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Writer's pictureBible Brian

That time God attacked an angry mob with two bears


Skeptics often object to 2 Kings 2:23-24. It's one of the many verses that supposedly show God is evil. In these two short verses, Elisha heads to Bethel, and a mob of youths come out to threaten him. So he curses them in the name of God, and 42 of them get mauled by bears.

The skeptic objection is that God shouldn't have sent 2 bears to kill 42 children just for teasing Elisha (because everyone knows God is accountable to insignificant humans, right?) As is often the case, this objection is based on an out of context quotation. They make it seem like God just decided to attack a few children for calling Elisha bald. In reality, the situation was far more serious than that.


First, consider the fact the bears mauled 42 of them. That means there were at least 43 youths. That is not a creche, that is a mob.

Second, while part of their statement was "you bald head", the first half was "go up!" This is a clear reference to what had just happened in this same chapter: the rapture of Elijah. He had just "gone up", and now these youths were telling Elisha to do the same.

But if they were just children, this shouldn't matter, right? 42 toddlers telling a fully grown man to go to Heaven isn't much of a threat, right? Well, they weren't toddlers. Here's what verse 23 says in the AMPC:


He went up from Jericho to Bethel. On the way, young [maturing and accountable] boys came out of the city and mocked him and said to him, Go up [in a whirlwind], you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!


The "boys" were not small. They were likely teenagers, more than capable of harming Elisha. If God had not sent the bears to attack them, they may well have attacked Elisha. Lacking divine intervention, who wins that fight? One bald dude, or > 42 angry teenagers? I would not expect a well trained Royal Marine to willingly enter that fight, much less a prophet of God.


Rather than proving God is evil, this objection from 2 Kings 2:23-24 actually proves that sceptics are willing to do anything to avoid accountability to God. If they are willing to complain about how God deals with an angry mob for threatening His prophets, they're probably not willing to listen to reason.

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