Elisha And The Two Bears Series

Elisha didn’t run away, argue or plead with them, he didn’t defend himself or even complain to God. He simply cursed them in the name of the Lord and then God stepped in and acted by sending two she-bears.

We all know that bears are scary. I heard a story about this Christian cowboy who lost his New Testament while he was mending fences out on the range. Three weeks later, a bear walked up to him carrying the New Testament in its mouth. The cowboy couldn't believe his eyes. He took his New Testament out of the bear's mouth, raised his eyes heavenward and said, "It's a miracle!" "Not really," said the bear, "Your name is written inside the cover."

There are four other times when God judges people like this in scripture. The first was when someone went gathering sticks on the Sabbath and it’s recorded in Numbers 15. It doesn’t sound like a major crime but God told them not to do it but this guy did it anyway and when the people got together God said, “Take him out and stone him to death.”

And then second, Nadab and Abihu were the sons of Aaron and they were to lead the people in worship but in Leviticus 10 it says they decided to offer strange fire before the Lord and they and all their followers were killed.

And then third, there was a man in Deuteronomy 25 whose brother had died and according to the law he was to impregnate his sister-in-law so his brother would have offspring but this guy refused to do it and God killed him.

And then fourth, in the New Testament in Acts 5 we have the account of how Ananias and Sapphira were involved in the local church and they wanted to look like they as spiritual as everyone else, so they sold their home but kept some of the money and took the rest to the apostles; and then Peter asked them individually if that was everything and they both said yes, and God killed them.

Now listen, God doesn’t kill everyone who works on the Sabbath, is involved in false forms of worship, refuses to obey the law or even gives less then they said they would but He did these things to specifically point out that His word wasn’t something to trifle with; but does that mean He’ll always do it? No, but it also doesn’t mean that anyone is getting away with anything because there’s coming a day when everyone will stand before Him and give account of every word that’s ever been said and every deed that’s ever been done.

It’s amazing to see the number of writers who get all bent out of shape about the fact that God used two bears to kill these forty-two men but they forget that He drowned around four billion people in the days of Noah, He used an angel to kill 185,000 Assyrians in one night, He annihilated the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah and one day the Bible says He will throw all unbelievers in hell for the rest of eternity.

I’ve heard someone say that Jesus spoke of hell around 71 times but He only spoke of heaven 17 times and that’s because people need to hear the bad news so they’ll wake up to the good news.