The Judgment Seat Of Jacob - An Evil Confederation Of Anger

THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF JACOB

SIMEON AND LEVI

THE EVIL CONFEDERATION OF ANGER

TEXT: Genesis 49:5-7

Genesis 49:5-7 KJV Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. [6] O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall. [7] Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

Genesis 49:5-7 MESSAGE Simeon and Levi are two of a kind, ready to fight at the drop of a hat. [6] I don’t want anything to do with their vendettas, want no part in their bitter feuds; They kill men in fits of temper, slash oxen on a whim. [7] A curse on their uncontrolled anger, on their indiscriminate wrath. I’ll throw them out with the trash; I’ll shred and scatter them like confetti throughout Israel.

I. INTRODUCTION -- ANGER

Chinese Proverb -- The fire you kindle for your enemy often burns yourself more than him.

Colton -- The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.

Proverbs 15:1 KJV A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

Proverbs 22:24-25 KJV Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: [25] Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.

Proverbs 25:28 KJV He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.

-Google “anger” and you find 60,100,000 results. Google “anger management” and you find 4,910,000 possibilities. By and large it appears that America is angry about something. Somebody is “ticked off.” America is “ticked” because of bumper-to-bumper traffic, schedules that are crammed to over-commitment, and pressured demands from jobs that demand more while wanting you to work with less.

-Add to this, financial pressures that are compounded by out-of-control credit card spending and past-due collection notices. Pile on the demands of marital pressures, mid-life crisis points, raising adolescents, grade problems, and a host of other issues that are constantly pulling at us and the seething almost becomes a boiling point.

-Our society has come to point that instead of dealing with it we are turning toward violence, as in violent words, violent actions, and violent solutions.

We hear of angry motorists who allow road-rage to take over and they begin to drive with aggressive and reckless abandon to strike back.

We hear of angry drivers who get out of their cars and pull guns and shoot people who cut them off in traffic.

A. Anger and Your Body

-A study from Harvard Medical School determined that of 1,623 heart-attack survivors, anger brought on by emotional conflicts doubled the risk of subsequent heart attacks. (From the medical journal, Circulation)

-Closely related to this anger issue are feelings of hostility that often accompany anger. A study in Finland showed that hostility is a major risk factor to coronary artery disease. Those who have feelings of uncontrolled hostility are almost three times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than those who do not experience this.

-Uncontrolled anger forces people to have to guzzle Maalox by the gallon, eat Prilosec by the pound, and sometimes resort to downing anti-depressants because of the unresolved emotional issues that anger brings about.

-Those that experience anger generally will do two things with it. First, they “blow up” and all sorts of chaotic things happen in their lives, homes, marriages, families, and jobs because of their uncontrolled emotions. Secondly, they hold it all in and this anger becomes a seething cynicism that only brews bitterness in their soul.

B. Alba, Texas Murders

The beginning of this message began last Sunday (March 2, 2008) when I became aware of the horrendous murders that happened in a small east-Texas town. A sixteen year old girl is now facing (along with three others) life behind bars because of an angry response to the guidelines that her parents were trying to set up for her. Terry and Penny Caffey had some objections to the boy that their daughter was dating and because of this, the daughter and three others are now looking out from a jail cell that very well could be where they spend the rest of their lives. Penny Caffey, along with her two sons (aged 8 and 13) are now dead and husband Terry is beginning a very slow recovery that will require months of rehabilitation before he really overcomes it.

The two boys involved in the murders, stabbed and shot the girl’s family while she sat in a car down the road in this small, rural setting. As they left the scene, the boys set a two story home on fire that when it was finally brought under control only the foundation was left.