposeful orchestration of so many children organized to formally give the people's official mocking reception to the NEW man of God is meet for the curse. And the mercy of killing the children to spare them a life of living cursed of God is also meet for the provocation. It hurt the parents of the children who solicited the offense the most.

If it were just a couple of kids smarting off to the bald prophet, Elisha would naturally have ignored it. Since it was a major production of the community to show contempt for God and his NEW prophet there was hell to pay.

[_sock puppet]

Nightlion, twice in 2 Kings 2:23, there is mention of Elisha going "up" on his way to Bethel before and as he encounters the children, who then chant, "Go up, thou bald head, go up, thou bald head".

What do you understand the derisiveness of "go up" to be?

[_huckelberry]

Sock Puppet,
I made a quote from second Kings simply to point to the general condition of hostilities between king and prophet which runs through first and second Kings. They were at war. That was real war not just talk. Because of that state of war I think it normal to see orchestration behind the childrens actions.

[_sock puppet]

Sock Puppet,
I made a quote from second Kings simply to point to the general condition of hostilities between king and prophet which runs through first and second Kings. They were at war. That was real war not just talk. Because of that state of war I think it normal to see orchestration behind the childrens actions.

I don't even think Hoops will stretch matters that far in his efforts to create an apology for this defenseless tale.

[_Nightlion]

Nightlion, twice in 2 Kings 2:23, there is mention of Elisha going "up" on his way to Bethel before and as he encounters the children, who then chant, "Go up, thou bald head, go up, thou bald head". .

What do you understand the derisiveness of "go up" to be?

That is as derisive as you can be to a NEW prophet. I mean, gee, all he had yet done was divide the Jordan River hither and thither by virtue of Elijah's mantel.

To go up is 'to prophecy or inquire of the Lord' thou bald head is to mock his power as if impotent. The provocation was not in the words of the chant. It was the formality that the PEOPLE set their innocence before them to meet the NEW prophet to tempt him lest he smite the innocent by his own hand and they have were with to accuse him and kill him. Elisha waited a moment upon the Lord before he cursed them. Because it says that he cursed them in the name of the Lord it means that he was moved upon by the power of the Spirit to pronounce the curse and it was not his own will but that of God that they were cursed.

Thus were the PEOPLE punished to lose so many of their own children and their cunning lying in wait to catch the NEW prophet perchance acting rashly of his own accord might be his undoing, comes to not. Hence the curse the also the bears. The people are convicted and cannot hold anything against Elisha.

Now this man was even more remarkable as he was fairly well off. I recall where he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen when Elijah called him. That would plow wider than today's super tractors.

[_brade]

Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it marvelous?

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Hoops? Hooooooooops?

[_Drifting]

To be fair God has 'form' on cruelty...

 

14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.

 15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?

 16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord.

 17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.

 18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

[_Buffalo]

No, the God of love is not the leftwing crybaby you imagine Him to be. But here I think you are confusing God with the Edomites.

Left-wing crybabies hate it when infants are smashed against rocks. Right wingers bathe in the blood of the innocent thrice daily!

The Edomites invented your Jehovah, by the way. Have a little more respect.