Why Did Elisha Summon Bears onto the Annoying Children?

It may seem cruel that Elisha would summon two massive female bears to maul little children for simply insulting him about his baldness. Even if they were adults it would be a difficult verse, but these were young children! Why didn’t Elisha just take their annoyance or respond with a lesser punishment? Taunting a bald person is definitely wrong, but does it really deserve death?

Children?

A modern interpretation is that these were not really children but were actually young adults. This view is common today, given the difficulty of reconciling God’s goodness with a cruel death for children just being immature. Unfortunately the original Hebrew structure does lend much credence to this assertion. By itself the word used for children, “yeladim” (Strong’s #3206) is occasionally used to refer to youths (teens) or young men. There is a second Hebrew word qetanim however, which means “little” and precedes the word for children. That means they are “little children” and not young men. The word “little” here really seals the deal in showing the bear massacre indeed takes place against small children and not 20-year olds. Also, two bears would be unable to maul 42 young men, since most would be able to escape while the bears were busy mauling a few of them. The fact that the 42 of them seemed to be unable to go far at all and were still nearby when their turn came to be tore up, seems to indicate they were indeed small children.

Why did God allow such a horrific attack?

We first have to ask how and why a group of 42 children were organized in such a way as to abuse the prophet. Such a large number of children do not naturally act together or a common purpose without an adult leader. It almost seems as if the children were ready and waiting in the path ahead of the city for the prophet’s arrival. The parents, priestly class, and leaders in the city therefore likely did not appreciate that the prophet was in his way to tell them to change their ways and repent. They would rather not listen to that kind of preaching. King Jeroboam chose Bethel as one of two cities (the other being Dan) to build altars in. The inhabitants of Bethel would have felt quite special for having this large golden shrine placed in their city. As people in Israel made their pilgrimage to this city the tourism income would have been quite lucrative in addition to the continuous supply of steaks the priests would enjoy from the animal sacrifices and burnt offerings made to the calf idol. The inhabitants of Bethel were therefore economically invested in the city’s idolatry in addition to it being their source of prestige. Bethel would have felt like the new Jerusalem with all of its pride and glory, as Jeroboam had intended to convert the city to that exact purpose. Rather than traveling to the rival nation of Judah to sacrifice at Jerusalem, an Israelite could make a convenient short trip to Bethel and feel he had fulfilled his spiritual obligations. With Elisha’s arrival, all of these benefits to the city were being threatened as the prophet would preach against the calf idol, demanding it’s destruction. This would threaten the livelihood of so many. Imagine a shop owner making a good living selling conveniences to the travellers. His income would be ruined if the calf and shrine were demolished. It is no surprise then, that the adults in the city set their children out front to give the prophet a greeting of mockery to discourage his message. Unfortunately those same parents had to watch in horror from the city as their precious children were torn apart in the distance; a taste of Egypt’s greatest plague. A parent would rather suffer themselves than see their child harmed. Unfortunately for the elders of Bethel, they valued the money and prestige their gold calf brought them more than they valued their own children’s’ lives.

Groupthink and the Bald Head

Groupthink is incredibly dangerous to the prophetic. The prophetic is all about intimacy with God and releasing God’s uncomfortable truth without fearing the group’s opinion. For this reason, a prophet is often a fairly solitary career, cycling between preaching the word boldly and then retreating to the cave to recharge and receive more prophetic revelation from God. Some Christian leaders who are afraid of the prophet having too much power will attempt to put restrictions on their activity, saying the prophet needs to have a “covering” to function; ie. another human leader the prophet submits to rather than God. But the Bible actually teaches us that a man should not have a "covering" on his head, since he is the image and glory of God.

Given that Elijah had just been taken up to heaven, Elisha was left without his former leader. The city leaders, therefore call him a “bald head” to mock his “lone-wolf” status, in how he is not a part of a large group like they are and not submitted to a powerful celebrity-status leader. They make out as if Elisha is worthless without being submitted to a well-known leader. They did not want to accept that the glory of God alone makes a perfect covering. In this sense the “children” can symbolize the SPIRITUAL IMMATURITY of the old religious structure which is based on conformity to the group, rather than to God’s standard.

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She-Bears

Two female bears caused the carnage. What does a female bear symbolize? The powerful protective maternal instinct. The desire of a mother to guard the safety of her offspring at any cost.

The verse above uses the powerful instinct of a mother bear to attack anything threatening her cubs, as a comparison for how serious it is to meet a fool and be contaminated with his foolishness.

Israel is called God’s child in scripture. We can now see what God is doing here. The men of Bethel have harmed God’s child Israel by leading them into idolatry with their calf and shrine. God being merciful, decides to give these people a chance, sending prophet Elisha to their city to lead them into repentance so they can repent and thus avoid God’s wrath. By mocking God’s mercy, the Lord takes from the city what they took from him, allowing them to experience the loss of their precious sons.

The power of the spoken word

As for Elisha himself, I submit that Elisha had never actually intended to destroy the annoying children. The prophet simply muttered words in anger under his breath. He never imagined that it would result in an actual bear attack on the youths. This shows the power speaking negatively can have. Elisha had only recently taken over his mentor’s mantle. It was only earlier in this same chapter that Elijah was taken to heaven. Elisha thus was not used to the level of power he now possessed. There are much higher standards for a prophet compared to a normal believer. You cannot just say anything and get away with it. All of your words become charged with true power. Not only the words spoken in line with God’s will, but even your careless cursing carries the scepter of divine authority. How easy is it to say “I wish God would teach this person a lesson,” when they may just be another Christian brother with a normal flaw. Once a word with authority is spoken, any spiritual being, good or evil, is allowed to fulfill it. So even if God is not behind the word, Satan and his angels may fulfill your prophecy for you. For a leader with real spiritual authority, especially an apostle or prophet, words spoken in anger almost always come true, for better or worse. Anger charges a word with spiritual fire. Of the four elements of the soul, fire is the one that gets things done. That brings change, especially through destruction and transformation. The one thing fire cannot do is sit still. Fire must manifest a change and when the fire in the soul comes from destructive anger, the words are charged with destructive power. Words repeated become vows and words spoken in anger do as well. A vow is a circle. The Hebrew word for oath is “sheba” which means “seven.” Seven is the Biblical number for a cycle, as creation had seven days while are reflected in the days of the week which repeat continuously. A circle is an oath. We use wedding rings to signify the marriage covenant. A legal stamp and seal is circular. When you repeat a belief or commitment enough times, it transforms into a vow that demands fulfilment. Elisha likely muttered continuous words of hate and wishes for vengeance on those kids, but never actually expected those words would manifest so imminently and powerfully. When you repeat a joke enough times it is counted spiritually as a legitimate assignment you have released to the spiritual realm for angels or fallen angels to fulfill. It is no longer just some joke. Joking about wishing something bad will happen to an annoying person can manifest bad things in that person’s life. The one who spoke it has to be accountable before God for the destruction they caused another human being due to careless words.

My experience with unintentional destructive manifesting

In 2007 there was a halo racing game I loved to play. Unfortunately I was immature and a huge troll. I would attack my own teammates and laugh when they got annoyed. After being banned for two months I became incredibly furious at the moderator who did this. There was no reason to be this angry over something so small as a game, but this was an actual hatred. I sent an angry message saying I hoped the man would “choke on his pizza and die.” Very immature and this of course resulted in a permanent ban. Checking in on those forums a few months later, I saw the moderator announced he had to leave his position due to serious health issues having come up. My evil words changed with anger, had helped manifest destruction I thought never would happen from just an email. Like Elisha, I had unintentionally triggered a curse against someone who had only caused me a minor annoyance I could have looked past. We have to be so careful with what we say. When we are angry we need to pray rather than express the anger. Contrary to popular belief, venting anger does not make you feel better, it just adds air to the flames. When someone makes us angry, Christ instructs us to “turn the other cheek” and accept even more insults, rather than attempting to up the ante and get them back.

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