Miracle of the Teenage Boys and the She-Bears

Introduction: Elisha's Establishment as Prophet and the Contrast of God's Character

0:04 If the lighting situation in your part of the auditorium will permit it, I would encourage you to follow in your own Bibles as I read from 2 Kings chapter 2, 2 Kings chapter 2, beginning with verse 19. You'll remember that God has taken Elijah, the man of God, up into heaven in a whirlwind. His mantle falls upon his appointed successor, Elisha. He is established as the prophet of God in the eyes of the sons of the prophets when they see him take that mantle and strike the river and the river parts.

0:50 And now in these first two public miracles, we see the man of God, Elisha, now established as a prophet of God in the eyes of all Israel. I begin the reading in verse 19 of 2 Kings chapter 2.

1:09 The men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, we pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant as my Lord seeth, but the water is bad and the land miscarrieth. And he said, Bring me a new cruise and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters and cast salt therein and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters.

1:39 There shall not be from fence any more death or miscarrying. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the word of Elisha, which he spake. And he went up from fence unto Bethel. And as he was going up by the way, there came forth young lads out of the city and mocked him and said unto him, Go up, thou bald-headed.

2:04 Go up, thou bald-headed. And he looked behind him and saw them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood and tear forty and two lads of them. And he went from fence to Mount Carmel.

2:26 And from fence he returned to Samaria. As we noted in our study last Lord's Day, the miracle recorded in verses 19 to 22, the miracle of the healed spring in Jericho, I underscored the fact that these first two miracles, though they have some common denominators, stand in naked contrast the one to the other. Though they both involve miracles in the realm of what we would call the natural world, where Jehovah's claims are being vindicated as the God of creation against the so-called claims of Baal and of Baal worship, perhaps the best text we could write over these two miracles is Romans 11 and verse 22. Behold the goodness and the severity of God. And the goodness of God is very clearly manifested in that opening miracle in which the plight, the plight of a city is wonderfully remedied by this miracle of healing, its perhaps main spring of water.

3:48 Then in the strange miracle recorded in verses 23 to 25, we see not the goodness of God, but we see the severity of God. Something of the fierce anger of God towards the impenitent and the irreverent, just as surely as the tender mercy of God is seen to the needy in the former miracle. And as we think our way through this portion of the word of God tonight, I want us first of all to consider the specific location of this incident. It is recorded in verse 23 that he went up from fence, that is from Jericho unto Bethel and as he was going up in the way. Now the Holy Spirit is careful to record for us the specific location of this incident. It seems in all likelihood that the prophet is retracing the steps that he took in his last journey with Elijah. We read earlier in the chapter that these two men walked together from Bethel to Jericho, from the Jericho to the Jordan.

The Specific Location: Bethel's Checkered History

5:06 They crossed the Jordan. Elijah is taken up. He's taken to heaven in a whirlwind. And now we see his successor Elisha crossing the Jordan, coming immediately to Jericho.

5:17 There he performs his first miracle. And now he's making the journey from Jericho up to Bethel, a distance of some 15 miles, literally retracing the steps of his last journey with the man of God, Elijah. And it is as he is making his way to the city of Bethel that this incident occurs. Now this city of Bethel is a city of great significance in the word of God.

5:46 It was at Bethel that God revealed himself to Jacob and there reaffirmed the Abrahamic covenant, that covenant that forms, as it were, the very framework of the outworking of God's purposes of redemption. Now during the days of the judges and on into the life of Samuel, Bethel became the center of worship in Israel. But some of you who are more familiar with your Bible history will remember that subsequent to Solomon's reign, the kingdom was divided into two sections, the ten northern tribes, which often are called Israel, and the two southern tribes, which are generally designated as Judah. Well, one of the kings, as a political expedient by the name of Jeroboam, decided that it would be dangerous politically to have his people from the northern kingdom going all the way down the south for the stated feasts of worship at Jerusalem. And so to maintain the solidarity of his own northern kingdom, he established a kind of prostituted Jehovah worship there at Bethel. We read in 1 Kings 12, verses 28 and 29, these very significant words. 1 Kings 12, verses 28 and 29.

7:07 Whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold, and he said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

7:38 And so you see, under the guise of making a representation of Jehovah, something strictly forbidden in the second commandment, Jeroboam institutes this calf worship there at Bethel as well as at Dan. But in spite of this aggravated condition of profaned worship, God was gracious to establish Bethel as one of the centers of the sons of the prophets. You will remember, I trust, in our reading in Kings, that in that last journey, when the man of God, Elijah, and his successor, Elisha, come to Bethel, there meets them a band of these sons of the prophets. These men who were, in every sense of the word, some of them, true spokesmen for God. Some of them were being, as it were, trained for the prophetic office, and they carried on a teaching function in many parts of Israel. And so, in spite of the fact that Bethel had had a glorious past, and then one that had become quite checkered, God has not washed His hands of Bethel.

8:53 He gives to Bethel the tremendous privilege of having there a center of truth and a center of light. You'll remember that these men, Elijah and Elisha, standing as heads over the Psalms, the sons of the prophets, visited those places where these men were found. And we shall see more of that in the subsequent history of Elisha. So, we have every reason to assume that Bethel had not infrequent visits from the man of God, Elijah.

9:25 And here we find a visit from the man of God, Elisha. And we shall see, as we come to the matters of application, that the specific place of this instance, the incident, is significant in a proper understanding of the message of that incident. Now, consider with me in the second place, as we simply attempt to open up the passage, the main characters involved in the incident. Having examined what the text says concerning the specific place of the incident, what does it tell us with respect to the main characters involved in the incident?

The Main Characters: Elisha, the Youths, and the She-Bears

10:05 Well, we have, first of all, the prophet of God, Elisha. The passage tells us that Elisha, apparently, without any servant present with him at this time, is making his way from Jericho up to Bethel. But he is no longer making this trip as he made it in the other direction. When he made it in the other direction, he was the heir apparent to the place that Elijah had.

10:33 But at that time, he had nothing but a promise and a pledge of his future responsibility. He had many memories. He had many incidents and anecdotes that he could share from the life of Elijah. But he had not yet been endued with that double portion of the Spirit, the portion of the firstborn that would truly constitute him, God's mouthpiece in Israel.

10:58 But as he makes his way back to the city of Bethel, Elisha now goes back, as God's appointed prophet. He goes back now as God's designated mouthpiece, as God's prod to the conscience of Israel, as God's reminder to the reality of Jehovah as the God of the covenant. He goes back in that capacity of the mouthpiece of God so that when he speaks, it is Jehovah God himself who speaks in him and through him. Then the second main character or group of characters in this incident is a gang of probably teenage or young adult men. The authorized translation is a very unfortunate translation. It speaks of little children. The 1901 edition is a bit better.

11:55 It speaks of young lads. Now some object to the translation little children, not on linguistic grounds, but on moral grounds. They say this would be the height of injustice if God were to send bears out of the woods to consume poor little kids who are just making jokes at a man of God. Well, if linguistically the language demanded the translation little children, then I would, without embarrassment, expound the passage as the judgment of God upon little children because little children are not innocent.

12:31 Anyone who talks about the innocence of children is belching out his ignorance of some of the most fundamental doctrines in the word of God. But linguistically the translation little children is not necessary. This is the very word that is used many times in the Old Testament and translated lad, youth, or servant. It's the word used in Genesis 22 verses 3 and 5 in that very familiar incident of Abraham going to the mountain to offer up his son Isaac.

13:07 In Genesis 22 and verse 3 we read, And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. Verse 5, Abraham said to his young men exactly the same word. Now these obviously were not little six-year-olds or seven-year-olds. They were men capable of carrying on the task of a common laborer, of a household servant.

13:39 Not only linguistically is it wrong to consider those who form the heart of this story as being little children. It's not only bad linguistically, but the circumstances. These are obviously a group, or this is obviously a group of young men who are together in some kind of a social context away from their families, away from their homes, outside of the city of Bethel. And whatever little children do, they normally do not gather themselves in gangs and leave home like this and go about looking to perform pranks of one kind or another.

14:14 So it is in all likelihood best to conceive of this group of young men as teenagers or young adults who probably are out having a rumble, looking for a good time. Now there were at least 43 of them and probably many more. For the text says in verse 24 that when the she-bears came out of the wood, they tear forty and two lads of them. Indicating that 42 of a larger group were affected by the angry she-bears.

14:51 So there had to be at least 43 in all likelihood a much larger group than that. Well then the third character or characters, group of characters involved in the incident are two she-bears who come out of the woods and rip up or tear or maul these 42 young men. Now when she-bears are robbed of their whelps or their cubs, they become the very epitome of viciousness and ferocity. And we don't need to turn to natural science to know this.

15:30 The word of God itself underscores this fact. In such passages as 2 Samuel 17 and verse 8, 2 Samuel 17 and verse 8 we read the following. Hushai said moreover, Thou knowest thy father and his men that they are mighty men, and they are chafed in their minds as a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. These men have lost their wives and he says they are as disturbed and angry and as potentially ferocious as a she-bear who has been robbed of her cubs.

16:09 And the same concept is underscored in Proverbs 17 and verse 12. Well then it is these three groups of characters, Elisha the man of God, the gang of young adult men, and the two she-bears which constitute this incident. It is a true story. It is a glory story.

16:32 It is a sobering story. But it is an incident that bristles with very helpful and necessary instruction. Well having spent a few moments zeroing in on the specific location of the incident, the main characters in the incident now notice with me briefly the details of the incident. First of all the text points us in the direction of the activity of these teenage boys.

The Details of the Incident: Mockery and Divine Judgment

17:01 The text says that as he was going up by the way, and that is an accurate description of a trip from Jericho to Bethel. You had to ascend up into Bethel from Jericho. And as he is going up apparently some lads come out of the city and pass him, because later on we see him turning to look upon them as he proceeds to the city of Bethel. And as he is making his way up to Bethel, with his mind no doubt filled by the law of association with that last encounter he had had with the path out of Bethel to Jericho, walking with his companion of some ten years, the mighty man of God, Elijah. No doubt his mind and his heart are filled with the grief and pain of the loss of his spiritual guide and his intimate friend and confidant, Elijah. The one whom he regarded as the true protector of Israel. For you remember when he was taken up into heaven he said, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof.

18:13 He did not look upon the armies of the kings of Israel as the true protectors, but this man of God that stood between God and Israel in all of its apostasy and prayed and preached as it were away the very wrath of God for a period of time. Furthermore, his mind was probably at this point overwhelmed with the tremendous responsibility that had now come to him as the successor of Elijah. And something of the burden of the Lord was settling in upon his spirit. He had just had this encounter with the sons of the prophets and he would now there meet again with this group of men and the burden of leading them presses in upon his spirit.

18:58 And with his mind filled with grief, filled with these things suddenly the group of lads who've passed him begin to speak from behind him. And the scripture tells us that what they did was in the form of mockery. Look at the text. These lads came forth out of the city and mocked him and said unto him, Go up thou bald head, go up thou bald head.

19:26 Now what is the significance of these words they mocked him? Matthew Poole says that the form of the verb in the original speaks of a great petulance and vehemence in their mockery. Now the words of the mockery are difficult to interpret with any precision. Some suggest that all they're doing is taunting him saying, You're on your way up to Bethel.

19:54 Go ahead and get out of our sight. Go up there but don't bother. Others suggest, and I think with more interest, more accuracy, that this is the very linguistic form in which the home-going of Elijah was described. He went up into heaven in a whirlwind.

20:15 And the news of that home-going witnessed by the sons of the prophets has no doubt made its way among their ranks and spilled over amongst the people of the various places where the sons of the prophets were resident and were active. And some suggest that what they're doing is mocking the whole supernaturalness of the home-going of Elijah. You're the man that supposedly saw your head go on up, the man who was your boss. Why don't you see him?

20:44 If there's a heaven, go ahead like your predecessor did. Some suggest that that's what's involved in the language, go up. What about this taunt, thou bald head? From all we can reckon, there is no indication that Elisha was given an unusual experience.

21:07 There was no extension of his normal years. At this time he was probably in his early thirties, for he ministered for another fifty years. And so if he was actually bald, he was what we would call prematurely bald. And what they were doing was mocking an unavoidable physical deficiency or characteristic which is everywhere underscored in the Word of God as one of the heightened manifestations of cruelty.

21:37 And you children, listen. Don't you ever poke fun of anyone at school who's got a crooked arm, or one leg shorter than another, or cross eyes, or unusually shaped ears. God has much to say about his hatred to the person that mocks the infirmity of a fellow human being. And it could well be that this is what they were doing.

22:04 For there are passages in the prophets which speak of boldness, as one of the judgments that God brings upon people. And it could be, you see, that they are picking up this whole concept that no doubt was present in their minds as part of their cultural milieu. And they are taunting him for a physical characteristic which in some instances was a mark of God's judgment. And so they taunt him, God, thou bald head!

22:31 And it's obvious, you see, that this was not something that they just did on the spur of the moment and upon reflection said, Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. The text indicates that they repeated the taunts. Go up, thou bald head! And perhaps there was a period of silence and the man of God ignores it.

22:48 But then they repeat it. They're baiting him. They're desirous of eliciting a response. And so they repeat the taunt, Go up, thou bald head!

22:57 One thing is clear, though we cannot with precision interpret the words. The intent was mockery of the worst kind because that's what the text says. They mocked him. And furthermore, it was mockery not of a common person.

23:16 It was mockery of the man who was undoubtedly established as prophet in Israel. It was mockery of Jehovah's representative in Israel and therefore it was mockery of Jehovah himself. Well, then we have, first of all, then, the record of the activity of the young lads. Now, in the second place, notice what the text says in verse 24 concerning the activity of the prophet.

23:45 Two things are said. First of all, he looked behind him. And then secondly, he cursed them. Two activities of the prophet.

23:58 First of all, it is said that after they mocked him, he looked behind him and saw them. This probably points to the fact that Elisha wished to see their faces, to read something of the intent of their words as it was expressed in their eyes. In a very real sense, the eyes are the window of the soul. That's why, among other things, I hate to preach in this drab, bar-like atmosphere because I can't see your eyes as I preach.

24:34 The eyes are the window of the soul. The window of the soul. And often when you're not sure, remark your wife or child as made, you turn and you say, repeat that. And often the true meaning that is not discerned by the ear is discerned by a look into their eyes.

24:51 It could well be that this is what the prophet of God does. He wants to turn and see if it is the innocent smile of someone who perhaps has simply overstepped his bounds, his bounds, and who means to be funny and is just sort of awkward in the manner in which he does it. Perhaps the prophet is looking to see if there's the light of innocent laughter in the eyes of these young lads, but instead he sees something else. But when he turns and looks upon them, the Scripture tells us the next thing he does is to curse them in the name of Jehovah.

25:29 Now what do those words mean? Well, it doesn't mean he started to cuss at them. When we read that, we immediately think, oh, he lost his temper, he blew his cool, and he began to cuss at them. No.

25:40 He cursed them rationally and calmly as the representative of Jehovah. What he did was to call down, by the impulse of the Spirit of Jehovah, the curse, the malediction of God upon the head of these young men. Then we read in the third place the activity of God Himself, the activity of the young men. They mocked the servant of God.

26:11 The activity of the prophet. He looks, he curses, and now God takes the field. And the activity of God Himself is manifested in this language. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood.

26:29 Now Proverbs 26 and verse 2 says, The curse that is causeless alighteth not. In other words, if there is no basis for the curse, the curse will not be fulfilled. And some object and say, well, this is not the mark of a man of God. He can't take a little abuse.

26:49 He can't take a little verbal abuse. He's not even like the Lord Jesus, who when He was reviled, reviled not again. How stupid and silly is that objection. If this was merely the angry response of a carnal man, there would have been no confirmation of His word from Jehovah.

27:11 But the moment the curse is made, Jehovah, as it were, steps out of heaven, enrages two she-bears, and sends them in the direction of these lads. And God Himself takes the field. Can you, in reading this, imagine what it must have been like? I can just picture these fellows nudging one another after they've thrown out their taunts, saying, Hey, look at him.

27:40 He's looking at us. What does he think? Looks going to hurt us? He can't hurt us, man.

27:44 There's a whole bunch of us here. He can't touch us. And in the midst of their laughter and elbowing one another and jeering and mouthing off, suddenly there's a roar behind them. Lumbering out of the woods come two she-bears.

28:01 And before they know it, their stunned silence bursts into shrieks of horror as the angry she-bears begin to swipe one and swipe another and swipe another. And the fellows scatter, helter-skelter. And these she-bears, almost possessed of a madness, track down one after another, paw them and tear them open. Until before long, forty and two of them, the Scripture says, were ripped up.

28:36 They were mauled. Now what precisely does that mean? It does not say that forty and two of them were killed. And again, I'm amazed how many commentators assume that's what the text says, but it doesn't.

28:50 It says, tear forty and two lads of them. And this word tear is the word translated and used with reference to the dividing of the Red Sea at the Exodus. God divided the sea. It's used with regard to the cleaving of the wood in Genesis 22, 3.

29:12 It's used concerning that vicious activity of a marauding army in 2 Kings 8, 12 when they ripped up the women with child. The same root verb is used in the original language. So all the text tells us that perhaps the best English word is that these forty and two lads were mauled by the two angry she-bears. Well, you say, what was the result of the mauling?

29:39 Well, it could be that some were killed and others were maimed. It could be that all forty-two were killed. It could be that none were killed and all were mauled. But one thing is clear.

29:54 This was no event that was contained on the pathway going up to Bethel. Whether some of the lads ran to their homes with their own bodies smeared with their own blood, sobbing out the tales, the tale of how fellows with whom a few moments before they had taunted and jeered the prophet were now lying dead, we do not know. And the text is silent on the details. But one thing is certain.

30:25 This thing became the talk of the entire city of Bethel within a matter of minutes. Forty and two virile, healthy young lads have been mauled by two angry she-bears. And apparently the message went out through the entire nation of Israel because from this point on there is not one iota of record that Elisha was ever hindered by his own countrymen in the fulfillment of his God-given office. The word went out, you've messed around with that guy and God may send she-bears after you.

31:10 Well, that's the story. That's the incident. I've sought to be honest with the text. After he is done with this, it says he went up from thence to Mount Carmel.

Sober Warning to All: Despising God's Word and Messengers

31:18 And from thence he returned to Samaria there to begin his work under the blessing of God. Well, we come now, having looked at the place in which the incident occurred, the main characters in the incident, the main events in the incident. Now, what are the main lessons of this amazing and gory story from the word of God? Well, let me say first of all it contains a sober warning to all men in general.

31:48 Someone says, oh, Pastor Martin, there you go again. With all that heavy stuff, that warning, warning, warning. My friend, listen to me. When did you ever resent a warning that was in your best interest?

31:59 Did you ever see a man driving down the road and then a sign says, warning, potholes? Did you ever see him get out and go over and punch the sign and say, who in the world put these signs here? I don't want to be warned. I want to ruin it.

32:12 Did you ever see anyone do that? Did you ever see anyone stop his car when he was driving and say, stop his car when he's been driving along at 55 miles an hour and there's a sign, warning, sharp curve, danger ahead. Did you ever see anyone pull his car over and go out and kick the sign and say, who put this crazy thing here? I don't want to be warned.

32:35 I want to run over the cliff and kill myself. You say, a guy would be pitched to talk like that. My friend, it's moral insanity to resent the warnings of God. Will you have more concern for the undercarriage in your life than you have in your life?

32:55 Well, you know, in the front end of your car than your immortal never-dying soul. Will you have more concern for the safety of limb physically than the state of your soul? The psalmist celebrates the blessings of the word of God in Psalm 19 and one of the things he celebrates is this, moreover by them is thy servant warned. And how we should thank God for the warnings of Scripture and for the things that He has given us.

33:29 Here is one of those passages that contains a sober warning and what is the warning? It is this, beware of despising the greatest privilege which can ever come to a fallen son of Adam, namely, the pure preaching of the word of God by a duly appointed man of God. What was the greatest blessing God could give to Bethel? A man with whom the word of Jehovah was?

34:07 What was the best thing that could ever come to those young lads? It was not if their moms and dads gave them a car on the occasion of their graduation from high school. It would not be if they had a free college education, if they were given this, that or the other. It was to have the privilege of the man of God coming and telling them of Jehovah God and His claims, telling them of Jehovah God and His mercy, telling them of Jehovah God and His mighty works.

34:49 The greatest blessing God can give any of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam is the pure preaching of the word of God. What a warning this is to those who despise it. This is the word of God who speaks through His prophets. And that's why Jesus said, Whosoever receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth Me.

35:21 And he that rejecteth whomsoever I send rejecteth Me. What a warning. This is a warning that has no application to people who sit in those places of worship and worship God. It's a warning that obtains only in situations such as this.

35:49 I could not help but think as I sat in that class this morning and the doctrine of justification by faith was opened up in careful exegesis from the book of Romans teachers for six, seven, eight centuries and never heard in that entire time as much truth as we heard in one hour this morning. Oh, my dear people, may we be warned from this passage, warned against the sin of despising the word of God. Our despising may not break into these teenage or young adult boys or men, but it can be the despising of indifference, of carelessness, of a light and flippant attitude to the preaching of the word. And this will be manifested eventually in a careless attitude to those whom God sends to us and to those

37:18 whom God sends to us. So, let's be mindful of this passage as we read it. And let's be mindful of this passage as we read it. And let's be mindful of this passage as we read this verse.

37:54 And let's be mindful of this passage as we read this verse. So, the verse says, Freedom is the truth of the world. And this verse says, his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy.

38:32 Perhaps some of these young men reasoned, well, we're young, and somehow the fact that we're relatively young will appease something of the fierce anger of God if we start fooling around with his servant and his prophet. But they soon found out that God is not mocked.

38:54 And while the sharp claws of those she-bears ripped them open and mauled them, some of them learned in a very vivid object lesson that you cannot mock God and his word and his servants with impunity. And frankly, and here I speak very soberly, and I want you young people to listen, whatever else you think about me, at least I hope you know I love you.

39:21 But I sometimes wonder if the only thing God is going to use. To sober the young people of Trinity Baptist Church is to break into your ranks and cut off one of you in the midst of your years. You strut about here, the most of you, so cocksure in your state of impenitence that I tremble for you.

39:47 And I've trembled on my knees as I pray for you. And I say, oh God, stay here walking by the coffin of one of your number.

40:07 Don't you go on tempting. But he's not mocked.

40:16 It's a sober warning. Oh, you say, that's the God of the Old Testament. Jesus is my friend. He's one God.

40:23 Hebrews 10.31 says, our God is, not was, is a consuming fire.

Sober Warning to Young People: Peer Pressure and Lasting Scars

40:33 Contains a sober warning to young people, not only in this area of bewaring, lest you mock God, but beware of succumbing to peer pressure to wickedness. Can you use your magic? Can you use your imagination a little bit? Here the gang is forming in the city.

40:51 And the gang never forms all at once. I never saw a gang form at once when I was younger. Now that I'm old, I've never seen a gang just drop out of nowhere. A few guys get together.

41:02 They go to the various spots in the neighborhood where they know other guys are hanging about. Hey guys, let's do something. Let's stir up a little something. Let's have a little fun.

41:11 And so the gang is being formed. And they make their way out of the city. Who knows what they were looking for. And then they see the prophet of God.

41:18 And they see the prophet of God coming. They say, hey, this is a great chance to have a little fun.

41:24 And so they begin to suggest, whoever the leader was. And usually there's a leader in the gang. Begins to suggest, well, let's mock him out. You know, he's got a bald head.

41:34 Let's take that. And you know, they tell us back there in the city that the sons of the prophets actually claimed that Elijah, you know, that old fuddy-duddy that was against everything and didn't know what life was all about and didn't know where the action was really at. That he went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Whoever heard of such garbage?

41:50 So let's go ahead and pick that up. I can imagine a young man who begins to frown at this point and say, hey, fellas, listen, lay off. Lay off. Look, I don't mind having fun.

41:59 And I don't claim much religion, but listen, listen, listen, you go messing around with God's prophets. That's too much. Ha ha. You're going soft.

42:07 You're going straight. Suck you in, huh? You've been listening to some of those preacher boys back home. Oh, no, no, no, no.

42:13 I haven't been doing that. Don't get me wrong. Yes, you have. And so they begin to jeer.

42:18 And so they begin to jeer. And so they begin to jeer. And so they begin to jeer. And so they begin to jeer.

42:23 And so they begin to jeer, and taunt him. And before long, he succumbs to the peer pressure. And when the bears come out of the woods, there are no respecter of the person. Young people, beware.

42:42 The Scripture says, Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. And when will there rise up from the ranks of the young men of Trinity church, a young man who dares to say, Jehovah, Jesus' servant? Okay. If I must stand in the ways of my Savior, if I must stand alone, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

43:18 Many of you young men are a bunch of jellyfish.

43:22 You don't have an ounce of moral courage.

43:26 It's about time you faced up to it. You're real brave when you're amidst all the bravado of your buddies.

43:35 But you're pushed in the paths against your conscience again and again and again. Why? You have no moral fortitude. And my friend, I don't appeal to you to become a Christian to prove you have some.

43:48 I appeal to you to go to the Lord Jesus and tell Him you don't have any and ask Him to give it to you.

43:56 This whole idea of you want to really be a he-man, follow Jesus, that's appealing to a carnal motive. No, no. What I'm saying is face your jellyfishism as part of your sin, part of the evidence of the depravity of your heart. And go to God through the Lord Jesus and confess it to Him.

44:16 Tell Him you grieve and you're sorry that you've been more concerned about the approval of your peers than the smile of the God who made you. You've been more ready and willing to walk in the way of your peers even if you had to walk over the law of God and the blood of His Son than to walk in the ways of righteousness. Go to God and tell Him what a fool you've been. Cry to Him for mercy and then cry to Him for grace to be able to...

44:46 ...peer back and say, Here I stand, so help me God.

44:54 Beware, young person, of succumbing to peer pressure, to wickedness. And thirdly, beware, young people, of the scars and wounds which rebellion or indifference to the word of God can bring upon you. If these 42 lads were not killed but mauled, you get mauled by a bear before the days of advanced regal, reconstructive surgery. They don't call it plastic surgery anymore.

45:23 They've got a fancy name. Reconstructive surgery. You get mauled by a bear before the days of advanced reconstructive surgery and for the rest of your days. Across your face will be the ugly scars of its claws.

45:39 And everywhere you go, people will say, How did he get those scars? Oh, didn't you hear that incident back in Israel 40 years ago? He...

45:49 He and a bunch of his buddies were out for a walk one day, have a little fun, and they mocked the prophet. There's the results.

45:59 Maybe it's someone's arm that was crushed by the fangs of the bear who for the rest of his days carried about an arm that couldn't function. And people asked, How did he get that?

46:12 The scars. A moment's mockery resulting in a lifetime of scars. And I tell you, young people, if there's anything that makes me want to...

46:23 to weep standing before you, it's this truth. Some of you, in mocking the word of God, already have the scar of lost virtue, lost innocence. You already have the scar of the loss of the confidence of your own parents, a confidence built for years,

46:48 and it's been destroyed. The scar of lost innocence.

46:54 You know more about sin at age 15 or 17, 17 or 19,

47:02 than some adults here in their 80s now.

47:08 Scars. Oh, you say, but doesn't God forgive all sin? Yes, the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin of which we repent. But remember, there's nothing in the Bible that says the blood of Jesus Christ removes all scars.

47:27 David as an old man cried out, Oh God, remember not to give me the sins of my youth. He had the scar of...

47:38 memory upon his mind.

47:43 And why do we plead with you young people in the language of Ecclesiastes to seek the Lord in the days of your youth? Remember now, thy Creator. You say, I know why you do it. You don't want us to have any fun, you know.

47:58 My friend, don't be silly. What have we got to gain from being party poopers and fun spoilers? Come on now, let's be reasonable, will you? Don't turn me off.

48:10 Listen to me. For three minutes...

48:12 Will you listen? What in the name of common sense do I have to gain by spoiling your, quote, fun? Now you tell me, what do I have to gain?

48:25 Come on now, think it through. Don't just cop out. Come on. Be man enough to think it through with me.

48:31 What have I got to gain by spoiling your fun?

48:40 Come on, think, think, think. What have I got to gain? What do your parents who pray for you and plead with you to repent and trust the Lord Jesus, what do they have to gain? What have I got to gain by spoiling your fun?

48:54 Say, I can't think of anything. That's right, you can't. There isn't anything. My friend, we have nothing to gain.

49:07 But oh, with all our hearts, we want to see you spare the claw marks of the she-bears that will come as a result of your rebellion against the Word of God. Some of you are scarred for life already. It's a tragic thing. You know where the first scar comes?

49:31 When you can no longer see God. When you can no longer look people who know God and love God in the eye. That's one of the scars I see very quickly implanted on the face of many of you young people. There comes a point when you begin to be worldly wise, you can no longer look us in the eye.

49:51 You've lost your innocence. Some of you've got scars that if you repent and believe tonight, you'll still carry to your grave. And we long to see you spared additional scars. The Bible says, The way of a transgressor is hard.

50:17 The Bible says, The paths of the Lord drop sweetness. I mentioned this a few months ago, and I'm not repeating myself because I'm getting senile, contrary to the opinion of some of you. But how vividly this was brought home to me at that reunion last October. Twenty-five years.

50:37 I hadn't seen those people. They were the ones who pitied this poor eighteen-year-old religious fanatic who was going to waste his life. He wasn't going to live because he didn't do this, didn't do that, didn't do this, didn't do this, didn't do that. The way of a transgressor is hard.

51:00 Most of them were living monuments to it in their dissipated bodies, their hollow eyes, their empty lives, their broken marriages, their tormented consciences. When I could say if God took me tomorrow, I've lived a full and a rich life, and my only regret is I haven't loved and served my Master better. And my friend, you can't get where I am in the path of sin and then say, Hey, man, he was right. I want to go back and do it over.

51:38 No, no. You only pass by once. Young people, beware of the scars in the wounds which rebellion to God and His Word will bring. And then there is not only a sober warning to all men in general, a sober warning to young people in particular.

Sober Warning to Parents: The Danger of Half-Baked Religion

52:01 But hear me very quickly now. A sober warning to parents in particular. Have you asked as we have studied the passage why this blatant, abnormal impiety at Bethel? Well, we go back now to why I underscored something of the history of Bethel.

52:20 Could it be that the prostituted Jehovah worship was the reason? You see, nothing. Nothing will create cynicism and impiety more quickly. more quickly than half-baked religion in the presence of children.

52:42 Nothing will create impiety and cynicism more quickly than half-baked religion in the presence of children. Whatever else young people are or aren't, for the most part, they've got a good nose for reality. And they've got a good nose for the foley.

53:03 That's one of the things that really irritates some of you young people, because you wish you could cop out by saying, ain't nobody real around here, but you know better. Some of you live with moms and dads and in the presence of other Christians here, and you know, as much as you know your own name, they're real. And that's part of the thing that gets under your skin and really bugs you. Because if only you could say, ha, they don't live it, they don't need it, it's all talk, you'd be a little more comfortable in your present state.

53:31 But many of these could do that. They'd see their moms and dads go up to worship a calf and come home and say, well, I was up and worshipped Jehovah today. And my friend, you worship a calf, you worship an idol, and the ethics of your life will reflect your idol worship. You see, immorality, indifference to ethical standards, and idolatry are always wedded.

53:58 Because once you've gone and done whatever you're supposed to do before your idol, then he's there and you're here, and now you can do as you please. Whereas if you're a worshipper of Jehovah, you know that he fills heaven and earth, and with David you say, I've set the Lord always before me, he is at my right hand, and you seek to live in his sphere as you live in his presence. Could it be that this heightened impiety in young people was the direct result of the prostituted worship that went on at Bethel? Now listen carefully, I am not saying that if you have children who manifest heightened impiety, it automatically means that you are a sham as a Christian parent.

54:43 I'm not saying. But I am saying this. Could it be, I'm asking the question, could it be that the impiety of some of the children of this church is a reflection of the defective religion of the parents? Your children see you come and listen to preaching, and shake the preacher's hand and say, that was good, I agree.

55:06 But they see you cutting corners at home in your own life. They see you cutting corners in your relationship to your wife, in your relationship to them, they don't see you confessing your obvious sins.

55:21 They see you indifferent to the laws of the road. They know that you cheat on your income tax. They know that you watch stuff on the television, that they know if they were Christians they wouldn't watch. And all of this erodes any sense of reality.

55:41 What a warning to us as parents. We must determine to be real at any cost before our children, at any cost.

Solid Encouragement and Hope: Christ Torn in Our Place

55:52 But then finally, this passage contains a solid encouragement and word of hope. You say, hope? I don't see any hope in that passage. That's heavy, foreboding, negative.

56:04 Ah, my friend, there is hope. And the hope is this.

56:10 In a few minutes we'll be coming to the Lord's table. There at that table, what do we confess? We confess that Jesus Christ, the innocent one, took the place of the guilty. In the language of this text, as the she-bear of divine wrath tore out of the woods toward us, our great shepherd intervened.

56:34 And he who made the she-bears said to them, Tear me in their place.

56:42 And the blessed Lord Jesus Christ was torn. He was bruised. He was consumed of the divine wrath and anger that we who deserve that anger might be free. Thank God he was torn.

56:58 And he was impaled upon the cross. And because of that great reality, God will not tear us if we are in his dear Son. Oh, may God grant that those of you who perhaps have been pierced by the word tonight, and I pray God it will be so, and you say, but Pastor Martin, what hope can there be? I've been like those young men.

57:23 I have stood with them in my mockery of the word of God. And though outwardly I haven't dared, to mock inwardly, my mockery has been just as real. And though I've never called you and any other preacher, go up now, bald head, I haven't mocked you openly. Inwardly, the mockery of the message of God has been sheathing in my heart.

57:45 What hope is there, my friend, my dear young friend, my old friend? Your hope and my hope is that one was torn in our place. He exposed himself to the fierce anger of God that our sins might be righteously pardoned. Seek him and forgiveness that is to be found only in him.

58:13 Behold the goodness and the severity of God. Let us pray.

58:23 Our Father, we thank you that we have the scriptures and how we praise you for the very form in which they come to us, not only bringing propositions and absolute statements about your wrath and anger, but then giving us these pictures in such graphic detail that we cannot miss the point. Write this passage upon our hearts and grant that the great day of unveiling may reveal that this word was not preached in vain. Seal it to our hearts. To our prophet and to your praise, we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.