 And 2 Kings 42 use are mauled by bears because they mocked Elijah's bald head. The question is, why would God have these bears come and maul these youths? Well, one is obvious. You don't mock people with bald heads. So that's number one. But now to get into the theological reason, the actual reason, not just my reason, which I think it's a pretty good reason, but let's go to the Bible and see what's actually happened. Now, in 2 Kings 223, he says that he went up. This is Elijah went up there to Bethel, and he was going up, by the way, and young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, go up, you bald head, go up, you bald head. Now, should be understood, they're doing just what others are doing. They are making fun of him having a bald head, which again, I have no idea why you would do so. It's like a buzzard making fun of an eagle. Why would you do so? But I want you all to notice this, though, that these youth, these young, young people, they're not necessarily children. The word that shoes here is not, or in this case, not a ring, which is to refer to a young man or a youngster. So maybe they're in their teens, maybe in their early 20s. That's what these are. That's not like these are five-year-olds, these are a little 10-year-olds, little kids that are just throwing rocks, having fun. In that time, you would have people who are, these are ungodly. These are people who are not of God, who also would formulate these little gangs, like we see today. Gangs is not just a new phenomenon. You had these little roving gangs back then as well. Kids that were just up to no good. When I say kids, I mean youngsters. Those in their late teens, early 20s, who are on their way to hell anyway. That's important. I'll come to that in just a second. But he says that as they're going up, they're mocking him. And then in verse 24, when he looked back behind them, he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord, which is important. The two, then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up 42 lads of their numbers. He went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria. Now, I want to look at a couple of things. One, is that he tore them up. This word that's used here for being torn up is just, they were just split up. Now, do I think that some of them were killed? Yes. Does it mention that they were killed? No, they were just mauled. Is it possible that they survived? We don't know. But they were certainly hurt. They were tore up. They were ripped up. And so likely a lot of them, if not all of them, if not all 42 of them died. But again, that's important. And there are those who are going to say that this is probably not something that God did, but maybe some sort of natural occurrence. And I would have to reject that. Here's the reason why. Because the Bible is not trying to give us some sort of historical account of something that happened in nature. Some sort of natural occurrence, bears doing this or giraffes or lions or what have you know? The Bible is clear. It says that when he looked back, he saw them. He, Elijah, cursed them in the name of the Lord. And then these two bears came. Notice, though, that Elijah wasn't touched by the bears, just those young men who were mocking him. Now, it's important. The Bible says this, and this is clear, not to some false prophet, but to an actual true prophet. He says, in Psalm 105, 15, he says, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. And so here we have this happening where someone is actually coming out against the prophet of God. And this isn't the first time. As a matter of fact, Elijah, same thing happened to him a few chapters earlier in Second Kings 1-9, the king sent to him a captive of 50 with his 50 and he went up to him. And behold, he was sitting on the top of a hill. And he said to him, O man of God, the king says, come down. Elijah replied to the captain of 50. If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 and fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50. And this happened again. Same thing happened. So God is going to protect, at least at that time, he was going to protect his men, especially if they were in the middle of doing something fulfilling his purpose. Does that mean that he's always going to send a bear or a fire or something like that when someone is after or coming against the prophet of God? No, but in this case, he did. And so God is going to make sure that you know that that is his that is his prophet. And so what does he do? He sends two bears. The Bible says the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof, including these bears. Now, the problem with these boys being killed and someone might say that, that's a bit overkill. These are young people. They've got time to repent. Well, God knows their heart. God knows what's going to happen. And even remember, Jesus makes a statement that if they don't even receive or believe the prophets, they're not going to believe me, which also is even worse. So does God know what these boys are going to do in life? Sure he does. Is God unjustified for sending these two female bears to mall or kill 42 youngsters? Even if they were children, but I think this is probably a young man. Is he unjust? No, he's not. Again, he knows who these boys were. Again, the likelihood that these were probably part of just some sort of little roving bands of troublemaking kids. They were clearly ungodly. And so what is the consequence for touching? In this case, the man of God, God took it serious enough to where he would send bears. Nothing that God does is overkill. As a matter of fact, what God does, he does for the purpose of making sure that you know it's him. And so going forward, I don't think that anyone had any more problems with Elijah and his beautiful bald head. As a matter of fact, again, why would any man not want to be bald? Maybe these kids were jealous. Whatever it was, though, God made sure that they would not touch or put their mouths on the prophet of God.