Bread from the Basket: Your Daily Slice

Anger

“When angry, do not sin; do not ever let your wrath (your exasperation, your fury or indignation) last until the sun goes down.” (Eph 4:26 AMPC)

Unresolved anger can kill you; even our current medical community recognizes this fact, evident by the myriad of anger management classes and counseling that are available these days. Many of us can remember the television series of the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s called “The Incredible Hulk”, a series which chronicled the life of a scientist who would turn into a huge, powerful, green (something resembling a) man when angry and filled with rage. And truthfully, this is not all that far-fetched. Anger, together with its siblings of wrath and rage, can turn the most docile individual into someone that is not even recognizable. Not good, people, and it is certainly not something that brings honor to our Elohim.

I honestly believe that many of the different types of anger find their origin in being offended. Take ‘road rage’, for example. I can remember reading an article some years ago that involved a young woman riding her motorcycle home from work, and stuck in rush hour traffic. A 60-year-old man took offense at the way she was maneuvering from lane to lane, and earnestly tried to not only run her over, but pin her between his own SUV and another vehicle! The episode intensified to the point that when the backed-up traffic was forced to a complete standstill, the man jumped out of his vehicle, with the intent of doing this young lady bodily harm. A violent fight ensued, during which the man was repeatedly slamming the woman’s helmeted head into a concrete jersey barrier. In a last resort act of self-defense, the woman was able to pull her legally licensed firearm and shot the man, killing him.^{^[1]} This is a perfect example of how becoming offended exploded into a full-blown rage, which ultimately resulted in the man’s death. How sad.

A person who has anger issues is most likely one that is easily offended – stop and think, for a moment, of those people you have known throughout your life who required you to basically walk on ‘egg-shells’. With that thought in mind, the relevant question of the hour is, “am I that type of person myself?” It is not a sin, of itself, to be angry; there are examples throughout the Scriptures of those who became angry for one reason or another (Lev 10:16; Neh 5:6; Jon 4:1; Luke 15:28). However, our motive and reason for becoming angry and offended is what needs to be scrutinized closely. Always remember that our lives are not about the self-exalting “I”; the life we live is all about Him, the One who created us.

Our opening verse from Ephesians gives us clear instructions on how we are to handle our anger. Foremost, and most important, we are never to allow our ‘short fuses’ to walk us into any type of wrongdoing and sin. Unfortunately, for most of us, by the time we have become that angry person, we are no longer “loving our neighbor as ourselves” (Lev 19:18), making us guilty of breaking Torah. No, it doesn’t matter what the other individual(s) has done. It is not our responsibility as to how that person chooses to live their lives, whether in obedience to Torah, or in open rebellion. It is, however, OUR responsibility as to how we live out our lives, and it is our responsibility as to how we choose to react to those around us.

Bottom line? Move on. Do I know what I am talking about? Yes, I do. I spent years in a marriage with a man that tried to kill me on two separate occasions, and when I say that I was angry, that is putting it mildly. I was – in my own eyes – JUSTIFIED in my anger. Nevertheless, that attitude is not in keeping with the divine instructions in moral and righteous living that my Creator requires I live by. Anger, rage, and the resulting fruit of bitterness were something that I could no longer nurse, rehearse, and hold close to me; they had to be released before I could progress in my relationship with my Elohim.

As we progress through this month of Elul, it is the perfect time to examine all the different occasions and circumstances where we have allowed anger to consume us, and hold these incidents up against the standard of the Torah. If we are open and honest with ourselves, we will recognize that it is past time to get over it, and move on. What that person, or persons, did to us is not relevant to our own deliverance and salvation. On the other hand, how we choose to react to what was done IS relevant. We must make the choice; are we going to allow all this anger to be the ball and chain around our legs, holding us back from achieving the kind of relationship with our Father that He desires us to have? Or are we going to release it, every bit of it, and allow our Elohim to deal with whatever wrongs we perceived have been done to us. As always, the choice is ours.

Choose life.

“I have called the heavens and the earth as witnesses today against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore you shall choose life, so that you live, both you and your seed, to love יהוה your Elohim, to obey His voice, and to cling to Him – for He is your life and the length of your days.” (Deu 30:19-20)