She-bears and the IFB pastor

[pastor's wife]

These are my comments on the story of Elisha from an older thread:

Smith Wrote: "I have questions about God sending a "she bear" to kill a bunch of children who razzed Elisha about his baldness. What great lesson did this teach?"

This story bothered me too, but I've come to understand some of it. (Not that I think being mauled by bear is any less horrible. It's awful!)

1. First, I don't believe they were children. The word could mean youths as well. I think this was a bunch of young men - at least 42 of them, probably more - out looking for trouble, a huge gang of hoodlums with the potential for violence against Elisha, not children engaged in childhood insults.

2. Second, I believe they were mocking his position as prophet not so much his being bald. This occurs shortly after Elijah was transported to heaven and transferred his power to Elisha. After that, fifty men called sons of the prophets showed him reverence and agreed that he had taken the prophetic mantle from Elijah. In great contrast, this group of young men come out from the city (did they come out directly to confront Elisha?) and question his authority. "Go up!" were the words they used to mock him. I think this means they were derisively referring to Elijah's going up in a chariot of fire, in the same way that the mockers around the cross laughed at Christ and told Him if He was really the son of God to come down from the cross. Christ could have called ten thousand angels, but He did not. However, in this case, to show that Elisha was indeed the prophet of God, he demonstrated that power by calling a rather distinctive and horrifying punishment on them.

Horrible? Yes. But I do not believe this story was about a grumpy prophet who gave an unbelievably out of proportion punishment to a group of children who were teasing him about his hair loss. (2 Kings 2:24-25)

IN A SECOND POST I DISCUSSED IT MORE AS FOLLOWS:

NIV: "youths"
NASB: "young lads"
World English: "youths"

The Hebrew word translated "little" is "qatan" which could mean "young, small, insignificant, or unimportant." The word for "children" is "na'ar" which could be "boy, lad, servant, youth, or retainer."

Now the God I know does not fill His prophet with His power for him to be oversensitive and kill a bunch of children so I use my knowledge of the God we know from all of Scripture to understand a disturbing passage. These were young lads - teenagers - a group of 42 or more of them.

Yes, they chose to insult his appearance as well as his role as prophet of God, but I believe it is their insulting of His position as prophet that resulted in God's judgment of them.

Preachers today are not equivalent to prophets of God. If they were a prophet, every single prophecy MUST be true; otherwise, they would be invalid and a false prophet. Elijah demonstrably had God's power as he called down fire on Mt. Horeb and prophesied both drought and rain. Elijah passed this spirit of the power of God on to Elisha. Pastors today may pretend they are the same as the OT prophets but they are not.