Be Angry......Sin? NOT
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
Before I go any further, let me say that
what we do today will
not be the whole topic. Most of
the rest of this will be done in
seminar format.
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 as we explore anger, we
need to start at the
beginning. Why do people get angry?
You need to help me with
this one.
Do you ever feel that you have been wronged by someone?
Do you ever feel that someone is taking something from you?
-Status
-Wealth
-Love
-Security
- ........
Do you ever feel that someone is not understanding you?
Do you ever feel that there is abuse, misuse,
or hurting of someone
else?
Do you become angry because someone has been lied to or deceived?
Do you become angry because of frustrations
of life that you cannot
control.?
We know now that many 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. But you don't just go and
treat your boss that way.
And the poor little donkey was angry, or
at least hurt (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?
(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. 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?" (DeWitt version!)
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 Almighty being
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?
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.
Balaam is allowed to go on. Balak
the king greets him and takes
him to a place where Balaam is to curse
Israel. 3 times he
blesses them instead. Balik
is so mad that he hits his hands
together.
All of these ways that people deal with
anger. God of course
has the last word, as He always does.
Next time we will look at anger's uses....... and abuses.
Eph 4: 25 Therefore, putting away
lying, "Let each one of you
speak truth with his neighbor," for we
are members of one
another.
26 "Be angry, and do not sin": do
not let the sun go down on
your wrath,