(It finally happened. I wrote a post last year in which I bemoaned the fact that no one would paint a mural of the scene in the Bible where Elisha orders bears to kill a bunch of teenagers. Well, a really talented comic book artist, named Wes Moelbash, actually illustrated it. (The link to his site is now updated and correct, please go show Wes some love.) The post is below and the illustration is after the jump. Check it out.)
Refusing to paint my mural.
I think Bible story murals might be slowly dying. As much as we love them, I am starting to see them at less and less churches. The days of having Noah’s Ark painted on the walls of your area for kids is slowly giving way to more contemporary creative visual interpretations of the Bible. And I’m fine with that as long as someone will finally paint my idea for a mural. I am of course talking about the scene in 2 Kings when the prophet Elisha orders some bears to attack teenagers who called him bald.
Go ahead and reread that last sentence, it’s a weird one. But here’s what it says in 2 Kings 2:23-24:
From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. “Go on up, you baldhead!” they said. “Go on up, you baldhead!” He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.
That story is insane and here’s how I envision the mural. Elisha is standing in the middle of all these angry, bald hating teenagers. He looks really enraged and the caption out of his mouth says, “Do you know where you are? You’re in the jungle baby! You’re gonna die!” And then in the corner of the mural are two huge bears with hockey sticks. I’m not sure why they have hockey sticks but it seems a little tougher to me.
That’s my idea, but so far churches are refusing to take me up on it.
Until today that is …
Comments
I can't believe people think this is funny.
Elisha got jeered. Big deal. Did he act like a grown up? No. He cursed the youths in the name of God, and God went along with it and sent two "she-bears" to maul them. 42 of them. Doesn't say if they survived, but in a fight between bears and teenagers, I'd bet on the bears.
If that's true, then sorry, but I'm more moral than God, because I would never send bears to maul … well, anyone.
I usually enjoy this bog, but laughing at biblical atrocities is just awful and it steps over the line.
Why not paint a mural of Hosea 13:16, with the babies being dashed against rocks and the bellies of pregnant women being ripped open? I'm sure that would be a riot.
Painful lesson to be sure – but, consider the context listed by another poster – and consider that God commanded us not to molest His annointed.
And dude, you're more moral than God? Come on. By whose standards?
Oh, right. I forgot to mention that I run a morality and ethics blog, as a deconverted Christian. I've read the Bible through (all of it), and then listened to the defenses and exegeses of many stories like this. Through that process, I came (rather painfully) to the conclusion that if God exists, I should do well to not act like him. I could certainly try to emulate Jesus' character, but certainly not God's.
To answer your question directly: By your standards, I should hope. Do you really think depriving that many mothers of their children (be they young or old) over some jeering is really moral?
If this were a headline in today's paper, we'd all be saddened that 42 people were dead. Worse, if hey were young.
If the church claimed that God caused the event, then defended God in this way, there would be outrage.
I'll be sure to post a response to this blog over at my own: http://cleanslateproject.wordpress.com/
LOL – Or you can make one based on what those words in the story actually mean – for instance, "youths" is the same word used for young men of military age, not just teenagers. Oh, and yeah, everyone likes to think "Go on up, you baldhead" is just a childish taunt at him for being bald… or you can recognize that this took place right after Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind… in which case, the focus of that taunt is not on the 'baldhead' part, but the 'go on up' – in other words, they want him to go up. Like Elijah did. To heaven.
So in other words, you've got a gang of more than forty-two men of military age (after all, the she-bears only ate forty-two OF THEM, which means there was more than that to start with). This gang is surrounding a prophet of the Lord and informing him that they really want him gone. To heaven. Right now.
Starting to get a feel for the real tone of the situation here?
Men of military age, in that day, included boys 12 and up. But even if they were older, it wouldn't help make this story less immoral.
These "youths" or "men of military age" … weren't attacking the guy with weapons, they weren't causing any amount of physical harm. They jeered him. Sticks and stones, folks…. words don't hurt anyone.
The mauling and probable death of 42 people, kids or not, absolutely does not fit the crime.
Come on people, this is nothing more than a cautionary tale Jewish parents told their kids to keep them from making fun of the old folks. To think this really happened is ridiculous.
Here's a picture of what it looks like to get mauled by a bear and survive (although, most of the interpretations I've ever come across, including those represented here, don't think the "youths" pulled through.)
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm2….
Man, that's hilarious. Really inspires me to follow God.
My husband always wanted to do that one if forced to lead Children's Church.
My mural will be glowing-eyes Jesus as depicted in Revelation 1:12-16, drawing the sword from his mouth, the mural will be painted with fluorescent paint with blacklights rigged up on it.
I have actually attempted to paint this scene for Father's Day once. I used oil paints and dad' after shave to get the oil out of the brushes…he was not happy about that but the final product was cool i thought! Don't know if i still have it
I was wondering if Wes would like to make a mural of 1 Samuel 28:9-15 depicting the witch of Endor and the raising of the spirit of Samuel. The Bible stories never told to the Sunday school class.
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That's one of our favorite scriptures! My teenager was thrilled when she found it.
WIN AGAIN.
One of my favorite weird Bible stories! It has long deserved mural status…
my youth group re-enacted this scene in church once. it was awesome.
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OH MY GOSH, I'm just seeing this!!! Hahahaha, this is AMAZING. Bravo, Mr. Moelbash. I love this =D