The cost of ridicule

Then (Elisha) went up from there to Bethel;

and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!”

So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the LORD. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths (2 Kings 2:23-24).

J. Vernon McGee commentary:

“Little children” is naar or nahar in Hebrew. … You will find this word used in many places in Scripture, and in every other place it is translated “young men.” This was a crowd of young fellows.

They were students of the false prophets. They were a gang that mocked and ridiculed Elisha. They said, “Go up, thou bald head.” What did they mean by that? They were telling him to do the same thing Elijah had done. They were saying, “Why don't you take off like Elijah did?” They were ridiculing the truth in Scripture that God will take a people out of this world.

This is the same attitude, Peter says, that will appear on the earth again in the last days. This incident in 2 Kings is given to us to let us know that God intends to judge those who ridicule the second coming of Christ.

Second Peter 3:3–4 says, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

During the last days on earth there will be those who will ridicule believers about the coming of Christ. They will say something like, “Well, what is the matter? You haven't gone up yet. You are still hanging around. I thought you were going to leave us.” This is the type of thing scoffers will say to believers.

Many are already saying, “Where is the sign of His coming?” For this reason we ought to be careful today in the way that we teach the second coming of Christ. We should not go out on a limb. We should not become fanatics on the subject. We should handle it with care, even in a manner in which the Word of God handles it.

So 2 Kings is just a little picture of the judgment that will come upon those who will ridicule Christ's return to earth. It is a fearful judgment.

Source: Thru the Bible by J. Vernon McGee