September 29th, 2010
23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
24 And he turned back, and looked on them, 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 children of them.
25 And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.
In 2 Kings 2, Elisha, a former disciple of Elijah, is simply walking along when a group of children begin poking fun at his bald head. There are quite a number of different ways that he could deal with this scenario. He could simply ignore the peanut gallery and continue merrily on his way, he could laugh with the kids and make a few friends in the process, or he could have them all maimed and slaughtered by wild animals. Being a good and saintly fellow, Elisha decided on the most righteous of choices, the mauling.
Apparently, Elisha felt that it would be appropriate to utilize his rancor and call upon God, who then summoned a couple of female bears to tear them limb from limb. That’s a lovely little tale. With inspiring stories such as these, I can see why people call this the Good Book.