Mock

Dorma Guice
Feb 1, 2021
5 min read

Definition: to tease or laugh at in a scornful or contemptuous manner. *

Approximate Number of Occurrences in Scripture (72)

Read: 2 Kings 2:23-25 for full context of this account

2 Kings 2:23 (NIV) From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!"

That Was Then

This account comes almost immediately after Elisha grabs the baton of prophetic ministry from Elijah, his mentor who was miraculously taken up to heaven in a whirlwind (vs. 11-12). Elisha, now a GOD-appointed and anointed prophet, has just received a double-portion anointing from Elijah (unarguably one of scripture’s most renown prophets). On his way to Bethel, some youths came out from the town and mocked him, yelling “Go on up, you baldhead!” “Go on up, you baldhead!”

If you read this account without knowing what transpired earlier in this chapter (vs. 1-22) one could easily shrug these kids’ mocking off, saying “boys will be boys”. But these were not cute little kids; this was a gang of apprentice false prophets of Baal. And they weren’t just kidding around; they were blaspheming Elisha’s GOD and undermining His miraculous power. In essence, they were jeering to Elisha, [if you’re such a hotshot prophet then why don’t you go on up to heaven in a whirlwind as your pretend master Elijah (supposedly) did]. Not acknowledging him as the LORD’s prophet or even a respectable adult for that matter, they called him “baldhead” the epithet given to lepers of the day who had to shave their heads and were considered detestable outcasts. Clearly, their parents did not tell them how Elijah confronted and slaughtered 450 prophets of Baal in one day just a few years earlier. With Jezebel still alive, it is clear she was raising a new regimen of idolaters to replace her slain prophets.

Now, armed with a better understanding, Elisha’s response, which was to call down a curse on them, does not seem like an inappropriately harsh over-reaction after all. These kids’ mocking was met with immediate consequences as two bears suddenly came out of the woods and mauled 42 of them. As horrifying as it was, this curse did not stem from Elisha’s pride, but from their disrespect of the LORD. It was GOD who judged them for their blasphemy, and their punishment was in direct proportion to their guilt. This account gives “teeth” to many other scriptures that deal with mocking as Proverbs 3:34 says that GOD [himself] mocks proud mockers, but gives grace to the humble. And Galatians 6:7 says “Do not be deceived, GOD cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows”. To these young people, Elisha was merely a religious old man with an alopecia problem, but to GOD He was His Divine instrument in the earth. We would do well to adjust our lens before speaking when we’re tempted to belittle someone on a Divine assignment, even if we don’t necessarily understand what it is or why GOD would choose them to fulfill it.

This is Now

If you’ve ever had a spark of genius or inspiration to do something extremely difficult or that has never been done before, and shared your idea with someone who mockingly replied “yeah, that’ll happen… when rockets land on the moon”; it would sound more like an affirmation than an insult. But if we rewind to October 19, 1899 when a then 17 year old Robert H. Goddard dreamed of building a rocket that would make it as far as the moon, he was all but declared clinically insane. While cutting dead limbs from a cherry tree, he was “transfixed by the sky and his imagination grew”. He later wrote: “On this day I climbed a tall cherry tree at the back of the barn … and as I looked toward the fields at the east, I imagined how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars, and how it would look on a small scale, if sent up from the meadow at my feet.” **

From that point onward, Goddard experimented with everything he could get his hands on – from balloons he made from aluminum and filled with hydrogen to powder rockets. Most of his early experiments went undetected as they were conducted in the privacy of his family farm or the Clark University physics lab where he was an instructor and research fellow. His progress earned the interest of the Smithsonian who awarded him a $5,000 research grant. Up to this point, he was still a little-known scientist until late 1919 when the Smithsonian published his groundbreaking work “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes”. The scrutiny and criticism he received was out of this world (pun intended). Some newspapers and Hollywood filmmakers were curious and fascinated with the possibility of propelling rockets into space, but most newspapers were harshly critical of his crackpot idea, calling him “the Moon Man”. The New York Times was particularly outspoken as they published a scathing article on January 13, 1920 titled “A Severe Strain on Credulity”, in which the writer essentially called Goddard an idiot – “Professor Goddard, with his ‘chair’ in Clark College… seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools”. ***

Because we tend to ridicule what we don’t understand, innovators and trailblazers undergo intense scrutiny and mocking to achieve greatness. Fast forwarding to today, you know how the story ends. Not only did his experiment work, but he pioneered the Space Age, is the namesake of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and filed over 200 patents on rocket equipment before his death in 1945. On July 17, 1969, the day of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, the New York Times printed a retraction of their mocking 1920 article entitled: “You’re Right, Rockets DO Work in Space”. The piece concluded with “The Times regrets the error”. Goddard proved that success is the best vindication against mockers.

Who Said That?!!!

“One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.” – Michael J. Fox ****

What Do You Say?

AFFIRMATION: "I judge nothing or no one before its time. Therefore, I don't have to apologize or walk back comments I shouldn't have made."

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