Anger Management

She came over and sat down right next to me… I didn’t even notice her for a few minutes.. Then she started standing up and rubbing her legs, groaning a little then sitting back down. She did this several times and it caught my attention. She was an older woman and obviously in some kind of pain.. I wanted to say something but Kept quiet. Finally my wife asked her if she was alright.. She said she had been on her feet all day and was getting cramps.. I suggested dehydration and quickly offered her one of my many waters I keep with me on one of our Excursions.. She thanked us and began to feel better after taking some of the water.

We began to strike up a conversation and discussed our different back grounds of where we were from and our current livelihoods.. I am not sure why, but I began to open up to her about my past and the difficulties I had encountered and the different choices I had made as a young person, and how those choices had brought me to the place I am today… Just when you think your life is tough and you have gone through some trials, There is always someone who has had it worse than you.. by sharing my story with her, she seemed comfortable to share her story with me.. She began telling me she had been a migrant worker from Mexico.. she worked in the fields to help support the family.. Her mother used to make her clothes from used flower sacks. She told me she had been married at the age of 14… I looked at my daughter in horror and said.. "My" daughter is 14"… She said she had her first child at the age of 16.. My countenance dropped.. She was just a child… She told me the man that wanted to marry her told her he would buy her a new dress every week after they were married.. She thought this was her way out of the fields…. A week after they were married she learned that her new husband didn’t even have a job… She had to go back to the field to support her new family.

The title of my talk today is Anger Management. Now if anyone had the right to be angry it was this elderly woman… But she had such a spirit about her.. She seemed so kind and interested in everything I had to say… When we parted she insisted on hugging each of us and asked the Lords blessing on us. She had learned anger management.

When you think of anger.. who do you think of in the bible? One character stands out to me when I think about anger and rage. This man had it all going on.. He was tall, good looking and was named the head of God's earthly Kingdom. He even was blessed with the Holy spirit. Turn with me to 1 Samuel Chapter 11. And let’s begin reading at verse 1.. But before we do, let’s bow our heads for prayer and ask for understanding.

1Samuel 11

11 Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to him, “Make a treaty with us, and we will be subject to you.”

2 But Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you only on the condition that I gouge out the right eye of every one of you and so bring disgrace on all Israel.”

So it wasn’t enough to have the men of Jabesh serve them. This king wanted an extreme act of allegiance from these men. This king wanted to humiliate them to show his superiority.

I also found an interesting footnote about this incident ..This was not found in the original text but the story was found in the dead sea scrolls. [Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the people of Gad and Reuben who lived east of the Jordan River. ( to give you some back ground, before the children of Israel conquered the promised land, three tribes came to Moses and asked if they could have the land on the east side of the jordan river. The tribes were Ruben, Gad, half tribe of Menasseh, They liked the land for their cattle. At first Moses thought they were trying to get out of helping the nation conquer the promised land. But they just wanted that parcel of land. They told Moses, “Give us this land and we will send our men to fight and help our brothers conquer the land on the other side of the Jordan river. Leave our women and children here, and we won’t return until the land has been subdued. “