Be Angry and Sin? NOT!!

Pastor Laurie DeWitt

Num 22:18  "Then Balaam answered and said to the servants of
Balak, "Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver
and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to
do less or more."

19  ""Now therefore, please, you also stay here tonight, that I
may know what more the LORD will say to me.""

20  "And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, "If the
men come to call you, rise and go with them; but only the word
which I speak to you; that you shall do.""

21  "So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went
with the princes of Moab."

22  "Then God's anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel
of the LORD took His stand in the way as an adversary against
him. And he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were
with him."

23  "Now the donkey saw the Angel of the LORD standing in the
way with His drawn sword in His hand, and the donkey turned
aside out of the way and went into the field. So Balaam struck
the donkey to turn her back onto the road."

24  "Then the Angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between
the vineyards, with a wall on this side and a wall on that side."

25  "And when the donkey saw the Angel of the LORD, she pushed
herself against the wall and crushed Balaam's foot against the
wall; so he struck her again."

26  "Then the Angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a
narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right
hand or to the left."

27  "And when the donkey saw the Angel of the LORD, she lay down
under Balaam; so Balaam's anger was aroused, and he struck the
donkey with his staff."

28  "Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said
to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me
these three times?""

29  "And Balaam said to the donkey, "Because you have abused me.
I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!""

30  "So the donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your donkey on
which you have ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day?
Was I ever disposed to do this to you?" And he said, "No.""

31  "Then the LORD opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the Angel of
the LORD standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand;
and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face."

32  "And the Angel of the LORD said to him, "Why have you struck
your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand
against you, because your way is perverse before Me."

33  ""The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three
times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also
have killed you by now, and let her live.""

34  "And Balaam said to the Angel of the LORD, "I have sinned,
for I did not know You stood in the way against me. Now
therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back.""

35  "Then the Angel of the LORD said to Balaam, "Go with the
men, but only the word that I speak to you, that you shall
speak." So Balaam went with the princes of Balak."



Today I want to look at this passage in a way that perhaps you
have not looked at it before.  Because today, I want us to
explore what this shows us about anger.  The reason that I want
to do this is because there will be anger in our lives.  There
will be times when we will get angry at one of our church
brothers or sisters.  We may have anger in our lives that goes
so far back that we cannot remember exactly where it came from,
but we know that it affects our relationships.  We need to know
about these things and deal with them in positive ways

Now I want to ask a stupid question.  Has anyone here ever been
angry?  Have you been angry and sinned?  Have you been angry and
not sinned?  Have you ever been angry when it was the right
thing to do?  Are there times when you should be angry?  I
believe that our whole nation has the right to be angry now. 
The question is, what to do with it.

I believe that as we explore anger, we need to start at the
beginning.  Why do people get angry?  You need to help me with
this one.

?  Feel that you have been wronged by someone.

?  Feel that someone is taking something from you

	-Status

	-Wealth

	-Love

	-Security

	- ........

?  Feel that someone is not understanding you.

?  Feel that there is abuse, misuse, or hurting of someone else.

?  Because they have been lied to or deceived.

?  Because of frustrations of life that they cannot control. 
May adults feel this kind of anger because of things that
happened in their childhood.

Let's look back at Balaam and see what we find there.  Anger is
mentioned a couple of times in the passage that we looked at,
but I believe that it is implied more than that.  Who was angry
in the story?  (Just about everyone)  I imagine that the kings
representatives were angry at having to keep working on Balaam,
who seemed to keep changing his mind.  I imagine that they were
also angry at the threat that Israel offered to their nation.

Then Balaam was angry because God wouldn't let him do what he
wanted to do.  He wanted to be a wealthy man, and God was
standing in the way.  

God was angry because His prophet wanted to go and curse His
people.  You don't just go and treat your boss that way.

And the poor little donkey was angry (Yes, I believe that
animals can get angry) at the uncalled for cruelty of her owner,
when she was trying to save his life.

So here we find anger.

Before we are through today, we will look at how each dealt with
the anger.

By the way, do you have any idea of how many times in the  OT
that God is said to become angry?  Several.  How often does it
say that He is slow to anger.  More times than He is angry.  

Here's an interesting one for you.

1 Sam 11:1  Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped
against Jabesh Gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash,
"Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you."

2  And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, "On this condition I
will make a covenant with you, that I may put out all your right
eyes, and bring reproach on all Israel."

3  Then the elders of Jabesh said to him, "Hold off for seven
days, that we may send messengers to all the territory of
Israel. And then, if there is no one to save us, we will come
out to you."

4  So the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the news in
the hearing of the people. And all the people lifted up their
voices and wept.

5  Now there was Saul, coming behind the herd from the field;
and Saul said, "What troubles the people, that they weep?" And
they told him the words of the men of Jabesh.

6  Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this
news, and his anger was greatly aroused.

Now we need to ask the question, "Is it wrong to get angry?"

That depends. Is it wrong for God to get angry?  Can God sin? 

Did Jesus ever get angry?

I believe that He made sparks fly!  Remember the times that he
cleansed the temple of its businesses?  He even picked up a cord
and swung it around.  And the moneychangers and merchants just
about ran over each other to get away from the wrath of God.

I think that Jesus was at least a little bit angry when the
Pharisees were trying to convince him that he shouldn't heal on
the Sabbath.  And when he called them vipers for their hard ways
of dealing with widows and orphans, I believe that there was
some anger behind that.

So what about this?

Mat 5:22  ""But I say to you that whoever is angry with his
brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And
whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the
council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of
hell fire."

Why does it say without cause there?  Have you ever been angry
at someone, but you felt that you couldn't express that anger to
them, but you then turned and showed it to someone else.  Or
your dog or cat.  Or some dumb driver on the road?  

What would be a cause for anger?  

Are there good causes for anger?

	?  Over oppression of the poor.

	?  Over misrepresenting God.

	?  Over law breaking.

	?  Over ?????

So would you say that there are good causes for anger?  

Is there a good use of anger?

If so what might those uses be?

	?  motivate to make changes in your own life.

	?  motivate to do something for someone who is downtrodden
somehow.

Now, I want to move one step further.  If there are times when
anger is OK, is it ever OK to be angry with God?  By the way,
could you hide anger from God if you tried?  Now remember our
text, "Be angry, and do not sin."

Who in the Bible became angry with God?  Well, I imagine our
friend Balaam at least became exasperated with God.  David comes
very close to it.  Read some of the hard hitting Psalms.  "God
where are you?  Do you care any more?  Why do you let your
people suffer?"  

Jonah seemed to be angry with God through the whole story.  How
his anger played out is interesting.  He first decided to run
from God.  While doing that he sulked in the bottom of the boat.
 Then his anger was such that he was willing to risk the lives
of a whole shipload of people to nurse that anger.  Then his
anger turned suicidal.  When God rescued him from his suicide
attempt, he reluctantly agreed to do what God asked, probably in
fear of what God would do to him.  Then he was angry with the
Ninevites because he was angry with God.  Then he was angry
because the Ninevites were not killed.  He sat and watched to
see if they would be destroyed.  Then he was angry that the
plant was killed by the weather.  But really, mostly he was
angry with God.  He was just going around kicking the dog, so to
speak.

And he was a prophet of God.

Imagine Hosea.  What God put him through.  I imagine that at
times he was angry.

Now are these men going to be lost?

"Be angry and sin not."

Think Job.  He was angry with God.  At least frustrated.  And
for good reason.  Some powerful being was using him for a guinea
pig.  Allowing the murder of his children. The plunder of his
wealth, the spoiling of his health.  Arguing his cause with God.
God not answering.

Job 1:22  In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

Why was there not sin?  Look at the overall attitude.  Job 13:15
"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. .............."

It is clear to me that we all will experience anger.  That is
not the issue.  The issue is "What do we do with the anger once
we have it?  Do we recognize it?  Do we admit it?  Do we hide it
and let it become rage that drives our lives and ruins our
relationships?

Back to Balaam.  I said we would look at how those in that story
dealt with anger.  God communicated clearly with Balaam what his
wishes were.  Balaam refused to honor those whishes.  God sends
an angel to kill Balaam.  The donkey sees that and addresses the
problem so that Balaam can understand.  Balaam is so mad that he
talks back to the donkey without even realizing something very
unusual is happening.  Now that is a real commentary on what anger 
can do.

Balaam is allowed to go on.  Balak the king greets him and takes
him to a place where Balaam is to curse Israel.  God won't let
Balaam curse Israel.  Three times he blesses them instead.  
Balik is so mad that he hits his hands together in rage.  

Next time we will look at anger's uses....... and abuses.



Eph 4:26  "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down
on your wrath,

27  nor give place to the devil.