Mercy Versus Mauling

by Melanie Kerr
Published January 11, 2006

Quite a while ago I was reading the story at the beginning of Elisha's ministry - his encounter with the boys that called him "Baldy Head." Elisha cursed them and two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty two youths.

It seems a bit harsh to have a bear mauling all those youths simply because they insulted Elisha. Where does the "turn the other cheek" come in? What Jesus taught hundreds of years later, was what God was saying, so why didn't Elisha turn the other cheek?

I have a tendency to check out what commentaries have to say, and one of them narrowed it down to the look that Elisha gave them. When Elisha looked into the eyes of the boys he saw pure wickedness. There was no shame or remorse or any sign of repentance. The commentary went on to say that the attitude of the boys was not a one off. It was an attitude passed from one generation to another, much like passing on the colour of your eyes. Fathers handed on to their children a total lack of respect for men of God, which they handed on to the next generation. Elisha was simply bringing the cycle to an end.

A few weeks ago I had a particularly unpleasant encounter with a pupil. He had the pleasure of being in all my classes since first year, and had definitely gone "bad". He had got to the stage of being quite unmanageable and was robbing the rest of the class of their opportunity to learn. He had an entourage of groupy girls. I seriously don't know what they saw in him - maybe it the attraction of the "rebel" - but they always defended him when I challenged his behaviour. They would say things like "It's my fault - I spoke to him first…I was winding him up first…I provoked him first…I threw the rubber at him first."

I can remember calling him to where I was standing, not wanting to get the groupies involved. I looked into his eyes. What Elisha saw in those boys, I saw in this pupil. It was the same lack of shame, lack of repentance - a kind of arrogance.

This was a boy that Elisha would have cursed, who would have been mauled by bears. In my humble opinion, he thoroughly deserved to be mauled. One day he may actually encounter an Elisha and end up being mauled.

I thought for a moment whether I could follow Elisha's example and curse the boy. I have actually met Christians who practice cursing, but never tried it myself. Very quickly the Holy Spirit directed me to Luke 6:27-36 which begins with the command to love your enemy and ends with the stipulation to be merciful!

Now, loving your enemies and being merciful might change the enemy and there again it might not! It is not really about changing the enemy - it is about me. My reward is not in seeing a dramatic change come over the boy because I am being loving and merciful - that may happen - it is about me demonstrating to the heavenlies that I am made of different stuff. I am a child of the Most High and I best demonstrate that through the way I treat other people. It is a declaration that saving grace has indeed transformed me.

I didn't particularly want to pray for the boy. OK, he might just be the next Billy Graham. When I finally prayed, it wasn't "Of course, you did." I prayed not because I wanted to (it was most reluctant), not because I think he deserved prayer (he didn't), but because God reminded me that He had shown me mercy. Days later I sat down next to the boy. We talked about things and he listened as I gave my view on how people perceived his behaviour and attitude. Days later, he was back to his obnoxious self, with his groupies defending him. I didn't get a change in his attitude - but I gave him the chance to change. Sometimes that is all we are required to do.

Viewed 299 times