God is mightier than the seeming chaos of our lives. When things are falling apart, trust Him and remember that He is still in control.
The punishment here is not simply because a group of boys teased Eljisha for being bald. Rather they were mocking a prophet of God which was tantamount to mocking God himself. Two other items must also be noted: 1) Bethel was the center of Israel’s apostasy. As such these boys had no respect for God or his prophets. 2) The passage says “some small boys”. These may not have been young men, but they were old enough to be allowed to wander outside the city walls. There were also at least forty-two of them. That’s not what I call “some”. That’s a large number. So, basically, there was a gang of boys old enough to be out on their own. These posed a physical thread to not only Elisha, but other travelers as well.
