Please Oh Lord, Kill and Mutilate my Enemies... (with bears)

The Rule: Worship songs encompass the biblical God in His entirety.

"23 Then he (Elisha) went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, 'Go up, you bald head; go up, you bald head!' 24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number. 25 And he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria."

It is amazing that a man of God would curse young boys to a point of being mauled to death by bears. Elsiha even does it in passing as if it was no big deal. What is even more amazing is God follows through with Elisha's curse. No man of the cloth today would ever succumb to such a thing, and even if he did, would he be jailed and sentenced to prison because he cursed his enemies?

So why don't we sing to the God of Elisha? It would sound rather strange wouldn't you think?

Striketh My Enemies.... With Bears

Oh Lord, thank you for hearing what I said
And killing those who made fun of my head.
You are worthy to be praised, for you sooth my cares
And rid of those who mock me with giant bears.

We have to admit, the God who we sing to in America lives in fluffy clouds, lofty mountains and raging oceans (these are the images you usually see on screen when worship commences). But he also lives in the moments where young lads' guts are being splattered by bears because they made fun of a bald prophet. He is in the blood, the pain and the grittiness of mankind. He is a defender of the widows and the orphans, of the righteous and meek. Usually, with the exception of those in the United States, those types of people dwell in slums, in violent wild places, they sleep near puddles of sewage, glean in dumps, and do commerce in violent communities.

Why do we worship the God of floating clouds, pastoral landscapes, and pristine streams through green pastures? I think maybe it is because this is how Paul the apostle told us to view life. "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things" Philippians 4:8. But we must still look at the ugliness of the world and see how God is moving in it. Where the good, the lovely and the things worthy of praise are at.

I would like to worship the God who makes the famished leap with joy. I want to worship the God who gives a sex slave hope, or the God who brings life, vitality and an education to the oldest child whose' mother died from AIDS and now has to raise 8 of his brothers and sisters alone, with whom some are dying of the same disease. No wonder western culture has little faith, they see a God blessing the blessed. It's like adding a scoop of Kool Aid (not a reference to a cult) into a pool with lemonade. Many Americans, myself included, cannot fully understand the magnitude of the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, because we are already so full. By God giving us 100 loaves from one loaf is but a miracle drop in the bucket of America, but a miracle just the same.

God is among the hungry. The deprived. The sick. The dying. If you are not around this enough, it will be harder to see where God is. In humanities depravity, God's divinity shines even brighter.

So let's look back to the two young lads. Though God loves those young lads, he destroyed them, all for his glory. God's power, and respect for his followers manifested in a very real sense that day. I am sure the villagers and posterity hearing this story knows that God means business.

God is glorified in the guts of young lads mauled by bears.


Lord, in all honesty, if I have said something that is not of truth and insulting to the expansion of your kingdom, please forgive me. I am just trying to figure out who you are in a world lost to the flames.