Why did the Prophet Elisha curse the "youths" for making fun of his baldness (2 Kings 2:23-24)?

There are three cases of summary judgment in the ministry of Elisha. On first reading these we are surprised and perhaps a little shocked to find curses intermingled with blessings, and swift retribution running with longsuffering and compassion. But a careful consideration of them will convince us that they were just and right, and solemn warnings to us.

The first of these incidents occurred at the very beginning of the ministry of grace, and immediately after the healing of the waters at Jericho. The people ought to have been impressed by that miracle, but at Bethel they were not. Bethel had great traditions. Its meaning is "the house of God," and it was there that Jacob first met God. Above all places in the land the man of God ought to have had a welcome there, but instead the very children mocked him, and children by their public conduct show what their home training has been. I have no doubt that these children had heard their parents mock the prophet in private, they had grown up under an evil and godless influence. They were not "little children" in our meaning of the word, but youths and maidens, probably youths only, for the same word is used in chapter 4: "when the child was grown," and on several occasions in the Old Testament it is translated "young men." These children had reached the age of responsibility, and were accountable for their own actions. They made their choice, and rejected the man of grace. The judgment that came upon them was not only a judgment on their parents and the profane society in which they had been reared, but upon themselves also.

Their mocking words were not mere youthful rudeness. "Go up, thou bald-head, Go up, thou bald-head," meant more than that. It was their deliberate rejection of God's representative. It meant, "We do not want God in any way. Elijah has gone up, at least so it is reported, you go, too, and leave us in peace." The same spirit was shown by the men of the Lord's generation. "Wherewith shall I liken the men of this generation, and to what are they like?" He said, "They are like to children sitting in the market place, and calling one to another and saying, We have piped to you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, He has a devil. The Son of Man is come eating and drinking, and ye say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." Elijah and John came on the same ground; they pressed the claims of God upon the people, and exposed their sinful rebellion against Him, and had their ministry been heeded their hearers would have welcomed the grace that followed in Elisha, and above all in the Lord. But the people of Bethel hated the ministry of Elijah, they did not want to hear of God's rights or their rebellion, and they were glad when he took his departure for Heaven, and they wanted Elisha to go, too; they did not want to hear of the goodness of God; it was just as distasteful to them as His righteous claims. They did not want God in any way. What is there left for men if they cannot meet God's claims and won't have His grace? Nothing but judgment. This solemn fact is taught very early in man's history. To Cain God said, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin, or a sin-offering, lies at the door." If Cain had been a righteous man, doing God's will and answering to all His holy and kindly claims, he would have been accepted on his own merits; but he was a sinner, and could claim nothing on that ground; but God had ordained a way by which sinful men could be justified and saved. He had provided the Sin-Offering, and in this His grace was displayed. It is all clearly taught in Romans 3:19-26. Cain rejected God's way of blessing for him, there was nothing left but God's judgment.

The third miracle is one of judgment. Judgment well deserved fell upon those who despised the chosen messenger of God. The mockers were not "little children," but young men. They were of Bethel, and no doubt associated with the wicked worship established there (1 Kings 7:25-33). They were infidels and scoffers. They mocked the translation of Elijah and taunted Elisha. The curse of the Lord fell upon them. Forty-two of their number were torn by she-bears. The punishment has been declared by critics "disproportionate to the offence." It certainly is not when the offence is considered as an insult to the man of God, who had gone to heaven and to the prophet who had taken his place; besides, these young men had scoffed at the power of God. And we must not overlook the fact that present day mockers and rejecters of the ministry of the gospel and grace of God will also receive their punishment in due time (2 Peter 3:3-7).

But another fact should not be passed over in silence (vv. 23-24). Elisha goes up to Bethel. Little boys, representing unintelligent, mocking, unbelieving people, come forth from Bethel just at the moment when the prophet is going to meet God in His house, in the place of His unchangeable promises. What an anomaly! Children, created to give praise, mock the man of God! those of an age characterized according to God's thoughts by trust and respect for such who are above them insult the prophet! Instead of recognizing the God of the promise, they mock His servant and despise him. "Go up, bald head!" they cry out to him, because in his person he is showing signs of decrepitude, of old age (just as the remnant in the Psalms, Ps. 71:9, 18), and of reproach. Yet nonetheless the law declares such a man to be clean and not defiled (Lev. 13:40-41). Those of whom God should have expected simplicity of faith reject the representative and witness of the Messiah, identified with the feeble, bowed down remnant, and make fun of his appearance. It would seem too that they are mocking His master, Elijah. "Go up, bald head!" they say. They do not believe in Elijah's having been taken up. Folly like this is not even proper for children! Where is the promise of His coming? Is not the world the same today? These insults are so much the more odious in that they are directed at the Spirit of Christ, come back in grace and not in judgment as Elijah. Elisha turns back, for he has the promises before him and not judgment, "and cursed them in the name of Jehovah." They become the prey of a pitiless, cruel power that seizes and tears them.

1908 1 5. — The judgment upon the children of Bethel (2 Kings 2:23-24) calls for little comment. It was not properly Elisha's act and therefore not to be numbered with "all the great things that Elisha had done." Rather was it one of divine vengeance in which God takes the part of His insulted servant, and so would prevent any further display of levity, which, if not checked at the outset, might place serious difficulties in the way of His servant, and discredit the new testimony which was to characterise the prophet's service. Besides, it was a more serious thing than appeared on the surface. The translation of Elijah and the appointment of Elisha as his successor were facts well known, but conjecture was not wanting then, as now, and this is seen in the thinly veiled infidelity of even the sons of the prophets in their eagerness to account in a natural way for what was really beyond them. So, today, the unbelief of God's people, whether of real or only of professing Christians, if not checked, will assuredly lead to scoffing profanity on the part of those who make no profession of faith in God. A testimony which is essentially of grace is peculiarly open to the attacks of scoffers. The salvation which grace brings is despised, and the warnings of coming judgment are unheeded. The wicked behaviour of the "little children," or "young lads," was an outcome, no doubt, of the general remarks of their elders. Elisha, in his cursing them in the name of Jehovah, referred the matter to God, and He wrought for the vindication and protection of His servant. The moral effect of this overshadowed Elisha's subsequent career.

Only at Bethel do we find Elisha calling down judgement upon his foes (2 Kings 2:23-24). Grace derided and rejected must of necessity be avenged, whatever the dispensation may be. Men in Christendom are in even graver peril than the young people of Bethel. "Little children" is an improper and misleading translation. In many other Old Testament passages the same Hebrew word is rendered "young men." The offenders were similar in character and years to many who stand loutishly at our street corners today, with no respect for either God or man. Bethel ("house of God") had truly become Bethaven ("house of folly") when God's venerable servant could be pursued with the mocking cry: "Go up, thou baldhead; go up, thou baldhead." Not one of Jeroboam's priests intervened to protect God's witness; how, indeed, could it be expected! What cared they for the wonderful story of God's rapture of His despised prophet! As little did they care for the new witness whom God had raised up in his stead. Accordingly, Elisha turned back, and looking upon his tormentors, he "cursed them in the Name of Jehovah." The chronicler adds: "And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them." Whether "tare" means killed or simply injured is not stated. It is a solemn thing to join issue with God. The heavy judgement of 2 Kings 1, when two captains with their fifties were destroyed for their impiety, had no deterrent effect upon the scoffers of Bethel. How often is the rod of God unheeded! But however long drawn out this longsuffering may be, the judgement of God upon rejecters is sure in this dispensation as in every other.

Elisha's ministry was in keeping with Israel's condition. The same in character as that which God did in Egypt by the hand of Moses — that is, to demonstrate His supremacy. This goes to prove that Israel were then sunk as low as the Egyptians. God was bringing back the knowledge of Himself — His Godhead — which they had lost, by miracles, which were rather judicial than otherwise. Apart from governmental discipline, it was according to the wisdom of God to raise up another servant, when about to prove Himself by merciful interposition, as He has before by judicial dealing. For Elisha's ministry is characterised by sovereign goodness. In the series of miracles, or recorded acts of each, the second one of each appears as an exception to the character of each respectively. (1 Kings 17:9, etc.) This is an example of pure mercy, and, to a Gentile, an instance of mercy to one not of Israel, which the Jew so resented. (Luke 4:26.) On the other hand, 2 Kings 2:23 was only judgment. The mockery of Elisha contained a sneer at what Jehovah had done in translating Elijah. "Go up, thou bald head" was no mere disrespect to Elisha, but derision of the God of Elisha. But these children were but the echo of their parents, they repeated what was said at home, and in the city whence they came. Sad state of Israel! They did not believe that Elijah had gone up. How could they, when they lived at Bethel, which was once the place of God's altar, now the place for Jeroboam's calf? The worshippers of the idol scoffed at the servant of God. Judgment followed quickly, and was felt more by the parents than by the children. But not only the idolatrous inhabitants of Bethel; the sons of the prophets did not believe that Elijah was taken up. They did not doubt the power of God, but assuredly they did His grace and His love. It would appear they had gone to Jericho, to see what might happen. If they did not see Elijah go up, they saw Elisha divide the Jordan, and they were ready to acknowledge that the spirit of Elijah rested upon Elisha; but to urge that the Spirit of Jehovah had taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley, is an awful, but true, index of the darkness into which even the sons of the prophets had fallen. The children of Bethel are scarcely worse than the sons of the prophets.

That which will deal with the last mockers is given here in a little way, if I may so speak. Here there were those that insulted the prophet. It might be only little children, but little children often let out what their parents mean. How often you may know what goes wrong at home by that which little children say. And so it was with these little ones that mocked Elisha, and said, "Go up, thou bald head! Go up, thou bald head!" Now it was mockery that filled the land; there is no question of it. Elijah had gone up, and it was as good as telling him that he had better follow; — that Elisha had better take the same route as Elijah. No doubt it would have been a relief to the carnal and the worldly and the idolatrous and the wicked generally in the land of Israel were there no Elijahs and no Elishas. It was therefore the taunt of unbelief, for if men had seriously realized that Elijah had gone up to heaven, and that Elisha was one that was here upon earth doing the will of God, neither the little children nor their parents would have so uttered their evil thoughts and feelings against the Lord. And so it was. And here again we have the same solemn thing, only in an exceptional way, with Elisha — we have judgment accompanying the heavenly testimony.

The very same thing we find in St. Paul. It is not only that Peter tells of the day of the Lord, but there is judgment, and necessarily judgment executed by the Lord Jesus Christ upon earth. These little ones then who so spake "he cursed in the name of Jehovah. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood and tare forty and two children of them. And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria." Heaven is by no means the ordinary place from which judgment comes. Throughout the millennial reign heaven will be the source of countless comforts and blessings in a richer measure than the world has ever tasted before. So we find in Elisha a further illustration.

However, grace does not ignore righteousness. As Elisha left Jericho to go co Bethel, some youths of the city, who had no doubt heard of the translation of Elijah, but were sceptics, accosted him with taunting words, "Go up, you baldhead!" (v.23). This was plain mockery of the fact of Elijah's translation, just as today there are those who make a mockery of the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus. This is one evil that God will not tolerate. Elisha was no weakling. He turned and pronounced a curse on these youths in the name of the Lord. They would hardly be prepared for having two female bears come out of the woods to maul 42 of them! Whether any of them were killed we are not told, but if not killed they would not forget a lesson like that!

His first sphere we have said was Jericho. Having learnt the range of God's grace, its bright blessedness in the rapture of Elijah into heaven, and its power on earth in making a way for him through Jordan; he must, like Saul of Tarsus, be a minister of it in the place judicially at the greatest distance from God in the land of Israel — the place of the curse. The men of the place ask him to tarry, but in their invitation they sum up, in a few words, the history of the whole world. "The situation is pleasant, as my lord seeth, but the water is naught and the ground barren." What a picture! Fair to look upon, but unproductive of anything to meet the necessities of man! Elisha is enabled to respond to their prayer, and meet their need. It is a fine moment, and one of deep edification to his soul, when he is thus allowed to be the instrument of God's grace. A new cruise and salt with the word of the Lord, "I have healed these waters," effect the desired cure, and the "waters were healed unto this day." Now this service, which must have established the heart of Elisha in the very grace which he ministered was brought about by very simple though deeply effective education. He who had learned for himself the grace and power of Jehovah in heaven above and on earth beneath, knows how to act for God in Jericho, in scenes morally most distant from God; and thus was it that our Lord acted so pre-eminently on the earth. But if Elisha be the minister of mercy, he must experience what it is to be rejected, and that in the place most distinguished by the favour of God and the revelation of his goodness. Bethel, the house of God, furnishes youths to mock the ascension of Elijah, crying out as they do to Elisha, "Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head." But the truth of God must be vindicated, and Elisha, though he be the minister of mercy, is the one to invoke judgment on the gainsayer of it. "He turned and cursed them in the name of the Lord, and there came forth two she-bears out of the wood and tare forty and two of them." Thus in Jericho and at Bethel he learns two very different lessons. In the one, the mercy of God meeting the pressing need of man; and in the other, the recklessness of man (when God had shown most favour) and the consequent and terrible judgment inflicted on them.

There remains another circumstance to be noticed in this history. Elisha curses the children who mock him. This action not only shews us the prophet's authority upheld by God; it characterises his position. For although sovereign grace, in spite of Israel's fall, is in exercise towards the people, yet, together with grace, judgment shall be manifested with respect to those who despise the messenger of God. It will be well to remark that the judgment happens when he re-enters the land of Israel, before he takes his place in the unchangeable promises of God to His people. Thenceforth it is the Carmel of God which is presented to our faith.