My Absolute Favorite Old Testament Story: 'Elisha and the Two Bears'
This one, I'm sure, was widely told around the campfire to young boys who were starting to feel their oats, or whatever young boys start feeling at some point. It's a story of the God of Love as He was in Old Testament days. Text is from the New International Version. While I personally prefer the King James Version of this, not everyone does, due to its Elizabethan English:
2 Kings 2:19-24
19 The people of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.”
20 “Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him.
21 Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’” 22 And the water has remained pure to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.
23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!”
24 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 boys.
Moral: Don't tease old prophets about their bald heads, boys. God'll getcha for that!
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