Sunday, May 09, 2021

Grow Up, You Baldhead!

II Kings 2:23-24 (New World translation):  And he (Elisha) proceeded  to go up from there to Bethel.  As he was going up on the way, there were small boys that came out from the city and began to jeer him and kept saying to him: "Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!" Finally, be turned behind him and saw them and called down evil upon them in the name of Jehovah.  Then two she-bears came out from the woods and went tearing to pieces forty-two children of their number.

Even by Old Testament  standards, doesn't killing 42 young children for teasing an old man, and killing them in one of the most gruesome ways possible, seem a little, well, Old Testament?

And what's more Elisha didn't "call down evil" in the name of Jehovah.  He called down evil in the name of his fragile and wounded ego.  Sticks and stones may break your bones, but old bald-headed Elisha couldn't even withstand the words of little children.

And Jehovah went along with all this?  The so-called loving God looked down, heard Elisha's distress at being teased, and had two she-bears maul and kill 42 children?  What kind of monster does that?

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