• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sermo Humilis

Humble Speech

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Just a Thought / Little Men

Little Men

January 21, 2021 By David Trounce Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 3 minutes
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Little Men Big Mercy - Sermo Humilis

Looking at artist’s impressions of the bear attack in 2 Kings 2, you’ll notice something. The pictures changed dramatically through time. The older drawings (I am talking older by centuries) tended to depict the Lord’s prophets as men with muscles.

That’s not unreasonable when you consider that men like Elijah could outrun a chariot (1 Kings 18:46). Likewise, the group who slandered Elisha and were subsequently slain by bears also hit the art scene looking like rugged young men.

But as you move through time these young men appear younger and younger and prophets like Elisha become older and crazier.

Elisha Bears

Was Elisha just a twitching prophet who needed to switch to decaf? Were those who mocked him an under-8’s soccer team from Bethel who had left the safety of a walled city and ventured into bear-infested woodlands just to tease an old man?

I don’t think so.

I think it is more likely that these mockers were either male temple prostitutes or sons of false prophets. Little men. Cowards. Worthless men of little importance.

He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! (2 Kings 2:23)

Let’s look at these two words, “small” and “boys”.

The word for ‘small’, “Kaw-tawn”, is used here and around 90 other times in the Old Testament. In most instances, the word is used to describe something of little significance, value or importance.

Take Saul, who was head and shoulders above anyone else in Israel (1 Samuel 9:2). Saul unironically described himself and his tribe as “Kaw-tawn”, when he was offered the throne.

The word translated as, ‘boy’ here is, “Na ‘ar”, and often means servant. It can refer to a servant of the royal household as well as temple servants like the wretched Hophni and Phineas. These two also had an appetite for the ladies and so, unlikely to be boy scouts (1 Samuel 2:17, 22).

Again, Mephibosheth’s servant, Ziba was a “Na’ ar” with 15 children (2 Samuel 9:9-10). So, it’s unlikely he was a child himself.

More important than all of this, however, is the reason it happened. God is faithful. But His faithfulness can be as terrifying as it is re-assuring.

Elisha was calling on the Covenant God to fulfil the covenant—which He did in a terrifying way. But not in a way that should take us by surprise.

“..if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will… let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your sons.” (Leviticus 26:21-24)

God’s faithfulness is strong meat and sometimes hard for us to chew. God is just. This should comfort us. But it should also cause us to tremble before the Lord and appreciate what sin will do if left unchecked in our own hearts.

Elisha Bears and SinArt, they say, imitates life and our art is a damning admission of the juvenile, childish and sugar-bear way we often depict the devastating consequences of our sin.

Sin destroys and we must be careful not to protest its destruction or turn it into a childish, small-minded cartoon for kids.

A small view of sin is the product of small men.

To object to God’s justice is not only to be ignorant of the poison that sin is, but it’s also to give our tacit approval for the dominion of evil. To object to God cleansing the land is to object to the gospel and all that it accomplishes.

Sin isn’t just a little smoke in the eyes. It’s deeply rooted within each human heart, and it destroys.

This is why we can say that God’s decision to wipe out sin from the land, and from our own hearts, is, in fact, an act of mercy.

The destruction of sin means new life to those who believe. It foreshadows God’s desire to cleanse the world.

Handing wicked men over to angry she-bears may seem like drastic action, and it is. It’s drastic because sin has drastic consequences and to nurture sin in our heart is to invite destruction.

But where the consequences of sin are radical, so too is God’s appointed means of wiping it from the earth through the death of His own Son.

Related...

Food and War
The Bogeyman
In Defence of Skubalon
The Courts of Mercy

Filed Under: Just a Thought Tagged With: Bears, Covenant, Elisha


Writing Ideas on Sermo HumilisWhat do You Want to Read About?

 

Nothing like real-world issues to focus the mind. If you have something you would like me to write about, send me a message and let me know.

 

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sermo Humilis

For the love of all things true, beautiful and good.


Welcome to Sermo Humilis, a digital home for biblical discipleship and cultural Christianity. A few new thoughts every week.

Please remember to like, subscribe and share. It really helps me out.

Subscribe for Weekly Updates

As per our Privacy Policy, we will never hand your information to a third party.

please check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Categories

  • Life in Christendom
  • Just a Thought
  • Who we Are Instead

Find us on Social

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Medium
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Support Sermo Humilis

If you enjoy Sermo Humilis and want to say thanks you can support me here.

Support

Series

Sidebar - Jesus Through all of Life Series Sidebar Series - The Life and Times of Jesus Sidebar Series - Proverbs - Let the Lady Speak Sidebar - Marriage Preparation Series

The Most Popular Guff

Marvellous in Our Eyes

David understood the maxim that "what fills the eyes soon fills the

Jesus, In Good Hands

Having told us to be careful about what we treasure and where we lay

Jesus, Worship and Work

Jews and Samaritans did not speak to each other and did not worship

The Testimony of Jesus Christ

Jesus came into this world to bring life to people who were dead.

The Bogeyman

Fear has often been used to control a population and any fear will do.

Where Grace Abounds

In April 1831 Charles Simeon, was asked by his friend Joseph Gurney,

The Kings Bride

The day of the wedding had arrived. Having paid the highest price, the

See and Hear

On the move? Weekly content can also be seen and heard via Youtube.

Topics

Beauty Charity Comfort Covenant Creation Death Earth Eternity Evangelism Faith Fear Fellowship Food Forgiveness Gospel Grace Grief Guilt Heaven Holiness Jesus Joy Judgement Kingdom Law Life Love Marriage Mercy Money Prayer Redemption Rest Resurrection Sabbath Sacrifice Salvation Service Sheep Sin Slavery Truth Victory Weakness Wisdom

Footer

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe to Sermo Humilis

Find us on Social

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Support Sermo Humilis

If you enjoy Sermo Humilis and want to say thanks you can support me here.

Support

Copyright © 2021 · Sermo Humilis

John Piper - A Hallway of Mirrors