Crimes Of Anger (Hix)

Matthew 5:21-26-“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.

Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.

Examples of Anger:

Numbers 20:2-12-2Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. 3And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying: “If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! 4Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? 5And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.” 6So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them.7Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 8“Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” 9So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him.10And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.

12Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

It is evident that Moses is mad at the people, it would seem like he had cause to be mad, they haven’t done nothing but complain and made remarks about how good they had it back in Egypt.

It seems like he has every reason to be upset and yet God punishes him.

Even though Moses is upset with people, God graciously gives them water, although Moses did not do what he was suppose to do….To speak to the rock, instead of strike it!

I wonder if his anger got in his way of obeying God’s words?

Maybe he thought, “Hitting the rock would be better than hitting people!”

We have to remember that whatever we are doing, that our actions, our attitudes, our motives, our frame of mind, all are important.

Yes, God may use us to bless others or minister to others, but what blessings are we missing out on because we are mad about it.

Remember the story of Jonah, he was mad because God was showing grace towards Nineveh.

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Read 1 Samuel 25:2-39

1 Samuel 25:25-Please, let not my lord regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him!

Nabal’s name means fool, That should tell us something, that sometimes when someone says something negative to us, our about us, or takes a cheap shot at us, we shouldn’t get mad, we should just consider the source.

David got other people involved in his anger, and so do we, we began to tell people our story so that we can get them on our side!

And because we are mad, we might embellish the story just a little bit (Remember that part about evil speaking that Paul told us to get rid of) just to make it sound worse than it was, that they did more to us, than they did.

1 Samuel 25:38-39-Then it happened, after about ten days, that the Lord struck Nabal, and he died. So when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil! For the Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head.”