12/27/2015 The Word Returns by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Acts 1 and 2 Kings 2: The Ascension of Jesus and the Beginning of Elisha’s Ministry

First, the Book of Acts, Chapter 1, the entire chapter, which is found on page 732 of your two Bibles. Then, following that would be 2 Kings, Chapter 2, beginning at verse 14, which is found on page 254 of your two Bibles.

When you reach Acts, Chapter 1, beginning at verse 1, please stand, if you're able, for the reading of God's Word. This is the Word of the Lord. And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You have heard from me.

For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Now when he had spoken these things, while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly to him as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw him going into heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey.

And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room, where they were sent Peter, James, John, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers. And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, altogether the number of the names was about a hundred and twenty, and said, Many brethren, this scripture hath to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus, for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry.

Now this man purchased a field, which the wages of his iniquity, with the wages, excuse me, of his iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his entrails gushed out, and it became known to all dwelling in Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language, Akaldama, which is field of blood.

For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man live in it, and let another take his office. Therefore of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to the day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.

And they proposed two, Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show us which of these two you have chosen, to take part in this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas, by transgression, fell, that he might go to his own place.

And they cast their locks, and the lock fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. And now turning to 2 Kings chapter 2, beginning at verse 14, which is found on page 254 of your KJV.

Elisha Crosses the Jordan and Takes Up Elijah’s Mantle

2 Kings chapter 2, beginning at verse 14. Speaking of Elisha, then he took the mantle of Elisha that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elisha? And when he had also struck the water, he was divided this way and that, and Elisha crossed over.

Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elisha rests upon Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground before him. Then they said to him, Look now, there are fifty strong men with your servants.

Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley. And he said, You shall not send anyone. But when they had urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send them out.

Therefore they sent out fifty men, and they searched for three days, but did not find him. And when they came back to him, for he had saved Jericho, he said to them, Did I not say to you, Do not go? Then the men of the city said to Elisha, Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lord sees.

But the water is bad, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it. So they brought it to him. Then they went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said,.

And he said, Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water. From it there shall be no more death or bitterness. So the water remains healed to this day, according to the saying of Elisha, which he spoke.

And he went up from there to Bethel, and he was going up on the road. Some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, you bald head. Go up, you bald head. So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse upon 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. Dear Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, we just thank you and praise you for your manifold mercy and kindness towards us.

We want to confess our utter dependence upon that mercy for our very lives today. For if you should mark offences, who could stand? And we thank you for the great love with which you loved us, and the great price you were willing to pay to purchase our salvation, to purchase our freedom from the curse due to our sins, by the breaking of your holy law.

We just thank you for sending your Son to pay the penalty for our sins, and for the incredible price you were willing to pay. He was willing to pay. The Spirit was willing to participate. Father, we thank you for this love.

Confess our indebtedness to it. Confess our dependence upon you, dear. And we humbly ask that you will pour out your Spirit here, to show us wondrous things from your Word. And above all, we ask that you will show us your glory, your greatness, and your goodness.

Let us see your face, the face of your Son, Jesus Christ, through your Word today, we pray. We ask your blessing on speaker and hearer alike, that you pour out your Spirit, and grant us again to see your face more clearly, to know you better, and to follow you more perfectly.

We ask these things in Jesus' name, for your mercy's sake, and your glory's sake. Amen. Amen. Thanks, Steve. Please be seated.

The Danger of Following Men Instead of the Lord Jesus Christ

Well, the text read to you from 2 Kings is the text for the message this morning, where Elisha begins his ministry. His first disciples are the ones who had stood facing him and Elijah, when those two crossed the Jordan.

And Elijah, of course, having struck it with his mantle, had made it part. And they had known earlier that that day would be Elisha's last, as did both Elijah and Elisha, and the sons of the prophets of Bethel.

Everybody knew. Do you not know, they said, that today the Lord will take Elijah from over you? Of course, Elisha knew it, the other prophets knew it, it was known to them. This is the beginning of Elisha's ministry, of him taking up the mantle of Elijah, of him performing the deeds like Elijah's in the spirit of Elijah, of him taking on that prophetic ministry.

This is the beginning of it. Of course, really the beginning was when Elijah was taken up in the chariot of fire. We'll cover that a little bit more as we go on. Very much like what was read to you from the book of Acts, when Jesus was taken up in the cloud.

And there were the disciples standing and looking at the cloud, which I imagine all of us would do if we saw a sight like that. We might look for a while. And it took the angel to come and jog them out of their stupor, and say, okay, you've seen it, get on with it.

There's work to do. There's a ministry to accomplish. There's a word to preach. There's a God to represent. There's salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, which men must know about. Get going. It's sort of what's happening here back in 2 Kings.

Elijah's going to establish himself. Beginning of this ministry, the beginning of Elisha, comes really in three parts, and each is a challenge to the new word-bearer's authority and the validity of his status as Elijah's successor.

First with these same disciples, and then with the residents of Jericho, the men of the city who came out and made their request, and finally with that gang of youths who greeted him at Bethel. It's a challenge to his authority.

It's a challenge to God's authority in and through the prophet. It's really what's happening here. And in all this, we're going to see that Elisha proves his mettle. Better to say God proves it for him.

First, he crosses the Jordan in the same way Elijah had. Second, he cures the water at Jericho, and finally he cures Bethel of its bad manners, or at least in part. He takes the place of Elijah, arguably the greatest of the prophets, until, according to the Lord Jesus Christ, John the Baptist.

This must be something like what it was for young Timothy to pastor a church that had been founded by Paul. Can you imagine what it would be like, for whoever takes leadership of, for example, Grace Community Church after John MacArthur retires or is brought home?

In human terms. Just looking at the human dynamic, the situation he was in, this is a hard place to be, to take the place of a prophet like Elijah. There's immediate application for us here in 2 Kings 2, because it's not the man who we follow.

It's not the man we follow. I think one of the most disastrous things that happens in any church is where a man stands and has such a strong personality, which he then uses to some advantage, that it becomes almost a personality cult.

People are following that person. We think of some of the strong people we have in the church today. I just mentioned John MacArthur, and I'll just mention him as one. Obviously a man of great confidence, many latent talents, and yet I think he would be aghast if he thought that people, after listening to him for however many years he's been at Grace, were following him, and not the Jesus he proclaims.

It's not the man we follow. God does give us men as leaders, as he gave Israel and Elijah and all those prophets. Elijah. I meant to say Elisha. He gave him to Elisha and those prophets. He gave Elijah to them.

God does give us men. In the old dispensation, men led in the temple as priests. God sent prophets to bear his word. God is a God of order, and so in the church also there's a structure mandated for leadership and given the necessary authority to execute that leadership.

But we do not follow them. May it never be that we follow them. We follow the Lord Jesus Christ. They are qualified only so far as they say with Paul, imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. As Elisha steps into this role, let us take this admonition from the scriptures to look beyond appearances and follow men who point us away from themselves and to one place, to God.

Away from me and to the Jesus I point you to, as would any valid gospel minister. The sons of the prophets in verse 15 are the same as we had met earlier. They saw Elijah strike the water of the Jordan with his mantle, and they saw the two prophets cross on dry ground, and they saw the water return to his normal course.

Commentators vary on whether they saw Elijah go up in the chariot of fire. I think they did. Verse 7 says that they went and stood facing them at a distance, and we spoke about this a couple of weeks ago, how as the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, God had arranged, God had ordained that there be witnesses, people who could say, yes, I saw him.

I saw him after his crucifixion. I saw him die on the cross. I saw him later. In that same way, we have witnesses to the assumption of Elijah from here to heaven. They had said just a few minutes before that, just a few moments before that to Elisha, do you know that the Lord will take your master from over you today?

They knew he was going to go away, and they saw it happen. Now they see one more thing. They see Elisha come back over the Jordan in just the same way Elijah had done. Elisha crossing again just as Elijah had done going the other way.

I'll read it again. There's pretty strong evidence of the secession of the ministry from one to another. He didn't say where is Elijah, but where is the Lord God of Elijah? The young men got it all wrong.

They saw the waters part the first time. They saw Elisha repeat the miracle. They saw the chariot that had transported Elisha to heaven. They saw his mantle taken up by Elisha. Now they see Elisha standing before them without a drop of water on him.

And what do they conclude? They say the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. But see, they're wrong. It's wrong. It's the spirit of the Lord God of Elijah that rests on Elisha. It's God who does the work.

It's not the man. Got to get our focus off the man. The most eloquent man, the most attractive personality, that's fine, and God uses that to the good of his church. And he's done it over all the centuries.

But may it never be that we look to the man. We need to look to the God that the man points us to. They're so focused on having Elijah back that they can't see what God has done. He had had this way of being Elijah, had had this way of just appearing, as he did so often to Ahab.

And then he would suddenly seemingly vanish, and they couldn't be found as when he was in Zarephath for so long. And Ahab was looking through all the nation and making surrounding nations swear to him they didn't know where he was.

He just had this way, they thought, of showing up places and then vanishing. Their theory is that God has done this again, and they're going to be able to find him. Maybe that chariot of fire was the way he had been doing this all that time.

So they want to go find him. They want to find Elijah. Elijah's saying, don't send anyone. Elijah is gone. He's left me to take up his ministry. Don't send. But they push and push until the Scripture says he was just shamed.

He just couldn't hold them back anymore. He said, go ahead, you go. And it has the sound of a reasonable plan. Maybe Elijah is stuck on a mountain crag somewhere. Maybe he's lost in a valley. If he's anywhere nearby, wouldn't it make sense to find him and bring him back?

They had seen the transfer with their own eyes. They saw him part the river and walk across. The mantle Elijah had worn was on Elisha both physically and spiritually. Yet their first order of business is to dispute with their new master and go look for the old one.

So 50 strong men. Hebrews says literally sons of power. 50 sons of power search fruitlessly for three days. Elijah is gone. Just as they had been told beforehand would happen. Just as they with their own eyes had seen.

Elijah's next word are a stinging rebuke. Let's not take them too lightly. Did I not say to you, do not go? I told you not to go. It's not saying, this is not the tone of a man saying, see, I was right.

He's saying, I told you not to go. And we can add a parentheses. Don't disobey me again. If you are my disciples, if you're going to be like your master, listen to what I say. What have they done wrong?

I mean, many things, all of which to serve to warn or rebuke us. They were so focused on Elijah that they missed what God had done. They're so looking at the man that again, they didn't see God that was working through the man.

God had raised up a prophet in Israel. For reasons he never explained, God had determined that Elijah's work was over. Elisha's, not his work, Elijah's work was over. The work of God in the proclamation of his word would go on in Elisha.

Despite the proofs of the secession that they saw, they showed disrespect to the new master. They were being respecters of persons, really. That's what they're doing. They wanted the one they were comfortable with to come back.

They wanted the one, for whatever reason, they were attracted to him. Maybe it was because he was so odd in the way he showed up and disappeared, the way he dressed, the way he confronted King Ahab, all those things.

Whatever it was, they're focused in the wrong place. They were judging by appearances. They were ignoring God's anointing. And we can hear Paul's disapproval, can't we? Can't we hear Paul disapproving of this?

To the Corinthians, he wrote about their tendency to align themselves with men. We're talking about some was Apollos, some was Cephas, and some of the really holy ones would say, I follow Christ. I don't need any of these other men.

It's crazy. He said, You can hear Paul looking back at these prophets and second kings and say, what are you looking at? It's all about God. It's about the Lord. It's about the Lord. It has nothing to do with Elijah.

And soon it will have nothing to do with Elisha. To Timothy, he gives this encouragement. He says, There's a substance that we have to look at. Again, we can repeat what Paul said. Imitate me as I imitate Christ.

That's the only thing that's worth anything. One ambition of a true gospel minister is that the ministry will continue after him. It's up to God. We know that. Not by your might, nor by your power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

But even so, Paul took great care to train up men to continue the work after his death, as had Elijah, as must men of God today. I hope and pray that the Lord will say to me, well done, good and faithful servant, when the Lord's day after I go home to him, which doesn't seem to be imminent, but only God knows anything about tomorrow, if after that Sunday a man stands right here before you and declares to you the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

May the Lord spare all his church from following a man. So they look for him. They don't find him. What do they learn in this? That Elijah was right. That is actually part of it. That Elijah's word is not one to be lightly disputed.

He's a man, we can say, as was Elijah his master, with a spirit like ours. He was just a man who needed Christ to die for his sins too. And yet, there's a man through whom God is at that moment by his spirit working.

Don't lightly argue with him. Don't lightly put aside his order to you to not go search. He's gone. I'm telling you, let's get on with it, as the angels told the disciples there in Acts chapter 1. The next thing that happened is Elisha is told that everything about the city, Jericho, is really quite good.

The Healing of Jericho’s Water and the Vindication of Elisha’s Ministry

The situation of this city is pleasant. This is the men of the city. I don't think these are the prophets who saw all this. This is the men of the city starting to hear about, okay, God's raised up another prophet.

The prophet has returned and come back to Israel. The word of God is back here. And it's these men, ambassadors of the city, if you will, who come out and tell him the situation is pleasant, but the water's bad.

There's something wrong here. It brings death to anyone who drinks it. It brings barrenness to the land it waters. Most likely these men had to walk all the way to the Jordan for water, which was quite an effort.

What's going on here really harkens us back to Joshua 6, verse 26. Joshua had cursed that city. It had been a center for Canaanite paganism, and it was the first goal of Joshua's conquest. After the city's defeat in Joshua 6, 26, he said, Cursed be the man before the Lord who rises and builds the city.

He shall lay its foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates. Now this was fulfilled, we covered this several weeks ago in 1 Kings 16. That's when Ahab ordered it to be rebuilt.

And his project manager was a man named Hiel. Hiel lost his firstborn son when he laid the foundation there, the one that Joshua had cursed. Now Joshua's curse wasn't specifically against the water, but the water was in any case as bad as were the practices of the place.

It had been bad for a long time there. Just as a brief note, when I looked in the background commentaries, researchers have found that the disease schistosomiasis, I practiced that, I'm sorry. I really did practice that word.

Schistosomiasis is the name of a disease they found to be very common there. It's caused by a blood fluke, of all things, carried by a particular snail that's found in that particular area. And it infects the urinary tracts, it infects fertility, it brings child mortality, and these snails are in the water.

Which is one theory on why the water might be bad. I have one extra biblical piece of evidence that will confirm what the Scripture says. We don't need that, but it is sort of interesting. Elisha's cure is simple.

I don't want to dwell on the way he did it. He just asked for a new bowl with salt in it. He poured the salt into the water's source and he pronounces a blessing. He says, The Scripture leaves the incident plain and unvarnished.

Elisha speaking in the name of the Lord simply cures the waters. Now what's the purpose of this miracle? What's the reason that God empowered Elisha to do this at that moment? Well, for one thing, to certificate Elisha as God's chosen spokesman.

To confirm that there is a prophet of God in Israel. On top of that, it demonstrated what would be a hallmark of this man's prophetic career. Bringing life. It was a sign for men to see that the God of their fathers had not gone dormant.

That he was a living and powerful and active God. It was a sign regarding Elisha's authority. Again, falling back on Paul. Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance.

In signs and wonders and in mighty deeds. He had parted the waters and crossed the Jordan on dry ground. He had rightly prophesied failure in the search for Elisha. Now he's cured the waters that have been putrid since ancient times.

All this in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. What Elisha said sounds perfunctory, but it wasn't. Thus says the Lord God.

Not, thus says Elisha. Watch what I'm going to do. Thus says God. That's where we must have our faith. In what God does. Not men. The different views on signs and wonders, even here in our small church.

There's no difference though about whether we serve a living God. Or the reason he empowered men to do such things. He did it. Why? For his glory's sake. He did it so men might look and believe. He did it to affirm the credentials of his prophets and later his apostles.

He did it so that men would see Christ. Remember Barnabas and Paul? When they were in Lystra? And they cured that man or that boy. And the people said, the gods have come down to us. And they start sacrificing to them.

Barnabas and Paul, what did they do? They tore their clothes. They said, stop this. We're men like you. No. It's God who raised up the Lord Jesus Christ. Who has done this work. That you might see that and turn and repent.

No matter how fabulous the miracle. No matter how small it is. Whether Jesus cured one man. Or one leper. Or ten lepers. Or fed 5 ,000. It's all for the same reason. That you see the glory of God. You recognize your sin.

And repent. Put your faith, your hope, your trust in Jesus Christ. That's all any of this is about. Finally, Elisha moves on to Bethel. With this, he's completed the circuit he and Elisha had made when they went from Gilgal to the Jordan.

Judgment on Bethel and the Call to Repentance

But, of course, in reverse order. Because Bethel was then the first stop. Now it's the last. And our text says that as he arrived there, some youth mocked him. Saying, go up, you bald head. Go up, you bald head.

The form of the verb to mock indicates they said it over and over and over again. They're following him. They won't stop it. They think they're being cute. They're being clever. It's just this gang of youths.

And they just keep going at it and at it and at it. It's a lot like the girl in Acts chapter 16. The one who was following after Paul. And kept saying over and over and over. And again and again and again ad nauseum.

These men, meaning Paul and his companions. These men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

He bore with it as long as he could. And finally, for the sake of God's name, he commanded it to stop. Elisha is in a very similar situation here. They focused in on him. These youths focused on him because he was known as a man of God.

And take note here of what Jesus said about the world hating us. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

And here in 2 Kings 2 is just what Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 5, verses 11 and 12. Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. The conviction, you see, the conviction of a godly and holy life lived out before a world steeped in sin is a great agent of conviction.

Just as the scripture tells us, few things will get the ungodly person's blood boiling quicker than the exposure of their depravity in the face of a life lived for Jesus Christ. The world at large hates nothing more than being told that they're bad, that they ought to be ashamed of something, that there's guilt that is right to be felt for certain acts or thoughts or attitudes.

That enrages them. I think one of the worst things to tell them, one of the best things, but they take it as the worst, is that a holy god takes note of all this. A holy god takes note. They think they're mocking the man, Elisha.

Who are they mocking? Who are they deriding? Who are they thumbing their nose at? Is it not the god that sent Elisha? Is it not the god who parted the Jordan for Elisha? Is it not the god who cured the waters when Elisha poured the salt in?

Take note that when men revile you, Jesus says, blessed are you. And take note also that it is God who's being insulted. And may that offense that causes this derision against us, may that offense be the cross of Jesus Christ and nothing else.

As Peter says, what credit is it to you if you're beaten for your faults? Which we all have plenty of and perhaps deserve many beatings. But when the world comes at us because of our testimony of Jesus Christ, may it be a pure testimony of Jesus Christ that causes the rage and then take it gladly.

That after all that has just happened, the signs of a prophet confirmed in him as it was for few others. And these hoodlums show such disrespect. Now our new King James says that they were youth. The ESV, the English Standard Version, does better with small boys.

The NET, the New English Translation, says young boys. I think the reason for using youth is because of what happens next. Elisha curses them and these two female bears come out and they maul 42 of them.

The Bible specifies that the number tells us that there were probably more in the youth. It was a mob. It was a gang. And 42 were mauled by these bears. They weren't just youths. These were like children.

If I had to guess what the age meant by what the original language says, let's put them somewhere like in the 8 to 12 year old range. These are kids. That's who's there. And there's different opinions on what the taunt meant.

Perhaps Elisha was bald and they're just making fun of that fact, ignoring what Proverbs, not to mention the Ten Commandments, say about having respect for your elders, for adults. Some think it was a reference to Elisha's departure.

In other words, Elisha was sort of the covering that Elisha had. Now he's bald because Elisha is gone. Whichever is right, there's no doubt that they were being openly disrespectful to a man they knew to be God's prophet.

These boys are from Bethel. There's still a school of prophets there. We talked about it last time. There's also there in the town, the golden calf set up some 50 years before by Jeroboam. The effects of that abomination, accepted by the people, has devastating effect.

It's not like it's just a golden image of a cow. These are your gods, oh Israel, who led you out of Egypt, is how that began 50 years prior to this. This has effect. When you go into these restaurants, I love Asian food and I like Indian food and Afghan food and all that culture.

I really like it. But it just, it tears at my soul when I pay at the register. When you look behind, how often do you see a shelf with a Buddha? Okay, it's just a piece of plaster. And what's below it?

Pieces of fruit, grapes, little chunks of banana. They're actually giving sacrifices, giving offerings to a piece of clay. Well, it has an effect. That golden calf had been in Bethel for 50 years. Jeroboam said, this is where you worship.

Don't bother going down to Jerusalem. These boys were raised there. They were raised to disrespect God. They were taught this. That doesn't mean they're not responsible for it. I'm not going to go into that this morning.

They are definitely responsible for it, but take care what we bring into our homes. Take care of what we allow to infuse the places where we're responsible, especially our homes, our workplaces. Take care where that pointer is getting clicked, where that mouse is pointing to, I should say more accurately.

It has an effect. It's not just that moment. It's not just that one time when Jeroboam had them come and first worship those calves. It's sinister. It's deadly, awful sin. And once slipped into it, it's so hard to come out.

There is always a way out, because by repentance, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by begging him to forgive you your sin, without his intervention, though we end up like this gang going to the people of God saying, go up you old bald head, go up you bald head.

We today are seeing a generation that has nothing else on its mind but self-gratification and woe to those who might get in their way. Woe to those who might make me feel bad. Take away my self-esteem.

Tell me I should be ashamed of anything. This is the sort of thing it leads to. Well, Elisha pronounced the curse, but we don't read that he asked for bears. He curses the boys, but he didn't ask for bears.

God made the decision to send the two bears. It was God who answered the curse. And we can even presume, it does no harm to the narrative, to the text, that Elisha was as surprised as the boys were to see two bears suddenly come out of the woods.

Not that God answered Elisha's request to curse these boys for what they're doing, but the way he answered. Our new King James softens this again. These little boys, he calls them youths, to soften the idea because of what happens next.

They're mauled. But the word here, the actual word is more intense than they were mauled. I've never been mauled by a bear or anything else, but I think it's survivable. I'm not saying it'd be easy to go through.

I don't mean you wouldn't need some care, but it doesn't necessarily have to be fatal. They weren't really mauled. The word means they were ripped open. It's not a word used very often in the Scriptures.

It's a very violent word. It's used of the earth being split open to release the waters of the flood. It's used to condemn the Ammonites for ripping open the pregnant women. It's a very violent word, and it means death.

It means you've been ripped to shreds. You've been torn apart, not just scratched up. That was God's answer to Elisha's curse. That he sent bears is very significant. That he sent she-bears is also significant.

There are very few references to bears. I'm just going to read you three of them. Advising Absalom to not corner King David. Remember during that rebellion of Absalom against his father, King David? Hushai, who was Absalom's advisor, he said, Proverbs 17, verse 12.

Hosea 13, verse 8. The danger of getting caught between a mother bear and her cubs is almost proverbial, and it's true. I used to hunt, and I saw very few bears, but when I did, I stopped. I would look around very carefully to make sure that if there's cubs around I'm not between the cubs and the mama because it's a very dangerous situation to be in.

So why bears? Why did God send bears to answer Elisha's curse? Because this is how God protects his prophet with the vehemence of a mother bear whose cubs are in danger. This is how he protected Paul from the plot to ambush him when his guard was going to take him to Caesarea.

God so arranged it that Paul's nephew would hear of it, and then God caused the Roman commander to give heed to the warning because God protects his prophet, his apostle. This is how God protected the holy seed from corruption when Sarah and later Rebecca were in danger of compromise.

This is how he protected Jesus from being thrown off a cliff in Luke chapter 4, when they were going to throw him off the brow of the cliff because of the offense of the cross that he was beginning to preach.