This week, we start looking at the career of one of the stranger characters of the Bible, Elijah's apprentice, Elisha.
2 Ki 2:19-25 - Now the people of the city said to Elisha, “The location of this city is good, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went to the spring of water and threw the salt into it, and said, “Thus says the LORD, I have made this water wholesome; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” So the water has been wholesome to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.
He went up from there to Livel; and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!” When he turned around and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and then returned to Samaria.
The first part of this passage shows one of the stronger characteristics of Elisha (often called "Man of God," by the way), which is that he appears to be big time into what we call "magic" these days. Other "men of God" have, before now, simply said "God told me" whatever message they wanted people to accept as God's orders. Elisha appears to be keen on magic tricks -- such as throwing salt into a water spring and telling people it's magically healed. We'll see some more "magic" from Elisha next time.
But then we come to the infamous "bear" scene. I often wonder about this scene. Could two mother bears, in a rage, maul 42 youngsters? If they were trapped in a cul-de-sac, possibly. Details are scarce here, both as to exactly what happened, or what Elisha thought about it. Personally, this makes me think this is a rather barbaric "fable" about how the young should show respect to "men of God."
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