Stories of the Way. Henry E. Neufeld
that she had not be killed with an axe, but instead had been beaten to death.
It took only a few moments for the verdict to be given for the accused young man to be released. The girl had no family there, but the elders determined to bury her properly.
The chief elder turned to Daniel. “Can we not convict this man of the murder of the girl?” he asked, now convinced of Daniel’s wisdom and learning.
“Not unless there are witnesses that he was the one who beat her. But you can convict him of bringing false testimony. The law also says, ‘You shall do to him as he planned to do to his brother’ (Deuteronomy 19:19). We do not have a temple, but I think it would be right to follow this law even here.”
Ehud’s face turned white as he heard the village elders, one after another, agree to the verdict based on their own witness to the false testimony.
All in all, thought Daniel, it was not the restful evening he’d hoped for. But justice was done, however unpleasant.
QUESTIONS:
Why is false testimony so strongly condemned in Scripture?
Is lying when you are not under oath less destructive?
Is there ever a time when it is acceptable to lie? To violate an oath?
God Talk Club
and the She Bears
2 Kings 2:23-25, 1 John 4:7-21
Small talk was dying down and everyone had their drinks.1 Mark had a question:
“I’ve been given an assignment,” he said to the group, and I’d like your thoughts.2
“What is it?” asked Mandy.
“We’re supposed to write a 10 minute homily on 2 Kings 3:23-24.”
“Ten minutes? That’s going to cramp your style. You can’t tell them everything you’ve learned in your seminary classes.” Mandy was laughing as she said it, and Mark took it in good humor. He really did like to put his whole seminary training into each homily.
“Ten minutes,” echoed Jerry. “You can’t really get to the meat of a scripture in that period of time.
“I didn’t know you Presbyterians had long sermons. I thought you generally had about 20 minute homilies,” said Mandy.
“Not at my church. It’s more like 30-40 minutes, and sometimes we get more in the pastor’s Sunday School class.”
“Oh, you learn something new every day,” said Mandy. “But we should get back to Mark. What are your questions?”
“Well,” said Mark and paused. He felt like he knew what he’d hear from each person and was almost afraid to start. “It’s such a violent story. Elisha seems to get offended and so he slaughters a bunch of kids. Where’s the moral in that?”
Justine, Mandy, and Jerry started talking at once, then started to apologize to each other.
Over the confusion, Bob Norman cut in. “OK, I’ll bite. What is this story of the she-bears?”
“You don’t know that one?” exclaimed Mac. “That’s a skeptical staple. A Christian says ‘God is love’ and you say ‘But what about the she bears?’ I’m going to have to revoke your skeptic’s license.”
Bob was working on getting used to Mac. He was a science teacher, an atheist, and quite convinced, but he had been raised in a conventionally religious home, one where he didn’t see church all that often. Until he had gotten together with the God-Talk Club he hadn’t argued religion that much. He just didn’t believe.
Mac, on the other hand, seemed to think that the purpose of skeptics was to argue with Christians. She knew more about Christianity than most Christians.
“So what is the story?” asked Bob, looking at Mac.
“Well, this prophet named Elisha was walking along, and some children started taunting him about being bald. So he cursed them and called some she bears to maul them. The bears got 42 of them.”
Jerry cut in, “Well, not precisely. How about we read the text as it’s written?”
Jerry pulled out his Bible and read:
(23) He went from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” (24) And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. — 2 Kings 2:23-24 (ESV)
“OK,” asked Bob, “so why are they telling this guy to go up? And is this Elisha you’re talking about?”
“Well Elijah had just been taken up into heaven, so the boys were suggesting that Elisha do the same thing,” said Jerry.
“But I don’t believe that anyone can go up to heaven,” said Bob.
“Why don’t we discuss the story based on what the people who wrote it believed?” asked Mandy. She barely cut off Jerry who had been about to argue the point. He again thought about how hard it was for him to take Mandy seriously because of the way she behaved, yet she had these flashes of wisdom.
“Maybe the boys didn’t believe that Elijah had ascended either,” said Mark. “They might have been suggesting that Elisha was lying. Elisha was the only witness, after all.”
“That’s quite possible,” said Mandy.
“But it doesn’t help us much in understanding the story,” said Jerry. Whatever their reasons they were taunting God’s prophet.”
“So Justine,” said Bob, turning to look her right in the eye. “What would you do if some children in your congregation were taunting you?”
“Well, it would depend on what they were doing,” she answered. “If they’re just joking, I’d laugh and go on. If they’re threatening me, I’m going to deal with it. Worst case, I might call the police. I’ve had some teenagers who needed police intervention. I don’t like it, but it happens.”
“But you wouldn’t curse them, or, in the absence of readily available she-bears, you wouldn’t release the dogs on them,” said Mac decisively, as though she thought she had just won a point.
“Precisely,” said Bob.
“But Justine isn’t a prophet,” said Jerry.
“So? She’s a pastor. Isn’t that close enough?” asked Bob.
“I hardly think so. Elisha was the greatest prophet of his time. It would be more like taunting the president,” said Jerry.
“But the secret service doesn’t shoot adults who taunt the president, much less children,” said Bob.
“Supposing a teenager–and these boys could be teenagers–was carrying a handgun and waved it at the president. Then what would happen?” asked Jerry.
“It’s quite possible that the secret service might shoot the teenager. But there’s no indication these children were carrying guns, or swords or spears,” said Bob again.
“But there’s nothing that says they didn’t either. They might have been very threatening.” Now Jerry looked like he was making a point.
“But wouldn’t that be adding something to the text?” asked Mark.
“Well, we’re adding to the text whether we assume they’re little