One of my favorite shows is Law and Order, and so of course I’ve been watching the new spin-off, Trial by Jury. Last Friday the story featured a man who shot a pedophile who had been paroled back to the neighborhood where he had been apprehended for his original crime. And of course many people viewed the shooter as a hero, and the tension was between following the law - which the neighborhood did not believe would protect them - or rooting for the father who was, it turns out, justifiably angry and afraid because the perp had recently targeted his own 12-year-old daughter.
Fortunately for us all - because my own sympathies were with the father - the real villain turned out to be someone else: the defendant’s attorney who had maneuvered the whole situation to get publicity for her run for public office.
But even when the law is very clear that vigilante justice is not good for society in the long run, many of us I think, have a sneaking sympathy for people who act out of “righteous anger.” But James says something very important in his short letter to the Jerusalem church: “let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness.” [Jas 2:19-20] Even righteous anger doesn’t accomplish God’s ends.
Moses’ action in Numbers 20 is an excellent example of how human anger doesn’t bring about righteousness in anybody’s life. The chapter begins with the children of Israel arriving at the desert region of Zin and with the death of Moses’ sister Miriam. Now, while we can’t be absolutely certain that her death played a part in Moses’ attitude in this incident, it certainly couldn’t have helped. We know that Moses loved his sister, and not only because he interceded with God on her behalf when she was struck with leprosy a few chapters before this one. They had been together from the beginning, in fact she’s the one who put him in the river when he was a baby so that Pharaoh’s daughter would find and rescue him. And now she’s gone. So he - like all of us - was far more vulnerable to temptation because he was physically or emotionally drained, because that’s when our resources are low and our feelings are close to the surface. And while God has given us emotions, and we need to pay attention to them, he doesn’t want us to be controlled by them, any more than he wants us to be controlled by our bodies’ needs and desires. How many times have you heard the advice to “just follow your heart”? That’s just as reliable a guide as saying “just follow your stomach” or “just follow your - er - reproductive instincts.”
So there is Moses, already at a low ebb because of his personal loss, and what do you think he hears? "Would that we had died when our kindred died before the LORD! Why have you brought the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here? Why have you brought us up out of Egypt,
to bring us to this wretched place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; and there is no water to drink." [Num 20:3-5] How many times have we heard this? “Are we there yet?” More to the point, how many times do you think Moses has heard this? He was, as the saying goes, down to his last nerve, and the Israelites stepped on it.
Now, this is not the only time Moses ever lost his temper. When he came down from the mountain to find the Israelites dancing around the golden calf, he was so angry he threw the stone tablets down and they broke. Obviously this didn’t do any good, he just had to go back up and get another copy. Moses also got angry when Aaron’s sons failed to follow the proper procedures for one of the offerings, and at other times when the Israelites grumbled or disobeyed God. And there were times when he himself complained and questioned and argued with God. But this time his anger got Moses into big trouble. And the consequence was that both he and his brother Aaron were denied entrance to the Promised Land.
Why? What was the difference? Previously, Moses had kept his temper pretty well leashed. Throwing the stone tablets on the ground was probably better than having them all beheaded, and after he ground up the idol into powder and made the Israelites drink it he actually interceded for them before God. In fact, Moses was usually in the position of trying to turn God’s anger away from the Israelites. But this time things were different. This time Moses let his anger get in the way of obeying God.
Let’s look at what actually happened. “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. Thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them; thus you shall provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.” [Num 20:7-8] This sounds familiar. Back in Exodus 17, at a place called Rephidim, God tells Moses to strike the rock with his staff, which he does, and water comes out and the people drink. In fact, this is a matter of desert survival which Moses may already have known about. Sometimes a natural aquifer will get plugged up when dried salts and other minerals build up around the natural exits, and a sharp blow will dislodge the blockage and the water will resume. Of course, you have to know which rocks to strike... So this all sounds pretty familiar. Been there, done that. But wait a minute.
This time God doesn’t tell Moses to strike the rock. He tells Moses and Aaron simply to speak to the rock. This is of course a far greater miracle, and furthermore offers no outlet for Moses’ frustration. Kicking a vending machine when it eats your dollar feels good, and besides it will sometimes dislodge the desired item. And hitting the rock with his staff was undoubtedly better than beating the complaining Israelites over the head and shoulders with it. But this time Moses does his rebelling in public, and in full sight of the people he is supposed to lead, he disobeys God.
Apparently the sight of all those stiff-necked, unruly, perverse people was just too much for Moses, and so he spoke to the people, instead of to the rock: "Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank. [Num 20:10-11] Now, by not following directions, Moses acted as though the miracle was his own doing. In fact, his words show the same attitude: “ shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" We may think the punishment was harsh, but it was absolutely necessary for God
to reassert his authority immediately, correcting whatever notion anyone might have had that Moses, rather than YHWH God, was in charge of providing for the people. And so “the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not
bring this assembly into the land that I have given them." [Num 20:12]
As faithful as Moses and Aaron had been up to now, there was no excuse for publically violating God’s trust. It was their job, explicitly, to model trust and obedience so that the people would have an example to follow, and their failure - if not corrected immediately - would have been fatal for the community’s future well-being.
But leaders are human, too. Leaders get frustrated, and tired, and upset. Christians are human, and get frustrated, tired and upset. So what does God want us to do? We know that anger suppressed can cause everything from ulcers to depression. How can we learn to honor God with our actions and words
even when we are ready to explode?
The first thing to do is to talk to God. Here Moses and Aaron do the right thing. When the Israelites complained against them, accusing them of failure as leaders, they go before God. “Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting; they fell on their faces.” [Num 20:6] This is what every person should do with complaints and criticism. And guess what? The Lord may very tell you the criticism is valid. But even if it isn’t valid, taking the matter to God will give you perspective on the situation, and the ability to see a larger picture than just your own wounded dignity or feelings. Because part of this process involves waiting for an answer, which can take time. Now, in this case, Moses gets clear, direct instructions. God tells him exactly how to handle the problem and Moses leaves the place of prayer and heads off to do what God has told him to do. Moses knows what to do - but he hasn’t spent enough time
with God, because as we see he’s not really ready yet to obey God. And it is clear from the Psalms that it wasn’t just Moses’ actions that displeased God, but his words as well. “They angered the LORD at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account; for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke words
that were rash.” [Ps 106:32-33] God did not tell Moses to reprimand the rebels. God was interested in solving the problem, the lack of water, rather than finding someone to blame. But that wasn’t enough for Moses. Because the people
accused him unjustly, he got defensive, went on the offensive, and wound up shooting himself in the foot.
In this age of instant gratification, it is particularly important to seek direction from God before acting, and before speaking. We shoot off stinging e-mails before stopping to think, we grab for quick fixes, we look for easy targets, and furthermore we want it all wrapped up in half an hour with time out for commercial
breaks. But as Thomas Jefferson said, “When angry, count to ten, if very angry, count to 100.”
And even if we recognize that we might have a problem with our anger, we find it awfully easy to justify it. The chances are pretty high that whoever you are angry with really did do something wrong. After all, they’re not perfect, even if you are. And even if they were, that would only make it worse! How many of you really like hanging around with perfect people? I certainly don’t! They just make me feel inadequate and defensive.
But wasn’t Moses justified in being angry? After all, God Himself was angry with the people. Is it wrong for us to be angry when God is also angry? Is anger always wrong?
As a matter of fact, anger by itself is not necessarily wrong. But anger does become a problem when we hang on to it, and when it leads us to harmful actions. “Be angry but do not sin, said Paul to the Ephesians, “do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. [Eph 4:26-27]
And even on the rare occasions when our anger actually is righteous, we rarely know what the right thing to do is. Look at James and John in the story Luke tells: “On their way [to Jerusalem] they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?"But he turned and rebuked them. [Lk 9:51-55] The disciples wanted to defend Jesus’ interests, but since they didn’t realize yet that Jesus was there to save people rather than condemn them, their short-term solution was actually contrary to what Jesus wanted to do in the long run. So while thinking they were acting on Jesus’ behalf, they were actually acting on their own.
There are other differences between our anger and God’s anger. God’s anger is that of wounded love, the anger that we feel when someone we love is being hurt or self-destructive or terminally stupid. Our own anger - even when we tell ourselves it’s righteous - is more often than not either about self-interest or fear. God is slow to anger and we are quick to anger. God’s anger does not lead Him to sin, and ours does not lead us to righteousness. .
Sometimes we hang on to our anger to keep from getting hurt. We feed our anger by repeating to ourselves what the other person has done. And every time we repeat it, our anger grows stronger, and it becomes harder to see the other person as an ordinary, fallible human being whom Jesus loves as much as he does you. Every wall we build between ourselves and another person whom God has put in our loves robs us of a measure of grace. Above all, clinging to - and acting on - acting on our anger displays a lack of trust in God.
Someone once said, “Whatever gets your goat gets your attention. Whatever gets your attention gets your time. Whatever gets your time gets you. Whatever gets you becomes your master. Take care, lest a little thing horn in and get your goat.” [William A. Ward, Quotable Quotations 24, Victor Books, 1989]
Anger affects our lives in countless different ways. It poisons relationships, it destroys our health, it uses up energy that could be channeled into so many other directions, directions that create rather than destroy, build up rather than tear down. But most of all, anger creates a barrier between ourselves and God. It makes us sin against our brothers and sisters and children, our co-workers, our neighbors and even our own futures. When you lose your temper, you lose more than you can ever get back.
