Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the LORD. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. Then he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

II Kings 2:23-25

If you were to think of particularly evil times in biblical history, what would come to mind? Perhaps the time of Noah when the sin of men led to God destroying the earth with a flood? Perhaps the rampant homosexuality at Sodom and Gomorrah that resulted in the destruction of whole cities with fire and brimstone from heaven? Perhaps the early days of King Manasseh of Judah who caused his son to be burned in fire? Perhaps the days of Ahab who did worse than all the kings of Israel before him when all but 7,000 in Israel bowed the knee to Baal? Usually we think of the horrible blasphemy and wicked practices of adults throughout history who have sinned against the Lord. I suspect we rarely think about children committing some of the more heinous sins in biblical history.

The closing verses of II Kings 2 paint for us the totality of the rebellion of Israel against God in the days of Elisha and the mind of God as it relates to sin. The youths, the children of Israel, were wholly given over to blasphemy and mockery of God and His prophets. Elisha was retracing the final visits of Elijah (Jordan River to Jericho to Bethel) when he approached Bethel, and children came out of the city to mock him.

It can be tempting with this text to think the punishment was unequal to the crime of innocent young children. But listen to their words, “Go up, you bald head! Go up, you bald head!” (vs. 23). It is evident the children had heard the prophecy or the account of Elijah’s ascension (going up) to Heaven. Like their kings, they hated Elijah and were glad to see him go, though they likely doubted the manner of his leaving. So they told Elisha to go up the way of Elijah. They were in essence saying, “Leave us! Leave us, you who think Elijah was carried up to Heaven by your God! We despise and reject such prophecies, but if it were true, you should go too, you bald head.”

Like the two captains consumed with their men when blaspheming God’s prophet in chapter 1, these children were not simply mocking Elisha’s bald spot, they were mocking the God of Elisha, your God! They mocked God’s miracle of taking Elijah to glory. They mocked God’s Spirit that annointed Elisha. They mocked God’s comfort to a dead land in the form of a living prophet. They mocked even his physical imperfections.

In light of this blasphemy of the Lord, Elisha, in the name of the Lord pronounced judgment and a curse on the children. Immediately two female bears came out of the woods, as if robbed of their young and fiercely mauled forty-two children of Bethel.

The joyful ascension of Elijah to glory, the provision of the Lord in the prophet Elisha, the healing of the bad water at Jericho, the proclamation of the glory of God and salvation in Him was a delightful sweet aroma and salvation to some. To others, even these children, the glorious gospel was an aroma of death, even a thing to be mocked, and it led only to destruction.

This passage should rightly put the fear of the Lord before us and remind us that God will not be mocked. If God will judge little children from ancient Israel in such a manner for their wickedness, how much more will he judge us? He will judge the wicked of all ages and likewise He will show mercy on all those who repent of their wicked sins and embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior who is freely offered to us in the gospel.

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