In reading the story of Elisha it must ever be remembered that his mission was to present the grace of God to a guilty nation. For this reason his miracles are almost without exception miracles of grace. The three exceptions—the mocking youths who are cursed, Gehazi who is stricken with leprosy, and the death of the lord on whose hand the king leaned, are in perfect keeping with the prophet's mission. In every case the judgment is the direct outcome of slighting grace.
Thus while witness is given to God's sovereign grace in a number of striking miracles, there is also a witness to the inevitable judgment that will overtake those who reject, or falsify, or slight, the grace of God. At the beginning of his ministry Elisha has to learn that if he brings grace and blessing into the scene of the curse, he will be confronted by those who reject grace, and mock at the vessel of grace. Thus it comes to pass as the prophet went up to Bethel, he is met by a band of youths who mock at the ascension of Elijah. In derision they say to Elisha, " Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head."
The sons of the prophets betray ignorance and unbelief as to the ascension. The " men of the city " may be indifferent to ascension, but the children of Bethel mock at ascension. In Bethel, the place that was distinguished in the history of Israel as the house of God, we find a band of mockers. Nor is it otherwise in this day of grace. There is still ignorance and unbelief in the religious circle, and indifference among the men of the world, but the most terrible mark of the last days will be the appearance of scoffers in the Christian profession—that which professes to be the house of God. For such there is nothing but judgment,—a judgment that begins at the house of God (2 Peter 3:33Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, (2 Peter 3:3); 1 Peter 4:1717For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)).
Thus it was in the day of Elisha. The ascension of Elijah to heaven, the double portion of the spirit that rests on Elisha, the activities of grace for the blessing of man, are merely subjects for sport. The solemn result is that the one who is the minister of grace invokes the judgment upon those who reject it.