Unlike the three subjects we have already considered— selfishness, pride, and envy—this is spoken of in two ways in Scripture. The one points out when it is right to be angry, and the other, when it is a grievous sin. Perhaps the most interesting as well as the most profitable way of looking at the subject will be to consider first a few examples of each.
We will begin with anger as a sin, and observe from the instances selected what are its results when indulged in.
The First Instance of Anger
is in the case of Cain. He was “very wroth, and his countenance fell,” the result being the MURDER of Abel.
In Genesis 27:4141And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob. (Genesis 27:41), in the case of Esau, we find another instance of how anger is akin to murder, as the Lord pointed out in Matthew 5:21-2221Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. (Matthew 5:21‑22). When anger is sinful it is always the result of some previous sin. When it is righteous, it is the result of a righteous and holy feeling. Bearing this in mind in going through these examples, it will be interesting to observe not only the results, but the causes of anger. In Cain’s case the cause was ENVY, in Esau’s, JEALOUSY. In Numbers 20:10-1110And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? 11And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. (Numbers 20:10‑11), we find the meekest man in all the earth betrayed into anger by his IMPATIENCE, the result of his anger being DISOBEDIENCE, the punishment he received being exclusion from the promised land. Many might justify Moses on this occasion, but God does not. It is true that he was provoked, but followers of Christ here see that
Provocation is No Excuse for Anger.
It must be remembered that God’s anger is always righteous anger—ours surely is not. Hence we frequently have the expression “provoked Him to anger,” applied to God, rightly; but man who is dependent, should not give way to anger, but leave the matter with God as supreme. Jesus when on earth took the place of man; hence He bore all with perfect patience and meekness, committing His cause to Him who judges righteously. The punishment in Moses’ case may seem severe, but we must remember that Moses was a great saint, “Moses, the man of God”; and that a little sin in a great saint is worse than a great sin in a sinner. God cannot lightly overlook outbreaks of natural passion in His people, even when provoked; for He has given them power to restrain it.
Anger Leads to Murder,
being caused by COVETOUSNESS. In 2 Kings 5:1111But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. (2 Kings 5:11) we find the anger of Naaman stirred up by his PRIDE, and leading him to despise God’s message to him.
We might easily multiply these examples, for the seeds of them are in every human heart (of the actions of which the Old Testament is such a wonderful mirror), but we will only select one or two more. In 2 Chron. 16:1010Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time. (2 Chronicles 16:10) we find Asa very angry with Hanani, because the latter had rebuked him for his DISOBEDIENCE. This leads Asa to put Hanani in prison, an act of gross INJUSTICE. In the case of Uzziah (2 Chron. 26:1919Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, from beside the incense altar. (2 Chronicles 26:19)), his wrath was caused by his being rebuked for committing SACRILEGE, for which sin he was immediately punished by God with leprosy. These last two instances show us how often anger is a result in our hearts of being rebuked or faithfully reproved for some sin that we have committed. Let us be on our guard against this. It is enough to have committed the sin; but it is far worse, when reproved of it by some servant of God, to add to it by a second, and possibly a third, as Asa did. We feel sure that if our readers will but carefully weigh these instances of anger, and compare them in cause and effect with their own history, they will find what a wonderfully accurate mirror of the human heart the Word of God is. In Esther 3:55And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. (Esther 3:5) we find
Anger Caused by Pride,
in the person of the wicked Haman, and leading to the attempted destruction of an entire people. The same cause, PRIDE, in Nebuchadnezzar’s case, filled him with rage and fury, so that the form of his visage was changed (like Cain’s), and led to INTENSE CRUELTY on his part against his victims, which, however, God miraculously overruled. In Jonah’s case we find great anger caused by IMPATIENCE, which led him to speak against God. He appears to have so completely given way to it, that in chapter 4:9 he actually justifies his unrighteous anger to God. In the New Testament we find the anger of Herod leading him to murder the children of Bethlehem. We further see, in Luke 4:2828And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, (Luke 4:28), that the Jews stung with JEALOUSY of God’s favors to the Gentiles (vss. 24-27) sought to MURDER Christ on the very spot; and in Acts 7:5454When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. (Acts 7:54) we find the Jews again filled with HATRED AGAINST CHRIST, actually gnashing on Stephen with rage and stoning him to death.
Causes and Results of Anger
From these illustrations we find that anger is caused by envy, jealousy, impatience, hatred, pride, covetousness, and by the just rebukes of God’s people; that, if unchecked, it tends to cruelty and murder, also to disobedience, injustice, and despising God’s Word.
Turning for a moment to what is said about it in Scripture, we find that it is expressly forbidden (Matt. 5:2222But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. (Matthew 5:22); Rom. 12:1919Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. (Romans 12:19)); it is a work of the flesh (Gal. 5:2020Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, (Galatians 5:20)); it is characteristic of fools (Pro. 12:16; 14:29; 27:316A fool's wrath is presently known: but a prudent man covereth shame. (Proverbs 12:16)
29He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. (Proverbs 14:29)
3A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both. (Proverbs 27:3); etc.); it brings its own punishment (Job 5:22For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one. (Job 5:2); Pro. 19:1919A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again. (Proverbs 19:19)); it is often stirred up by bad words (2 Sam. 19:4343And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more right in David than ye: why then did ye despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king? And the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel. (2 Samuel 19:43), etc.), but pacified by meekness (Pro. 15:11A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. (Proverbs 15:1)); that we should not provoke others to it (Eph. 6:44And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4); Col. 3:2121Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. (Colossians 3:21)).
We will now briefly consider some instances of
Righteous Anger.
In Mark 3:55And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. (Mark 3:5) we find the Lord angry, “being grieved for the hardness of their hearts.” How instinctively we feel in this case, the unselfishness of the anger. It is all for their sakes and for God’s glory. Righteous anger never has self in any shape or form for its cause. Moses was angry in Exodus 11:88And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. (Exodus 11:8), but it was for the indignities offered by Pharaoh to the Lord and His people, unlike his anger in Numbers 20, for which he was punished. We also find Moses angry in a similar way in Exodus 32:1919And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. (Exodus 32:19) and Leviticus 10:1616And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering, and, behold, it was burnt: and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron which were left alive, saying, (Leviticus 10:16). In Nehemiah 5:66And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words. (Nehemiah 5:6) we find Nehemiah very angry against gross injustice done by others, and to others, not against himself; hence, he did “well” to be angry. In Ephesians 4:2626Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: (Ephesians 4:26) we get the exhortation to “be... angry, and sin not”; that is, not to treasure up anger and malice in our hearts.
We have now before us the two sorts of anger, the one generally the fruit of some other sin, always having self for its ultimate cause; the other springing from zeal or indignation for the Lord, and having Him or His people for its cause. We thus find that the first anger, like other sins we have considered, is a selfish sin; and the surest way of being saved from it is to be free from oneself. This should be at conversion, but does not practically take place till
Christ reveals Himself in sufficient power to the heart to replace the wretched idol of self (2 Cor. 4:1010Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:10)). A Christian can only be happy in proportion as this is the case, for a selfish Christian is a most miserable object, and is indeed a contradiction in terms. The surest way, therefore, to overcome the sin of anger is not by cultivating a placid disposition, which is only dealing with externals, but by striking at the root, which is self, and replacing it with Christ. The true Christian is zealous for his Master’s interests, not his own, and may be righteously angry when His glory is concerned, but not for his own sake. May the Lord make us all more zealous for Him, and deliver us from serving and pleasing ourselves.