07.03. The Judgment of the Scoffing Children

The Judgment of the Scoffing Children.

Another meditation is suggested here. Children of Bethel are another order of persons altogether. If Elisha present the strong one in Christ, the true Levite, who had turned his back on all but the glory, and the chariot of fire to conduct him to it, and if the sons of the prophets are the weak ones, still, however, by divine grace, in the same company and blessing as Elisha, these children of Bethel, on the other hand, are the mockers, or infidels. They despise the word of the Lord. They mock the thought of ascension. "Where is the promise of his coming?" say they (2 Peter 3:1-18) The whole mystery of God, made known for salvation and glory, is their sport. They put the Son of God to open shame. "Go up, thou bald head, go up, thou bald head," they say to Elisha, as reproaching the thought that Elijah had already, gone up. And here the curse falls. Ministers of wrath come forth; the bears on the children of Bethel, and the eagles on the carcase, to vindicate the divine truth against the gainsayers. Creation, it is true, is not to groan for ever under the curse which our sin has put on it, but shall be delivered from bondage into glorious liberty (Romans 8:1-39), as Jericho had just been here but the curse will rest on the Cain, the children of Bethel, who despise God’s remedy for the mischief. And it is written of such mocking, infidel children, children of disobedience, whether of Babylon, of Bethel, or of Edom, "happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." (Psalms 137:1-9)*

*Bethel may well stand in company with Babylon and Edom. Its history savours of full apostacy from God. There the idols were set up (1 Kings 12:25-33). There, as we saw, Hiel was born, (See Introduction.) And here we learn that it was the native place of these scoffing, infidel children.