by David Scott Robertson
Exodus 31:18; 32:15-16; 19 (NLT)
"Then as the Lord finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, written by the finger of God. Then Moses turned and went down the mountain. He held in his hands the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. [16] These stone tablets were God's work; the words on them were written by God himself. When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing. In terrible anger, he threw the stone tablets to the ground, smashing them at the foot of the mountain."
Moses had an anger problem. We see it surface time after time when pressure was applied to his life. When the going got tough, Moses got angry.
Our first glimpse of Moses' uncontrollable anger was when he was still a prince of Egypt. One day, while visiting the Hebrew slaves, he saw an Egyptian beating one of them. The sight made him so upset that his blood boiled to the point of actually committing murder (Exodus 2:11-12).
As we track along with Moses through his experience of leading the children of Israel out of bondage, we come to find out that Moses himself seems to be in bondage to anger. While it is true that by and large the children of Israel were a nation of stiff-necked and unruly people, Moses' fleshly response to them was often anger and resentment instead of the godly qualities of compassion and mercy.
Numbers 16:15 (NLT)
Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord, "Do not accept their offerings! I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, and I have never hurt a single one of them."
Exodus 16:20 (NLT)
But, of course, some of them didn't listen and kept some of it [manna] until morning. By then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. And Moses was very angry with them.
The grand finale of Moses' anger problem manifest at a place called Meribah. It was here that the anger of Moses against the stubborn people apparently so distressed him that it caused him to sin against the Lord through disobedience.
Numbers 20:10-11 (NLT)
Then he and Aaron summoned the people to come and gather at the rock. "Listen, you rebels!" he shouted. "Must we bring you water from this rock?" [11] Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the staff, and water gushed out. So all the people and their livestock drank their fill."
While not implicitly stated, we can glean from this passage that in his anger against the "rebels," Moses struck the rock in direct violation of God's command to speak to the rock (Numbers 20:8). In his rage, even his wording was presumptuous: "Must WE bring you water from this rock?" Was the "we" Moses and Aaron or Moses and God? At any rate, this one outburst of Moses caused God to disqualify him from entering the Promised Land.
Moses had a serious anger problem.
It is possible to be angry and not sin. Jesus demonstrated this when, in righteous indignation, He drove out those who were buying and selling in the temple and turned over the tables of the moneychangers and benches of those selling doves (Matthew 21:12-13).
How then, does God prescribe that we manage anger?
"And "don't sin by letting anger gain control over you." Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, [27] for anger gives a mighty foothold to the Devil" (Ephesians 4:26-27).
And in another place the Bible says:
"Don't sin by letting anger gain control over you. Think about it overnight and remain silent. [5] Offer proper sacrifices, and trust in the Lord" (Psalm 4:4-5).
What are "proper sacrifices"?
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:17).
Let's finish our discussion today with a final observation about Moses. God calls Moses a second time to the mountain to receive the Law - again. Only this time, God orders Moses to chisel out the stone tablets that he had broken in a fit of rage earlier!
"The Lord told Moses, "Prepare two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets you smashed. [2] Be ready in the morning to come up Mount Sinai and present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain. So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the Lord had told him, carrying the two stone tablets in his hands" (Exodus 34:1-2; 4).
The first time God presented the Law to Moses, He provided the stone tablets. Now we see the Lord giving Moses the assignment of chiseling out tablets made of rock by his own hard labor! Furthermore, God's deadline was by morning! Obviously, Moses spent a sleepless night of hard labor chiseling rock and then he had to carry the heavy tablets up a mountain the next day!
Throughout the long night, perhaps he thought to himself, "Why did I smash the tablets in the first place?" Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time but now he had to suffer the consequences of his rash behavior. Do you see the principle at work here?
In our anger, we can erupt like a volcano, spewing out hurtful words and committing harmful deeds that often come back to haunt us in the form of sleepless nights, hard labor, and heavy burdens to carry.
Let's learn the principle God is patiently trying to teach us: "in your anger do not sin!" If you allow your anger to go unchecked (or the politically correct terminology today would be, if you don't "manage your anger") you may find yourself disqualified from receiving something profound that God has promised you.
Fortunately, in spite of his anger problem, Moses continued to seek the Lord. In spite of being forced to chastise and discipline Moses, God continued to mold the character of His servant until before the great God Jehovah was through with him, the Bible reports that "…Moses was more humble than any other person on earth" (Numbers 12:3).
Let's determine today to not allow anger to disqualify us from the promises of God and make our way hard. Rather, allow the Holy Spirit to smooth off our rough edges with each encounter with anger until the character of Christ's humility be formed in us.
DSR
2/23/04