Go on up, you baldhead!--by Andy
2 Kings 2:23-25 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible, and those who have seen me would understand why (or you can just look at the picture and you would know). The first time I ran across this passage, besides my natural affinity toward the story, two things came to mind: 1) It was weird that something like that was recorded in the Bible (for what purpose?), and 2) Why did a prophet of God cause such senseless killing of 42 innocent kids? (worse than modern day road rage). Well, I got the first question cleared while taking a class on hermeneutics and having to write a paper on it a few years back, but I am still chewing on the second one.
As I have been going through the book 2 Kings, I've come to find the prophet Elisha more and more interesting (maybe I should do a post on this), but I have also found lots of murders and killings recorded in the book. For example, I've just read 19:35, where the author said that "the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp." And it all happened in just one night! That's a lot of people killed, in light of how much our nation, and the world, has been mourning over the deaths caused by recent events like 9/11, the tsunami, Katrina, and the Iraq war. Many religious people including Christian pastors have done their duty to "defend" God and clear him of any responsibility in the deaths of these recent events, but how would they explain why God sent two bears to maul 42 kids just because they made fun of the bald prophet and wiped out 185 thousand men just because they were enemies of his chosen people Israel? Unlike the recent events, these two passages left no doubt as to who was responsible for those deaths.
More and more chewing seems to lead me to the same conclusion that Job expressed, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." (Job 1:21) Or James said it in another way, "What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:14) We usually hear religious people say that "life is precious" as if every life deserves to be living and respected. Either God didn't hold the same view or He had a very soft spot for baldies. If He could do that to 42 kids, imagine what else He could do. God caused millions of deaths in the Bible, and boldly claimed responsibility for them (I think He even drowned the whole earth once). He needs no defenders. Job and his friends learned that lesson, and Job said of God in the end, "I know that you can do all things...Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know...Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:2-6) I've done much worse than those kids, and the Assyrians, why am I still alive? God loves baldies? Such grace and mercies, too wonderful for me to ever know. Maybe I should be chewing on that instead?!
Labels: theology
Posted by Grace @ 2:02 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I've always felt it helpful to reflect on our Lord's response in Luke 13:1-5 to those inquiring as to why a seemingly pointless death of apparently innocent victims of an accident occurred. In summary, "Don't think they were more guilty, consider that you were spared." Rather than ask what gives God the right to punish 42 youths or some massive number of Assyrians in one fell swoop, we ought to ask why he even bothers to grant them -- or us -- life at all. John Piper, as usual, put it well when he wrote in response to the tsunami one year ago :
"The point of every deadly calamity is this: Repent. Let our hearts be broken that God means so little to us. Grieve that He is a whipping boy to be blamed for pain, but not praised for pleasure. Lament that He makes headlines only when man mocks His power, but no headlines for 10,000 days of wrath withheld. Let us rend our hearts that we love life more than we love Jesus Christ. Let us cast ourselves on the mercy of our Maker. He offers it through the death and resurrection of His Son."
Similarly, he wrote in response to the tragedies in New Orleans more recently:
"...let us put our hands on our mouths and weep both for the perishing and for ourselves who will soon follow. Whatever judgment has fallen, it is we who deserve it—all of us. And whatever mercy is mingled with judgment in New Orleans neither we nor they deserve...
"This will always be ludicrous to those who put the life of man above the glory of God. Until our hearts are broken, not just for the life-destroying misery of human pain, but for the God-insulting rebellion of human sin, we will not see intelligent design in the way God mingles mercy and judgment in this world. But for those who bow before God’s sovereign grace and say, 'From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever,' they are able to affirm, 'Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!' (Romans 11:36, 33)."
May God help you and I and all of his children to think with as great a burden for God's glory and far less concern for our well-being apart from living and dying for His glory.
P.S. If you haven't heard, John Piper was recently diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer. Let's keep this much used man of God in our prayers.
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