Elisha and the Children

I recently heard a sermon on the closing verses of 2 Kings Chapter 2 wherein Elisha is cursed by mocking children. He in turn curses them in the name of Jehovah. This results in two she-bears emerging from the woods and forty-two deaths result.

The pastor preaching the sermon was obviously uncomfortable with the subject matter, its implications, and how it appears to a modern audience. He laboured to water-down the passage – in the end suggesting (by means of grammatical and hermeneutical gymnastics) that they weren't children at all but young adults. It would seem that in his mind this assuages the horror of the event as they were morally responsible in a way that children would not be.

But he missed the crucial element to understanding the passage – the identity of Elisha and what he represented in terms of Biblical typology. Elisha was a prophet and for that matter one of the greatest of the Old Testament era. His ministry was marked by numerous miracles and as God's anointed (by Elijah no less) he was a powerful picture and prefigurement of Christ.

The nature of the 'go up' taunt is not entirely clear. Elisha was climbing from the depths of the Jordan valley up to Bethel. The 'go up' might have been simply a reference to the fact that he was climbing. It might have been that they thought he was going to Bethel as a worshipper – and thus as godless wretches they were mocking him. Conversely, they might have thought he was going to Bethel to denounce it – knowing that Elisha represented the Sons of the Prophets who were opposed to the Dan-Bethel cultus as well as the Baal worship introduced by Jezebel. They mocked his bald head. Was this just juvenile disrespect or was Elisha known by this epithet to his enemies?

Regardless, it's clear their motives were evil and Elisha was the Lord's Anointed, the type or picture of the Messiah. They cursed him and met their death – or at the least were worthy of it. We are all those children and apart from the grace of God deserve their fate – a point we would do well to remember.

Ultimately, it was a kind of blasphemy – in mocking Elisha, they mocked Christ as it were and as such deserved death.

The preacher in question neglected this aspect of the story and when Elisha is just viewed as an isolated individual (regardless of how great) such a response (even if Divine) seems draconian and pitiless.

But Elisha was not merely a man living in the Northern Kingdom. He was God's prophet, his representative, the bearer and proclaimer of His word, the bringer of the Covenant lawsuit. He was not to be touched or mocked. He was a holy man – in a way today's presbyters are not, though some seem to think so.

Christ would appear centuries later and endure the mocking for our sakes.

But ultimately He will come as Judge – the agent of God's vengeance and wrath on a world of sin, a world that rejected His grace and His Son. And thus the world will be torn as were those children – and they were children. The attempt to make them youths or young adults was entirely unconvincing.

We are all sinners deserving of death. When understood, this episode is revealed as no capricious outpouring of Divine wrath but simply the removal of restraining mercy, the application of what is due and yet is being withheld due to mercy and longsuffering. That is offensive to people but there's no gospel without this aspect of it. The preacher missed that and thus did a great disservice to the text – falling into the ear tickling marketing methods of one such as Joel Osteen.

The children (like all of us) deserved death. We are the offspring of Adam. God withholds Judgment and it is not right for us to question His timing or the determinations of His mercy.

It could be argued (in somewhat anachronistic terms) that their crime was akin not just to blasphemy, but the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

In general the episode demonstrates and displays the depravity and apostasy of the times – times not unlike our own.

We needn't shy away from these truths and realities. God may through what Kline called Intrusion – bring judgment to bear prior to the eschaton. He does so to both individuals and nations. The sentence of death is already upon them. The fact that He's allowing them to live is mercy. His decision to apply the penalty of the already established verdict isn't cruel – it's just. A removal of mercy is not unjust though many respond as if were.

But what happened in 2 Kings 2 is not normative and it is not our prerogative to make such decisions or judgments. And the context of the New Testament is quite different as is the relationship of the believer with the world and the higher Kingdom and cross-bearing ethics we are called to live out. We live in an eschatological time, not a typological one. We are not depicting the coming of Christ in terms of His Redeemer-Judge role but as those who are translated into the realm of the Risen King.

The world thinks they love Christ as Saviour – though in reality they do not, as they are not interested in turning from their sins. They like messages of mercy and a babe in a manger, or perhaps the pitiable figure who was unjustly executed by a cruel and corrupt system. They like that empathetic scenario but not the real message, let alone the other side of the coin as it were – that Christ is also the Coming Judge to whom all must give an account.

Elisha typified this role in the giving of life and the proclamation of curse, in the setting up and the taking down. He showed great mercy but also ordered the casting down of kingdoms.

When this is understood, the tearing apart of cursed children while still terrible can be understood and accepted. Apart from this, it is a source of embarrassment as the pastor in his inept handling of the passage made all too clear.

But was his audience put at ease? I cannot say but I doubt it. The stark and bloody realities of the event are still present and must be reckoned with. How is this any different than the slaying of the Egyptian firstborn – or for that matter the eradication of the Canaanites? What of the Second Coming? It will be a terrible day with a death toll exceeding anything previously seen or imagined in the history of man – but in that context it has a completely different meaning.

The Scriptures must be preached and boldly – the message is offensive, but by the grace of the Holy Spirit it can be understood and accepted. Grasping the context and having an understanding of Redemptive-History certainly helps in this task.