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Alright so many things that you can preach on out of this passage great passage of Scripture here But I'm actually be focusing in at the very end of the chapter. There is a real interesting story I've never preached a full-length sermon on this one subject and you you know during your regular Bible reading You might have read over this and go. What is this all about? Right, what is this part about Elisha? Cursing these kids and then these she bears coming out and killing 42 Children right it just seems like it's kind of inserted there And it almost doesn't even flow with the with the rest of the chapter, so we're going to dig into this tonight Nothing in Scripture is there by accident everything? Provides us with some learning you know and some doctrine that we can derive and we're going to examine this situation And see and just try to learn as much as we can I got three main points to go over in This story tonight, and it's how my sermon is go up thou bald head right? that's what the kids were saying to Elisha and In the story, and we just we just got done reading it Elisha has taken the mantle from Elijah right Elijah's carried up to heaven in a whirlwind and now Elisha who was the servant of Elijah? He was there. He was his right-hand man He was there helping him serving him doing you know whatever he needed to do. He didn't leave him. He didn't depart He's like no. I'm with you to the end all the way up until God takes you I'm gonna be here with you Elisha was a great servant. He learned a lot from Elijah. He asked for a hard thing He asked for a double portion of the spirit that Elijah had because Elijah was able you know he performed some really cool miracles God used him mightily and Elisha said you know what I like that and I want to have twice as much as what you had Elijah's like that's asking a lot because He knew the things that God had done through him in his life and these are things since in some cases might have been unprecedented to that point the way that God was using Elijah and You know you got to love that spirit of Elisha saying yeah, I want to do even more right and we should never look at The eggs even the examples we have in great leaders and say oh, well, there's no way you can ever surpass that We should always be saying hey, what what more can God do right? Maybe God could use me even more. Maybe you know Let's do it. Let's ask for it at least I mean the worst that could happen is you say no If God doesn't do it and as Elijah's like well I don't know if God's gonna do that or not, but here's the deal if you see me and you know and When God takes me up, then then you know there you go You know he'll answer that prayer and and of course that's what happens now When you know the whole story of Elisha he does get that double portion, and I've never actually counted out I've heard it preached before that if you count all the different miracles that he did That you know the last one that kind of puts them at double is when The guy they throw that dead guy into the grave of Elisha, and he comes back to life I don't know if that's true or not. I preached really good when I heard it It may be true. I never went through the time that to count it all out But but Elisha does do a lot of miracles okay? No doubt about that, and he helps a lot of people You know it's it's a really really good guy in the scripture, so this is kind of an odd story to say the least and Just in the context here what we see is You know Elisha just gets done kind of performing his first miracle After the parting of the waters right the parting of the Red Sea he goes he goes back or the Jordan River he He parts that goes back over and then he's confronted with there in verse number 19 Saying the men of the city said unto Elisha behold I pray thee the situation of the city of the city Is pleasant as my lord seeth, but the water is not and the ground is barren so basically hey It's a great place to live the great city, but we don't have a good water supply, and they're saying you know There's the water is no good and the ground isn't going to produce Anything any crops because the water is no good verse 20 says and he said bring me a new cruise and put salt therein and they brought it to him and He went forth into the spring of what the waters and cast assault in there and said thus saith the Lord I've healed these waters there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land so basically he performs this miracle and You know by the the authority of God makes it so that the waters are healed and says so the waters were healed unto This day according to the saying of Elisha, which he spake, so that's a great Event here, and this is something that the people of that place ought to have been very thankful for and and shown respect unto Elisha for healing the waters of alignment having a good water source is a very Important thing for a city for people to be living around and having access to good water So obviously this is a huge benefit for the people of that place, but then right after this happens It says he went up from thence unto Bethel so he's traveling away from that city unto Bethel and as he was going up by the way there came forth little children out of the city and Mocked him and said unto him go up thou bald head go up thou bald head, so there's it's clearly They're just mocking him right now mocking him based on his appearance which something really stupid obviously children do that type of thing I mean, but it but see it doesn't make it right for them to do it We know that kids will do these types of things, but what happens here is kind of interesting because Elisha turns back It says he looks at him and cursed them in the name of the Lord and there came forth to She bears out of the wood and tear forty and two children of them forty two children lost their lives Doing something really stupid Okay, and this is one of the first examples that I want to You I want to go into and this is another you know this morning. I was preaching on the youth and This evening. It's it's a similar concept I want I want to go into This story about the children and our children could get themselves hurt and get themselves in more danger And one of the things that we could take away from this even lose your life doing things that are just really stupid Doing things that are dumb even in situations where you might not think oh, how could I ever possibly lose my life over this? Well you put yourself in a bad situation Then you may end up doing that if these kids weren't out there cursing a man of God You know that this never would have happened because the the the she bears came out as a result of the curse that Elisha put on them now we're going to get into that like Elisha even doing that a little bit later and whether or not that was right and everything else but What's important to understand from say the child's perspective is Whether or not someone does something that's going to be right to you you have to live in this world And there's consequences for your actions So what do I mean that you might think like we can say? Well the Bible doesn't have the death penalty on someone who steals right The just punishment for a thief is that they have to pay back fourfold or fivefold or something like that but You have to understand that if you're going to go out and try to steal from people One of the results might be that you lose your life It may not be justified, but that's not going to change the fact that you might get killed There's important life lessons that children especially need to understand because the Bible teaches us that foolishness is bound in the heart of the child So kids are going to do stupid things and You know the next point is going to be on the parent side of thing But let's say before I get ahead of myself Let's look at the children the Bible says in Exodus 23 verse 2 thou shall not follow a multitude to do evil and One of the most important things I think kids can learn is Not to follow the group when the group is doing wrong And it may be it's harder for kids to do that because it's easier for them to succumb to like a group think Mentality or mob mentality where you got enough kids, you know, there's a peer pressure involved You've got a lot of things involved but kids You've got to get established what's right and what's not and when you think something feels wrong You know something isn't right and you see your friends just being Disrespectful and making fun of people and doing things like that to distance yourself and say no, I'm not going to be a part of That I'm not going to join in your group. I'm not going to follow a multitude to do evil and in this case It's you know mocking a man of God mocking someone to kill and no business mocking Elisha. He was a good man He helped people. He was healing waters. He's healing people and To just make fun of them because of the way he looks is not yours not righteous. It's not right and Sometimes you may think oh, what's the big deal? and then you end up being in a situation that ends up being a lot worse than you thought it was going to be at the beginning and This is just a good example of how things can turn really bad without you even thinking about it or realizing it The Bible says in u-turn if you if you would to Proverbs chapter 1 so More scripture on not following or not being Suede by some peer pressure Is it what do you mean by peer pressure? you know the kids might not understand the terminology of a peer as a friend and The pressure feels from friends that are going to try to make you do things and say oh, yeah, this is really cool Come on do this. It'll be a lot of fun Oh, we can get this money or we can do this and we can do that and try to entice you to do things that you know aren't right that your parents have taught you are not right and They'll pressure you into doing it to be accepted by them. Oh, well, you can't hang out with us You can't be my friend unless you come with me and you do this when people start telling you things like that kids They're not worth being friends with It's not right Because what's going to happen if you have people that are going to treat you like that They're just going to get you in trouble If people are gonna be your friend they're gonna be your friends because they like you and they want to be friends with you Not because they want to make you do something that you don't want to do. That's not a friend Proverbs chapter 1 verse number 10 the Bible reads and look this is the house verse 10 Chapter 1 verse number 10 start out my son, right? This is a teaching from a father to a son my son of sinners entice the Consent thou not entice means they're trying to attract you to do something sinners is referring to this people who do bad things Okay, people are out there doing bad things. They want to talk you into doing something good Consent thou not means don't go with them. Don't do what they're gonna do. Don't agree to that Verse 11 if they say come with us, let us lay wait for blood Let us lurk privately or privately for the innocent without cause let us swallow them up alive as the grave and Whole as those that go down into the pit We shall find all precious substance. We shall fill our houses with spoil Cast in thy lot among us. Let us all have one purse My son walk not thou in the way with them refrain thy foot from their path. So what are they trying to do? They're trying to convince somebody To go do evil to another person Just to steal from them just to get their riches or say oh man. Look this guy's rich. Look at all this stuff He has join up with us No one's gonna catch us We're gonna we're gonna go and we're gonna you know kill this person or tie him up or Rob We're gonna do this to them, but don't worry There's a whole bunch of us we can do this and we won't get caught and then we'll have all this money And we have all this stuff and he's got these game systems and he's got this money and whatever and he's got guns and we Could we can steal this stuff from them? Come on be part of it with us join the group whatever we get We're all gonna split up and divvy it up and share it between all of us Right and they want to entice you like oh man, that sounds great. Yeah, look man He's got he's got fifty thousand dollars cash at home and we could get more money than I've ever even thought I could ever have in my life Don't do it You Consent thou not my son walk not down away with them referring that foot from their path For their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird and they lay wait for their own blood They lurk trivially for their own lives. So what's saying about people like that? That want to lay traps for people they want to set people up. They want to steal from people What's gonna happen is that they're gonna get? What they're trying to do to someone else what goes around comes around they reap you reap what you sow, okay? That's a biblical truth That God's gonna make sure if you're gonna go out and try to hurt people and you're gonna join up with gangs or groups of People that hurt people that steal from people, you know, what's gonna happen to you. It's gonna come right back on you You get involved in that bad stuff that bad business and that crime and the in the theft It's gonna come back on you and you know what when it comes back on you It's gonna be worse than what you did to them When the Bible teaches that you reap what you sow Reaping means you're harvesting right and sowing is talking about sowing little seeds So think about this kids think about sowing a seed for an apple tree Everyone here is probably eating an apple before you get to the core of the Apple. What do you got? You got the seeds in there You plant that seed it takes a while takes years, right? But after a while that tree will grow That seed takes root the tree grows And then what do you have you get a bunch of apples that come as a result from that one little seed? When you do wrong when you do wicked things when you do bad things That's like sowing a seed of badness of evil it may take some time Before that comes back to you just like it takes time for that apple tree to grow it could be years You might think wow, I got away with it. Hey, nothing happened to me I did this bad thing past versions. You said that it's gonna come back to me. Look give it time Because it will come back to you It may take years. It may take a decade It may come down on your children It'll come back though And when it comes back, it's gonna come back way worse just like that one little seed that came from one Apple is able to produce Hundreds thousands of apples tens of thousands of apples in the span that it's a tree Sowing that little bit of evil can bring back a lot of bad on you So when you have people trying to convince you to do something that you know is not right You have the choice and it may not be easy, but you got to do the right thing Otherwise you're gonna have bad come back on you Turn over Proverbs chapter 13 you're in chapter 1 to slip over to chapter 13 This is also why it's important to choose your friends wisely Be careful who you make friends with don't just be friends with everybody and If you go to school or you're on a group And there's the cool kids and then the not-so-cool kids and the cool kids are always getting into trouble They're stealing things. That's when I was a kid, you know the cool kids a cool group They would go off to the store and they would steal Cigarettes and they would steal alcohol and they would do all this stuff. Those are the cool kids, but you know what? It's not very cool when that comes back on you and then they're getting arrested and they're getting in trouble They're getting hurt and maybe even dying Because of the trouble that they're getting into you don't want to be around Those people you don't want them to be your friends because they're going to influence you to do bad things They're going to try to get you to do bad things You want to make friends with people who like God and like the the right things and want to do the right things Then you don't have to worry as much about the peer pressure about people trying to get you to do things You don't want to do Proverbs 13 verse number 20 the Bible reads he that walketh with wise men Shall be wise so if you walk with people who have wisdom people who are smart people who know the Bible people who? Know and like the right way that's going to help make you wise There to be a good influence on you, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed Just Being around the wrong group being in that foolish crowd Can let can make you become just be destroyed as a result the Bible says evil pursueth sinners But to the righteous good shall be repaid This reminds me of a story that I read in the newspaper a while back where You know You have some guys that this was in Arizona That were at a bar, and they weren't drinking or anything But some other guys got in a fight Right and then the one guy goes out to his goes out to his car and gets his gun and he's drunk And he ends up shooting people in the facility and some guy just some innocent Bystander that was there ends up getting shot and killed Now We could read the Bible and understand that you know drunkenness is a sin, and it's not worthy of the death penalty But he was in a place. He put himself in a place where he shouldn't have been God doesn't want his people. You know hanging out at bars where people are getting drunk and You know their eyes are beholding strange women their their hearts uttering perverse things that the Bible says is going to happen We drink alcohol, and you put yourself in bad situations. You can only expect bad things to happen and I'm not saying it's right You know the person got killed, but what I'm saying is you could control where you put yourself You don't have to be in those environment You don't have to make friends with the people are going to try to influence you to do bad wicked things You could control that aspect of your life so Be careful kids who you are hanging out with you know, maybe not all the kids in this story Maybe they weren't all mocking Elisha, maybe some of them were just friends With those and they're hanging out with them and saying and then laughing and giggling and think it's all real funny what they're doing But then they ended up getting attacked by the Bears, too and you know just so you understand this we we Have watched some some different documentaries and stuff on on real extreme events where people like Almost die and but they make it through it We've seen some about from people get attacked by Bears getting attacked by a bear is Not a pretty sight at all. It's an extremely frightful Thing to be a part of a bear is a massive beast and is super strong And there is nothing you can do if a bear is going to attack you there's almost nothing that you can do and Having these mama bears that get in protective mode these she bears If they've got cubs around which it sounds like the case here. Those are some of the most vicious attacks Unlike like from any animal in the world when a she bear attacks protecting her cubs That's why you have all the mama bear type stories and we use that as an expression There's a mama bear trying to protect her young because it's so vicious what they're capable of doing So if you actually take a minute to think about like like what these kids actually how they died is brutal It's horrible This message for the kids especially is a warning okay, it's serious Who you're friends with the things that you decide to do especially if you're not under your parent supervision And you have time to go out and you're away from your parents Be careful with what you do because making bad decisions and doing wicked things Could have very very severe consequences that you never thought would ever possibly happen But they do happen The next aspect of this story is well, where are the parents and What are you doing raising kids that are going around and mocking men of God Another example of how this how this could have been avoided one for the kids who? Became friends with the with the bad kids you shouldn't have got you should have made friends with them how about the parents though allowing their kids to go off and just be out there and Then on top of all that to start doing wicked things and being disrespectful to people that they shouldn't be disrespectful for Turn if you would to Proverbs 29 here in Proverbs 13. Just go forward to Proverbs 29 We'll get some more wisdom on this story extremely Important parenting tip from Proverbs look at verse number 15 the Bible reads the rod and reproof give Wisdom so before we even read the rest of that verse the Bible teaches in multiple places, okay the rod You use the rod as a form of discipline on your children Because it works because that's what God intended for how children ought to be raised He gave the padded area to receive the the punishment That's due and look I have to say this every single time. We're not talking about Injuring children, we're not talking about abusing them breaking bones black eyes cut you know We're not talking about abuse But we are talking about discipline and the Bible teaches very very clearly in multiple places That you know thou shalt beat him with the rod And he shall not die and you'll deliver his soul from hell, okay read through the book of Proverbs if you don't believe me and You know I'm sorry here. We take the Bible literally and I put this into practice in my home, and I'm not afraid to say that publicly because I'm gonna follow every word of God and You know what it works great? Because children will learn and they'll learn respect and they'll learn how to be well-behaved when you can discipline them properly The Bible says the rod and reproof, so it's not just the rod you also need the reproof Reproof means you're instructing them and telling them they're wrong and telling them why they're wrong It's not enough just to give them the rod you have to also explain. Here's what you did wrong This is why you're being punished, and this is what you need to do to not get it again And The punishment is there for their good. It's there for their benefit the same way that God chastens every son that he receives if God if it's right for God, and if God sees it's the right thing to do to chasten us as adults He chastens us For our own good and causes bad things happen so that we won't do them again In the same way that we teach our children not to do bad Otherwise bad things happen. There's so many and I'm not going to get too far in depth in this But I mean it's it's it's an entire sermon of itself but teaching kids That there's painful consequences for doing bad things is a very good thing for the child to learn from an early age And honestly the people who are just shying away from this and not using this and turning to other methods of discipline and punishment instead Of using a rod. I think that's one of the reasons why there's so many people that don't even believe in a literal hell anymore Because they can't even grasp the concept. How could a loving God put somebody in hell I Mean it just they just can't even understand it Well, you know what God is a loving God and hell is a real place And if you can understand how a loving parent can at least put some discipline for that there is a consequence for your actions It's not that far of a leap to understand that there's a God that will punish us as well And that there is a place called hell that's real and that You deserve Consequences for your actions, and they're not going to be pleasant But look at the rest of this verse verse 15 the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself Bringeth his mother to shame You can't just leave children to their own devices. You can't just ignore them You can't just send them out into the world as Children and expect everything to be fine and expect them to make all the best decisions and just let them run free and roam around And do whatever You need to be Apparent to them now look there's always times as they grow they end up earning more freedom And you let them do more things right, but you can't just just leave them off and ignore them Ever I mean they need to have guidance they need to have instruction otherwise. They're going to you're going to bring you to shame They're going to bring mom to shame who's responsible for their upbringing Job 39 if you want to turn a job 39 Job 39 also brings up this concept about You know leaving a child to himself, but it, but it does it through the use of the animals specifically of an ostrich and How an ostrich is void of wisdom and understanding in? How an ostrich deals with its young or with its eggs verse number 13 in job 39? the Bible reads gave us out of the goodly wings unto the peacocks or wings and feathers unto the ostrich and verse 14 is a continuation referring to the ostrich which leaveth her eggs in the earth and warm at them and dust and Forget it that the foot may crush them or that the wild beast may break them just saying oh, yeah, okay? Well, this is good enough. They're here in the dust. I'm going to go off and do something else that's what ostriches do they just leave their eggs out and they're susceptible to the environment and What this is illustrating is the parent that just thinks oh, yeah, I've got this really young child whatever I'm just going to let them go they could run free they could roam around the neighborhood. They could do whatever. They'll be okay No, you got to watch them. There's wicked people out there. There's bad people out there as bad influences out There's people who are going to want to try to You know take advantage of your children You can't just let them go and do whatever you have to watch over them and protect them That's why your job as a parent verse 15 and forget that the foot may crush them at the wild beast may break them She is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers Her labor is in vain without fear Because God has deprived her of wisdom neither at the imparted to her understanding So you know parents you don't want to be like the ostrich that doesn't have wisdom and who's hardened against her own young? right when you just when you don't care about your kids you just let them do whatever and When you let your kids just roam off and do whatever It's not going to be good. You know why because the bible says that foolishness is bound in the heart of the child It's natural for children to do Foolish things so when you leave them off their own devices guess what they're going to do foolish things You know what happens. We just leave them off to do foolish things in the end bad things are going to happen to them and This may be a rare case, but it's possible that they could end up dying over some foolish thing that they do Let's put it into today's world right. I've heard many different times of people a lot of kids doing stupid things Right kids doing stupid things like how about throwing rocks off of overpasses on freeways stupid kids they don't think about anything do it really foolish things and then they could cause the death of somebody else or someone gets really really really angry because they've done something foolish like that, and then they get up and go out there and You know maybe more bad things happen to the kid because they're not even thinking There's so many different Examples that I could I just think of I mean even as kids throwing Snowballs and stuff at cars as they pass by or snowballs packed with a rock in the middle You know don't ask me how I know these things. I've been around I I Didn't necessarily have all the best friends when I was growing up So I'm not going to go into all the details, but look you know right as kids do stupid things That's a student of some really stupid things to do and when the more you just kind of leave them to themselves Especially when they're not really grown The more trouble they're going to get into the more risk there is for bad things happening and Actually that verse that I was quoting I have that my notes here Foolishness is bound on the heart of the child, but that's not the end of the verse the rest that verse says, but the rod of correction Shall drive it far from him again another verse referring to The rod of correction being used for a child and what's it doing? It's driving it far from him It's what it's used for okay, and it may be uncomfortable to hear especially in the society We have today, but you know what you need to be preached that much more and I know that this needs to be preached more because When we go out with my family and look My kids are far from perfect far from perfect, so I'm not just putting them up on a pedestal It's like oh we have the best kids in the world Because they're not Okay, we fall short on parenting But when we could just go out time after time after time if you go to restaurant things like that And there's so many people coming. Oh, how good you know like there's something going wrong with everyone else Seriously because the kids that's I mean they ought to be able to learn how to sit still and behave themselves and have and have proper manners and What happens is when you leave the kids of their own devices and leave them to themselves, and you're not properly disciplining and Reproving them and instructing them how to behave they won't know how to behave They need to be taught Last point let's flip over if you would to Matthew chapter 10 Matthew chapter 10 So one we've got kids making bad decisions Yoking up with bad friends getting themselves in positions, and they didn't really think Would have gone as far as it did, but it did you've got parents Not knowing what their kids are up to Out you know mocking a man of God, and then now they're in danger of You know these these other you know and even if they weren't mocking them That's still like if they're in an area where you've got The potential for these bears to just kill them and stuff, and there's this whole group of children I Don't know I think the parents should be knowing a little bit more obviously accidents happen, but You need you need to be aware of what's going on with your children And that's I mean that was a lot of kids to you like 42 died how many were alive? It sounds like a big gang of kids Kind of you know and Sounds intimidating to to I mean and it doesn't tell us the ages or anything either I wonder like how old some of these children were and And so on my last point here Because I don't think based on what I read in this story that it was right for Elisha to do what he did okay, now he had the power of God on him and Obviously what happened was a result of his curse Elijah did a lot of good things, and I think what you can find with any great man of God in the scripture You'll be able to find an area in the scripture where they've done wrong And I think it's there on purpose I think it's there to show us that nobody ought to be lifted up too high as far as men are concerned Because no man is perfect no matter how great of a prophet no matter how great of a man of God someone has been used Everybody makes mistakes Everybody does something wrong and sometimes that people do really bad things I Mean David commit adultery and murder Moses killed a man with his baby. Hope there's people have done some things that are just are clearly not right from Scripture But they were great men of God, and they still got used them and everything else in here when when Elisha cursed these kids They suffered for it. They really got you know that a lot of kids lost their lives children lost their lives So I don't think we did is right and the reason why I say what I think He did wasn't right is because we're going to compare it with other scripture Last week I preached on Ezra chapter 10 in the divorce and saying what Ezra said and commanded about you know The people getting divorced wasn't right the reason why I proved that is because we can see all the other places in Scripture It talks about divorce not being right So when you have a man doing that and it's not thus saith the Lord and it's not you know a co direct command from God Well now we got to look at is what the man did right or wrong? So in this instance Elisha cursed the children No one ever said to curse children and no one ever said in orders the law say that if somebody mocks Another person that they deserve the death penalty Now the closest thing that you can have for this is if a child Curses his father or his mother That was the death penalty Okay, but that's not the situation here. These are not Elisha's children They were mocking him it's clear it said they were mocking him it doesn't say they were threatening him It doesn't say they were doing anything else. They were mocking him with words Saying go up thou bald head Write a really dumb thing something that could be really irritating something that no kid should ever do Something that they should have much more respect for we know that the Bible serious about Respecting about honoring and things like that, but at the same time we still don't see a death penalty punishment I'm breaking those things and what we're gonna see is you know the attitude that we ought to have is one of long-suffering and forgiveness and You're in Matthew 10. I'm gonna read from Psalm 119 verse 165 the Bible reads great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them I Don't think Elisha should have gotten offended at the kids who are making fun of his bald head Right he should have just let it go Matthew 10 where you are look at verse number 21 the Bible reads and the brother shall deliver up the brother to death and the father the child and the children shall rise up against Their parents and cause them to be put to death and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake But he that endureth to the end shall be saved But when they persecute you in this city flee into another for verily I say unto you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man become The disciples not above his master nor the servant above his lord It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his lord Look at this if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, which that's a devil, right? Satan if they call them as well as beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his household Fear them not therefore for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known So basically Jesus is teaching, you know, they've called me Satan. They're gonna call you names, too Basically be ready for it Okay, be prepared to have people calling you names and saying that you're of the devil and saying all this other stuff Because that's what they said about Jesus Christ and this isn't something that's a brand new teaching to the New Testament This is something that believers always should have had an understanding of is that you have a long suffering and you're able to handle when people do things to you and Turn to go to James chapter 3 and that you shouldn't just be cursing people now Reproving and correcting those children and calling them out and telling them Hey, what you're doing is wicked and wrong would be absolutely appropriate, right? There's lots of appropriate measures that you can take When when children do things like that and do wicked things and say wicked things But I don't think it was right for Elisha to actually put a curse on them so that they would die And What I think proves this is James 3 We read verse number 8 the Bible reads, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison Therewith bless we God even the Father and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing My brethren these things ought not so to be Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter Can the fig tree my brethren bear olive berries either a vine figs? So can no fountain Both yield salt water and fresh and now I think is really interesting about this Connection here with James 3 it's saying look you shouldn't be blessing and cursing people with your mouth Okay, you shouldn't just be throwing these curses on especially people like I mean these kids didn't do anything worthy of death to be cursed to die and James 3 is saying hey, how can you allow your mouth to Be giving blessings and cursings He says this ought not to be but then he brings up the sweet water and the bitter salt water in the fresh It's interesting that that happened right after Elisha healed their water Right he added salt to the water and made that that that bitter water that brought forth death He made that good again, and then here he is Cursing the children after he just blessed the people and I think that ought not to have been It doesn't change what actually happened That's a fact and I think this is I think this is the only area where I could you could even find Elisha doing something that wasn't right, but he still did it It's a real neat story. It's an interesting story. There's a lot to learn from him Whether you're a child whether you're a parent Right or just a believer right when it just comes to cursing people in general Right hold your tongue Watch your mouth. That's a serious matter I'm cursing someone is a very serious Matter because the curse obviously we don't know exactly what he said, but the curse was unto death I mean, that's what a curse is anyways. You know don't get confused with words that Society thinks are bad words Because I people you'll hear people I cussed and you know cuss is just a People who don't pronounce curse properly that's where the word term cuss comes from oh, I'm cussing it means you're cursing But a curse isn't just using some four-letter word That's deemed inappropriate a curse is like you're cursing some bad things to happen to people. That's what a curse is It's the opposite of a blessing a blessing is you know well wishing on people and I hope that you succeed And I hope you prosper that's blessings cursings is the exact opposite right so the Bible teaches us in James 3 not to Not to do that we saw that we should be able to expect name calling we should we should not let that surprise us and Be able to not be offended when those things happen right Okay, it's funny. We we just had that who Out so the first door went out soul winning today Some lady just like came out of the house and was just starts yelling and screaming It was just crazy this I haven't had I haven't had experience like this the whole time. I've been in Georgia Okay, there's a very first time so don't if you don't normally go so and don't let this scare you because this is very very very rare Okay, but in it still wasn't that big of a deal She's just coming out and just yelling at us and everything else just like what no you coming here bother And you don't have a mask you never notice all this stuff and just get out my problem Like I am like get out my problem. I'm literally walking away. What are you? Not sticking around. I don't want to talk to you anymore right and then it's like You know what do you say to that? Well? Have a good day? I hope you have a good weekend, right? But You can get offended you can let it really bother you and upset you and But see the wrong thing to do would just be to curse. I mean she comes out yelling screaming There's no reason to curse the lady We're out there trying to do good. We're out trying to preach the gospel Wanted to try to reach her wanted to try to get her saved or whatever and you know what she didn't want to have it She's yelling scream I'm not gonna go and curse or even it and I don't think she I don't think she called us any names But oh wait she did she did she said what did she call us? weirdos or something or No, there was a I don't remember what it was it was a Freaks she calls freaks right so she called us names right you said you freaks You know no no one wants you freaks coming up to our door Whatever weird things happen sometimes, but it's Hey, whatever Does it really matter that someone called me a freak today No No, I'll answer that for you. It doesn't matter it really doesn't matter at all She could go on being miserable And we move on to the next door and we could still continue to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ No reason to curse out someone for doing that and losing their cool and doing foolish things a foolish thing And I bet in some other circumstance that lady probably would be embarrassed for For what she did and who knows what kind of days you have a whatever right, but all that said You know it's a this story Honestly, don't think all I should do is write But sometimes people do things that aren't right so be careful in the situations you put yourself in be careful We become friends with you know and and don't follow a multitude To do evil because it's only going to come back around and bite you in the end Let's borrow our heads have a word of prayer dear Heavenly Father Lord. We thank you so much for These especially these interesting stories in the Bible Lord I pray to please help us to have a proper understanding of all the events that happen in Scripture and That we would be able to compare them to To your clear words and clear teaching that we could understand them appropriately Just as we see in the stories and judges 19 and in Jen and in Genesis 19 where You have lot offering up his daughters, and you have The man and and you know offering up his concubine and other people to appease the the wicked people the wicked sodomites Lord I Pray to please help us have the discernment to be able understand that just because people are doing things like that doesn't make it Right, but that we would have the the wisdom the understanding to be able to know Even when great men of God are doing things what's right and what's wrong based on your clear word? Pray to please increase our knowledge understanding I pray to please watch over our children help us as parents to raise our children properly and to raise them biblically and to trust and have faith in your word that your methods work and that we just need to obey in all Areas of our life what your word says dear God help us to be better church members better parents better children To be able to follow your will for our life in Jesus name we pray amen