If you'll turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 2, we're continuing in our series in this incredible story of Elijah and Elisha, and we've come to a message I've entitled, The Price. The Price of Mocking God's Man. And if you'll look with me at verses 23 through 25 again, One more time, we'll be looking very closely at all the words because it is a very, very important passage teaching us reverence for God and reverence for His Anointed. Thank you, Preston. Thank you so much. God bless you. Then, this is after the waters had been purified, you remember, last week, according to the word of Elisha, which he spoke. Then he went, Elisha went up from there, that's Jericho, to Bethel. And as he was going up, by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead! When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number. And he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria." I believe as we look at this matter of reverence, it also implies an importance as we come to the table of the Lord this morning. because the scripture makes it very, very clear that when we take the cup of the Lord unworthily, in other words irreverently, we can be weak, or we can be sick, or we can even die early because we have been irreverent in our taking of the supper. So may we hear the word of the Lord today and hear the price of mocking God's man. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Father, now in Jesus' name, Would you use these words, Lord, thank you for your word. We today rejoice that you are God and we are not. Help us to remember that when we become judgmental, when we blame you, when we turn against you. Help us to learn, Lord, that you are the one who loved us so much you died on the cross for our sins. give us eternal perspective. For Jesus' sake we pray, Amen. What we do in this life echoes in eternity. When I read this text this week, I began to realize the gravity of it I recognize afresh that DISRESPECTING and MOCKING God's servants has ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES. What we do in this life ECHOES in ETERNITY. This passage of Scripture reminds me of Pastor Larry and I coming back on Wednesday morning from a Traveler's Assistance Society meeting in Green River, and as we got off the exit here and we came up in front of Walgreens, I don't know if any of you saw it. There was a very bad motorcycle accident with police cars, service vehicles, ambulances, and Pastor Larry and I prayed for the rider of that motorcycle. I still haven't been able to find out if that person lived or died, but it did not look good. We couldn't tell. It looked very grave. Terrible accidents and funerals make us do something. Do you know what they do? They bring us to a full stop and get us off the treadmill many times that we're just spinning on, just like gerbils. Sometimes we just are going around in circles. We live in an impatient world that sometimes defines patience as idling our motor while we really inside feel like stripping our gears. It's hard to be patient. It's hard to slow down. It's hard to wait on the Lord. We live in an instant gratification world. Americans want high speed internet in our motels. We want ATMs at our fingertips at a moment's notice. We want express lanes on our freeways. We want Google quick replies to all of our questions. And when we come upon a scene of an accident where we have to wait as police direct traffic, it slows us down. It slows us down a bit in our world, and it causes us to think. In 1959, and 1960, and 1961, during the summers, I worked on the farm for my brother-in-law in South Dakota, and I learned that South Dakota is covered with think signs. Have any of you seen the think signs in South Dakota? hundreds and hundreds of think signs with an X at the top that says, mark the spot, and below are the big words, drive safely. The program originated in South Dakota to make motorists aware of the fact of how dangerous it is to drive while drinking. Half of all the think markers in South Dakota are because of alcohol involvement. The others are because of not wearing seat belts. They claim distracted driving, phone use, and speeding, texting. When I came upon II Kings 2, 23-25, to me it's a distinctive set of 42 think signs between Jericho and Bethel. Think signs. I've taken a long time this week to think, and to meditate, and to study, and to pray. I asked others to pray for me, for wisdom, as I look at this terrible highway accident on the road from Jericho to Bethel. And I've looked at this divine judgment that affected 42 individuals, sinners just like you and me. And one of the things I think about when I come upon a scene of blood and tragedy and death and terrible life-maiming accidents where a person will never be the same but still lives. I think of this, Jesus is coming soon. And there'll be no more sorrow, there'll be no more death, there'll be no more sadness, there'll be no more accidents. And an old song I haven't sung in a long time came back to me this week and I was singing it. We'll work till Jesus comes. Elizabeth K. Mills wrote it in 1837. I'll just sing a bit of it to you. O land of rest, for thee I sigh, when will the moment come, when I shall lay my armor by and dwell in peace at home? We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home. And the second verse really speaks of accidents. No tranquil joys on earth I know, no peaceful sheltering dome. This world's a wilderness of woe, this world is not my home. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes. We'll work till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home. On the way back from Green River, I read the sign. I don't know if you look at the signs that say how many deaths on Wyoming roads. I saw on Wednesday morning, 77. Yesterday, Did you notice the sign? Five people died over 4th of July, and they went out, if they didn't know Jesus, into a Christless eternity. This think sign passage of Scripture today has five warnings, and I'm going to sing my points. So you'll remember them. I think you know a little song called, Oh Be Careful Little Eyes What You See. There's a father up above looking down in love, oh be careful little eyes what you see. So I'm gonna sing the warning in hopes that you'll get it. In hopes that as I repeat it three times, you'll write it down on a sheet of paper and remember it because it's very, very important. These are five warnings in respect to this whole message of respect. and respect for God and His servants. The first one is, Oh, be careful with your plans where you go. Oh, be careful with your plans where you go. There's a Father up above. He's looking down in love. Oh, be careful with your plans where you go. Now, you may note that I've got my old New American Standard Version that I preached to you out of for 17 years, 29 out of the King James, and now the last six or so out of the ESV. But as I looked at this passage, the NASB translates it right, I believe. When it says, young lads, that's about as close as you can get to it, and we'll talk more about that in a moment. In verse 23 we read, then, that is, then after the healing of the spring at Jericho, Elisha went up from there, and up means up, because sea level is not where Jericho is. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. It's 1,312 feet below sea level, and right up above it, Jericho is 825 feet below sea level. And Bethel, he was going 12 miles up to Bethel, is 2800 feet above sea level. So that means this is quite a trip for Elisha. He's going up 3,625 feet. from one school of the prophets in Jericho up to Bethel, the other school of the prophets, the original one. No doubt Elisha wanted to meet now with the first school of the prophets in Bethel and download with them about how his master, their master, went home, went home in a whirlwind of fire, chariots of fire, and horses of fire. Now you notice, then he went up from there, meaning Jericho, to Bethel, and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him. Now every commentator I found said that this happened outside this side of Bethel. I can only tell you I don't know where it happened because part of it looks to me like it's somewhere going up the Mount of Temptation, up to Mount Michmash, which is very high, 3,425 feet, but somewhere going up that trail, it appears to me from the way I look at it, that outside of Jericho this happened. But wherever it happened, whether it was, as the commentators say, as he was coming back down the hill into McMash, he was not going up then, he was coming down from that peak, whatever it was, he had these young men come after him. Did these young lads know what they were getting into that day when they made plans to meet Elisha on the way. When they made plans to either follow him up from Jericho or since he saw them behind them as they planned to go from Bethel out around the forest and come in and sabotage him from behind. I don't know. Was it near to Jericho on the steep incline up the Mount of Temptation north and west of Jericho? That's a 2,000-foot ascent up that road, but the way went higher over Mikmash Pass, which is the highest elevation. That's the road in southern Israel with a peak at 3,294 feet above sea level. Did this band of ruffians meet him on that high ascent, or did they meet him on the ascent coming down from the peak? Geography tells us it was not on an easy road. whether they were going up towards Mount McMash, out of Bethel and surrounding him, or coming up the hill behind him, whatever it was, it was a 12-mile trek. I hope that helps you know this was not a large group of preschoolers. little boys who ran away from home. This was a planned mocking attack of 42 plus young lads. Did these young men have any idea where their plan of mocking God and His main prophet would take them? Robbie Zacharias once said it this way, he said, sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. Where we go is so important. Let me ask you a few simple questions. And I just grabbed some. So if I happen to hit yours, it's not because I'm thinking about you, it's just because I grabbed some as I was preparing this message early in the week. Why did you go on that website? You knew what was ahead, didn't you? Did you consider what was going into that grocery store and buying that double six pack for the 4th of July, where that might take you? Did you consider the effects of two beers and how it can affect your driving when we think about 77 and 82? Did you consider what one small amount of marijuana or meth might do to your family to separate you from your spouse, to separate you from your children? Did you consider what 20 minutes looking at something on the internet, some kind of sexual perversity would do to your life, your wife, your husband, your children, your ministry for Jesus? I could give thousands of illustrations here, but I'm saying to us, if I didn't hit anywhere close to you, Oh, be careful with your plans where you go. There's a father up above. Be careful, beloved. He's looking down in love and he loves you. But watch out for your plans where you go. Number two. Oh, be careful with your friends which you pick. Oh, be careful with your friends, which you pick. There's a father up above, he's looking down in love. Oh, be careful with your friends, which you pick. Now, who were these ruffians? We read in 2 Kings 2.23, and as Elijah was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city. That sounds like Jericho to me, but it could have been Bethel and surrounding him one way or the other. They came out and mocked him, and they said to him, Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead! And remember that Jericho was an evil city, and so was Bethel. It was the chief city of the idolatrous calf worship that was set up under Jeroboam I when he separated from Rehoboam. Remember he had two calves that he built, one was put in Dan and one was put in Bethel. These were young, idolatrous men, young men brought up without instruction or discipline to follow the Lord. They hadn't been taught to believe in the truth. They hadn't believed in the prophets or in the God of the prophets in Bethel or in Jericho. They had no reverence for Him or His truth. Now all the Bible translations are all over the board as to what kind of children, adults, these are. But I want to tell you what the Hebrew word is and you can write it down. It's N-A-A-R. Naar. Now the King James says little children. And some people say, well, that's the last word. Well, the last word is naar. What does naar mean? The NASB that I'm reading from, the New American Standard Version, and the authorized versions calls them young lads. The New Century Version says they were young men. The Amplified Version says they're young, maturing, and accountable. But what does it mean? 235 times in the Hebrew, we find the word naar. 76 times it means young men. 54 times it means working or soldiering servants. So you notice right there, you have about 150 of them have to be adults. Seven times the word children is used. Child, 44 times. Boy, one time. Babe, one time. And the rest have other translations. The first time you find the word in Scripture, Genesis 14, 13 to 14, Abraham's trained servants, all of his naars that were born in his household, went after Lot who had been kidnapped, they had taken everything, they had taken Lot and his family, and they had captured him and taken him all away. And so Abraham took all of his Naars, his young men, born in his house, and they went and retrieved them as soldiers. They're Naars. Strong's Concordance states that a Naar is a young man of marriageable age, but still a bachelor. Absalom, you remember? who took the kingdom from David, was a Naar. And he told Joab, deal gently for my sake with the Naar, with my son, my Naar. Deal gently, Joab did not. Saul, when he became the king twice, is called in 1 Samuel 9-2 and 15-17 a Naar. And guess who killed Goliath? a Naar by the name of David, and all his older brothers, all the way, every last one of them. Samuel says, Where are your Naars? And all eight of them, finally David, the last of them, came before Samuel. I want you to know that the men who were the field hands in Boaz's field, and he says, you follow behind my Nahars. He said to Ruth, follow behind my servants who are working here. Joseph in Genesis 37 was called a Nahar at age 17, and at age 30 in Genesis 41, and in Exodus 33 and Joshua 24, he's called a Nahar when he's 45 to 50 years of age. And I found that naar is even used of a man when he's 65 years of age. It's definitely not a preschooler. Isaac was a naar when his dad took him up on the mountain to sacrifice him. All the dates I can find would put him between 25 and 28. Joshua was called a Naar when he delivered the children of Israel across the Jordan dry. I want you to know that Rehoboam got all his bad advice, not from preschoolers, but from the Naar of the land, the young men. Some say, well, naar has to mean little boys because the word little comes before naar. And the word for little is katan. So if you look at it in 1 Kings 11, 14, the young rebel, Hadad the Edomite, an adversary to King Solomon, fled his kingdom and married Pharaoh's sister-in-law, not as a preschooler. This is a young man. I cannot and I don't intend to tell you that I know for sure the age of these young men, but contextually, by the context, this is not a normal group of VBS preschoolers who are mocking an older person. This is an organized group of young men, a mob, a gang, a band who posed a threat to Elisha. And they came up from behind him. And who knows what all they plan to do. They're a group of people who gathered themselves together for one sole purpose, to mock Elisha the prophet. Can you imagine it? what they had in mind that day. 42 is a large number of young men in an organized group. If you're in some downtown city and you have 42 people after you, pray and find an open door and hope that you can get it locked. 42 is a large number. Their mockery implied a malicious intent, especially when the culture of the time insisted on showing respect to elders, beloved, whatever kind of friends you're running with. You say, it doesn't matter who I run with, I know what I'm doing. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, 33, do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals. So be careful with your friends which you pick. Number three. And this one is especially for anyone out there that says, I just believe he's an evil old man who couldn't take a practical joke. That's what I believe. And that's what the world believes. That's what atheists believe. That's what liberals believe. That's what almost everyone that comes against this passage believes, that it's just an ornery old man. And so I just say, oh, be careful with your judging who you blame. Oh, be careful with your judging who you blame. There's a father up above. He's looking down in love. Oh, be careful with your judging who you blame. This is an embattled text. Probably more than any text I will do in all this series. Here we have the God who kills little children. That's what everyone says. That speaks against it. When he looked behind him, he saw them, he cursed or pronounced judgment on them in the name of the Lord. Two female bears, verse 24, came out of the woods and tore up 42 lads of their number. Notice the picture in verse 23. Elisha met the young man as he went up to Bethel, as he was going up by the way. All I can say is it's up all the way to the top of Michmash, that's nine of those miles. and then it's down, back down into Bethel. I lean towards it happening somewhere between Jericho and the top of Mount Michmash. Could they have come out from Bethel to the top to meet him? Yes, but why would they have known? All I can say is one way or the other, whether near Bethel or near nearer to Jericho. He was going up by the way. It goes on to say the young lads came out from the city. Verse 24 says, when Elisha looked behind him, if it's from Bethel, they came out, they were going up through the forest and they came in behind him. If he's going up from Jericho and they come out from Jericho, they've come up rushing up behind him. One way or the other, it was a plot, a plan, it could have been an ambush, but don't picture little kids making mud pies having homemade trucks on the edge of town in Jericho or Bethel, you're picturing the wrong thing. The context indicts the judgers who judge God and Elisha and blame him for the death of 42 little kids because he had a short, angry fuse. I want you to know those that judge God wind up in the same camp as those young men, and that's a dangerous place to go. They are God mockers. 2 Chronicles 36, 16. You ought to look it up and see what God thinks about mocking. We read, but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people until there was no remedy. 2 Chronicles 36, 16. Paul adds to our understanding of what God thinks about mocking. He says in Galatians 6.7, ìDo not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, this he shall also reap.î This taunt, ìGo up, you bald head,î was a reproach. Now I hope no one here thatís balding or bald is going to be upset with me telling you what Jews thought about Baldinus in those days. So please take no offense. I'm just telling you information. It was an expression back then with the Jews of extreme contempt. It was thought of as a divine curse on a man or a woman. Let me give it to you. Isaiah 3, 17 and 24 is about proud women who would go bald. It says, Therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs, and the Lord will make their foreheads bare, instead of well-set hair, a plucked-out scalp. That's bald. And that's what God said He would do to the proud daughters of Zion. In Micah 1.16, He spoke about men, speaking about God's judgment on those that came out against His people. The prophet Micah said, Make yourself bald, and cut off your hair, because of the children of your delight. Extend your baldness like the eagle, for they will go from you into exile. Now, I want to say this to you without trying to give you any more words than I have to. But go up, you bald head, was like some of the expressions of our day. Go someplace and you can fill in the blank. Go. They were saying in one way, OK, Elijah got out of here. God took him out of here. You can go with him. Go with him. But it's more to it. There's contempt. Go up, old bald head. Go up, you bald head. They were expressions I cannot repeat. About where people can go. It was a curse these young men were thrown at Elisha. The mighty two-volume work by a Jew, himself Alfred Edersheim, was that in reality, Elisha cursing the young man was more God using Elisha to pronounce his judgment on these men and their evil intent on his prophet. Edersheim wrote these words. He said, it should be noticed it was not Elisha who slew these 42 youths, but the Lord in his providence, just as it was Jehovah, not the prophet who healed the waters of Jericho. If you blame Elisha for this, realize ultimately Elisha had no power to call forth from the mountains two she bears. God was the one that did that. Isaiah 28, 22 states, Now therefore be not mockers, lest your bands be made strong. And these were strong bands, for I have heard from the Lord of hosts a decree of destruction against the whole land." Jude 18 and 19 says about our day, in the last day there will be mockers following after their own ungodly lusts. These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly minded, devoid of the spirit. 2 Peter 3, 3 and 4 says, know this first of all, in the last days mockers will come with their mocking. following after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? But he goes on to say in 2 Peter 3, 9, that you can mock him, but the reason why Jesus hasn't come today is because of his love. because of his patience, because of his compassion. Peter says in 2 Peter 3, 9, The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but he is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. I warn us all never to blame God for what He does. Anytime something happens and you want to blame God for it, be careful. Hebrews 10, 29 to 31 declares, How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve, who tramples underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified? and has insulted the Spirit of grace. For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, and again the Lord will judge his people." It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That day, somewhere between Bethel and Jericho, God showed a small beginning of His judgment for those who mock Him and who refuse to believe. That's a little vignette of what it will be like someday when He casts those who will not believe into eternal fire. So I tell you, be careful with your judging who you blame. Now you may have missed this one, but the fourth one is, be careful with your adding what you count. Be careful with your adding what you count. There's a father up above, he's looking down in love. Oh, be careful with your adding what you count. It may seem like a small point, but when you study the text here, you'll find there were not 42 young men alone. Second Kings 224 reads, then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up 42 of their number. The number was greater. We need to watch what we read in the word. This gang or mob or band of young male ruffians outnumbered 42. The she bears only got to 42 of their number. How many more were there? We're not told. Again, this was no group of little boys throwing rocks at a prophet. This was a band of idolatrous young men out to rough up Elisha with words to begin with, and maybe they had more on their mind, to mock God's call on this former farmer and to mock him and tell him to go join his mentor Elijah and leave this earth. It was an awful thing that went on in this attack. There's one more thing about pointing the finger at the text and say 42 of them died. It doesn't say 42 of them died. Let's look at the text. Look carefully how you count it. Do we know if these 42 died? If some of them died or if none of them died? We don't know. The text tells us two she bears tore up, baka, mauled, 42 of their number. The Hebrew word for tore up or mauled, baka, according to Strong's Concordance means to cleave, to rend, to break, to rip or tear open, to make a breach, to break forth, to be ready to burst, to cut out, to divide and to tear. I can't tell you what happened to them. The scripture doesn't say. It allows a wide variety of injury, not just being killed. Maybe they all died, maybe a few died, maybe some were maimed for life, some may have lost an arm or a leg, I don't know. Is it possible that even one of them lived? or that the others in the number that lived that weren't gotten by the bear? Is it possible that some of them decided it's time to turn against the golden calves and time to believe in the true God? God didn't choose to let us know that either, but the judgment is strong. Many evangelical believers throw out numbers today and play with the Word of God. I just want to mention one place, one place you can look it up on your own. Some people don't believe evangelicals that Revelation 20 is in the book, but it says we're going to live and reign with the Lord for how long? A thousand years. It's still in the book. Oh, be careful with your adding what you count or discount. There's a father up above. Looking down in love. Oh, be careful with your adding what you count or discount. And last of all, oh, be careful with your words when you mock. Oh, be careful with your words when you mock. There's a father up above. He's looking down in love. Oh, be careful with your words when you mock. This is the heart of the issue. They never counted the cost of mocking God or His prophet. It says in verse 24, and they mocked Him. They mocked Elisha. The word for mock is kolos. It means scoff at, ridicule, scorn. The term doesn't suggest innocent conduct. It wasn't little children saying, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, hey, hey, goodbye, go up to heaven. That wasn't what it was. It wasn't little kids saying, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, it wasn't any of that. These reproaches upon Elisha were expressions of contempt for his prophetic office. Thus, ultimately, they were directed at the God that he served. They were entirely responsible for their action and their punishment was a divine judgment of God intended to be a dramatic example to all Israel of God's judgment. on mockery or rebellion against him or his servants. The Lord's punishment for this awful mockery was the mauling of 42 young men of this larger band of men by two female bears. The penalty I leave in the hands of the one that allowed it to happen, Almighty God. The seriousness of the crime was indicated by the seriousness of the punishment. The appalling judgment was God's warning to all who scoffed His servants, His prophets, or His ministers of the gospel. It's a message to warn us. And now in closing, as we get ready to go to the table of the Lord, I have this last word about the sacredness of this table. So often I tell you the scripture says if we take the cup of the Lord unworthily, we can become weak, We can become sick or we can even die. But if you go to 1 Corinthians 10, it starts the warning even stronger in 1 Corinthians 10, 20 to 22, where it says, no, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I don't want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, which we're gonna drink this morning, and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are no stronger than He is, are we? What God is saying there is don't mix the table of the Lord with other evil practices. In other words, if we come to the table of the Lord and say, oh, this is just like stopping for a root beer or for a Dr. Pepper. No, this isn't. This is the most sacred thing we could ever do. Don't mix the table of the Lord with other evil practices. May none of us ever mock the Lord, his servants or his supper that we share today. I close by saying be careful with your plans where you go. Be careful with your friends which you pick. Be careful with your judging who you blame. Be careful with your adding what you count. Be careful with your words when you mock. May God take His word and give us a holy reverence as we come to His table.