Christian Devotional – July 12, 2020

Double Portion – #7

After you have just save a city, what would your next actions be? For Elisha, he dealt with disrespect. Read 2 Kings 2:23-25.

Then he went up from there 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. He went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
2 Kings 2:23‭-‬25 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/2ki.2.23-25.NASB

Throughout the Bible we see examples of prophets who were not respected and who dealt with criticism and ridicule. This is a very odd example of that. Elisha has just purified the water for a city. Now, as he is leaving, a bunch of boys start taunting him. These boys would have seen and heard what Elisha had done for the city. They would have understood that God was working through him. Yet, they decide to ridicule and make fun of him. Actually, they were making fun of God.

Do we recognize the work that God does in our lives?Are we respectful to all the people who do God’s work regularly? If we aren’t, we’re actually disrespecting God. As result of this experience, God judges those young boys. It was not Elisha’s job to defend himself, it’s God’s. God can do that in whatever way he chooses. The question for us is really about do we see what God does in our lives, do we thank him for it, and are we respectful to those that he chooses to work through?