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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Why God killed boys for teasing Elisha | 2 Kings | DocTrinsograce | 195931 | ||
Dear SB, Welcome to the forum! You have checked a lot of translations. You might develop a repertoire of good commentaries for your study as well. The word for youths is the Hebrew naar. Isaac was called naar when he was in his twenties (Genesis 22:3). Rehoboam was called naar when he was in his forties (2 Chronicles 13:7). In your study of the attributes of God, you must not think of Him as a man. All of the attributes of God are in perfect harmony. Humans are conflicted when they try to balance justice and mercy. God's attributes are never conflicted. Most systematic theologies list around 25 attributes of God. Love and righteousness are but two of them. Furthermore, you cannot use human standards of to judge God. That gets things exactly backwards. If God does a thing, then it is perfectly loving, righteous, just, merciful, etc. God cannot be contrary to His own nature. Therefore, if there is a problem, it is a problem with our understanding, not a contradiction in God's revealed nature. In Him, Doc |
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2 | Why God killed boys for teasing Elisha | 2 Kings | MJH | 213262 | ||
Doc, Do you think there is something in the mocking we are not seeing because we don't understand what is truly being conveyed in the mocking, "Go on up" and "baldhead?" For example: I didn't know that when an Arab hit you with his shoe he was degrading you in his strongest terms until I saw them slap the statue of Sadam's head. (And threw a shoe at Pres. Bush.) If someone did that to me, I wouldn't think too much of it because I'm not in the culture. I am wondering, since I read this question, what made the phrase, "Go on up, you baldhead." so degrading and demeaning? Any thoughts? MJH |
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3 | Why God killed boys for teasing Elisha | 2 Kings | DocTrinsograce | 213308 | ||
Hi, MJH... Yes, we mightn't understand the full implications of the youths' mocking of Elijah. In fact, I'm sure that we don't. Elijah is about the only person still alive from that period of history, but he isn't accessible to question. Funny how we try to justify God by trying to ferret out some sort of extra fault in people He has chosen to judge. (Hidden under it all our sympathies toward the guilty exceed our sympathies for the righteous!) Every son of Adam only merits immediate and eternal death and damnation. That's all he merits. Absolutely nothing more! Furthermore, God's holiness and righteousness are not sullied by killing and damning -- rather His holiness and righteousness is perfectly upheld. Besides, as I pointed out, we are utterly remiss in judging God by His deeds -- something that, actually, only adds to our merit of death and damnation. Instead, everything that God does is perfectly right, holy, just, loving, etc. In fact, the very way we ask these questions shows our depravity. Bringing death to these young men brought a cessation to their sinning, and to the harm that they were bringing to those around them. God's mercy and love is clearly manifest in this act, isn't it? In Him, Doc |
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