In Your Anger Do Not Sin, Part 2

Hazzy Redgard continues her series on Moses and how he allowed his emotions to be overtaken with anger, and then disobedience to God’s plan, which ultimately led to Israel’s leader receiving an unfavorable punishment

We recently looked at Moses anger with Israel, and how he hit the rock as opposed to speaking to the rock, the way God commanded him to. Let’s recap:

Moses and Aaron have just led the Israelites into the desert of Zin. Their sister, Miriam, died and was buried there. Already, Moses and Aaron were probably feeling extremely emotional. As the people of Israel were gathered there, they ganged up on Moses and Aaron, essentially quarrelling with them: saying they would have preferred to have die than to be where they were in that moment. And they questioned why they would bring them to the desert of Zin- that they would have preferred to remain slaves in Egypt.

This is some serious criticism. Put yourself in Moses’ shoes. You’ve travelled back to Egypt to rescue your people from slavery. You're a man sent by God, doing the will of God. You’ve had to face all your fears in order to obey God and lead these people. Your sister has just died - and now an entire crowd of people are coming against you, criticising you, and telling you that because of you, they would rather be dead.

So as a result, Moses hit the rock to get water. He disobeyed God, and we know God prefers obedience, more than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22).

Doing something drastic in response to emotion is described in the Bible as a fit of rage. God puts fits of rage in the same category as sexual immorality (Galatians 5:19-21), it is a wicked sin that can keep you from entering heaven. In Moses’ case, it is a sin that kept him from entering the promised land. What can happen to us when we have fits of rage? If we lose our temper and swear at our boss, we could get fired. If we are constantly angry and shout at our spouse and children, we could lose the love and respect of our family. If we get angry in a social setting and start a fight, we could end up in jail. 

What about those God has chosen to lead his people? What could happen if you have a fit of rage? God could take you out of your position of leadership. The plan was for Moses to lead the Israelites into the promised land, but because of his fit of rage, he never entered the promised land and Joshua was the one who gave the land to the people. By God’s grace, Moses still went to heaven, but his disobedience caused him to alter God’s plan. He was supposed to lead the people into the promised land and, because of his sin, this privilege was taken away from him.

Being a leader will be frustrating, you pour your heart and soul into people and sometimes you get grumbling and complaining. God has personally been teaching me how to be patient. I began a new career path as a teacher at the beginning of the year. Being a teacher involves leading a large group of young people with a bad attitude to success. I love my job but it is challenging. There have been many times where students have misbehaved or been disrespectful and I am so tempted to have a fit of rage but I just have to keep my cool. This job has prepared me for what God wants me to do with my life.

In June I will be joining my first ever mission team, and being a missionary means leadership. A leader can’t have a fit of rage at their people, not unless they want to end up like Moses. What we need to do is channel our anger and use it for God. There is such a thing called righteous anger. Jesus exhibits righteous anger when he drove people out of the temple.

“So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.””

— John 2:15-17

Jesus wasn’t in sin when He did this because this wasn’t a fit of rage. A fit of rage is an outburst that comes from a place of emotion. This wasn’t an outburst. Jesus walked into the temple and saw all the sin around it and he made a whip. It takes time to make a whip, He would’ve had to look for different materials to fix together to turn it into a whip. His intention was to drive the sin out of the temple and restore the glory back to God. Was Jesus angry? Definitely! But this is righteous anger, this is what it means to be indignant. When we see people in sin, we should be angry at the sin, not at them, because that would make us hypocrites (Matthew 7:1-2), but angry at what their sin does to Jesus. Jesus’ response in the temple embodies this scripture:

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.”

— 2 Corinthians 7:10-11

 Jesus was indignant at their sin and He was ready to see justice done. When we’re angry at someone’s sin, we should imitate Jesus. We need to sit down, assess the situation, and create a Bible study to help drive the sin out of that person.