Elisha and the Bears - 2 Kings 2: 23-25
Yeah… I didn’t realize there were bears in the Bible until fairly recently. And then to come across this story, which I have to admit, is a disturbing story. These days we would have candlelit vigils for boys (forty-two boys!) killed by a bear and possibly call for the bears to be hauled away or euthanized even.
Maybe what is most remarkable about this story is not what it says, but what it has left out. I immediately thought of the citizens’ outrage following such a mass killing these days. Why was that not recorded? For Jesus it was recorded, as mentioned in the pigs that the demons drove over the cliff, he was asked to leave. I would think that a ‘mere’ prophet would be run out of town in such an occasion. However, we find no protest or outrage over this activity.
So then I settle upon our God being a just God. If the people saw that forty-two boys were killed and presumably did nothing in protest, then may we logically conclude that the boys really were quite terrible? Perhaps they terrorized the city. When we consider such a gang of forty-two boys taken by two bears… it seems a rather large group of boys hanging out together. When we consider the title boy, David was just a ‘boy’ when he killed Goliath. I tend to believe that the boys were of age to understand what was going on and to be responsible for their actions. Maybe they were teenagers? However, given they were youth, they were likely still under the care of their parents. But we have no parents in this story, neither to rebuke the boys nor Elisha. Where are the parents? Why is no one attempting to train them up and keep them from trouble?
Then we have the bears, just a couple of bears; surely some of the boys could get away before being killed. I mean, how many can any single bear attack at once? This lends itself more toward supernatural power in action than anything else in the account. No-one else intervenes on behalf of the youth, but surely it took some time for forty-two to be done away with, yet no parents came looking. For that matter, what was Elisha doing all that time? Had he already left for Mount Carmel?
This small paragraph, just three verses, two really, begins with the youth taunting a man. Numerous youths taunting a man. They had nothing to say against his character, just his hair. ‘Baldy,’ they called him. They had nothing to say of how he did his work, only taunting him to go away as his predecessor did, on the clouds. ‘Baldy, go up’ they said. Well, forty-two youths, taunting just that would likely get irritating. But here we see that God lent his ‘Amen’ to the curse. It could only be supernaturally that two bears could kill forty-two youths.
I think it must have been a divine irritation as well. I do not believe that God smites people with trouble because they are mean and bad-behaving. He is slow to anger and abounding in love (Ps 103:8) and he is patient, not wanting any to perish but to come to repentance. As Elisha looked at them, they likely had a chance to blush or shy away in embarrassment over their taunting. But, they apparently did not, as none seem to have been saved in this account. I can only conclude that God understood the hearts of these forty-two and saw that they were not repentant. Because our God is slow to anger and abundant in love; He is love.
So, I have faith that God is good and loving, but I still really do not understand why these youths lost their lives so young. It is in faith that I accept God did the just and acceptable thing. I would likely not condone it if it happened again today, but I do see His hand in this story; forty-two youths and only two bears. So, I am on bended knee saying, ‘Your will, Lord. Your ways are higher than my ways. (Is 55:9).’ How else can we explain it? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
