Last Sunday, we began our "You Asked For It" series. I decided this year to open up the requests outside of our congregation. Mike Ford from Dundas Baptist Church suggested 2 Kings 2:23-25 as a joke but I decided to take him up on it. I believe that every passage of Scripture is preachable.
What I did was to take a look at the context. When you look at the time of Elisha, and Elijah before him, we see that Israel was a place hostile to the worship and service of God under the reign of Ahab and Jezebel. People were losing their lives for openly serving God. Bethel, where these youth came from, was a centre for pagan worship and the persecution of God's people. For almost fifty young men to approach Elisha in a hostile way, suggests that this story is more than just a joke about baldness. Elisha's life was likely in danger.
I also saw two applications to this passage. The youth's contempt for Elisha was a reflection of their contempt for God. This passage challenges us to reflect upon God's holiness and power and how much we respect God. Secondly, this passage teaches us about generational responsibility. It is likely that the adults of Bethel had made choices to stand against God and that they were willing to pay that price. But a basic principle of life is that none of us are isolated. We can not pay the price alone, others will always pay as well. These youth responded to what the adults had done and they paid for the choices of the earlier generation. What choices are we making? We may be willing to pay the price but are we willing for the next generation to pay the price for our choices?
I still think this passage is kind of funny but I also see that it makes more sense in context and that it does have practical applications regarding God's holiness and our generational responsibility.
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