Chapter 14
ANGER
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 Jonah 4:9, he actually justifies his unrighteous anger to God. In the New Testament we find the anger of Herod leading him to murder all the children of Bethlehem. We further see, in Luke 4:28, that the Jews, stung with JEALOUSY of God’s favors to the Gentiles (Luke 4:24-27), sought to MURDER Christ on the very spot, and in 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. 5:22; Rom. 12:19), it is a work of the flesh (Gal. 5:20), it is characteristic of fools (Prov. 12:16; 14:29; 27:3), it brings its own punishment (Job 5:2; Prov. 19:19), it is often stirred up by bad words (2 Sam 19:43), but pacified by meekness Prov. 15:1), that we should not provoke others to it (Eph. 6:4; Col. 3:21).
We will now briefly consider some instances of
RIGHTEOUS ANGER.
In 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 11:8; but it was for the indignities offered by Pharaoh to the Lord and His people, unlike his anger in Numbers 22, for which he was punished. We also find Moses angry in a similar way in Exodus 32:19 and Leviticus 10:16. In 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 4:26, 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. It is a great moment for a Christian when he practically ceases to be the center of his interests and objects. 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.” 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.
“Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32).