When I was little in Sunday school, we often looked at “story cards” when the teacher was telling a Bible story. 

Many of those images remain in my mind: Jesus clearing the temple because he was angry or Nicodemus talking to Jesus on the roof.  

The one that stands out in my mind though is the story of Elisha and the Bears.

The story, in 2 Kings, tells of Elisha, who was now continuing the ministry of his mentor Elijah. Remember Elijah had been “taken up” into heaven.  

Elisha was on his way to Bethel, a city that was full of debauchery and idolatry.  As he approached the city, a sizable group of young men came out to meet him and started mocking him, saying “Go up, baldhead!”  Sure, they were mocking his baldness, but they were also trying to keep his message from coming into their community.  

Elisha turned around, called out a curse upon the boys, and a couple of bears came out of the woods nearby and mauled 42 of them.

Now, I’m thinking there must have been far more than 42 boys or young men in that group. Also, I’m thinking that most of them represented a large male-centered attitude of the community. In any case, a bear got ahold of several of them and tore them up.

A spiritual war, if you will.  

That old Sunday school story, with the graphic storyboard, used to be presented to kids in a way that scared the bejeebers out of them – little boys jeering at a bald, older man, who sends bears to tear them apart.

So let that be a lesson to you, kids: always respect your elders.

Respecting your elders?  Sure, that’s something that needs to be a constant reminder in the lives of young folks. But I’m not sure that’s what this Bible story intended –at least it wasn’t the main goal to teach a moral lesson of respecting your elders.  

I also don’t think that the group of mockers in the story were little kids.

I think we’ve done a disservice to folks over the years when we failed to really dig into many of the things the Bible teaches.  Like so much in life, we take things too literally or at face value, and we use such knowledge to guilt people into things or get people (in this case, kids) to behave.

At closer look and after some “digging in,” we can surmise the group who confronted Elisha were most likely young, able-bodied servant men who were simply trying to keep the prophet out of their city.   They didn’t want rules and edicts messing up their pleasures.  

Elisha was protected by God, who sent the bears to prove a point.

Folks who constantly reject the Bible and basically, God himself, will ask why a loving God would do such a thing. I believe that, at times, people need to be reminded there are consequences to continued patterns of disobedience and betrayal. 

Sure, God loved those mocking young men just as much as he loves all of us, but they had continued to reject him and were getting in the way of Elisha’s ministry.  The event most likely caught the attention of a number of townsfolk and eventually others. 

Perhaps lives were changed for the better.

I still think of those storyboards from Sunday school in the 1970s and it makes me wonder how much work we still have to do as believers. 

So much has been inaccurately reported by people who are not equipped to lead. So many people have a negative view of church, God, and the Bible because of misunderstandings.

Pray for  leaders in our churches today; it’s not an easy job.  

Furthermore, if you have gifted, intelligent and capable leaders, thank God for them.