Saturday, July 6, 2013

Teens in the Bible - the Jeering Youths



Chapter 25 The Jeering Youths

This is a pretty serious story and yet it makes me laugh in that way that happens when you’re watching a movie and the bad guys get what’s coming to them in a quirk of fate – satisfying – ha! What do you think? Here’s the nutshell of the story:

The prophet Elisha went up to Bethel and as he was walking along the road some teen boys, ruffians, came out of the town and jeered at him. It must have been frightening since there were over forty of these young boys. Town toughies. I’m picturing long hair, dirty robes, and the beginnings of scraggly beards.

They jeered at Elisha. What do you think they said? Well, I’ll tell you what they said because the Bible records their words. I’ll loosely translate: “Get outta here, baldy! Get outta here, baldy!”

I laugh because there were dozens of kids and that was the best they could come up with. My, my, my, but Elisha must have felt threatened because look what he did. He turned around, locked eyes on them, and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Whoa! Things got serious in a hurry. The next thing we read is that two bears came out of the woods then and mauled forty-two of them. Wait – what? They couldn't run away in their sandals? Just two bears took revenge on all those teens? Yup. That’s what a curse can do.

Lessons for teens: Don’t jeer at your elders and stay out of gangs.

Next Saturday Mary, mother of Jesus

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